April 17: A week in Florida

We are coming home to a chilly Pittsburgh after a wonderful warm week in St. Petersburg, FL. We bought the tickets and made our reservations before knowing that I would need hip surgery. Luckily I had enough recovery time so my doctor said it would be ok to fly. We arranged to have a wheelchair in the airport. Sarah even pushed me for a few feet. While I can walk with a cane, the amount of walking needed in an airport is, well, staggering. I was grateful for the wheelchair and the priority boarding for those who move slowly. 

When at home I was aware of how much more capable and stable I was. Being in a new place with sand pointed out how incapable and unstable I still am. I knew I couldn’t be immersed in water but I somehow thought I could still get my feet wet. Nope. I didn’t feel at all stable enough even with support to get close to the ocean water or to lower myself to the pool edge. 

Our daily routine was something like this… wake up, have breakfast, maybe nap, kids watch their shows, swimsuits and sunblock and packing a wagon that came with the rental with beach gear. Take the elevator down to the parking lot and walk several feet to the beach. Really, our place was right on the beach and the strip of sand was narrow so I could still have a front row view of the water even though I only walked maybe 10 feet in the sand, holding Carl’s hand for support (along with my cane). Carl would stabilize the beach chair while I lowered myself into it. Amy did a ton of time floating on the boogie board and swimming. Sarah played in the sand and sometimes got her toes wet or chased birds. 

Next Carl would drive us two minutes down the road and let the kids and me out at a restaurant. Then he would go park at our rental and walk ten minutes along the beach to meet us. Then he walked back, got the car, and drove to pick us up for more beach time. Then into the car for ice cream at our favorite place called Ice & Cream. Then back for time at the pool. I stayed in the pool area while Carl packed up the beach gear into the wagon, then he took over with the kids at the pool and I went up to our rental condo unit. I could be eyeballs and a voice in terms of parenting lifeguard duty, but I couldn’t really be a functional adult. There were no seats by the pool and though we could have set one up, there was no shade and it was quite hot. So it wasn’t comfortable for me to hang out for long there. I slowly went up to our rental and rested on the sofa while reading. Then we had dinner at our place and watched Pets United or short sections of the Paddington movie. Then bed. 

On our final day we even got to see Carl’s cousin and extended family who all happened to be vacationing near us! 

Sarah’s favorite themes of the week were to talk about Mr_____ and his watch that she liked to look at and touch while waiting for her turn to go onstage. Apparently this teacher also brought a crocodile puppet to the Peter Pan Jr rehearsal, so Sarah was all about crocodiles. She wanted me to guess what Mr ____ brought to rehearsal so I started guessing other animals first. Amy started helping me expand my animal repertoire so keep things interesting, always coming back to crocodiles after one or four other animals. Carl bought a boogie board with a crocodile on it that we intended to leave at the rental but realized we needed to bring home because Sarah loves it so much. Luckily it fit (just) in our suitcase. 

Sarah also continues her love of Turning Red and pretending to be the giant red panda. Last week she liked pretending to get upset and poof into the panda. This week she likes to be the panda calming herself and being zen. 

To add to the challenges of the week, Carl basically had to pull an all-nighter for work right before we left and then it was a long day of travel. So he was grateful for naps. Unfortunately the kids had mild colds before we left and then Carl got a cold and then I did too. My cluster headaches have also started again. Still mild for now but I probably need to go get injections into my head. I knew this was quite likely because triggers for a cluster include prolonged stress, messed up sleep, and taking Tylenol more than three times in a week, all of which happened in spades with my surgery. Still, it felt quite unfair to have my hip still healing and headaches and a cold. That said, we did have a great time. Our rental was the best scenario possible given my status because I didn’t have to navigate in the sand much at all and could mostly be a part of things. Carl took care of everything for all of us when needed. 

And I arranged for some helper Easter bunnies to get things ready so the kids can have an egg hunt when we get home.