Playing at Being an Only Child

This week my daughter is in Washington D.C. with her Grammy, Grampa, Aunt Melina and cousin Kali.  She left on Sunday and is not due back until tomorrow.  This is quite a trip for her.  It is the longest she has ever been away from her mother and I.

It is also the longest our two kids have ever been apart.  So far Caleb is making the most of it.

He adores his big sister.  There will be no one more excited about her return than him, but I think Caleb is enjoying playing at being an only child this week.  He has the house to himself.  He has full access to all the toys even the Barbies and princesses.  And he has mommy and daddy without having to compete with his boisterous older sister.

All this has added up to a much less volatile child.  In a previous post I wrote about how difficult and destructive my son can be.  I attributed it to his age.  This week has me wondering how much of it is his age and how much of it is trying to compete with his sister for attention.

Don't get me wrong, he is still a two year old boy and time out is a daily occurrence but there is a lot more down time for him.  He is using the time he would normally be pulling his sister's hair to play with his cars. 

And of course his sister is not here to antagonize him.  If he picks up a Barbie, it's not the one his sister absolutely had to have.  She does have a way of pushing his buttons and vice versa.

Normally there is a lot of activity going on around here.  Caelyn is usually bounding around the house and Caleb wants to be a part of it. Or Caelyn needs to be taken to school, or camp, or another class of some sort. It's all quite hectic. This leaves Caleb in constant motion and never in charge of his own schedule.

But for now, without his sister, he has the run of the house leaving him more relaxed than usual. Yesterday he took the first nap he has taken without just passing out on the floor in a long time.

Soon though, his sister will return and I expect the volatility will as well.  But at least now I know that some of it is an attempt to get attention and maybe, just maybe, that will help me bring him back to a calmer state.

The Story I Was Told

As best as I can figure, I was in the car driving my son to the playground when it happened.  The earthquake yesterday that is.  I felt nothing as I drove along listening to my son get more and more excited as he figured out where I was driving to.

Shortly after our arrival at the playground I received a text from my wife telling me her building had been evacuated due to a possible earthquake but no one knew for sure.  There is a minor fault line under NYC and we occasionally will get a small tremor so I thought nothing of it.  My only reply to my wife was to ask if she was coming home early.

A few minutes after this I received a text from my sister-in-law Melina telling me they were all safe but their building had been evacuated.  This one got my attention.  You see, my six year old daughter was with Melina along with my niece and my wife's parents.  It's one thing to get a message from my wife about a building evacuation in Manhattan (a not uncommon occurrence) and another thing entirely to find out my daughter had just been through an earthquake.

I wasn't concerned for her safety.  I already knew they were OK.  I was however, very interested in what had happened and what specifically had gone on around my daughter and niece.  So I pulled up the information about the earthquake on my phone and read over it while my son played on the playground.

Later, when we got back home, I gave Melina a call to learn their story.  Here it is pieced together to the best of my ability from conversations with Melina, my niece Kali and my daughter Caelyn.

Caelyn, Kali, Melina, Grammy and Grampa were in the Natural History Museum of the Smithsonian looking at the earthquake display.  Melina pointed out the fault line running under California.  Caelyn asked her if there were any fault lines in New Jersey.  Melina told her there was not.

So there can never be an earthquake here then, asked Caelyn.  No, there can never be an earthquake here, Melina assured her.  They then went down to the basement to eat lunch.

Never say never.

As they were eating lunch, everything began to shake and small debris fell from the ceiling.  Some people started screaming.  Melina, Grammy and Grampa collected the kids and headed for the doors as the building was evacuated.  Caelyn told me she started to cry though Melina said she didn't really.  She just got close.

It was a chaotic situation on the street as everyone was being evacuated and no one had anywhere to go.  Eventually, they all made their was back to the hotel.  Caelyn, thinking earthquakes were a common occurrence in D.C. declared she would never come back.

As I spoke to the girls later that day, they informed me the worst part was that because the museum was evacuated, they didn't get to go to the gift shop.