The Home of Marky Homez: DC

Monday 28/11 (local)

By this stage my camera had run out of battery power. Since nearly everything that needed to be captured was indeed captured it wasn't too much of a proble. It's a bit of a shame though - as the camera doesn't seem to take all that many photos. One hundred odd may sound like alot but this includes daylight shots (those not requiring flash). At night, i'm guessing that only 35 to 40 shots are doable due to the flash. Hmm...

Between 12:00pm or 12:30pm we were headed back to Philadelphia. On the way ou we passed the FBI building and the IRS building. Took some photos with Jason's camera, and then fell asleep. Go me!

I awoke back in Philadelphia - meaning that I slept for something like two hours. Haha. Oh well. I always seem to sleep in cars and trains - habit I guess. We pulled into the driveway, hopped out of the car and was back home. Matty was extremely excited and was yelling out "Daddy, Daddy!". However, when Matty saw me instead of Jason he changed to what he was saying to "Daddy, come here". LOL. Still scared of me.

The afternoon was spent attempting to interact with Matty, but progress was slow. It was more of an opportunity to catch up with my cousins. Then there was a breakthrough - it was time for tennis (in the house). First off he was playing tennis with Kara, then I started playing as well. All seemed good until Kara left the room.

Matty quickly lost interest and went searching for his mother. That's alright - progress was being made. After some more tennis, supervised, things turned out great. Not only did we play tenis, we played some golf as well. A golf variant. There is no hole, the ball is just hit with a golf club. Oh well - just as fun. By the end of it all I could interact with Matty easily, as long as Jason and Kara were nearby (like in the adjacent room). A lovely kid.

Matty's brother Danny is a baby. So interaction is quite limited. However Danny does respond to smiling with smiling. Which is something that I find neat. He also likes to hold things, from what I can tell. When I hold my index finger out he grabs it and squeezes it from time to time. Very cool indeed. Kids are great... wait, i'll change that - well behaved kids are great.

Dommer was fascinating as another surprise party was planned for my cousin - well, a dinner with some unexpected guests. Friends from the UK were along for the dinner. I guess this was plan B - the contingency. We were at a restaurant that brewed its own beer. Not being a fan of beer I didn't really try anything - oh well. I ate a steak burger. (I'm not going to mention anything about how I got to the steakhouse. If you are super intelligent then you can figure it out :D).

The trip back home. First off I walked Matty to the car - yep, he walks. You can hold his hand and start walking, that easy. Anyhow - the trip back. In the car was Jason, Matty, Danny, and I. All the guys - with the exception of Jason's UK pal Huy. I learnt an interesting trick that you can try on babies if they're crying and you are driving home. I kid you not - this trick worked. Emperically tested... once.

So there we are in the car and Danny starts crying. I'm in the back seat next to him and I have no idea what to do. I was thinking Should i say 'hush' in a soothing tone? Should I sing a lullabye? Should I tickle the baby? Is he hungry? I was at a loss. Pro at parenting? Not me, that's for sure. So anyway, Jason says only 5 minutes to go, 5 minutes and then Danny stops crying. Amazing! Unfortunately Danny began to cry again after a couple of minutes, and we weren't exactly close to home. So this time I had a shot - only 5 minutes to go. Nothing. He didn't fall for it. So I tried somehing else: okay, okay - 4 minutes to go, nearly there. Then Danny stopped crying. Wow! Onto something here. In actual fact 5, 4, 3, and 2 minute tests all worked, one after another. I think i'm onto something. I better patent the idea. It's great.

The evening was spent playing with Matty and talking to my cousins. It was a thoroughly enjoyable night. Playing with kids followed by intelligent conversation. Excellent things to counter computer-game dependance. Haha. It was really great to be with my cousins. Sightseeing was and will most likely be features of my holiday but being in Philadelphia with my cousins really is a highlight. It just goes to show how important family is and how much it means to me.