A Few Days In…

It is Thursday night.  Everyone is falling asleep (even though it is 7:10 back at home, and because Puerto Rico does not suffer through the random changing of time, in a few days it would 6:10 back at home, it is kind of odd).

We are having fun, well fun minus the long second leg of our plane ride.  It was  so long!  We were so tired.  On our time schedule, we left home at 10:05 pm, arrived in Philadelphia at 3:00 am, waited and left at 6:00 am arriving in Puerto Rico at 10:30 am.  Ivy slept all but about an hour, while Owen spent the flight throwing up in a bag.  Poor Owen.  I either heard him yelling for Greg to get the bag or heard him asking Greg to tighten his seat belt cause he wasn't safe.  Oh how I wish I could keep my anxiety troubles to myself.  We tried giving him a drink of water to which he replied, "they probably have gooder water in Puerto Rico, I will just wait and have some there."  (I wish it weren’t true, but he was totally right, it wasn't good water at all, other troubles I would rather keep to myself).   Little Ivy would wear nothing but a diaper and cried at the mere mention of getting her dressed.  Ok then, diaper and nice baby it is! 

We arrived and made our way to collect the bags.  Owen’s bad day continued when Ben picked up a bag and smacked Owen in the face.   It was a sad start to things.  We made our way outside and a few feet away from the door, the hot humid air was felt by all as we cruised outside in our shoes, socks, sweatshirts and long pants.  It didn’t take long to lose some of those clothes.  We found the taxi service, hopped in our three giant vans and began our final commute to our destination. 

After reaching the hotel, we were thrilled!  It is a beautiful resort on the beach.  We are here on the offseason, which has resulted in a private beach and private pool.  We checked in, explored the beach, the pool, the hotel, our rooms, and let the kids run wild.

Most of us were in bed and asleep by 8:00 that night, asleep to sounds of birds and frogs and warmth and humidity. 

We spent Wednesday hanging out, swimming, playing in the ocean, arranging for a taxi to take all 19 of us to the store and to dinner, and planning our remaining days. 

We spent Thursday arranging for a rental car to take all 19 of us to the rain forest, going to the rain forest, driving back to the store, attending a timeshare meeting (don't ask), playing with cousins, and planning our remaining days again. 

To summarize:

Lowlights from the trip so far:

1. Ben running backwards to catch a football and crashing into a bench and spraining his ankle.

2. The timeshare presentation that Angie/Steve and Greg/I went to today to get a free $120.00 massage.  (I have no idea why we did this, the word free starts to sound even better after a $16.00 breakfast I suppose.  We made it clear that we were not buying a timeshare, that we just wanted the free stuff, to which the representative responded by saying, "well no one wants to buy a timeshare, they just do".  How awesomely true is that.)

3. The smell of the bug spray Greg made us all wear in the rain forest. It is now a heavily debated issue as to whether there were bugs at all or whether we repelled them.

The highlights of our two days so far:

1. Iguanas roaming everywhere. 

2. Dad swimming in what he claimed was the first time since 4th grade. 

3. Watching Ivy put sand in her hair. 

4.  Laughing my head off as we planned for 3 hours how to get around and what to do the next day and figured out at the end that we didn't figure out anything.  (it is terribly expensive to get around or at least get us around, it was $100 to pick us up, take us 5 miles and drop us off and pick us up again and bring us back, a lot of planning is needed to figure out how to get anywhere without spending all of our money).

5. Having Greg drive the rental 14 passenger van (and yes, they really can fit 19 people).

6. Loving that Owen slept soundly for 13 hours after the first night and woke up to say "WHOA, the nights in Puerto Rico are so short!"

7. Driving up to the restaurant last night and wondering if the taxi driver was taking us to be killed.  Everyone was chatting up a storm and saw the restaurant, it was then a hush fell over the crowd.  The final verdict: best steak many in the party had ever had.  It wasn't so scary after all.

8. The frog that Kristi found on her shirt during dinner.

9. Watching Ivy go down the slide a million times.

10. Lifejacket boy wearing his life jacket on the beach and refusing to go into the ocean. 

11. Going grocery shopping to avoid a breakfast repeat of 2 pieces of toast with honey and half a grapefruit for $16.00. (by the end of this trip we will finally have figured out how to save some money).

12. Watching Owen and Alysa as they snuggled together on the bed watching a movie with Alysa's arm around Owen.

13. Teasing Greg about his rainforest planning.  He was convinced by the ever loyal Internet that we get to  the visitor's center and walk to waterfall.  Come to find out it doesn't work quite like that.  No one could bite their tongue as we drove up the winding road and constantly reminded Greg that we could be walking this road with all 19 of us, knocking on death’s door the whole time.  We couldn't resist, but we still like Greg - see #5 about driving the 14 -19 passenger van. 

14. Driving around looking for waterfalls but seeing a snack shop with burgers and hearing cheers from the van louder than when we found the waterfalls.  The snack shop is more our style.

15. Bringing Eric and Greg with us to help us order our Subway sandwiches in Spanish.

16. Happy kids.

 

And that is why we are LOVING Puerto Rico.

The Time Has Come!

After years of discussion, months of planning, lots of shopping, a fair amount of stressing, and one leg of a long plane ride, we are just one leg left from our long awaited, much needed family vacation to PUERTO RICO.

We are all here. 19 people consisting of babies, kids, adults and Ben - just kidding! We are in Philadelphia on a 3 hour lay over. We have camped against the wall and are utilizing all of the outlets to charge ipods, laptops and phones. Even thought our bodies think it is 4:05 am, we just ate breakfast.

