Getting along

This trip hasn’t been entirely smooth sailing on the sibling front. There has been a generous helping of rivalry, fighting, and driving each other crazy. This is understandable, considering all of the newness, the lack of structure, predictability, and comforts of home. And at play is the fact that we have been all together all day every day, often with only each other for companionship. The kids are each responding in different ways.

Jasper struggles at times with the social challenge of operating within a foreign language and place. He can get overwhelmed. He retreats into his kindle, reading for hours when he has the chance and often re-reading the same book series as a kind of security blanket. He would read while walking down the street if we let him. Lex is at a prime age and mentality for this adventure, and has mostly been delighted and engaged with all of the places and activities we have been doing. He’s loved all the historic sites, the architecture, food, landscape, and the decision-making around travel. His major complaints are about his siblings, both of whom push his buttons and vice versa. Willa is often delighted with all the new experiences and people. She can be incredibly brave, energetic, and charming when we are out and about. But she’s only six, and the strain of all the travel and uncertainty does take a toll. She has a serious temper and fairly regularly erupts into elaborate displays of despair or rage. She mostly wants social time and play and sometimes says she misses home. Jasper and especially Lex can deliver this to her at times, and often wonderfully, but not always. We’re trying to see if we can line up some more social experiences for her this week.

This is a big work in progress, to get the kids into comfortable places where they are getting enough of their needs met and so all of us can have a good time. We’re learning when they seem happiest and most even tempered (outdoor, active activity always helps a lot) and how to adapt our plans to suit.