Then we got into Laguardia late and had to go to a different concourse and through security again. Of course going through security wasn't mentioned anywhere in the planning I did for this trip so I didn't account for the time that would take and we missed our plane, even after running full out to it. They put us on another flight, to Miami, and it was a good thing I asked for further clarification, because the answer to my first question of, "is there a plane change to Fort Lauderdale or do we stay on the same plane?" was answered with, "no plane change" and what they really meant was you're on your own to get to Fort Lauderdale. I called Jill & co. and they agreed to pick me up in Miami and then we had to get my luggage from Fort Lauderdale.
Getting on the plane to Miami was much less traumatic, but we did agree that if they told Shara to get in her own seat she would do so. We didn't make eye contact and they let her sit on my lap. It was a good flight and we played a little, napped a little, and ate a little. After that, no big drama, thank goodness!
We got to the condo around 3 PM and relaxed a little and had a very good dinner, relaxed some more and went to sleep.
Day 2 (Friday) - Today we had a good time at the pool and the beach. We woke up early and did a puzzle and played with some fun toys Nonnie had stashed away. At the pool, Shara swam like a little fish - wild and free, as she says, but she likes calling herself a shark. In the afternoon we went to the beach and shara played with Nonnie building and knocking over sandcastles. After being all sandy, we took a shower. This was Shara's first shower ever and it was fun. She said she didn't want to take a shower, so I was going to get showered first and then give her a bath. Well while I was showering, she decided to get herself undressed and come right in. We had to scramble to get a little towel for her to stand on and her soap, etc. We had a good time and she was great.
For dinner we went to Sr. Buritto's for some yummy Mexican. When Shara was done, she was done. I took her for a walk to calm her down. She didn't want to sit where she was and wanted to sit between Jill & myself. She really just wanted to be disagreeable. After dinner we went next door for Gelato. We found out Shara doesn't like lemon gelato. She had a sample and spit it out all down her shirt and onto mine; nice. Then we were going to split a chocolate chip gelato and she was going to have a chocolate sprinkle cookie. She ate the cookie and almost all the gelato - didn't want to share. I drank the gelato soup.
Her moods throughout the vacation were up and down. It was hard to give her a nap when everyone's schedules were all over the place. There wasn't a firm family breakfast, lunch & dinner, and I didn't fully understand until closer to the end, that everyone was basically on their own, so schedule at will.
Day 3 (Saturday) - Today we went to visit Cousin Ethel at Neiman Marcus at Town Center. In the very early morning we went down the the beach with Samantha to look for turtles. We went at about 5:45 AM and didn't have any luck. We later found out that they could go down to the water any hour of the night, during the dark, but it depended on the light situation; moon or artificial. We must have found something fun to do down there because we didn't get back until close to 7 AM. We then had a small breakfast, as usual, and got ourselves ready to go to the mall.
It was fun, but again, Shara wasn't eating enough to keep her from being cranky. She ate very light breakfasts and hardly anything for lunches. Today she had a little fruit and cereal, but at least she was drinking her smoothie daily. The vegetables were absent from her diet, other than a little bite or two of tomato. She did get her vitamin and she certainly wasn't acting malnurished. For lunch, which we decided to have by the fountains - a little picnic, she said she wanted green beans and a hot dog. I went all around and found a vegetable medley with greenbeans that she said she would eat, and a hot dog. She ate all the hot dog but wouldn't touch the vegetables. I told her she couldn't have any desserts or sweets today because she told me she wanted the green beans and then didn't eat them, after I had bought them for her.
We went to Neiman Marcus and hung around until Ethel had a break. It's hard with retail - people calling in sick, floor coverage, etc. so we occupied ourselves with taking pictures by the pretty butterflies on the ceiling, dancing and jogging around the handbag/makeup departments. Most of the sales people thought Shara was very cute and she really was being good. She stayed away from people and didn't touch anything. Then we had a little visit with Ethel and she gave Shara a little pink velvet pouch and a little gelt to put in it. I got teary, thinking of Nanny, and Shara thought it was great! She also got a little piece of chocolate, which had to be saved for later. We decided to meet for breakfast the next day and said our goodbyes. In the car, Shara tried to open the chocolate and I said no, but she grabbed it and started to open it anyway and I basically told her to go to sleep, which she did, for the short drive back to the condo. We then went for another swim, chatted with a teenage boy down there, and Shara wouldn't leave my neck.
