Fort Lauderdale

We spent last week in sunny Fort Lauderdale. When we got off the plane in Florida, Jill looked around and asked, "Grammie? Pa?" She already associates air travel with seeing her grandparents.

Our vacation was wonderful! We got a two bedroom apartment with a kitchen and living area. My mom came with us and she and Jill were roomies. The apartment was across a small street from the beach. Unlike our Stowe trip, Jill slept through the night every night. Thank God for that!

Every morning we got up and walked to a nearby breakfast restaurant. The restaurant reminded me of Becky and Yaka's old place, The Broken Yolk. There was a nice older man who greeted Jill everyday with a, "Hello, princess! Where do you want to sit, princess?" Jill hammed it up and was very charming for him.


After breakfast Bryan and I took Jill to the beach while Nana explored or read on the pier. The beach was gorgeous. There was a stiff sea breeze everyday that kept the heat from being overwhelming and the water was a Caribbean blue and about 75 degrees. Jill loved the beach. She chased birds, smashed the sandcastles I built, and stomped around at the edge of the water. She was very cautious of the ocean and usually wouldn't cross the sea weed line without holding one of our hands. At noon we'd bring Jill back to the apartment and give her a bath and lunch before her nap. Nana would hang out with her there while Bryan and I read and relaxed kid-free on the beach.



We did a few family dinners together but by the end of the week Jill wouldn't tolerate high chairs and restaurants anymore. On Thursday and Friday nights Nana fed Jill leftovers at the apartment and we had two date nights.

It was a great vacation. Six days was a perfect length, it left me wanting more instead of feeling like, "Get me out of here!" Jill was really well behaved on the plane ride home (not so for the trip out!). She ate half a bag of goldfish and watched Sponge Bob on JetBlue. Not the best parenting, but we had an easy ride and got to return home feeling like we hadn't been through a major battle there.

We got home just in time. Jill has developed a croupy cough with a low grade fever. She has been very cuddly and pathetic while she recovers. I tried to spoon feed her some lukewarm lemon tea yesterday afternoon to loosen things up. Jill tasted it and said, "Hot. No hot coffee," and pushed the spoon away. It's pretty funny that she thinks I would give her coffee. Hopefully she'll be full strength in a couple of days.

A couple of weeks ago, we nearly took Jill for a haircut but we chickened out thinking she might lose her curls. The humidity in Florida gave Jill awesome Diana Ross quality volume (or like Monica on Friends, remember that one?) We patted ourselves on the back saying, "Look at those curls! I can't believe we were going to cut her hair!" Now we're back and the curls are gone, leaving Jill a little shaggy again. So the debate goes on, can we make it to summer without cutting that hair?

Some funny things Jill is saying now... We've been trying to teach Jill to say please. She'll say, "More milky?" and we'll correct her, "More milk, please?" and she'll repeat, "Milky please!" Sometimes Bryan tries to prompt her by saying, "What do you say?" Her response, "Say!" Or Bryan will say, "How do you ask?" and Jill will yell back, "Ask!" So she's not totally getting the please thing yet, but she does say great heartfelt thank yous.