Wednesday 2:11 p.m. ET

THEY'RE HOME!!!!!!! Everything checked out well with the Ct. scan and the ultrasound and the doc squad gave Eli the go ahead to go home. And by Jove’s thunder how Julia and her daddy are rejoicing! (though our clandestine and extravagant milk bibbing, free from Lia’s stern rationing, may be at an end). Eli promptly celebrated her homecoming by crashing for a nap. Julia was at the neighbor’s while I picked up Lia and Eli; when I returned to retrieve her, I told her that she-knew-who had come home she shot both arms up in the air in her best Joe Montana touchdown salute and exuberated, “Mommy’s home!!! Eli’s home!!!” And although Julia asked on the way back to our place if she couldn’t first stop for just a brief stint on the swings—and although she demurred when I asked her, “What’s more important, Mommy or the swings?”—I think she’s genuinely happy to have the rest of the ladies back in the house (four days with just me in the house have surely cured her of any romantic notions about an early marriage; perhaps they’ve endowed her with a healthy dose of misanthropy).
Julia and I tried to get the house clean for Lia before she got home; we made a valiant effort and some progress, but were impeded in our efforts by the spontaneous irruption of a game of hide-and-go-seek. Julia, aware no doubt that I’ve always struggled at this venerable contest, made things easy on me by hiding in the closet of my and Lia’s bedroom seven times in succession and calling out, “I’m in the closet” whenever I seemed to be in danger of not finding her anyway. This morning I also took Julia to the local Episcopalian chapel for “Toddler Tunes,” a weekly gathering of eager parents and their reluctant little ones who sing folk songs as directed by a long-haired, much-bearded fellow who appears to have gotten lost en route to a grateful dead concert, found Jesus on his way home, and landed himself in the midst of the American Anglicans. I was really getting into things but tried to curb my enthusiasm when I realized Julia was bored and a bit frightened. Next week, with Callie and Lilly there, things might go better from her perspective.
Eli is still unavailable for comment as regards her feelings about being home. Lia was observed by a reliable source to have hurled an unprintable (because incomprehensible) shriek of unbounded glee, echoed and redoubled by her happy husband.