OK, so before I blog about how lovely the actual vacation with the kids and their grandparents was, I do have to say that 11 straight days of pretty much all kids all the time, Ann and I were both looking forward to them getting back to daycare today. We kept them home yesterday to help them reset their sleep schedules, and generally acclimate themselves to being back home.

But we were all getting a bit snappish with one another, and by dinnertime the prospect of bedtime a couple of hours later was the light at the end of the tunnel. Near the end of dinner, the kids were working on some grapes while we started to futz around the kitchen.

That sound. It's terrible.

Lilah, choking. Scared. It probably didn't take more than a couple of seconds for us to get to her, pull her out of her booster seat and pound her on the back unsuccessfully, before I dug the grape out of her throat (I think the term "Sweeping the mouth" is appropriate). I'm sure the technique I actually used was awful and dangerous, but the grape came out, and Lilah sat in my lap screaming for another five minutes.

I'd never been so happy to hear her scream like that in my life.

She was laughing and running around the house within in ten, fifteen minutes, and by the time bedtime happened, she was back to being just a little cranky and tired of mommy and daddy as she had been before hand. Infact, as I tried to get her to lie still while I put on her after-bath lotion, she kicked me in the throat...It felt like an odd bit of enforced empathy--I wonder sitll whether her throat hurts a little from my fingers.

They got out of the car today at school, and were eager for me to go so they could play with their friends. Yesterday I would've siad I was glad to them be at school so I could have some time without them. Now I'm also glad their at school because it means we aren't someplace much worse.