Bubble

Bubble

In case you were wondering what the word of the day would be, it's bubble. Avery says it near perfectly now and spends a vast majority of her time asking for bubbles. I bought the Gymboree bubble blower and bubble solution before we left Portland. Since I pulled it out, she walks around saying bubble all the time. Last night, she and I went into the courtyard just outside our casa and blew bubbles. There's only so much bubble blowing an adult can handle, so after a while I put the bubbles back inside and signaled we were all done with that activity. She spent the rest of our time outside exploring the walk ways around here looking for bubbles.

The first night was a bit rough with Avery having trouble getting to sleep, then waking up at 4 AM crying. We just pulled her into our bed at 4 and she then slept until 8:30. Last night, she had less trouble getting to sleep and slept through the night until 7:30. Hopefully this trend continues and we have a nice, well-rested family on vacation.

Avery is so much easier down here now that she can walk. I thought it would be harder, but I was wrong. She loves to explore the casa and our indoor courtyard, but really, really loves to get out and about. D took her to the new community pool yesterday and said she loved it. We went later in the day for a walk on the beach. As we were leaving, she kept signing water and pointing back to the sea because she wanted to go back. And, since the girl loves to pick up rocks, she's in heaven.

Odd as it sounds, I know there will come a day when I'll miss this phase of the community. Yes, the construction makes things a bit more challenging sometimes. There's a lot of dust as a result and it can be noisy during the day at times (though I haven't been bothered by it since it's minimal right now). But the great thing is that it feels like we own the whole community. I can let Avery have a bit more slack in her exploring leash, so to speak. She and I had the best time last night just wandering around, with me looking at the beautiful yellow birds in the trees and her looking for those elusive bubbles.

Thus Far ...

It's almost 10 AM. We got up about 7:30 and piddled around. Then I went out into our courtyard and swept the stairs and got the dust off as much of the walls as I could. After that, I swept and mopped the courtyard. The dust is constant, though it's bothering me a lot less this time around. I am making a list of cleaning supplies needed next time we come down, or if we happen to see them while in town down here. RHG, you get props for introducing me to these sponges. I bought a pack of six large ones figuring I could just use one each visit. However, I'm discovering that since I can easily put them in the dishwasher to be santized, they're much easier to use for cleaning than a cloth would be. Perfect. So I shall just bring several packs down next time, made especially easy by their initial small size.

We were planning to head to the beach again today, but since we're taking our friend Bob to the airport around 2:30, I was thinking it would be a good time to head into town to do some shopping.

Bob leaves today after a six-week stint down here. He was actually our salesguy from Loreto Bay, but has since moved on to other activities. He's also a homeowner, though his house is not yet complete. It was great to have someone to pick us up at the airport when we arrived, as well as to have dinner with both Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Tuesday we went out to the Giggling Dolphin. The food was excellent and cheap, and the atmosphere was fun for Avery (once she woke up - she actually slept in her car seat* in the restaurant for the first time since she was 3-4 months old.) Last night, Bob BBQ'd some chicken thighs and brought those over.  We had a nice meal of chicken, pasta, salad, and garlic shrimp. There wasn't much selection at the grocery store in terms of fresh produce when D went on Tuesday, but we're hoping there will be a better selection today. The farmer's market has started back up, so we can hit that on Sunday morning.

Once Bob leaves, we'll be using the car he was using.  The car belongs to another couple who have a casa near us. It's so nice not to have to rent a car! Not to mention the money it saves.  Same goes for the massive money we save having the G's do airport drop-off and pick-up AND dog sitting.  Thank you so much, G's!

We both expected it to be WAY hotter down here than it has been the first few days. It's actually very nice. Don't get me wrong: it is hot. Undeniably. It's just less oppressive than I expected. I am prefering the weather this visit to the weather in December. It's a bit on the cool side, relatively speaking, in the winter months. in the spring/summer months, I like that I can walk out in the night air and never need a jacket. That rocks.

Familarity was the first feeling I got when we stepped off the plane.  Our casa and the community feel more like our home this time around. We moved some of the furniture around since the layout didn't quite work for how we actually live here with Avery. Now it's just perfect. Unlike home and other vacations, I prefer to have Avery sleep in our room. Since the temperature controls are separate in each room, I like to know that she's not too hot or too cold.  I also have two mental blocks related to her sleeping location here: I don't like her sleeping on a different floor; and I don't like that I have to go outside** to get from the upstairs room to the downstairs one. 

* We are using her infant car seat down here because it is so much easier to travel with and it's good to use until she's 30 lb. Perfect!

** It's not outside our casa, but it is outdoors since the stairs leading downstairs are in the open-air courtyard.

Car Seat & Flying

We bought Avery a seat this time, as we will be doing for all future flights. I had no issue last time I flew with her & her car seat, but this time, on the leg from Portland to LA, the flight attendants told us that we had to take her out of the car seat and hold her on our laps for taxi, take off, and landing. The reason they stated was that we cannot have the lap belt over the car seat. We explained that this is the proper installation for this car seat, but they said they couldn't allow it.

I emailed RHG (aka Megan's Google) and told her about it. Turns out that as long as you have an FAA approved car seat (we do), it is acceptable to install it according to the instructions from the manufacturerer. We had no issue on the leg from LA to Loreto.

I emailed Alaska Airlines to complain (and I should note I was shockingly nice and calm about this whole thing during the indicent and in my complaint email). We'll see what, if anything, they do.