Always coming back home to you

Linus and I have been away from Jon for a few weeks.  Since I'm staying at home with Linus these days, I decided that we should visit my parents in Minnesota for a long stretch of time before heading to Grand Rapids to visit my in-laws and go to my friend's wedding.  So, today is our last day of our 18-day trip to the Twin Cities.

Being here has been awesome.  But the one thing that I realize more and more is that this is where my heart is.  And I realize it with even more of a fervor now that I have a child.

Linus absolutely adores my parents.  He immediately recognized them when they picked us up from the airport, despite not having seen them for many months.  He went from throwing an airport tantrum to smiling and laughing and waving at my dad in a matter of seconds.  It's been so wonderful watching Linus play with both of my parents, especially because he immediately remembered that he could trust them to nurture him and love him.

Not only is it awesome to have such wonderful roll models for my son in his grandparents, but they're so amazingly helpful.  They're willing to watch him, even if he's fussy, so I can run errands or grab a happy hour with my grad school friends.  They help to entertain him while I make breakfast, or they make breakfast while I entertain Linus.  And, it's just plain fun to have my mom around in the evenings so we can all sit on the floor and play ball or trucks.  We can talk about mom-daughter things while also educating my own son.

While this trip has certainly been different than most of my trips home, it's been absolutely wonderful.  I didn't get to see many of my good friends, and I regret that.  But both Linus and I had some amazing bonding time with my parents, his grandparents.

It makes me sad that we're leaving, and I know my parents will probably both cry harder than the day I moved to Michigan for grad school when we leave (only because they'll miss Linus so much!).  I'm excited to see my husband again, of course.  But having such a wonderful support system is going to be hard to go without when we're back in California.  I've just always had to do things myself (aside from when we have visitors who are willing to help out), so it's how I've adapted my parenting.  I certainly would love to be back here permanently to be able to have such a wonderful, supportive, compassionate support system readily available.

This place is where my soul thrives.

Until we meet again, Minnesota.