Kids on Vacation, Day 4

Four days in and we're all failing a bit. Jack's getting punchy. I figured out that normally he sleeps 10 hours per night and at least 90 minutes or 2 hours at school. Now he's sleeping 10 hours a night and is up all day. Plus I've got him doing laundry, tilling the soil, fetching water from the well...no, just kidding. As for Kate, she's doing OK, but she tries to keep up with Jack, plus she wears herself out climbing up the stairs and jumping on and off the couch and of course washing dishes and so forth. As for me, I'm run ragged catching Kate and soothing Jack when she hits him with a block or something, which happens fairly often.

Anyway, today my big plan was hitting the comic store in Stamford. The trip to the Comic Con in NYC last Saturday has kind of revitalized my interest; happens sometimes. Anyway, Jack took an interest in that he had received $5 as a gift recently from Gramma, so I told him he could buy a comic or toy if he could find one for $5. Kate, I told her she could sleep a little in the car on the way there, which she promptly did. I got my comics, Jack got one of the more horrific looking Superboy action figures I've ever seen -- weird straps and contraptions sticking out all over the place, I have no idea what it's going for -- and loved it to pieces, or at least will for the next 2 days, and Kate got caught up on sleep.

Back at home, I'd say there were three events worthy of mention.

- Jack and Kate playing together. Granted, Kate hits Jack with toys sometimes. And Jack is a little possessive of some things, especially hard things with sharp edges, coincidentally enough. No, that's a joke. In any case, them playing together will no doubt involve one of them wailing angrily or miserably every 2-3 minutes. But apart from that, they're awesome together. Today they stacked legos a little bit together. Did a little Kate puzzle. Threw various toys around the living room. Chased each other around the island in the center of the apartment a little bit. Whacked on the drum and xylophones with the drumsticks with fairly terrifying intensity. Altogether, it was nice.

- Clean up, clean up. I started and got Jack to help me: picking up legos and the toys hurled across the living room and such. And Kate jumped in: putting musical instruments into the drum (along with basically everything else she found lying around), busily walking back and forth to the shelves with toys that were frankly too big for her, which resulted in her trying to put one too high, dropping it, and judging by her wail probably hitting her toe with it. But the girl gets major points for effort.

- After a few days of hearing CDs like Wonder Pets, Backyardigans, and ABC Music & Me, I threw in R.E.M.'s Murmur. Classic alternative rock (at the time; maybe not so much anymore) album. And when "Radio Free Europe" started, Kate immediately, immediately, started dancing. Pivoting, bending over, waving her arms a little bit. She doesn't move her feet at all, just her body. Jack doing his little running in place dance. He lifts his feet, but doesn't go anywhere; in place, though, he's all over the map. He generally looks like he's feeling the music, which is kind of cool. And me, who can't dance and probably wouldn't much anyway to R.E.M., wishing I had the video camera handy, not having it, so just trying to drink it all in.