Is it an idiom?

Learning English Forum - Ask a Tutor
1

As a child of 10 or so, I admired my father’s ability to wiggle his ears. I wanted very badly to do the same. At first I could not. So I just sat there for hours, sometimes while watching television, just telling my brain to get going and start moving my ears.

I guess “sat there for hours” means in this sentence that Steve kept trying to wiggle his ears. Am I OK? Is it a kind of idioms?

2

Yes, you are right. It does not mean that Steve actually sat in one place for hours, but that he spent a lot of time trying to wiggle his ears.