Dinner was leftovers, which Shar didn't eat, since I took the opportunity at the pool to give her snack, which she did eat. She was happy to get up and play a little, but not so happy when I wouldn't leave my dinner to join her. So I finished dinner with her on my lap. Boy this is really sounding like I had a bad time, but I really didn't. It was just really difficult because she wouldn't leave my side - to let me go to the bathroom, shower, etc. Jill did get her to play for a while when I really needed to go to the bathroom myself, but she did notice when I wasn't there.
Day 4 (Sunday) - We woke up this morning and basically had our smoothie and got dressed to go to Flakowitz's Bagel Bakery for breakfast with Cousin Ethel. Shara started having some fruit to hold her over but then I opened my big mouth and started saying that at the restaurant we could have eggs with lox, etc. and she stopped eating, holding herself for breakfast. So by the time we got there she was cranky again! She wanted to sit in a highchair - good - but didn't want the third table pushed over to give us more room. She wanted just the 2 tables. She really started screaming, so I took her outside, with duckie & giraffe, that she had put in her backpack earlier. She asked for them and I nearly panicked because I didn't remember backing them! So anyway, we went outside and I calmed her down enough to explain why the third table was a good idea. Just when she was starting to like the third table, Ethel shows up and we all go inside. We split the lox & egg omelette, an everything bagel & tomatoes. Shara ate a lot of the omelette with ketchup, and not much else. But she really liked it and we all had a very nice visit. She did some art projects for Ethel to take to work and Ethel gave her wonderful bubbles and a cute book. We left and went home, went to the pool to play with the bubbles, had a very little lunch and took a nap, finally. She napped for 2 hours and I knit.
We woke her up and she really wanted to go to the pool instead of the ocean, so we did and it was very nice, even though there were two very adult couples in the pool with us. The clouds came and we decided to take a look at the ocean before heading up to get ready for Licorice and Phyllis to come for dinner. With a nap, Shara was great. She didn't want the excellent meal that Grandpa and Nonnie cooked, but ate french bread with sliced eggs, had one bite of sweet potato and maybe a bite of fish. I think I cut the fish up too much and it was too hard for her to eat. But she liked the eggs. Then she had some cherries and brownies and was happy. We took pictures, played with the little doggie and then went to bed.
Day 5 (Monday, going home) - In the morning we went to the beach to again find turtles. This time we did it right and we saw the volunteers who told us how things worked and showed us some of the turtles they found that morning. The big sea turtles lay their eggs and the volunteers mark the nests with stakes so the town vehicles don't disturb them. The date they're layed is written on the stake. About 60 days later the eggs hatch. What they look for are the tracks down to the ocean, out of the nest. The volunteers then do a shallow dig to see if any turtles got tired and didn't make it up all the way. If they find any, they take them back in a bucket of sand to spend the day in a cool place, then take them back to the beach at night to let them into the ocean. The people come back 72 hours later to dig the nest and see if they can find any others trying to get out. This is what we saw - they found 3 alive and 3 dead and counted a large number of hatched eggs and then put back the unhatched eggs to give them a chance to hatch. It was very interesting and something that residents get to see each year, but for us, maybe only once in a lifetime.
When we got back, we had some breakfast and got ready to go. We stopped for more great bagels and if I had known how great they were, I would have gotten a couple more to bring home. Nice and chewy, as they should be and the cinnamon raisin was the best I ever had - not really sweet and the raisins were really good ones. We got to the airport with more than enough time, especially since our plane rescheduled to take off at 1:50 rather than 1:35. Again Shara was good in the airport, even though she was tired. We ate a little and played a little but mostly watched the airplanes take off and land. We got on the plane and no one told her she had to sit by herself - actually they did say it because some idiot got his seat mixed up and wanted to sit in Shara's seat and the flight attendent came over and asked about the seats, etc., but in the long run, she sat on my lap and mostly slept. The connection was only a few gates down, same concourse, so I was super happy and we didn't have time to go to the bathroom, but quickly bought a bag of pirate booty.
This time on the plane the flight attendent did insist that Shara sit in her own seat, but was so nice about it and gave Shara wings and everything. She cried and protested, but the "m & m's" helped and as soon as she got in her seat, she was really ok. She didn't even want me holding her or touching her, even though we had to sit in line for 25 min to take off. She was really good, but gave me a scare when I asked how her tummy was and she said sick. I asked if she was going to be sick, throw-up and she said yes. Turns out she was kidding. I even handed her the barf bag! So Alan picked us up at the airport and we went home. Daddy and Shara very happy to be together.
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| 08/07 Florida Trip |
