Kids on Cayman

The food on Grand Cayman is VERY expensive - FAR more than on any of the other islands we've visited. The cheapest one so far was St. Lucia. For this reason, Paul and I have no desire to ever return to Grand Cayman. However, it cost very little to feed Ian. I brought a can of beef stew, six packets of cream of wheat, and a couple of cans of EleCare for him. The day we arrived Paul and Pop Pop bought Ian a jar of applesauce and two packages of chocolate cream cookies at the grocery store.

All the attractions were free for Ian so we spent less than $5 on Ian while we were on the island. He drank from the sippy cup both Saturdays (the days we were traveling). All the other days he drank from his little plastic shot glasses. The day we left the island I fed him two meals in our unit before we left. Some meals he ate calmly and other times he screamed and threw up. Some days we had to change his outfit multiple times due to upchucking when I fed him. Grandma fed him one meal, Paul fed him part of a meal a couple of times, and I fed him all the rest of his meals. He had 3 meals a day except for one day when he asked me for beef stew and applesauce at 9am. I fed him a second breakfast that day (cream of wheat rather than beef stew). Sometimes he had a couple of cookies as a snack in between meals. The provided a high chair for our unit, which was what Ian sat in for his meals.

Nadia doesn't usually eat toast, but she had quite a bit of toast with grape jelly on vacation. Sometimes that was her breakfast, and other days that was her lunch. She would wait for Grandma to get up so that she could have breakfast with Grandma rather than with Mommy. She sat on the dining room chair (at home she uses a booster seat). She also ate cold cereal, applesauce, pancakes, chicken, corn bread, crackers, spaghetti, cookies, and a cheeseburger (from Wendy's) in our unit. We ordered her a pizza at XQ's twice and brought home most of her pizza for leftovers. The first trip to XQ's I ordered her a milk, but the second time I had her drink milk before we left and after we got home because I found out the first time that a glass of milk cost $3.75 (almost as much as the 12" pizza). We only had to pay for Nadia at one of the attractions - the Atlantis Submarine. The others (Stingray City, Pirate's Cave, and Turtle Farm) were free for those under the age of four.

Paul said Nadia wasn't that interested in looking out the window on the submarine. She was more interested in looking at the identification card that showed the names of the different types of fish. When we were on the catamaran, they first let us off the boat at a snorkeling spot near Stingray City. The waves were pretty strong due to the recent storms.  Pop Pop and Ian stayed in the boat, and the rest of us ventured into the water with life vests on. There were fish there, but rough waves made it difficult to enjoy. That's certainly the deepest water Nadia has ever been in!

Ian slept in my arms on the catamaran going out to see and coming back. Nadia slept on the way back. The water wasn't as pretty as usual as the storm had stirred things up. The water was pretty at the sandbar where the stingrays were located. Everyone but PopPop got out to be with the sting rays. The water was very beautiful and calm there. Standing there sting rays would be swimming all around you. They would brush up against your legs. Their underside is REALLY soft (like a mushroom). Sometimes you would be surrounded by sting rays. Both kids enjoyed it. Nadia kissed several sting rays. I kissed one of them. I wish I had more pictures. Before we go to the Caribbean again, I want to buy a better water camera. Stingray City was definitely the highlight of the vacation for me.

Both kids loved the swimming pool although Ian and I loved it more before the rain came and lowered the water temperature. They both loved to play with the pool toys at the resort (rafts, noodles, etc.). Nadia loved jumping in from the side of the pool. Ian did that for the first time ever although of course I caught him so he never went underwater. Nadia would go underwater and then pop back up because of her inner tube. Ian still wanted no part of the "boat" that Nadia loved in Antigua (when she was 10 months old). He didn't like it last summer, but I thought now that he was almost 2 1/2 years old he'd be brave enough to sit in it and float around the pool. We would have left it behind if I wasn't pregnant. We kept it in case the next little guy likes it. We had to keep a close eye on him when he was on a raft as he didn't grasp the concept that it wouldn't be good for him to dive into the water head first. The Marriott took in their large flotation items (that were anchored down with blocks of concrete) on Tuesday afternoon, and they never put them back out (as of Saturday morning when we left anyhow). I was really wanting Nadia to get to enjoy it like Ian did on Tuesday. We walked along the beach, but we never went back into the ocean (on Seven Mile Beach anyhow) after Tuesday morning. Nadia spent at least 30 minutes in the pool eight days in a row (some days a lot longer than that). She was always excited to go out and sad to go back in. She was even more excited if there were other kids in the pool (whether they were 3 years old or teenagers).

Both kids loved the turtle farm. Nadia loved the water slide and getting in the touch tank with some turtles. Ian loved those two things as well, but he also loved watching the sharks and the crocodile. If the weather had been nicer that day, we definitely could have spent a lot more time there. Because it was raining when we left, I didn't bring my good camera. I brought my point and shoot and water camera. Unfortunately I left my spare battery back at the resort, and the battery in the point and shoot died after only snapping a couple of pictures (before we got to the turtles). My aim was off with the water camera (which is meant to be worn as a mask) so I only got one picture. Bummer! In addition to deciding to buy a better water camera before our next trip (I'm thinking I'll ask for that for Christmas from Paul), I have learned to bring the spare battery with me and not leave it in our bedroom!!! I also really wish I had pictures of Nadia kissing the sting ray and such. The kids also enjoyed the Pirate's Cave. We were there less than 30 minutes. We saw quite a few animals on our trip between the turtle farm and cave. We also saw some animals at the resort - a large crab even wandered into the swimming pool one day! One good thing about the bad weather is that none of us got much (if any) sunburn. We did see the sun on our last day. The sun was out the day we arrived and the day we left, but the sun wasn't out the 6 days in between. It wasn't a hurricane but rather just a really large front. Most cruise ships that were supposed to stop in Grand Cayman last week decided not to make that stop, and the ones that did cancelled all the excursions.

As for sleeping, Nadia took only one nap in a bed. She also took a bit of a nap on the catamaran and on both flights. The kids stayed awake much later than usual on our drive home. It was after 9:30pm before they fell asleep on our drive home. Ian took a nap every day - either in his crib or my arms. We put the kids to bed by 8pm six of the nights. Nadia woke up between 6:30-7:00am every morning. Ian slept past 7am twice, and the other five nights he got up between 5:30-6:30am. Thankfully since we've been home he's gone back to waking around 7:00am.

While we were in the unit the kids enjoyed watching tv (Disney Junior in the morning and a VeggieTales dvd in the evening), playing hide and seek, being tickled by Pop Pop (he called Nadia "Giggleopolis"), playing with Nadia's Leapster, drawing on the magnadoodle, coloring in a coloring book, playing with princesses, or reading stories. If I had known how much time we would be spending in the unit, I would have brought more toys, books, and dvd's, but one perk of not having much was that I never felt like the living room was a mess (like I often feel at home). Picking up toys was a cinch. I noticed that difference when we got home. Pop Pop also told Nadia stories about Princess Nadia who loved to eat vegetables. Ian also enjoyed playing with a pool noodle in our unit while he was marching or running laps. He gets a lot of exercise! Pop Pop was the least affected by the rain because doesn't care to swim much. He brought LOTS of books, and he wanted to play with the kids. The weather didn't interfere with his plans! :-)