Lessons Learned in Florida

1. The playgrounds in Florida (at least in this area) have sand as their protective surface. I prefer the mulch that we're accustomed to because it's not nearly as messy and isn't full of anthills.

2. Nadia likes collecting rocks on the beach but not shells until the end of the vacation. I was expecting her love of rocks to immediately spill over to a love of shells. I was wrong. The good news is that it means this isn't an advantage of going to a beach in the US. I prefer the beaches in the Caribbean, and they don't usually have shells.

3. Nadia prefers swimming in the pool. I expect this is true for almost all 22 month old children. The ocean is definitely a scarier place due to the waves.

4. The flotation device we bought for Nadia wasn't appropriate for her. She's not advanced enough in her swimming skills to stay afloat with it on. Last year in Antigua she enjoyed this one, but Ian isn't big enough for that one quite yet, and Nadia wants more action than just floating in a "boat." What proved to be the best for her was an inner tube that belonged to the resort. She can kick and swim all around the pool by herself (with close supervision of course!) in an inner tube.

5. If you travel with Ian and Nadia, you will be up a couple of hours before the sun every morning. If I were a better photographer, I am sure I could have gotten some amazing pictures as we had a great eastern view of the ocean. Usually in the past I've tried to be up to see one sunrise on a beach vacation. This is the first time I've witnessed the event seven mornings in a row at the beach. The earliest my day started (meaning I never was back in bed after that time) was 4:15am and the latest was 5:40am.

6. Ian learned how to pass a toy back and forth between his two hands. He enjoyed playing with a rattle that was purchased for my brother 26 years ago.

7. Ian learned how to roll from his back to his belly. He had already rolled the other direction a few weeks ago. On Thursday morning (the day he would have turned 4 months old if he had come on his EDD) he rolled onto his belly and then right back on to his back proving he can now roll in both directions. Also, I have seen him roll from his back to his belly both by rolling to the right and to the left.

8. I've learned to pack an extra outfit for Ian in the diaper bag. This was never necessary for Nadia, but with Ian it comes in handy between his spit ups and leaky diapers. Ian outgrew size 1 diapers sooner than I anticipated. After having several leaky diapers (even though I was changing them even more frequently), we purchased a pack of size 2 at Publix on Wednesday. I hadn't anticipated Ian would gain weight so very quickly over the past 4 weeks!

9. Going out to eat is much more difficult with a 5 month old and 22 month old than it was on our last vacation with a 10 month old. Paul and I discovered that eating out wasn't enjoyable. Sunday night we ordered in pizza. My parents had dinner with Janet and Walter and brought us home some pulled pork that we enjoyed eating for lunches on other days. Aside from eating at "home," the next best options are fast food or a buffet restaurant. My first reaction in the early part of this vacation was that we should wait a few years before attempting another vacation, but now I'm thinking we should still go on the cruise in January since we could eat at buffet restaurants all the time if we so desired. Ian will be 13 months old, and Nadia will be 30 months old at the time of the cruise. Have any of you gone on a cruise with kids those ages? We are planning on going on Norweigan because you can eat dinner whenever you want and don't have to get dressed up. I think that we've been wise to avoid taking the kids out to sit down restaurants the past 5 months. If we want to go out, we need to hire a babysitter and go on a date.

10. It was impossible to have a date with Paul. I knew we couldn't go on a day trip like we did last summer in Antigua (we went on a catamaran snorkeling trip) since I am still nursing Ian, but we had hoped to go on one dinner date. Well we'll just have to line up a babysitter so we can go on a dinner date in early June to celebrate the completion of Paul's comprehensive exams. There were three times when I did get 10 minutes alone with Paul - twice in the jacuzzi and once we walked together when I wanted a smoothie.

11. It's a bad idea to go on vacation a few weeks before your husband's comprehensive exams. When we booked this vacation, we didn't know exactly when he would be taking them OR that I would be teaching online courses the second summer session. We thought we only had a two week window in between my spring and summer sessions, plus we wanted to fly Nadia turned two since that's when we'll have to start buying her an airline ticket. Paul had been trying to schedule his oral defense for July 27, but the only date in June or July that was good for all four members of his committee was June 7. The good news is that the stress will be over sooner this way, but the bad news is that he was busy writing his two proposals during the trip. Usually on vacations we eat all three meals together. This is a treat because normally at home we don't eat any meals together (at least not M-F). We did eat some meals together on this trip, but there were days (such as Wednesday) where he didn't join us for any meals or any activities. It was hard to have him so close yet so far, particularly for Nadia. If something similar happens during our cruise, then I think we should just hold off on any more vacations until he finishes his doctorate.

12. It was harder to entertain Nadia in our suite than it was last summer. I think this will be easier in the future since Ian won't be taking as many naps as he does now. For future vacations I also think it would be wise for me to try to pick a resort that has a playground. I was very grateful that we brought some VeggieTale DVD's and CD's. We made good use of those. The Aquadoodle also was a hit. My mom took Nadia shopping in Maryland for her birthday presents, and we brought those to Florida so she'd have some new toys. The Aquadoodle was one of those gifts. Also my sister gave me How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon? by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague for my birthday, and this was Nadia's favorite book on our trip.

