Redington Beach

I had originally thought that Duncan would take the girls up to Nova Scotia and Brady would stay here with me but then that just didn't seem like it would work because I knew in the end Duncan would feel terrible (as would I) for leaving him behind now that he is a real person and all.  My mother's status was up in the air as to whether she would be able to go herself because of the state coming into her nursing home for their annual assessment of things (they came a few weeks ago so at least that part worked out).  I knew Duncan taking three kids up by himself with my mother possibly not being there would be a very stressful experience for him.  So we made the decision for the whole family to miss this year.  That was really hard too because I had at least taken comfort in the fact that the girls wouldn't miss it.  They were obviously disappointed when we broke the news, particularly Calleigh, but we at least had a replacement getaway in place, Redington Beach, with the Isidros.  And they were excited about that!

I didn't want to travel too far, clearly, in my advanced state of pregnancy (36 weeks) so we settled on a condo at the aforementioned Redington Beach which is right near St. Petersburg and very close to Indian Rocks Beach where we have stayed in a condo before, ironically at 36 weeks pregnant with Brady.  We wanted something right on the beach so we settled for a 1,200 square, 3-bedroom unit.  It wasn't fancy but I thought the location worked out perfectly.  We had the beach and pool right outside our first floor balcony. 

We arrived late Saturday afternoon and the Isidros has already arrived a little before us.  I told them to take the master bedroom to have the extra room because I was thinking that Braelyn, Calleigh, and Aubree would take the third bedroom and then it would just be us and Brady in the other one.  The girls were all excited about the "sleepover" with Braelyn.  The third room ended up having just one double bed in it and the floors were tile so I was a little puzzled how it was going to work out with the three of them in the room.  Our room, on the other hand, had two double beds.  It didn't take much persuasion for Aubree to decide she would stay with us and have her bed to herself.  She quickly set up camp with her stuffed animals, toys, etc and was very pleased with it all.  As it turned out, she did not sleep by herself.  I don't know what exactly happened but around 10 pm, Calleigh came running into our room and said she wanted to sleep with us instead.  I think it may have been because Braelyn had already fallen asleep (Calleigh had napped in the van on the way to the condo) and she had not.  Regardless, the dreams of a sleepover ended up being a distant memory as both girls slept with their parents all four nights.  Go figure!  Maybe next time.

Speaking of beds, as I sat down on both double beds in our room, I quickly determined that they felt like the equivalent of a rock.  Not exactly what a pregnant lady likes to be lying on.  Meanwhile, the bed in the "girls" room was as soft as could be.  Thankfully Duncan switched the two mattresses out and I was able to lie on something comfortable for the duration.  Despite that, I must say that I have started to have trouble sleeping.  I'm a back sleeper and that has gotten too uncomfortable, at last, and so I have to keep switching sides.  I guess it's the lessor of the two discomforts.  But hey, not too much longer to go!

Sunday we decided would be a beach/pool day to kick things off.  Right away we encountered some challenges as Calleigh would not go in the water and of course, neither would Aubree.  I'm sure partly from that darn shark book but also because Allen and Tangie had run into a lady coming off the beach who had stepped on a stingray in the water...the second person that happened to that day.  I think Calleigh had overhead this story being told and got worried (the way to avoid this is to make sure you shuffle your feet in the water and that scares them off).  After a bit of work, Calleigh finally went in as long as Duncan was carrying her.  Eventually the fear went away and she was fine.  Aubree, not so much.  Pretty much the whole time we were at the condo, the only thing she wanted to do was go to the pool.  She and I spent more time at the pool, by far, compared to anyone else.  Every time they went to the beach, we went to the pool. 

I was happy about the pool situation because I know a lot of it had to do with her being excited about swimming.  I was thrilled with how things went on this front.  My hope was that with a little practice she would flourish and she did.  She can now swim completely from one side of the pool to the other, jump in without assistance, and swim under water.  She is just so proud of herself for it all and would keep saying things like "I want to show Tangie..." or "Calleigh, look how I can..." Sometimes we wouldn't come out of that pool for an hour or two and she would still want to be in there longer, just the two of us practicing.  I had a good time with her.  

Monday morning we took a break from the beach/pool to go to the Florida Aquarium in Tampa.  There was a Groupon a few weeks ago that I had snatched up knowing we would be in the area.  So glad I did!  The girls are very much into sea life right now due to our reading of the Whale/Dolphins and Shark book.  The evening before the aquarium, I quickly read the highlights out of the Fish book so that they would have even more stuff to recognize.  We were not disappointed.  It was a really great time and the girls and even Brady were very engaged with all of the creatures.  The neat thing was that it was, oddly enough, Shark Week, so there was a big focus on that.  When we got there, they gave the kids a map that had outlines of sharks and shark relatives on it.  As you walked around, you had to find the names of those creatures and write it down on the map.  At one tank, there were three different kinds of sharks in a tank swimming around and Duncan and I couldn't figure one of them out and we couldn't find the sign.  Calleigh finally saw it and said "Oh, that's a nurse shark." Sure enough, Duncan googled it and she was right!  It took us a few hours to see everything and then we ate lunch in a restaurant there.  I can honestly say I have now eaten the worst grilled cheese of my life.  Yikes.  At any rate, after lunch, the kids all played in the big splash playground area that they have just outside....an added bonus to the aquarium (part of admission) that we had discovered the day before.  

