Sunday, December 2nd, was amazing! I
need to be in Miami Beach for a business appointment, so we decide to turn it
into a family adventure. It is a great beach day. Not too hot or sunny. I pack
up a picnic lunch with things I know she is comfortable eating. Pasta salad,
strawberries and more.
After letting her sleep in, we wake her up and she is in a bad mood. She does not want to go anywhere. Yesterday she was excited about our beach plans, but today she is a grump. One of her tween-age moods that we are all too familiar with. That's okay, we can deal with it. We have learned how to ignore her. I hear her getting extra freezer packs to put into the cooler because she is afraid the food will spoil. I tell her we don't need them, but I just let her do it.
We get into the car, and it takes a while for her to get out of her bad mood. We get to Miami Beach and we are giving our son lots of love and attention since he is happy as usual. We head to a little Italian cafe. She is grumpily following us and we are ignoring her. She does not want anything at the cafe so we tell our son he can have whatever he wants. He gets a croissant and some juice. Just as we are about to pay, she decides on a croissant as well. A little smile breaks out inside of me as her desire for some good attention might be coming.
We sit down and she is noticing a woman coughing a lot next to us. She obviously has a cold and looks pretty miserable. She doesn't mention anything about it. She is just looking. When we leave she is much happier than before. She says how she has noticed there are so many people with colds lately. I am thinking how wonderful it is that she did not need to leave the cafe when the woman coughed, nor did she ask to wash her hands. But, she is able to have a normal conversation about it. Wow, I am still not used to this yet and I am shocked each time I witness these improvements. We get to my appointment. I need to get my cleaning woman in to clean an apartment for the owner. Then we need to kill 4 hours while she is there cleaning.
After letting her sleep in, we wake her up and she is in a bad mood. She does not want to go anywhere. Yesterday she was excited about our beach plans, but today she is a grump. One of her tween-age moods that we are all too familiar with. That's okay, we can deal with it. We have learned how to ignore her. I hear her getting extra freezer packs to put into the cooler because she is afraid the food will spoil. I tell her we don't need them, but I just let her do it.
We get into the car, and it takes a while for her to get out of her bad mood. We get to Miami Beach and we are giving our son lots of love and attention since he is happy as usual. We head to a little Italian cafe. She is grumpily following us and we are ignoring her. She does not want anything at the cafe so we tell our son he can have whatever he wants. He gets a croissant and some juice. Just as we are about to pay, she decides on a croissant as well. A little smile breaks out inside of me as her desire for some good attention might be coming.
We sit down and she is noticing a woman coughing a lot next to us. She obviously has a cold and looks pretty miserable. She doesn't mention anything about it. She is just looking. When we leave she is much happier than before. She says how she has noticed there are so many people with colds lately. I am thinking how wonderful it is that she did not need to leave the cafe when the woman coughed, nor did she ask to wash her hands. But, she is able to have a normal conversation about it. Wow, I am still not used to this yet and I am shocked each time I witness these improvements. We get to my appointment. I need to get my cleaning woman in to clean an apartment for the owner. Then we need to kill 4 hours while she is there cleaning.
We head to the
beach. It starts to get dark and rainy. The kids are excited to get wet. We
grab our umbrellas and the cooler. It looks like a quick passing rain. We set
ourselves up on the beach and our daughter has this wonderful sense of freedom.
She is running with her arms out and playing chase with her brother. She
remembers how she is supposed to practice her task from Dr. G of spinning and
getting dizzy. She spins in the sand until she falls down. She keeps it up and
her brother joins in too. I am thinking of how I dream of getting this girl to
an amusement park someday. We have been before and she refuses to go on any
rides for fear of throwing up.
I have often called her my little old lady for years because she is sooo not daring. She always gets too hot at the beach, doesn't like to get sandy, won’t go on rides at amusement parks, and needs to be home in time for bed, and the list goes on. Even as a baby. She didn't even walk until she was 15 months old! Too scary maybe. I had this little child that was speaking full sentences at 9 months old, yet who was too afraid to even climb the stairs or be more than 3 feet from me. And now, she is spinning at the beach, falling in the sand, and getting dirty. I am amazed yet again! We eat our pasta, without washing hands, have some more fun and then head out to check on the condo cleaning situation.
