Geronimo

As we continue with the typically cold Japanese winter months, coughs and colds are inevitably doing the rounds and our home life has become somewhat confined indoors. The space heating culture here (i.e heating the space you're in and leaving the other rooms cold enough to keep a polar bear happy) means that we basically loiter in the living room and hover around our heater as if it's going to suddenly start spouting the meaning of life at any given moment. Anticipating enlightenment aside, we pass the time as anyone would with a 2 and a 3 year old in a confined space: by tidying up after them!
Honestly, the speed at which our two rugrats can completely dismantle a room is astonishing. They are like 2 little demolition workers the way they systematically go about their business - all they need are 2 mini sledgehammers, a couple of tiny hardhats and little size 3 steel capped boots to really get the job done. But as we discovered today, there is of course a madness to their method.

We both came downstairs to find the living room completely trashed, with the laptop placed on the ground and everything else piled in the middle of the room; situation normal. E was puzzled as to why the boy (2) persisted with taking my laptop off its home on the cabinet and leaving it to sit on the floor, as there appeared to be no reason for it other than pure, unabashed anarchy - which you could probably argue is as good a reason as any. It did seem odd however, as he didn't bother with taking off the speakers or the photo frame at the other end of the cabinet, only my laptop. We then watched him clamber on top of the cabinet to occupy the space created by the evicted laptop, pause for a moment to take his mark and leap with the abandon only a 2 year old can muster onto the pile of accumulated cushions and assorted articles and bouncing off onto the tatami, mere centimetres from the coffee table. All this was soundtracked by whoops of delight from his ever encouraging sister; "Again, Again!" Unfortunately for the aspiring acrobat and his cheerleader though, there was no 'again' this time as mum and dad stepped in to spoil the party. The room was put back into some semblance of order and the afternoon continued*.

*Coverage of this Living Room Diving event was not caught on camera, but it is recorded here and can be used as early indicator should the boy become an interior designer or BASE jumper.