Vacation 2010, Part Five

Something pretty amazing happened a few days before Liam's second birthday.

Up until a couple weeks ago, I was still putting Liam to sleep at night with a bottle and a good fifteen minutes of cuddling in the nursery rocking chair. It was kind of our dirty little secret as most kids are supposed to be off the bottle and putting themselves to sleep by this age. I don't even have a good excuse except to admit that I've been lazy and that he's growing up so fast that I was in no hurry for the last of the 'baby stuff' to be over with.

One night, in the beginning of August, I sat myself down in the rocker with Liam on my lap and a bottle in my hand. I was completely stunned as he pushed my arm aside and began climbing into the crib on his own. He still wanted me to hang out while he fell asleep, but he had no interest in the bottle or the cuddling. I took this as a pretty obvious cue and we've been bottle free ever since. I can only hope potty training will be this easy.

We were pretty excited about this milestone being achieved before our vacation. We figured that Liam just might be big enough to share a room with his big brother, rather than bunk on an air mattress on the floor of our room, which was the original plan.

Here are Liam's digs for these two weeks:

We pushed his bed against the wall (unfortunately couldn't help the mirrored closet doors) and we attached the side bar that we had originally used on Will's bed at home. So this vacation is pretty much a crash course in the "big boy bed". In the beginning, there were some sleepless nights. It's taken about a week, and I think he's finally adjusted. Once we get home, there will be a toddler bed in place of his old crib.

This growing up stuff really does happen overnight.

Speaking of overnight, we've been barricading the front door to the condo.

The floor plan of the condo has the kids' room (with the two twin beds) in the front of the unit, right next to the front door. You can see the kids' room to the right of the front door in the above picture.

Normally, I'm the crazy one. The one that has fears that my kids are going to climb out the window or get strangled in the mini blinds or drown in the dishwasher. But even Bill was concerned that the kids might try and escape. Both of them have shown that they are capable of unlocking and opening the door. I should also mention that our door is right next to the elevator, which both of them can also operate. And did I mention the alligators that are practically living right next door? Right. So, we're barricading. End of story.

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The rain continued into the second day of vacation. We stayed low key and hung out here, which was just fine by the boys. They absolutely love this place.

Here are some of their favorite things.

First of all, Will has his very own 'workspace'. It's a great big desk facing out over the alligators and turtles. The top of the desk is a big lid that opens up and the desk itself houses all of his skateboards and Legos and Transformers and army guys.

I'm not sure exactly what is going on here, but it all looks very important...

Our refrigerator at home has a very tight seal. The one here does not. Therefore Liam can open this one. He opens it like five hundred times a day. Here he is, at six-thirty in the morning, helping me with breakfast.

So what's on the menu, Liam? Hot dogs and chocolate sauce? I'm pretty laid back when it comes to nutrition, but even this is a little too extreme for me.

Liam is also enjoying the fact that most of the cabinets are empty, giving him plenty of space to hide.

I know. It's a bathroom and it took me almost a solid week to get over the gross factor. But it's clean and this morning he took some books in there and he was busy for almost fifteen minutes. Typical guy.

They're loving the glass dining room table, which incidentally is IMPOSSIBLE to keep clean. I highly recommend not buying one for your home.

If you're wondering what's on Bill's plate, it's called a "Low Country Boil". That's shrimp, sausage, potatoes, hush puppies and corn on the cob. All thrown together. Not my thing, but he loved it. The resort was cooking them downstairs by the pool. Here's what it looked like when he brought it up.

He loved it. Call me crazy, but that's just not appetizing to me. And the smells? Oy.

I almost had a panic attack when I discovered that the cable company here doesn't carry Nick Jr. They have regular Nickelodeon and all the Disney channels, though. Will discovered "Phineas and Ferb" this week. I'm not sure if this is or is not a good thing. He does look comfy though. I think he prefers this single couch to the monster sectional we have at home. Something about not having to share with all of us...

And lastly, I give you... the shower stall.

Apparently, big, important and hilarious things happen in the shower stall. I lifted my camera overhead and snapped this pic...

I'm not sure what's going on. I'm also not sure what's all over Liam's shirt.

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We did venture out to the pool while it was drizzling. This is what the pool looks like when it's raining. We pretty much had the place to ourselves.

And here are some other pool snaps:

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Later on, it did clear enough for us to make our nightly pilgrimage for ice cream.

We also stopped at the beach, which was crowded with vacationers who had the same idea that we did-- trying to make the most of a mostly rainy day. It was pretty much a bust.

We arrived to the sights and sounds of kids crying and running out of the water. Jellyfish. Nothing says "dive right in", like the screams and tears of little children as they come limping out of the water. I only wish I had a shot of my kids' faces. Total looks of horror.

Here I am trying to convince Liam to at least get his feet wet. Not much luck.

Thankfully, we've been to the beach a couple times since and the jellyfish have mostly stayed away. I wish I could say the same for the rain.