Visitors

We love having visitors here.  It’s not just that they bring us things from the U.S. (I’d be lying if I said that it certainly wasn’t a a nice perk), but having people who have known us longer than a few months is nice.  Being here has been compared to being at the company picnic every day.  It’s true.  People who know you and love you despite your quirks are so refreshing!
Last week our friends Kelly and Billy came to our island while on a cruise.  Kelly and I have been friends since elementary school, lived together in college and talk as often as possible.  I could (and should) do an entire post on our friendship.  Billy was a great addition in the early 90’s. The fact that he and Allen get along so well is a bonus.  They’re stuck with each other, so enjoying each other’s company does have it’s benefits.
Allen was able to get a day off (mostly), so we picked them up downtown early in the morning, but maybe not early enough!  They were able to experience a little discomfort local culture as they waited for us in front of the hard Rock Cafe!  Character building moment #1.
Then we took them to our house where showed them our house and tried to show them the fish.  You know, the fish that live right off of our dock, the ones that we feed every day, and have names for them…The fish totally punked us and were nowhere to be found.
We left the boys at home with a sitter and swung by our neighborhood beach to see the sea turtles.  They didn’t disappoint a bit, as they were right off shore munching on the seaweed that the wind was carrying in.  Then we took them to one of our favorite beaches.  We just walked and collected shells and sea glass and had such a nice time.  So what if we took off without our cameras or sunscreen!  Oops!
**Public service announcement** We usually wear sunscreen every day.  This day the boys weren’t with us and we slipped up.  We learned our lesson!
Forgive me for some of the pictures being so small.  I stole them right off of  her Picassa album.  Yes they are protected.  Hope she understands that this was done in the name of blogging!

Afterwards we ate at a restaurant that has authentic Bahamian food.  It was absolutely delicious.  The view and the company were fabulous too!  They came all the was from SC and we took them to a place called Traveler’s Rest.  In Greenville we called it TR.  If you are from Greenville you’ll understand.  If not just keep on reading…
 
 
From there we went to another favorite beach for some sitting on the beach action.  It was pretty windy, so we weren’t getting the full beach experience, but it was perfect nonetheless.

Next stop was the world famous Daq Shack.  Fruit, ice, rum and simple syrup.  Perfection.
 
  
Our next destination was for a quick stop at our nice grocery store.  I had to use the restroom there, and thought Kelly might want to go to, so I invited her along with me.  I don’t ever think she will be the same.  I think her quote was, “That’s what they make hand sanitizer for!!”  Or maybe it was, “Do you buy your meat here?”  Um, yes.  When I showed her the normal looking ground beef there, she was just a little put off by the fresh beef hearts beside the ground beef.  Sorry friend.   Character building moment #2!
Our last stop was another beach.  Yes, we were at 4 beaches that day.  This one has phenomenal  sea glass and Kelly really racked up.

After that we were sad to see them go, but hopefully their short visit just whetted their appetite and they will come back again for more character building fun in the sun.

If you are still reading, then you my friend, are my friend.

Easter and the Bahamas Crud

A few days before Jackson’s Spring Break he came down with a bad cough, stuffy head, goopy eyes and plugged ears.  We made a trip to the doctor and were told us that he seemed to have allergies and given drops for the eyes and told to take allergy medicine.  After a couple of days he seemed worse, so I called back and they prescribed him an anti-biotic.  It took a full 7 days but he did get better.  Spring Break was very boring mellow here.
We had started a little group of moms with 2 year olds trying to give our own swim lessons.  Like everything else here, swimming lessons are crazy expensive.  However, learning to swim early is vital here.  Not to whine, but there is nothing to do here besides going to the beach or the pool.  All of us have older children who learned to swim fine with a little help from assorted swim classes elsewhere.  We feel confident sure that we can teach our children to swim.  If not we can still do swim lessons later in the season.
Miller and all the other little ones made good progress.  They aren’t swimming, but they aren’t freaking out anymore.  Then Miller was getting goo coming from his ears.  Ugh!  Since he has tubes in his ears we were able to give him drops and a decongestant and he was fine in a couple of days.
We had to put the swimming on hold because one by one all of our friends (moms and kids) have been taken down by the Bahamas crud.  Everyone has had a different diagnosis.  Ear infections, Pink Eye, Bronchitis, Influenza and allergies the list goes on.
About mid week I was taken down by the Bahamas crud.  Allen was a few days behind me.  Our Easter was not that great.  Basically Allen and I took turns resting all day.  We did go out for dinner with some friends.  At a real restaurant!  We had Thai.  Holidays in the Bahamas are odd!
The boys loved their Easter baskets and didn’t know that they were missing anything.  That makes me sad because Easter is NOT about jellybeans and the Easter Bunny.  Hopefully some of the Easter stories we read them leading up to Easter soaked in a little bit.
Aunt Chele hooked them all kinds of Easter goodies.  They were able to experience the goodness that is known as Cadbury Creme Eggs and Reece’s Peanut Butter Eggs.

I thought he would know to eat the Peeps, not lick them.  Apparently these boys have led deprived existences so far!
 
A peeps and chalk bunny diorama.  Is that strange to you?

Look who tried to eat his chocolate bunny with the wrapper on?!?

Thanks Aunt Chele!
Jackson was ready to go back to school on Tuesday and I was ready for the doctor.  I have Bronchitis.  Boo.  Thank goodness for good medicine.  I was feeling a big difference within 24 hours.
Hopefully all of our friends will kick our sicknesses at once.  Until then we will be laying low!

The Very Hungry Toddler

I love Eric Carle’s Very Hungry Caterpillar.  If you’ve been living under a rock…the caterpillar eats through all these foods and then goes into a cocoon and turns into a beautiful caterpillar.
Miller decided to recreate the story in his own Miller way.
When am I ever going to learn, if he’s quiet…

He’s making a mess!
Yep, that container was full when I started my laundry.

For fun

We went to the beach.
We played a lot.
Miller fell asleep in the 3 minutes that we drove to our house.
I was happy.
He sleeps on his face.
Can you tell?
For your viewing pleasure:
Miller after a nap
after the beach
   
Now that is what I call a good nap!
And because I’m still in love with the feet!

An Update

Since I’m sure that everyone has been on the edge of their seats wondering…
The boys are doing really well with their eating.  By that I mean, I can make them eat normal kid food.  Pizza, chicken tenders, hotdogs, french fries and the like.  Usually they don’t even cry anymore!  Something interesting that they have tried and liked was Spaghetti carbonara. 
Since the broccoli debacle, I haven’t had the heart to try it again, but I will try it again.  At this point I am just trying to get them to eat like normal kids.  I’ll tackle a little more as we go along.
Part of my plan is to keep them swimming all the time and use their hunger to get them to eat things they wouldn’t normally eat.  Sorry I forgot to bring the goldfish to the pool today, but I did bring some cucumbers!  Insert evil laugh!  It should result in some massive meltdowns!
 

A RAY! A RAY!

We have seen some really cool things here in the Bahamas.  We’ve seen the Junior Junkanoo, Santa arriving in a horse drawn buggy, angelfish right off our dock, and I saw an octopus while snorkeling.  And let’s not forget seeing Sean Connery at the Christmas party.  This one topped all of those cool things.  Saturday morning Allen and Jackson had gone to the store because Jackson was going to have some, and this is his description, “fishing lessons”.  Miller and I were on the dock feeding the fish.  We put in mostly fruits, veggies, bread and the like.  We regularly see angelfish, some gray fish and a pretty black and yellow striped fish.  Every once in a while we will see some large fish that are about the size of my calf. Until Saturday.
While we were out there I saw a couple of rays swimming towards our dock.  I picked up Miller so he would have a better vantage point and about that time I realized it was three and then four spotted eagle rays.  They came up and sniffed at our strawberry stems and Pepperidge Farm white bread heel and deemed them unworthy of consumption and then kept right on going by.
Of course I didn’t have my camera.  So here is what an eagle ray looked like with my underwater disposable  camera last spring while we were snorkeling.

Not a great picture, but this one off of Google is much better

A few minutes later, as Miller and I were sitting on the dock with our feet dangling off the side, one of them came back and swam right under our feet.  Not long after that the other three came up our dock, but decided it was unsafe to swim in front of our dock because a jumping, screaming 34 pound two year old doesn’t convey safety to them, apparently.
Shortly after that Allen and Jackson came back from procuring bait and were able to see the single Eagle Ray come back by our dock to meet up with his friends.  As they got down to the end of the canal one of them jumped out of the water.  It looked something like this…

But different because we weren’t out in the ocean.
Now that was cool!  Miller won’t remember it for long, but I will.

update and randomness

because i’m tired i’m not capitalizing.  i may never capitalize again-ever.
almost 2 weeks ago my mom got sick and was admitted to the hospital.  she’s still there.  she’s getting better, finally, but still in the hospital.
i flew to see her.  i loved on her.  she liked that!

thankfully i came to two happy boys.  thanks allen for being such a great husband and father.  we had a great helper named norma.  so nice to know my babies were well cared for and i could focus on mom.
then when i came back, jackson is swimming.  really swimming.  like jumping off the side of the pool trying to do a flip.  now if i can just get him to pick his head up and breathe.  so excited to see what happens this summer!

not one to be left out, miller is sticking his face under and kicking too.  it all has to be done on his terms, but he is making big progress.  he is climbing into the pool on his own and cruising along the side.  scaring the daylights out of me, but i know he’s going to be a fish in the blink of an eye.

nope those pictures have nothing to do with the pool, but the boys are jumping in them.  did i promise you randomness?
pretty sunsets are always something that make me happy.  they also remind me of my mom.  she loves a good sunset!


and because i know inquiring minds want to know…
the boys have been eating great.  some meats, some veggies.  finally progress!  two and a half years later i am seeing some progress.