I have often called her my little old lady for years because she is sooo not daring. She always gets too hot at the beach, doesn't like to get sandy, won’t go on rides at amusement parks, and needs to be home in time for bed, and the list goes on. Even as a baby. She didn't even walk until she was 15 months old! Too scary maybe. I had this little child that was speaking full sentences at 9 months old, yet who was too afraid to even climb the stairs or be more than 3 feet from me. And now, she is spinning at the beach, falling in the sand, and getting dirty. I am amazed yet again! We eat our pasta, without washing hands, have some more fun and then head out to check on the condo cleaning situation.
We all get a smoothie on the way
back to the car. I am impressed that she still has not been to the bathroom to
wash her hands. The cleaning woman says she needs a couple more hours. We think
of what to do now. Our son is sleepy and we are done hanging around in Miami
Beach. We decide to go visit our friend's restaurant about 20 minutes away. We
get there and leave our son sleeping in the shady car, with the windows down.
We sit at an outdoor table right next to the car so we can see him. I go with
her to the bathroom so she can finally wash her hands.
We have our favorite dish of octopus and potatoes over arugula. Okay, that is the one thing she has always been pretty daring with. Food. Not for a while, but she was. She loves good Italian food and this is a classic Italian dish. Those of you that know us well remember that she always wanted to be a chef someday. She does a culinary camp at The Biltmore Hotel in the summers and she won 2nd place in a Giada DeLaurentiis, adult cooking/photo contest last year. Her photo of her spaghetti with clams is on Giada's website with her name! There was a time where she was cooking for us, making a mess and loving it. Now she only sets foot in the kitchen to check the expiration dates and to make sure everything is clean. Hopefully she will be back in the kitchen to cook again soon.
We have our favorite dish of octopus and potatoes over arugula. Okay, that is the one thing she has always been pretty daring with. Food. Not for a while, but she was. She loves good Italian food and this is a classic Italian dish. Those of you that know us well remember that she always wanted to be a chef someday. She does a culinary camp at The Biltmore Hotel in the summers and she won 2nd place in a Giada DeLaurentiis, adult cooking/photo contest last year. Her photo of her spaghetti with clams is on Giada's website with her name! There was a time where she was cooking for us, making a mess and loving it. Now she only sets foot in the kitchen to check the expiration dates and to make sure everything is clean. Hopefully she will be back in the kitchen to cook again soon.
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After we eat, we
drive back to Miami Beach to finish up the condo business. On the way home, we
make a quick stop because my husband needs to drop off some keys to a client.
She gets out of the car to go with him while my son and I wait. I see her
quickly get back into the car. She says she changed her mind and wants to stay
in the car. She is looking out her window and asks me "what is
that?"
She is always asking me about stuff she sees on the sidewalks thinking everything is vomit. I say I don't know - without really looking and sounding annoyed. Then I look and I say "wow, that is vomit!" Now I realize why she ran back into the car. What a way to get in some real exposure therapy! I can't even believe it. She can't either. She actually thinks Dr. G may be following us around and could have set it up! She studies it from the window. Probably doing the things she has learned like noticing the color and the texture. She is okay with it and we are actually laughing. What an amazing way to end a wonderful weekend! My girl is back!!
She is always asking me about stuff she sees on the sidewalks thinking everything is vomit. I say I don't know - without really looking and sounding annoyed. Then I look and I say "wow, that is vomit!" Now I realize why she ran back into the car. What a way to get in some real exposure therapy! I can't even believe it. She can't either. She actually thinks Dr. G may be following us around and could have set it up! She studies it from the window. Probably doing the things she has learned like noticing the color and the texture. She is okay with it and we are actually laughing. What an amazing way to end a wonderful weekend! My girl is back!!
