Greek Introduction: Baby in a Backpack - Day 10

Today, we entertained the “circus” of visitors for the first time, which is pretty impressive since it’s been a week before the first wave. Actually, the visitors themselves didn’t make it a production as much as my mother-in-law. She started early by cleaning and cooking, all to make a good presentation for her guests. Then, she came to get the baby to show him off after they arrived. Unfortunately, this was derailed by him having a short nap first.

The visit was very nice. It was my wife’s cousin, Kostas, and his family. Kostas’ daughter immediately fell in love with Troy, and only left his side when it was time to eat. Otherwise, she was fantastic with him, and he seemed very taken with her, giving her hugs and high-fives.

After they left, I took Troy downstairs to take a good, long nap while my wife did some laundry. She’s so used to our uber-fast washing machine that she wasn’t expecting a single load to take three hours in the economy cycle! Luckily, they have two machines, so we at least got two loads done in three hours.

After Troy woke up, we went upstairs for dinner. The washing machine is in the kitchen where we eat, and it was still going. Troy was immediately enthralled with watching the clothes spin round and round through the clear door, the water swishing and the clothes flopping down every time the drum would pause. He sat there mesmerized, looking over at me every few minutes to make sure I was seeing this wonder of mankind as well. If I happened to not be looking, then he’d grunt to get my attention, and then turn to look at the machine to show me where I should be looking.

When the washing machine hit the spin cycle, it went into hyperdrive, rotating so fast and violently that the corner was lifting off the floor and the whole thing was rocking. My mother-in-law said that my wife’s father’s caretaker usually has to sit here in the kitchen with her foot on the machine to calm it down. So my wife kicked off her shoe and put her foot on the machine, and sure enough it settled into an easy rhythm. At this point, we didn’t need Troy to draw our attention to the machine, as we all sat mesmerized by the spin cycle. When the buzzer finally sounded and the machine stopped, Troy raised his hands like, “That’s it?"