13. It's important to strap Ian into his Nap Nanny. I haven't usually done so because it often wakes him up if I have put him in there asleep. We've had it in his crib so we haven't worried about what might happen if he fell out (although he never fell out of it). In Florida we had it on the floor of the coat closet that was right beside the master bedroom. If he isn't strapped in, when you go to get him when he wakes up his body is completely horizontal (rather than vertical like it's supposed to be). I plan to transition him to sleeping in his crib when we get back (i.e. no more Nap Nanny). Of course his favorite way to sleep is still in someone's arms. He took several naps in Grandma's arms.("Nap Granny" LOL!) My mom was a huge help with caring for Ian in light of Paul sitting at my laptop working on schoolwork All Day Long. This trip would have been an utter diasaster if my parents hadn't come as I couldn't take both children to the pool or beach by myself.

14. I love playing board games. This is not a new revelation, but it was just something reinforced in my mind. Definitely one of the biggest highlights of the trip for me was playing games with my Aunt Janet and Dad. On Tuesday I won a game of Boggle, Yahtzee, and Power Yahtzee. My Aunt introduced us to Power Yahtzee for the first time. On Wednesday my Dad won a game of Racko. On Thursday I won a game of Power Yahtzee, and Janet won in Racko.We own many board games but very rarely get to use them. It's always a treat for me when we play games with my family or Paul's family. I look forward to playing board games with Nadia and Ian in the future!!!

15. Nadia learned that she loves hammocks and foot washers. The first few days she didn't enjoy the foot washer when I used it after we'd been at the beach. By the end of the trip she wanted to put her hands, feet, etc. under the little shower both before and after every trip to the beach or pool. LOL!

16. If you want a restful vacation, don't go on one until your baby is sleeping through the night. I was hoping for a little more sleep than usual, but I actually got less sleep than usual. Nadia hadn't gotten up before 6am since the switch to DST in March, but on vacation she was waking up around 5:15am most days (the earliest she woke up was 4:45am). Once in Maryland she even slept past 8am so it was a rude awakening for her to shift her wake up time so much. Her crib was in the master bedroom bathroom (no windows) so light wasn't the problem. However the bigger reason I felt exhausted during the trip was because of Ian. Lately a good night for him has been if he sleeps about 8 hours total over a 10-11 hour time span. He usually was getting up sometime around midnight and again around 4am. He had a few of those nights this past week, but he also had several nights where he was up 3-5 times during that same time span. For example last night he went down at 7:15 and was up at 10:30, 1:15, and 4:05. Since he is usually up at least one hour each time he wakes up, this means that many nights I never got more than 2 hours of sleep in a row (since I didn't fall asleep until Nadia fell asleep which was always after 8pm). I think it's time for CIO. I am not looking forward to hearing him scream, but Nadia was sleeping 12 hours straight by the time she turned 6 months old so I refuse to keep getting up every 2-3 hours for Ian when he's getting close to 6 months old. The Pediatrician at his 4 month appt said that at 4 months he should have one stretch that's at least 8 hours long. I'd love that. I need the sleep deprivation stage to be OVER.

17. On Thursday night, Nadia learned to drink from a straw! She was SOOO proud of herself for this accomplishment that when she succeeded she pumped both fists and exclaimed "I DID IT!" Way to go, Nadia! This is perfect timing as I was planning to work on transitioning her out of sippy cups in the near future as well as switching from 2% to skim milk and also getting her to drink more water as now she drinks milk 99% of the time.

18. I don't like king size beds. This is another reminder (not a new lesson learned). The bedroom my parents slept in had two twin size beds. My mom commented that she thinks it's the first time in their almost 41 years of marriage that they've slept in the same room yet different beds. Well in my opinion when you're in a king size bed it feels like you're in two different beds. I'm glad we have a queen size bed at home. There was a queen size sofa bed in the living room of our suite, but we all prefered to use the bedrooms rather than the sofa bed.

19. It's important to nurse regularly. At home my pattern (since we started supplementing more) has been to always nurse Ian before offering him a bottle, and when I'm away from him and he gets only a bottle, I pump. Early in the vacation Ian started to refuse to nurse, and I attributed it to the fact that many times he was being offered a bottle without having nursed first. This was happening because there were more people who could give him bottles and also because sometimes I was down in the pool with Nadia. He never refused me at night, and thankfully once I got back to nursing him more often during the day, he wasn't refuisng to nurse then either. Whew. I really was convinced nursing was coming to an end much sooner due to the vacation. I'm glad that didn't happen!

20. It's wise to stand in front of the buttons on the elevator so that your toddler doesn't push the "help" button. Yes, she pushed the button, and I found there was no way to cancel it. I had to wait until a person spoke to us to tell them my toddler pushed it. I think it was a poor design to place that button as the lowest one on the panel. It's asking those under 36 inches to push it since it's the only one they can reach!