Florida

So it's that time of year again. Our annual Florida trip. It was basically the same as past years only this time I didn't randomly end up at a pirate festival with my two good friends:

Michele, Me, Lori Beth at Gasparilla last January

Nope, this time it was just my mom and I with the toddler*.

Where are we going?

I was almost worried about the flights but then thought Meh. I've delt with worse travel situations. This is only going to be like 4 hours door to door so even if it sucks it's not for that long. My only real fear was that we'd get stranded at the airport for hours/days. Which is ludicrous since it was a direct flight and at both ends we had people close by who could come get us if there were issues. However sometimes when dealing with worry my mind does not understand logic.

Silly, MOM. Of course I was fine on the plane. You certainly brought enough crap to keep me quiet and amused.

There was one moment of strife when she had to put Black Kitty through the xray at security. But we just sold it as "she's taking a ride" and it was fine.

The second we landed she started asking for NONNI. Clearly I had talked it up a bit. And the Tampa airport is such that there's a long walk and then a train (monorail? shuttle?) ride before the waiting area. She spent that whole time scanning the crowd all NONNI? NONNI? SERIOUSLY, MOM WHERE ARE MY NONNIS.

You should have seen the look on their faces when they finally saw each other.

My toddler checked to see that it was ok to let go of my hand and then went running to my grandparents as fast as her little legs would carry her. And never looked back:

Not sure which one of the three of them is happiest in this picture.

And that's pretty much the way the weekend was. She was thrilled just to hang out with her NONNI and NONNO (also known as NONNI and PAPA. She clearly hasn't decided what she wants to call my grandpa yet).

Big fun included washing a bowl of shells with my grandma:


Baking cookies:

I don't understand why I'm not supposed to take a bite out of each one of these before they go in the oven. It's quality control!

Napping with nonni, watching the birds around the pond nearby, rough housing with nonno, and of course the flea market.

It's a Florida tradition.



And that about sums up the weekend. Nothing fancy just a nice time with family.

4 Generations. It's a lovely but I kindof hate pictures of myself right now because seriously with the large.

Oh I did learn the very important lesson that if you tell a toddler all day that she's going to have spaghetti and meatballs for dinner you better make damn sure that the second you put her in a high chair you have it ready to set in front of her. Oops.

*Matt, when given the option of coming to Florida when it's "not even warm enough to swim" or spending his weekend with the house to himself completely free of his responsibilities as a parent clearly chose the latter. In the past he's had epic guys weekend long parties that left my house smelling like feet and beer. This time he laid low and was "So lazy. No, seriously, I was SO lazy. It was awesome." I'm guessing he played an insane amount of video games and slept in as late a possible. Things you take for granted but really, really miss when you can't do anymore. Oh and he met his brother for the Steelers game which worked out perfectly - one playoff game I don't have to deal with. Rock.

** Moments like that - where it was clear that she actually listens to me - were some of the highlights of the weekend. I spend half my life repeating the same things over and over and over and over and over again to the point where I think I must be insane. Don't put your feet on the table, hold my hand, stay close by, be gentle, don't scream, you have to leave Black Kitty in the car, you can't take that toy home from the store with you, etc. etc. etc. PLEASE JUST LISTEN TO MOMMY GAAAAH FACEDESK So to see that at least some of that has stuck is infuckingcredible.