Thursday, March 17, 2005


C riding Tye Posted by Hello

Florida

We had a great trip to Florida, visiting a high school friend and her husband in Punta Gorda. Their 12-acre lot, which also houses two horses, six goats, three dogs, two cats, and assorted ducks, peacocks, rabbits, fish and reptiles, still shows some evidence of August’s hurricane damage but is in much better shape than some of their neighbors’- as we drove around, we saw many homes still roofed in blue tarps, piles of debris that used to be houses along the side of the road, and condemned buildings with names of delinquent insurance companies spray-painted on the sides.

Escaping the cold and snow was good for all of us. Alyra liked being outside without being bundled up in 10 layers, and was especially fond of watching the fish and peacocks. Cadao wore himself out so much that he sometimes fell asleep in the afternoon, even though it’s been almost 2 years since he stopped taking naps. Dan and I both appreciated being able to wear shorts and t-shirts, and since our excellent hosts cooked and cleaned and drove us around and entertained Cadao, we had a wonderful vacation.

It was interesting to see Cadao interacting with other adults without other kids around. It helped him push his own boundaries a little bit. When we went to the county fair, he said he wanted to go on the roller coaster; I think he thought we’d say no. But when Mala was popping him next to her in the car two minutes later, at which point he most likely would have changed his mind and hopped out if Dan or I were taking him on, he stuck it out. He also mustered the courage to ride her horse and tractor, despite obvious misgivings. Having new people around eased his usual shyness, so that when Mala’s parents and four of their friends came over, by the end of the evening he was comfortable enough to plop himself down on the couch amidst them to watch TV. (An Eric Clapton video. I asked him if he thought he’d be able to play the guitar that well someday. He said he already could, of course.)

Coming home was hard not only because our vacation was over, but because our plane into Albany had a problem with the landing gear. It ended up resolving itself before we landed, but we circled the airport for half an hour or so while we tried to take deep breaths and figure out how best to protect our kids in case of a landing problem. Then we finally gather our luggage and get home to find that our furnace has gone out and the inside temperature was 35. (I shudder to think what we would have come home to if we’d been away another night- not only burst water pipes, but potentially burst radiator pipes as well.) We sent Cadao to sleep at Nana’s and snuggled in bed with Alyra to keep from freezing while the house warmed up. (It took about 8 hours, which was actually better than I’d expected!) So we’re spending this weekend trying to get ourselves back into our regular routine-