More travelogue

We arrived at my parents' on Sunday after a great visit with the two Js and Mr. Sinjin. All three kids had played a lot together, fulfilling dreams that Julie and I have cherished since long before we had children (or even husbands). Sinjin labored under this incredibly endearing delusion that Gillian was "Sinjin's baby" . . . as in, he would wake up and demand to know, "Where's my baby?" It was so cute that we couldn't bear to disabuse him of it, and in fact probably encouraged him by repeatedly asking him, "Whose baby is that?" for our own entertainment. He took a little brother's delight in pilfering toys from Allison Clare (they were his, of course, to begin with), but would sweetly bring them to Gilly and then become sternly disapproving if anyone else tried to touch them: "Nobody touch baby's toys!" Reminiscent of a toddler Patrick Swayze. RIP.

We got in to my parents' on Sunday, had a big feast that night of spaghetti and crabs my dad and his buddy had caught, and went to the Ocean City Boardwalk the next night. There, Allison Clare was so excited about the Ferris Wheel she'd glimpsed on the way into town that she refused to eat dinner (Mack & Manco's pizza, of course), and spent most of the meal chanting, "I don't want to eat pizza--I want to go to the Ferris Wheel--is it time to go to the Ferris Wheel yet?" Nonetheless, she had plenty of energy to run from ride to ride at the Wonderland pier. She rode on the boats she had stared at so longingly last year (when I wasn't sure she would stay in her seat on her own, as it's a kids-only ride). She rode them twice, telling me she just wanted "to keep ridin' the boats." But we also went on some spinning bears a couple of times and she went on a submarine that, strangely, floated upward. Whatever. Good times.

The next day we went to the Cape May zoo, where both kids were a little overtired--which AC manifested by treating the zoo like a running event, jogging the past the exhibits, and Gilly got cranky and started crying until she spied a puddle, which was so auspicious that she was charmed mostly out of the fusses. (She loves puddles. She calls them "uffles.") But Gillian got to see a giraffe, which seems to be her favorite, and Allison Clare got to feed ducks. Both of the kids slept like rocks last night.

They've also been feeding the horses Ozzy and Dasisy next door, riding around the yard in a cart that attaches to my parents' bikes, and swimming for hours in their little inflatable castle pool . At least, AC swims for hours and Gillian swims for minutes interspersed with periods of wandering around the gazebo, trying out various deck chairs, and hunting for snacks. They've done watercolor painting and played lots of what AC calls "hide and sink." In that game, she hides right in front of you, and then you close your eyes and count to ten. At ten, you say the traditional "Ready or not, here I come" and she shouts, "Here I am!" And then she wants to play again and returns to the same hiding place. It's so funny that we haven't bothered to teach her the real rules. I think she picked up the game from seeing it played but obviously hasn't quite gotten the spirit of the thing.

I'll post more pics soon. [April, if you're reading--which I know you are, because who are we kidding, you have replaced my mother-in-law as my most frequent reader--let me just tell you that that inflatable pool was a breeze to inflate with an air compressor. It took like 30 seconds. It was nothing like you and me lying on the living room floor blowing it up and trying not to pass out through two whole Food Network shows.]