Oh there's no place like home for the holidays...

and no matter how far away you roam...

Ahhh it is so good to be back. The kids are slowly getting adjusted and are sleeping more. Sasha is almost back to her "I could sleep my days and nights away" self. Serik, on the other hand, has been sick, sick, sick. I think he got very run down with the jetlag and consequently Christmas night he and I ended up in the ER at 1 a.m. It was our first trip to the ER and luckily we were home by 3 a.m. with the croup diagnosis. Then yesterday afternoon his fever was spiking at 105 so the on-call nurse at our pediatrician's office sent us back there. He and Kurt were there from 7-11p.m. They did chest x-rays and blood work but all came back normal. So it's a bad bug and it's keeping us all sequestered and mellow.

In between all of this we managed to sneak in Christmas (thanks to the Pecks) as a new family of four and with Kurt's family. My brother Mike and his wife Maggie were with us off and on this week too as her sister, sister's husband and kids moved to MN a year and a half ago and they split their time here.

Serik continues to be great, if slightly aggressively affectionate with his new sister - wanting to feed, change and tickle her. His idea of tickling today was more a firm two handed CPR pump into her stomach - informed him that it might be a good idea to lighten up his touch a bit.

Will try to update once a week at least so until then....Happy Early New Year!