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So we are back in Austin. For 13 days now. And I've been avoiding posting because I feel like I need to put down our return in black and white and I have been unable to find a definitive emotion or even a clear thought to wrap the blog post around. Partly because it's been a whirlwind. But also because it's been a bit anticlimactic. Like slipping on an old pair of shoes. After being on a constant diet of new experiences for so many months, same old feels like, well, same old.

Getting back to our home was weird. I can't remember which cabinet holds the towels and where the frying pans are. But things from muscle memory work automatically.

I wasn't sure that Evan would remember the place but two minutes after he walked in through the front doors he had retrieved his old favorite toy - a hulking lump of noise-making and synthesized talking plastic in the shape of a train that Stacy had given him on his first birthday. Over the course of the next few days he blossomed. His vocabulary and sentence-making  improved in leaps and bounds as did his seeming understanding of the world around him. It's as if he was almost ready but waiting to return home before pulling all the pieces together.

Vivian sometimes acts like she never left. Maggi noodles and school uniforms may have just been temporary hallucinations. When asked she remembers all that. But by silent observation alone you'd never know that she was anywhere but Austin for the last school year.

When we were getting into month eight or so, Jo and I would fantasize and strategize how we'd visit all our favorite restaurants. In the first 36 hours, like our own version of NYT's 36 hours in Austin. On the way home from the airport, we stopped at 24 Diner. But since then we've hardly eaten out. Musashino, Contigo and HopDoddy.

People change. Amanda and Gordon are parents. Jen is single. There's the business of the new nephew. I haven't yet met my business people. Old friends but different. Not in a bad way.

We are trying Austin back on a bit gingerly. Starting soccer and working out at Red/Black are big steps. Today - breakfast at Taco Shack, a run around Town Lake and lunch at China Cafe - was huge. I almost feel like I'll be back home. Soon.