Florida Vacation - January 2014

We just returned from a fantastic vacation in Florida.  As always, it was wonderful to visit my parents and my sister and her family.  The weather wasn't superbly warm - it was in the high 60s and lower 70s for most of the time.  But at least it didn't rain and we were able to make it to the beach at the end of the trip.  And my parents' community pool is heated and so even when it was 68 outside, we went to the pool.  It was nice and warm (84 degrees) in the pool - just freezing to get out.  The kids adored the pool.  Ian would have stayed in for hours if we left it up to him and the only reason Sammy got out was because she got cold.  Here are the best pics from the trip:

COUSINS

Ian and Sammy had a blast with their older cousins.  Ian seemed excited to sleep over at my sister's house but at the last minute, when he realized that he wouldn't be with his mom and dad and his grandparents for the night, he changed his mind.  I love my sensitive boy!

 FLAMINGO GARDENS

Since the weather was a bit too cold for the pool when we first got to Florida, we went to this place near my sister's house called Flamingo Gardens.  It was a bit like a zoo in that they had some animals in cages. But the big attraction was that the birds just wandered around and you could feed some of them. The peacocks were gorgeous!

 FUN AT HOOPIE AND MEEMA'S HOUSE

The kids had a great time at my parents' house.  They played with their LeadPads and watched cartoons.  We went for a bike ride almost every day.  One day, Sammy and Ian both rode about 1.5 miles to the pool, which really impressed me (especially my little Sammy!) My mom got a ton of books out of the library and read to them quite a bit.  She also had great stickers for them.  

WAKODAHATCHEE WETLANDS

We visited Wakodahatchee Wetlands, which is pretty close to where my parents live.  We go there every time we visit.  It's a really nice boardwalk through the wetlands where you can see tons of birds and turtles and the occasional alligator.  This time around, we saw a huge alligator and we also saw 4 big iguanas sitting in a tree - pretty neat!  The kids mostly liked running ahead on the boardwalk and my husband was lucky enough to capture some pictures of them holding hands!  Sometimes, they can bee so sweet with each other.

THE POOL

We didn't take any pictures of the kids in the pool (although I will post some videos in a separate post).  But there is a little man-made beach by my parents' community pool and the kids had fun playing there.  This first picture is freezing-cold Sammy warming up with Hoopie after some fun pool time.

 THE BEACH!

By the end of our trip, the weather had warmed up nicely.  The day before we left, it was probably 78 degrees (although it felt much warmer in the sun).  We decided to go to the beach in the morning and I'm so glad we did.  It was absolutely beautiful out.  I though the ocean would be too cold to go in, but Ian basically threw himself in and started body surfing on the waves.  I was really impressed with him - no fear!  His only complaint was that the ocean didn't taste very good.  Sammy was a bit more fearful of the waves but she was very happy to jump around in them while holding onto a grownup.

 TRAVEL DAY

And then, sadly, it was time to go home.  I was very proud of my kids on the travel days.  Both behaved very nicely.  They either played with their LeapPads or watched the TV which is so conveniently offered by JetBlue.  I LOVE JetBlue for traveling with the kids!  We're guessing that the tube in Sammy's right ear has fallen out since she had some pain during the descent (which was easily solved with a lollipop).  I guess we'll find out when she has her 3-year checkup.

No More Binkie

I am thrilled to report that we are officially a binkie-free family.

When Ian was 1, we had to take the binkie away from him because it was actually disrupting his night time sleep.  He would wake up, need it, not be able to find it and commence a screaming fest.  So bye bye binkie at 1 year.

Sammy didn't have that same issue.  She used the binkie to take naps and to go to bed at night, but once she was asleep, she wasn't bothered if she woke and didn't have the binkie.  So we weren't in any rush to take it away from her because it was so soothing for her.  But she is getting older and I was starting to have visions of a 6 year old girl still attached to her binkie.  So I promised myself that I would take away the binkie when she turned 3 in April.

But at school this week, Sammy transitioned from the Twos room to the Preschool room.  And the new teacher didn't know that she slept with a binkie.  And she got her to sleep (with some fussing and crying) without the binkie.  When I picked her up that night and the teacher told me, I knew it was my chance.  So we took the binkie away for Sammy's night time sleep too.  I told Sammy that there were too many babies in the world and not enough binkies and because she was a big girl, she didn't need the binkies anymore and we had to send her binkies to the needy babies.  She didn't buy my story and cried.  But we stuck to our guns.

So the first night, it took her 17 minutes to get to sleep with constant crying during that time.  She also woke 2x in the middle of the night crying.  The second night, it took her 20 minutes to get to sleep, but she wasn't crying constantly.  She would be quiet for many minutes and then call out for me.  So I soothed her but told her it was bedtime.  And she fell asleep and slept through the night.  And then the third night, she called out for me once and was done and slept through the night.

It really is amazing how adaptable children are.  Sammy has been using a binkie for 2 years and 8 months.  And in 3 days, she broke the habit.  I'm so happy it wasn't worse than that.  My heart broke a little bit on that first day when she was crying for it.  But I'm so proud of her and more importantly, she's really proud of herself because after all, big girls don't need binkies.

8 Nights of Celebration

Happy Hanukkah!  We lit the candles for every single night and ended up giving the kids a total of 16 presents.  They loved all of it.  My favorite part?  Eating latkes with cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving!  It was Thanksgivika!

In the picture below, Sammy is posing in the "new" hat we found in the closet (which was made by Nana last year) with the big wooden dreidel.