The cohesion of everyone focusing on the new arrivals did not take long to disintegrate, as Dex knew would be the case. A timer went off in the kitchen, one kid took another’s toy, the dropped argument was remembered, the dogs started biting one another’s faces, and so on, and so forth. One by one, folks splintered off to attend to whatever preparations had occupied them before, leaving only those who weren’t as concerned by things left undone: the kids.
