Day 219: Claire and I have spoiled ourselves for all but each other...

**I apologize; I have no idea why this is underlined and I can't get it to stop. I could blame the fact that we just switched blogger formats, or I could just admit that I'm not that bright. You pick.

Claire and my morning routine when traveling is as follows:

Unless we have an early morning flight (at which point we have usually spent the entire night awake anyway and are grumpy and sick of travel), we get up at a reasonably early hour. Discuss any dreams that may have occurred, take a leisurely shower, strategize about face lotions, wander down to breakfast which is waiting for us somewhere, and read or dream about the New York Times over numerous cups of tea. Then we plan what to do for the day, which, because we are disgustingly spoiled, usually involves seeing some major world site that we have both waited years to see.

This morning, however, was different. Aside from the jet lag which is a continuing problem, I awoke to an elbow in my side. It belonged to my nephew, who found the entire affair extremely amusing. While I tried to doze back off, he and his sister got in a fight about whether his yelling in her face was annoying or not and fair of him or not. I then passed a leisurely morning playing games like "let's 'tend Gwacie is a stwanger!" (still unclear about the rules of this one), let's listen for the sounds of a computer getting stomped on, let's get jumped on by Gwace, let's see how many times Auntie Ah will chase our scooter in a circle, let's see how many costumes I can get on in ten minutes! "8-9-1 'Mergency!" and other all-time favorites.

I loved it. Every minute. But I am exhausted, and trying to type quietly so they don't find out where I am. The adults keep trying to be productive, and the kids keeping being either intensely distracting by pestering or by cute-ness as soon as they are occupied.

I admit; a morning of quiet where I only have to tend to my own whims sounds luxurious. Claire...can we live with other people again? I wonder...

But then I also wonder how Claire and I ever agree to leave everyone behind for each other (shudder) and how I miss moments like this one: