Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Palm trees and a cool breeze

These past few days in Florida had an amazing effect on Reilly. It was such a pleasure to watch her petals unfurl as the tropical environment stimulated her little mind. She was all smiles all the time, giving them out for free to anyone who was near her, but especially to her three grandmothers, two grandfathers, her aunt, and her brothers and sisters (the pets).

Her favorite thing to do was to chase the dogs around the house. Leia, our old dog (now rooming with the in-laws) would settle down for a nap, only to have Reilly slap her way across the tile on hands and knees to pinch her nose. Leia would then move to a quieter spot, only to have Reilly crawl her way over to interrupt her nap again.

Speaking of interrupted sleep, Reilly didn’t take well to sleeping in the porta-crib. She would wake up afraid, not knowing where she was, and howl for her mama and dada. To punish us further, she took to waking up around 4:30am, and refusing to go back to sleep. Shawn and I would take her in the bed with us, only to be kicked and prodded and punched with tiny fists of fury as our maniac baby tried to get comfortable.

The one sweet moment that came of this was when I woke up one morning to find my baby with her head resting on my stomach, her face calm, quiet, and still.

Reilly also had a truly brilliant afternoon swimming in the pool, slapping the water and squealing with glee.




After her swim, she lounged with her mother in the sun for a bit before taking a nap to end all naps in the shade of a camphor tree. Don’t you wish you could nap like this?



Another highlight was a visit with Nana and a trip to the playground at Central Park (that’s Largo, not NYC). And what else would we do there but go to the swings? Reilly was smiling from ear to ear the whole time, her hair blowing in the cool wind that is the harbinger to all afternoon thunderstorms in Florida.

There was something so nice about being in Florida this past weekend, to see Reilly with her family, and to watch her open her eyes to a whole world that she never knew existed. More than once, I caught her just staring at the trees, as if she was trying to decipher what all the greenness was. And though it is supremely difficult to travel via plane/car with a baby, it was all worth it, if only for just this one moment:

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