Surprise!!!

Matt, Loretta, and I awoke this morning and got ready to go to our new pediatrician for Matt's first appointment. As I prepared to leave the apartment, I checked my email and found a three line email from James:

"Hi honey ... I'm in Germany right now and I only have a second - I'm coming into Ontario on American flight 1649, arriving from Dallas at 1410 on Tuesday. See you soon!!! Love, James"

The second suprise of the day occurred via text message while at the doctor's office: James had caught an early flight and would be arriving at 10am! We rushed from the office to the airport to meet him, and although he had to wait a few minutes for us, it was excellent to see him!

Any of you that know James probably can guess what he wanted first: Tolteca!! (It's his favorite mexican food restaurant and a Richards family hangout for half a century. There's even talk that one member of the family - who will remain nameless - has the recipe for Tolteca salsa ...) So we went straight there and gorged ourselves on the best mexican food north of the border.

He had been traveling around 48 hours to get from Baghdad, to Kuwait, to Germany, to Dallas, and finally to Ontario. He was ready for a shower and a nap, then we took off for my parents' house where something of a family reunion was to occur. Everyone was there, from my sister and her kids to James' dad to Loretta and me. (The only Rabe missing was Jonathan, who of course was in Reno at college.) We spent entirely too long there, but of course there was a lot of catching up to do! By the time we got in the car, Matt was so tired he could hardly keep his eyes open, but we made it home and Loretta and I put the boys to bed. They are both sleeping soundly now, happy to be under one roof. ;-)

I imagine some of you are wondering how Matt took to James after not seeing him for 3 months (except in videos of James reading Matt's books, which we play every night as Matt gets ready for bed). The pictures on this page tell it all! At first, he was understandably a bit unsure. He wasn't quite sure what to make of the big dude in an Army uniform and boonie hat chomping his cheek. But he warmed up very very quickly, to the point that by the time we went to lunch, Matt allowed his dad to carry him around inside the restaurant. He really did much better than any of us anticipated!!