Florida

Since my last entry, all has been going really well. On Monday Sam and I went with my parents to Florida for three days. It was Sam's first time in Florida, second time seeing my grandparents and it was my first time in Florida since I moved to Singapore. When we first moved to Singapore we thought it was Florida, but with a lot more Chinese people. It turns out it's not that similar, but it was more pleasant than I had remembered. The weather was not as hot (at ALL) as Singapore, like you can do stuff outside! Also, while it all looks equally fake and manicured, Florida is so much more spread out and spacious. Also the wildlife - really just the birds - were totally amazing in Florida.

Overall, the point of the trip was only to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa and give them time with Sam. We spent a lot of time walking around their driveway and around the clubhouse across the street. Sam got her first (and second) skinned knee. She learned all about different rocks, wood chips, pavements, lawn ornaments. She learned about crossing the street. She really enjoyed seeking out geckos. She looked for them everywhere and yelled "gecko!!"

While she was suspicious at first, Sam was very excited about Grandma's food. She wouldn't part with her waffle for anything. She held on TIGHT! She loved potato kugel, cheese blintzes and she even drank her borscht!! It was crazy. She's a true Jewish baby. Don't forget that she also loves other types of kugel and challah - and those are some of her only foods.

Grandma and Grandpa loved having Sam around. Grandpa loved watching her the most, and Grandma was really able to take care of her and play with her. Sam liked to take her hand and show her where she wanted to go.

We visited a bird conservation area and also the Palm Beach Zoo (expensive but a fun thing to do). Sam loved the zoo - she pointed to all the animals and was quite excited about some of them.

I think this was Sam's 30th and 31st flights (if I counted correctly), and the one on the way back was her worst. She wouldn't sleep, and she was literally throwing herself around in a difficult way. Lots of screaming. Sucked for everyone around us. I'm hoping our trip back to Singapore is much much easier, considering it's about 7 times as long.

We got back on Thursday night, and on Friday morning at 7:30, I had a flight to NY to check in with my doctor. He said that the surgery was successful, so that was REALLY good news. While there I got to see a few friends and also went to eat at my favorite cafe in the West Village, and it was CLOSED! Good news is that I just looked it up, and it has three other locations in NY, and I didn't know! (Grey Dog Cafe). We'll have to check that out next time...

Now, I woke up this morning at 4:15, yesterday at 4:45 and the day before at 5:30, so I'm a tired disaster, but we are in one place until Thursday, so we will do a lot of sitting around, which is good!









Sam's current words include:
hot
hat
cheese
cream cheese
grilled cheese (cheese cheese)
all done
oh dear
knee
elbow
elmo
banana (nana)
apple
grapes (that's my fav - grapeseses)
ball
baby
bubbie
papa
gecko


She understands soooo much - it's totally weird, but it's so much more fun!