Thursday, July 22, 2004
Ah, the Sunshine State...
Back from Florida in one piece. Did I mention I was going there? Well, I did. Mainly to see my grandmother, who is laid up in a re-hab "hospital" (I use that term loosely) after breaking her hip. She's in her late 80's and not really doing well. I brought my daughter since my husband already had plans to go out of town.
My daughter did great. My elderly grandmother just marveled watching her meticulously color inside the lines of her coloring book. This kid literally colored for an hour, uninterrupted. I mean, I was ready to pick up and scoot at the first signs of cranky-kid. Never happened. Sometimes they can surprise you I guess.
I tried to make the trip as much fun as possible while spending time hanging out in a smelly nursing home/hospital. Props to the facility, though. They really did a great job with decor to make the nursing home part of the building bright and cheery....not dank & depressing as you sometimes get with these places. My grandfather is a resident of that wing in the building. My daughter was her usual "shy-around-new-people" self, but did a really good job of being nice to the old people and not terrified as some kids can get...although she did ask last night why my grandmother was old. I innocently replied "Well, honey, we all get old." That response was met with real tears and the declaration "I DON'T WANNA GET OLD!!" Amen, sister.
We wrapped up the trip with a 3/4 day trip to Disney World. Let me say that age 4 is the perfect minimum age for that kind of place. We had a great time! We got there around 10:30 a.m. It did rain all day, but that was an unusual god-send! Instead of being unbearable and stifling (as Florida often is in July) it was damp & cool. We got sprinkled on, but never soaked. Just perfect.
Let me say BIG props to the Disney folks for one attraction that happens once each day: the Parade. If it weren't for the parade, I might have had to listen to day on end of "I didn't get to see Sleeping Beauty...I didn't get to see Cinderella!" But NO! The parade has EVERYTHING! Smart, those Disney people. That allowed us to just hit the high points at the park, enjoy lunch with Winnie the Pooh and friends (they had a buffet that was KILLER!), and leave at a reasonable time. We had to get up at 5:30 a.m. the next morning to catch our plane, so we left Disney around 5:30 p.m., had a nice dinner and went to bed early.
The trip was more or less a success. It certainly is depressing watching your loved ones get old, but at least they do still have supportive relatives nearby to help ease the transition. Feeling lazy this morning, I passed up on my daily trip to the fountain of youth: my gym. Tommorrow is another day.
Back from Florida in one piece. Did I mention I was going there? Well, I did. Mainly to see my grandmother, who is laid up in a re-hab "hospital" (I use that term loosely) after breaking her hip. She's in her late 80's and not really doing well. I brought my daughter since my husband already had plans to go out of town.
My daughter did great. My elderly grandmother just marveled watching her meticulously color inside the lines of her coloring book. This kid literally colored for an hour, uninterrupted. I mean, I was ready to pick up and scoot at the first signs of cranky-kid. Never happened. Sometimes they can surprise you I guess.
I tried to make the trip as much fun as possible while spending time hanging out in a smelly nursing home/hospital. Props to the facility, though. They really did a great job with decor to make the nursing home part of the building bright and cheery....not dank & depressing as you sometimes get with these places. My grandfather is a resident of that wing in the building. My daughter was her usual "shy-around-new-people" self, but did a really good job of being nice to the old people and not terrified as some kids can get...although she did ask last night why my grandmother was old. I innocently replied "Well, honey, we all get old." That response was met with real tears and the declaration "I DON'T WANNA GET OLD!!" Amen, sister.
We wrapped up the trip with a 3/4 day trip to Disney World. Let me say that age 4 is the perfect minimum age for that kind of place. We had a great time! We got there around 10:30 a.m. It did rain all day, but that was an unusual god-send! Instead of being unbearable and stifling (as Florida often is in July) it was damp & cool. We got sprinkled on, but never soaked. Just perfect.
Let me say BIG props to the Disney folks for one attraction that happens once each day: the Parade. If it weren't for the parade, I might have had to listen to day on end of "I didn't get to see Sleeping Beauty...I didn't get to see Cinderella!" But NO! The parade has EVERYTHING! Smart, those Disney people. That allowed us to just hit the high points at the park, enjoy lunch with Winnie the Pooh and friends (they had a buffet that was KILLER!), and leave at a reasonable time. We had to get up at 5:30 a.m. the next morning to catch our plane, so we left Disney around 5:30 p.m., had a nice dinner and went to bed early.
The trip was more or less a success. It certainly is depressing watching your loved ones get old, but at least they do still have supportive relatives nearby to help ease the transition. Feeling lazy this morning, I passed up on my daily trip to the fountain of youth: my gym. Tommorrow is another day.
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