I'm back. :-) I guess this blog now turns into the ramblings, thoughts, and observations of a new mom. It's quite amazing to me how my life has changed since I first began keeping this online journal. I mean the little things are all still the same. My garbage collectors still toss the garbage cans randomly along the street on trash day. I still love going to Target. I still feel as though I go to the grocery store every day. I still love watching The Sopranos. And yet, all these things are completely different because now I am a mom.

Not a day goes by that I don't think about Uralsk and the beautiful people I met there. It is hard to put into words how they touched my life. The month I spent there taught me so much. Like so many Americans, I take so much for granted in my day to day life. From little things like readily available and soft toilet tissue to bigger things like being able to read and talk to people in a language we both understand. I believe I said it before but think it bears repeating - not being able to read or easily express myself was a very humbling experience.

So how else has life changed? Ahhh, well the best parts of every day now include wet kisses, sticky little hands holding mine, hearing the best laugh in the world, hearing "mama", and reading a board book (even if we just read it 11 times already). I now love seeing how fast a 14 month old girl can walk/run to me when I pick her up from daycare. Suffice it to say, there better not be another baby between us when she sees me, or said baby will have little sandal marks on him/her as Abby makes her way to me. Bath time was never so much fun as it is now.

Things I have learned since coming home:
1. Baby wipes get rid of any stain. On any article of clothing.
2. If you go to Eckerd enough times to get pictures developed, the photo guy sometimes gives you a discount just because.
3. Those little plastic Easter eggs somehow multiply after Easter is over and will end up in every crevice in the house.
4. It is possible to change a crib sheet in the middle of the night while the baby is still in the bed. Required to complete the job? One contortionist.
5. It takes incredible timing to get the spoon with applesauce in the baby's mouth just at the moment the baby sneezes to ensure that applesauce gets the maximum velocity.
6. If, while in the car, you blow kisses to your baby in the rear view mirror, there is a high probability that the trucker behind you will mistakenly believe the kisses were meant for him and will in fact blow them right back.
7. With practice, one can change a diaper, talk on the phone, make silly faces, and recover a pacifier - simultaneously.

So, that is it for tonight.