Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Ireland, Day 10

Home now, and really tired, but there's one more full day in Ireland to cover, so I'm going to try to do it. I spent the day babysitting the twins, and also Jack and Kate, while everyone else went into Galway. Kate hadn't slept much the night before, which means I didn't sleep much, but I managed. I think the best way to cover the day is to recall some random interactions with each child....

Kate (in general): "Dad-dee! Daddy! Dah......Deeeeeee!"

Jack (when asked what the favorite part of his trip was): "Getting my toys." Er, second favorite? "Playing with my toys." With trepidation: third favorite? "Seeing the castles." Top three, that works.

Mikey (as I was putting Jack to bed): "I like the part at the end where you sing."

Abbey (being very helpful, which was later explained partly by Robin as her probably getting a kick out of bossing Mikey around): "Don't shout, Kate's napping." "Remember, don't make a lot of noise Mikey, Kate's sleeping." "Jack, do you want to play with cars? But we need to play quietly because Kate is sleeping." Considering Abbey (and Niamh) were sharing a room with yelling Kate the night before, it was quite generous of her.

That night, Laura and Niamh were home. We all went out to dinner; I chatted a little bit with Laura on the walk there. Asking her what kind of things she'd bought (New jeans, and a book in a series she liked, and something or other related to "Twilight.")

Niamh wanted to watch the newest Lost, which Emily and Robin and I had watched two nights earlier. Her frequent (and reasonable) questions made it clear that Lost isn't a great show to pick up midway through, or try to follow if you only catch occasional episodes. I felt bad for her. "So wait, there are two Bens?" "Wasn't Locke dead?" "Why did Ben take that baby?" "So wait, if he saved her life, why did he let the bad guy kill her?" "How did they get into the 1970s?" "There are two islands?" And on and on. Sorry, Niamh. It's a confusing show to get caught up on.

Packed, went to bed, got up, packed more, and went to the airport, for a teary farewell with Robin and then back to Connecticut. The whole thing seemed like one big, continuous moment.

It was a great trip and now we're home. It was a little crazy being around six kids, rather than just two, for 10 days. All of them unique, interesting, beautiful. I could say a lot more, wrap this up with some great sentimentality, or talk about highlights and stuff, but the truth is I'm exhausted. I won't forget the trip, though. Next to sharing experiences with others, it's the best reason for blogging there is.

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