And the Beach.......

We did spend a lot of time at our cool rental house with the nice little pool outside, but we ALSO got to the local beach a few times - and what a beach it was!!!! Lovely soft sand, the ocassional palm tree for shade (!), and water that seemed to be just the right temperature and oh, so inviting.

Maddie and Ollie and I spent loads of time splashing around; I honestly didn't want to come out of the water. Maddie was extra sassy in her new Hello Kitty bathing suit. I may prefer Maine, even with its freezing cold ocean, but ohhhh it's lovely to visit the Keys!!

The Big Day!

You would think, from all this fun, that we'd come to Florida just to relax, but NO! Thank you, Aidan, for having a Bar Mitzvah! He had clearly worked so hard in preparation for it (along with his mom, Jessica, of course!!) - but I got the feeling that Aidan had really come to enjoy the process of learning the Torah and all that went with it.

The entire ceremony went without a hitch... except that Maddie and Ollie were unusually fussy and fidgety and I finally had to leave the ceremony with them and miss a big chunk of it.  Grrrr!!  Aidan was fantastic throughout, and we were all soooo glad to be a part of it!!  The reception afterwards was lovely.  Kind of bummed you can't have a Bar Mitzvah every year, Aidan!!

More Fun in Florida

We all have so many great memories from this trip to Florida! We had a resident iquana that was spotted right on the riverside behind our house several times, and we were all quite entranced with him! And of course, we can't forget our trip to the dolphin center - oh, that was a hot day! I remember Ollie moaning about the heat, rather than just enjoying the dolphins, one of his favorite animals!

There were lots of leisurely mornings (lots of time for piling

on top of Grandma!), a fantastic bagel brunch featuring dad's home-smoked salmon all the way from Maine, a few strolls around town (when we could take the heat), lots of chats with Marianne and Arthur, a quick trip to Key West, and plenty of neat restaurants. Oh, and of course we all enjoyed bits of fresh coconut straight from the shell, and the lovely juice from inside... Ollie drank it from a wine glass!

Sunny Fun

When Ollie woke up in the morning, he literally couldn't wait to get into the pool... so at 8:30 in the morning, in he jumped! It was warm outside,

maybe 75 degrees, but shady and breezy, and the pool isn't heated, so it was pretty invigorating! Maddie of course wanted to go in as well, and she just laughed and laughed; she loves standing at the edge and holding someone's hand and jumping in. I found a great lifejacket for her, which I'm so grateful for since it really keeps her UP! We all enjoyed the pool every single day; I love this shot of Uncle Ian launching Ollie into the water! Later in the morning we took a big trip to the nearby grocery store and got

loads of supplies for the week, including oranges, pineapple, fresh coconuts, melon, apples, pomegranate, and some "Marathon Bread" that has plantains and raisins in it! We went out to lunch with Aidan and Jess to a fantastic place on the water called Burdine's, which has crazy-yummy french fries! After that it was back home for an afternoon of fun in the pool, scrabble, and a yummy bbq chicken dinner. Maddie caught up a bit on her sleep and had a 2.5 hour nap!

Florida Bound!

Such a big day! Andy had to leave for Argentina yesterday night (boo), and this morning I set the alarm for 5am to wake up the kids and get to the airport for our big flight to Florida!! Our good friend Ken was our hired chauffeur :-), and he got to the house right on time at 5:30. Both kids were in great spirits, and we had such a nice drive to JFK - no delays to speak of, and great conversation with Ken!

We arrived around 7:20, and within a few minutes we got a call from Mom and Dad, Ian and Eli, whose flight had just arrived from Portland. Before we knew it, we were all having a jolly breakfast in a little aiport cafe. The flight was quicker than expected, but we had a few delays after that....

first our booster seat wasn't with the rest of our luggage, but they gave us a loaner and we'll get ours back on our return; then we had to wait for AGES for our rental car to turn up... but finally it did and we were on our way to Marathon! It was already about 2pm, so we were hungry for lunch; after we were about 20 minutes from the airport, we started looking for a place to stop. We pulled off for a Burger King sign, but then veered off towards a promising looking strip and happened upon a fantastic little Cuban bistro called 3 Vs Cafe.

What a great lunch! Jorge, the owner, was so friendly and nice, and he brought us samples of the soup of the day ("Dirty Potato") and was so attentive. We got a free Cuban coffee on our way out, as well! On the way to Marathon we stopped in Key Largo at the Jewish Community Center where Aidan was preparing for the bar mitzvah with his mom, Jessica... it was so lucky we

stopped, because Ian, Mom and Dad will all be participating in the service, and they needed practice! It was wonderful to see Aidan and Jessica, and Ollie was overjoyed! After that we finally got to our house in Marathon, got the bags into the house, and headed to Aidan's house for an impromptu barbecue that Jess and her husband, Roger, had arranged for us... everything tasted so good! Both kids had various minor meltdowns as the evening progressed, but that's to be expected when you're soooo overtired and overexcited! What a fun first day!

Big Progress!!

So after months of (me) talking about using the toidy, Maddie has finally decided that she's ready!! Just like her big brother did right before he turned 3, she went from nothing to everything in the blink of an eye. Maddie has been peeing like a pro for several days now, and has even had a dry pull-up for 3 mornings in a row upon waking up - that's been the biggest surprise! She isn't quite ready yet to have a poo on the toilet, but I'm sure that will be any day now. We are so, so proud of our big girl!! Ollie is her biggest fan, very encouraging and full of praise. Your sticker chart is filling up fast, Maddie Boo!