Naples in May

Right after Jude was born, my doctor visited us in our hospital room and we asked her for any parenting advice she'd like to share with us.  "Between the ages of one and three, it's much harder to travel with your kids.  Try to do your travelling before or after that age range."  As we were getting ready to take this trip to Naples last week, I remembered these words of wisdom as I suddenly realized that we were attempting a long airplane trip with not one but TWO of these monsters.  As it turned out, I was right to be concerned.  The travel was much, much harder than we expected, but the beach vacation itself was wonderful!

We went to Naples, Florida to visit my grandmother, Ninette.  We usually make the trip every spring, but couldn't go last year because I was pregnant and then caring for a newborn.  So this was her first time meeting Ada, and the last time she saw Jude he was just a baby and couldn't even sit up on his own.  What a change!  We stayed at my aunt and uncle's condo a short distance from Ninette's house, and this made a big difference in the success of our visit.  It was great to spend a few hours each morning and evening at Ninette's house, but then retreat to the condo for naps and bedtime.  We managed to shield Ninette from the majority of Jude's tantrums and she was able to spend time with the kids at their best.

We went to the beach a few times, and Jude and Ada loved playing in the sand and swimming in the "salty water".  Jude wore his floaty suit in the ocean and was able to be fairly independent in the water.  Ada loved eating sand and sitting in the waves.  Jude insisted on wearing pants for almost our entire trip, even though it was about 90 degrees and humid.  Here he is at the beach wearing his polar bear jammie pants.


Ada made a lot of progress learning to walk on this trip.  At the beginning of the week, she was still pretty tentative on her feet, but by the end she was walking everywhere.  She is still pretty careful, and will take just a few steps before dropping to a crawl to really move across a room (or towards the pool at top speed).  Ninette loved watching her toddling around her house and patio.


We spent a lot of time swimming in Ninette's pool.  Both kids loved being in the water, and by the end of the week Jude taught himself to hold his breath and jump in from the side of the pool.  His head would go completely underwater, he would pop back up to the surface, and then swim over to the steps and do it all over again.  I spent a lot of time in the pool with the kids.  We all loved the white raft.  Here's a cute photo of the kids on the raft together.


One of the highlights of the trip for E Ben was a 45-minute sailing lesson on the catamaran at the beach.  He was out for a long time and Jude kept asking if Daddy was sailing on a pirate ship.  Or maybe the Man with the Lellow Hat was on the catamaran with Daddy?  You can see that we've been watching a lot of Curious George lately.


We're really happy that we made the trip across the country to visit Ninette and spend some time in the sand and water.  We can't wait for our next trip to sunny Florida!