Tuesday we had another beach/pool day.  I must say we had great weather the whole time as it didn't rain a single bit the entire time.  That evening I was on cooking duty as Allen and Tangie had done Indian food the night before.  I came in from the beach earlier than the rest, along with Brady, to prepare the meal.  Of course, that left him to just wander around the condo looking for mischief which he found in the form of Braelyn's iPod which was charging on the end table.  He called it Braelyn's phone and he picked it up to start talking on it.  I told him "no" and put it up on a higher level and told him that he couldn't use it without asking Braelyn first.  At that, he ran to the sliding glass door, which was closed, and yelled "BRAELYN, can I use your phone??" It was so funny.  Of course, I had to tell him that she couldn't hear him and he would have to just wait.   

After the kids were all in the bed, I made Duncan, Allen, and Tangie play Dutch Blitz and Aw Shucks with me so I could at least make up for a little of the game playing I was missing in Nova Scotia.  They were good sports and humored me.  Good manners prevents me from saying who won.  We also played Password which we found at the condo.  We brought out some chocolate chip cookies at about midnight.  Nothing like eating cookies and playing games.  It was a lot of fun.

Wednesday morning we drove into St. Pete to go to the Great Explorations Children's Museum.  Allen had discovered that our Science Center pass would allow us to get in for free so we didn't want to pass up the opportunity.  In fact, I had been so busy last week, that I almost thought I wasn't going to have time to make it to the Science Center to renew our pass but I didn't want to miss the chance so I squeezed it in on Thursday (the kids were so disappointed that we only went for the pass and not to stay).  When we got to the ticket desk at the Children's Museum, the lady looked at the pass and says "Yeah, we don't accept these any more.  The Science Center decided not to accept our members so now we aren't accepting theirs....but we'll let you in this time." That was a relief.  Go figure.  Allen had just verified it the week before too.  It's not a big place...you certainly wouldn't spend a whole day there but the few hours we were there were just right.    

Although we had the condo through Thursday morning, we decided to head back early Wednesday evening since Duncan needed to get to work and I needed to get to my doctor's appointment. Calleigh was NOT happy that Braelyn was staying longer than she was but thankfully we were able to get away without any kicking or screaming.  We left at 6:45 and Aubree fell asleep at about 6:55, slept the whole way home, walked up to her bed when we got home at 8:45 and fell right back asleep.  All that swimming will do that to a person I guess!  But seriously, the kids had a great time and so did we.  We all joked as to whether we would still be friends after living in such close quarters with six kids for five days but really, it went very smoothly and everyone got along great.  We would definitely do it again!

We did have one little snafu while we were at the condo.  Duncan has a Nike Fuel Band that he wears around his wrist that tracks his exercise, etc (similar to a Fit Bit).  On Tuesday afternoon he asked me if I knew where the plastic Publix bag was that I had used the previous afternoon when we were at the beach/pool for the kids' snacks and my phone.  I told him I had emptied that bag out as soon as we got back and probably threw the bag away.  Unbeknownst to me, he had put his Fuel Band in there and I had not noticed it when I emptied out the contents.  Unfortunately, since so much time had passed, we realized that the garbage that the bag would have been in had already been put down the garbage shoot that morning. It was almost 5 pm so I told Duncan to quick hurry down and see if someone was still in the office and see if they would let him in to where the trash all lands.  But be careful!  I had just read a story about a dude who got crushed in a trash compactor while looking through the garbage for his lost cell phone.  Duncan came back about 10 minutes later with a garbage bag that we knew to be ours (we could see the packages of Indian food on the top) although the lady almost didn't let him in to get it.  He went through it and...no luck. Devastating.  Those things are kind of pricey.  Fast forward to yesterday and as I'm putting laundry into the washing machine what should fall to the floor but his Fuel Band.  Apparently it had been wrapped up in an orange shirt while in the Publix bag and stayed stuck in there when I had emptied the bag.  Of course, the funny part is that Duncan said the band worked perfectly this morning and then mysteriously died during the day.  Fortunately it's still under a one year warranty and Duncan found the receipt from the purchase.  So this story may have a happy ending yet!

Thursday morning it was off to the doc with the kids in tow.  I must say that Dr. Dukes (who helped deliver Brady) is probably my favorite out of the bunch that I see.  He's very engaging with the kids and had Calleigh help him work the gadget to listen to the baby's heartbeat.  She was just pleased as punch for getting to help. Everything is looking good...nothing happening as far as dilation or anything which is nice to hear.  I barely gained a pound in a week in a half so that was especially good to see.

This morning we were off to our yard sales...a slower week at last.  We actually stayed right in our own backyard for once which rarely happens.  I still found a few good deals and had a lucrative stop at CVS as well.