We had an amazing Easter family vacation last weekend, but I was so wiped out from the drive I didn’t get a chance to write a blog post. I felt a little bad taking the kids out of school for two days the week after spring break, but when your dad only gets a limited amount of time off a year, you have to make the memories and make it work. Unfortunately, when we got back Harvey picked up a cold that has made him have feverish croupy nights. So I’ve had three weeks with the kids around me and to be honest, I could use a break ;). But I love them dearly. Today we celebrate Harvey’s birthday! He’s still feeling crummy so we aren’t doing much but he got spoiled by his grandparents and loved his toy vacuum from mom and dad so I don’t think he’ll mind too much. He’s just now getting his appetite back so hopefully he’ll enjoy his birthday dinner tonight!
I’ve talked a lot about Harvey lately because he is a bit all consuming of my attention and energy, but today I want to celebrate his good qualities. When I picked him up from preschool over a week ago he was sent home with a ”glow” note. All year he’s been getting ”grow” notes because he’s had an issue with boundaries (he likes them, other kids his age don’t and he pushes them out of his personal bubble). He finally seems to have learned the importance of not pushing to express his needs. He was also beginning to sleep through the night pre-vacation… so I’m hoping once he’s well again we’ll get back to that! He loves running around in only his diaper if I let him and will probably be potty training before too long because I always catch him sitting on the toilet (with his diaper on). He loves cuddling and wrestling, sometimes at the same time. He adores his dada, but can’t seem to survive long without his mama. He has a favorite blue train and a favorite noisy green dinosaur. He loves his ”baba” aka bottles of milk and loves to drink them while being as close as possible to his mom. He is adored by his teachers and friends even with his impulses. I think it’s his doe-like brown eyes and curly hair that make him get away with anything. Let’s just say, I think I’ll have my hands full when he’s a teenager.
So since most of this week was as bust (I only left the house for grocery pickup and a doctor’s appointment), I’ll go back to our vacation, which was AMAZING. I miss it already. I was worried beforehand that the resort wouldn’t be as good as the reviews said, or that the drive would be too long and make the only three day trip go by too fast (which that was true, but it was still worth the drive). The drive down was gorgeous- green pastures, loads of trees, and the deeper we got in the south the more we’d see hanging moss. There were old buildings and quaint towns with giant murals on the town center walls and silos. If I didn’t have a toddler who hated being in the car, I would’ve been tempted to make more stops to explore these cute little places. Since we got there kind of late Wednesday night, we just chatted with mom and dad and went to bed.
Thursday we spent the first bit of the morning at the beach then headed to their pools. The boys loved the pool, but Bev and I were all about the beach. Even Harvey was a big fan of floating around in the water and collecting salt water for the sand castles the boys were building on the beach. Maverick’s favorite moment in the beach was probably riding boogie boards with papa (he caught a ton of waves!) and swimming past the break with grandma. He even told her ”Thanks for playing in the ocean with me.” It was so sweet. It was wonderful to have mom and dad there. My kids had been asking for a couple of months when they’d get to see my parents so when my dad asked if he could jump on our vacation it seemed like a good opportunity. Grandma even stayed back during nap time to let Harvey nap while the older kids saw Sonic 2 with Papa, Andy and I. We had fresh seafood everyday thanks to Papa. Nothing better than shrimp straight from the ocean. We had a great time playing board games with Papa and Grandma in the evening. We played banana-grams and I was surprised that we kept stumping grandma. She is the expert of word games after all. We moved on to Phase 10 which my parents hadn’t played in a long while, but it was ok, because we had to teach Max how to play too. He’s been begging to play ever since then… but it’s not as much fun with just three players. Friday morning my dad got us tickets to a catamaran to see dolphins and swim at Seashell Island. We saw a lot of dolphins and some stingray! The beach was relaxing and fun and there were so many seashells to collect. We had a delicious lunch at a nearby pub that has a special on Fridays for fresh seared Ahi tuna. It was delicious! Dad went with his favorite— the grouper and Andy got one of their burgers that was called ”to hell and back.” The trip went by way to fast and I can’t wait to plan another time to go, but maybe I’ll wait till Harvey is a better sleeper ;).
