plans are made to break
monday, june 18, 2001
well, we were all packed to go back home from my cousin's yesterday when my cousin suggested i stay a few more days hanging out. i still don't know why i agreed to do so because to be honest, it's been a pretty angsty visit (i cannot go places with my aunt and mom without wishing us all dead within a few minutes of departure) but, well, i stayed. mom and aunt left, and i'm taking the train home thursday. mmm, traaaaain. since this is suddenly the only trip i'm making this summer, i might as well drag it out, no?
i have to be honest, though. i'm fairly uncomfortable here. i no longer have a good report with my cousin due to, i don't know, my years abroad and her having children and getting married with house. with 7-8 years since we last had good and frequent contact, talking is suddenly a chore. there just aren't any topics to connect through. i hide out upstairs with the kids, playing video games while she and her husband do chores around the house.
oh yes, the kids. i have to say, they are beyond a "handful" - together they are a force to be reckoned with as far as crankiness, brattiness and raw bouncy, defiant energy go. the eldest boy is 6 and pretty much a monkey boy. whenever he goes missing one need only to look at the highest objects around to find him perched on top awaiting our shrieeks. the youngest is 5 but due to severe illness looks and acts about 2-3. because he is ill (born with a wonky heart - no, i mean it, his lungs and heart are wired completely wrong) he has been so spoiled and cared for that he is now a quite aware little tyrant in the house hold.
it took three days for them to get used to me so for those three days i only saw the bratty sides - the hour long squeals and fights and nips and tugs and pinches and screaming and angry, manipulative tears and "you said you would buy me _!!!" outbursts. luckily they finaly started to calm down, or maybe i just got used to the noise level and we bonded from reading stories out loud and playing crash bandicoot and pandemonium.
currently i'm baby sitting them. well, in theory - both are with play mates and are expected home sometime within the next hour (i hope) when i will make them dinner. i was planning to take them with me while we walk the dog, but since said dog ran off earlier when i went shopping (and was returned by some sweet girls) the dog walk is unnecessary so i think my revised plan is to have them watch some of their movies. unless they just decided to run wild around the house, grinning and refusing as i plead and cajole and yell for them not to tear the walls down to the ground before their parents get off work.
man, and my friend thinks she has it bad with her kid sometimes! from experience i can say her child's worst moments are these kids BEST moments. sigh. oh well. time to make dinner and hope the kids decide to come back soon.
cin cin.
p.s. this family has no shame, btw - every person in this family, adult like child undress and re-dress anywhere, and they don't close the doors when they go to the bathroom. i'm shocked. and not participating. buh! d.s.