We are in clothes from yesterday, with yesterday hair and make-up as we left last night at 10:00 and I am still trying to figure out why I packed two diapers on the plane and sent the rest below, but we are happy to be together for some fun.

New Alphabet

“Mom, what is Men?”

“What is Men?”

“Yes, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, Men, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z”

I love that little kid.

That will take some planning

“Mom?”

“Yes, Owen.”

“Next Halloween, can I be a germ?”

“I suppose.”

“Ok, thanks mom.”

Lesson Noted

One Friday movie night a month or so ago we rented Hook.  Owen cried and cried telling me he hated movies like that, he hated Hook, he was not watching it.  I promised he would like it and even went so far as to tell him I would pay him $5.00 if he hated it. 

Of course, he LOVED it.  He has watched it a million times, we bought the movie, and he even decided the perfect Halloween costume would be Captain Hook. 

A month ago he found a black wig out of the package at Target.  It was the perfect Hook hair.  We bought a pirate hat and a hook and then a few weeks later we  bought a new hook, a shiny one this time.  He really needed it. 

I figured we had better get the costume going, after all, what good is Hook without the rest.  I saw pirate costume after pirate costume in all of the Halloween stores, but they were not right.  He knew exactly what he wanted.  I found a costume that would work at Target.com but it seemed like too much money for what we would get.  I figured I would get the best deal on eBay.  So, Owen and I searched and found the one we wanted.  There were no bids – obviously because the shipping was so much, but it seemed like the best one. 

I won the auction against myself and paid $32.50 for shipping and the costume.  I bought it on a Tuesday night.  I never heard from the seller and emailed a few frantic messages asking if it had been shipped.  On Thursday I received a response from the seller, “send today Thank you”.  Hmmm.  Ok, thanks? I emailed a few more frantic messages asking for the tracking number and never heard anything back, but I did get a package delivered on Saturday from a Spanish speaking name.  The costume had arrived.  I called Owen to let him know the costume was here and he let me know that he was dancing around cause he was so happy. 

I opened the box and it was terrible.  It had a smell that was unbearable to a dog nose such as myself, sort of funny smelling home meets incense meets flowers.  It was also a little scruffy, even a tad dirty.  Oh no, what was I going to do!  He couldn’t have THIS costume! I put it outside to rid of the smell but as I looked at it and continued to smell this odd smell, I knew something must be done.  I hopped online and went to Disneystore.com.  The funny smelling eBay costume came from there so I would just see what was available.  They were having a sale of the same costume… $28.00 rather than $40.00 plus $4.95 shipping plus tax.  Perfect!! In a state of panic, I hit buy and realized then I should have checked the delivery schedule.  Oh well, I had ordered all kinds of things lately for the trip, camera bag/purse (totally love by the way), swimsuits (love again) and they both came within just a few days.  It was Saturday, I had a week.  So, $39.15 later, I had a brand new, clean, happy smelling costume for my child.  I called him and told him the costume was exactly what we had anticipated and we would get a different one. 

On or about Monday, I received an email with my shipping information: Your package has been sent.  Scheduled delivery date: 11/1.  11/1!!!!!!  Oh dear, I knew what was next: Disneystore.com, search: Captain Hook, oh, bonus it is now $19.99, click expedited shipping for $19.95 plus tax, total $43.50 and submit. 

On or about Wednesday – what turned out to be the world’s most expensive costume arrived on my door step.   (I forgot to mention that we bought an additional Hook hat at the Disney Store on Sunday to add to the tab, therefore making the first hook and hat just extras – awesome.)

Whatever the cost, I do know one thing, it was totally worth it!

Dinner Menu

A bagel peanut butter sandwich, a grilled cheese, some chocolate covered raisins, and a few bites of potatoes for Owen. 

Some Butternut Squash soup, vegetables, chicken, and potatoes for Ivy. 

Sort of a  buffet or a restaurant.  That is how we do dinner around here. 

And then we spin and dance and play. 

  And then we relax. 

Oh how sad!

Sometimes the day starts and it goes so smoothly, other days it feels like I am afraid to take the next step to find out what surprise, good or bad, is waiting for me. 

Today was filled with ups and downs before it even began. 

The down: Ivy’s newly burned arm. 

Today was her turn.  Just like every morning, I was drying my hair while she played in the cupboard and in the bathroom.  I thought about it, but didn’t move the curling iron and before I knew it, she was tangled in the cord and then suddenly the curling iron was falling in slow motion and then it was resting on her arm.  She screamed and bent her arm, burning her bicep in addition to her forearm. 

I stuck her arm in the water under the water and according to Owen, he was watching a show and when he heard us scream, he ran..not walked…ran! into the bathroom to see what was going on.  It was bad.  The top layer of skin was burned off and the blisters had already started. 

Greg wondered if I should take her in, it is possible I should, but only to make sure she feels pain.  She cried for about 5 minutes and then she stopped, got down, and played.  As I was leaving for work, she even scratched the burn with her little nails, she scratched the part with missing skin!  I still can’t think about it.  It was awful. 

She doesn’t seemed phased by it tonight.  She points to it when I ask if she was hurt and occasionally hands me the burn spray we have, but otherwise, she doesn’t seem to mind.  I, on the other hand, do mind.  I feel awful.  If only I had moved the darn thing over.  Well, you live and learn and do it differently next time.  What is that quote… we did better when we knew better.  Well, now I know better. 

Sorry baby girl.