Weekly Review 52

Hello readers! Welcome to my weekly review, where I share my previous week with you. 

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This week I’m going to tell you about is a fun one! Once again, the week started on Monday, but it wasn’t any ordinary Monday. It was the first day of our vacation, but most importantly, it was our seven year wedding anniversary. I can’t believe seven years flew by just like that. Who would have thought back then that we would be where we are at now. It’s so crazy to think about — we have a house, a son, and a love that will last for eternity (but we already knew that part, hence getting married!). Anyway, happy anniversary to my beatiful wife, Lea. I love you so much and I love the life we are building together.

Now, back to your weekly programming. I was up bright and early with Mr. O. The past two nights have been brutal! He hasn’t slept in at all, and he’s been waking up earlier and earlier. Thankfully, as I said above, we were on vacation, so I didn’t have to worry about work. When we came downstairs, Mr. O wanted to watch garbage trucks picking up garbage on YouTube, lol. Fortunately for him, it was also trash day in the real-world, so he was able to see the garbage truck on TV and in person out of our window. He went nuts! Once he decided he had enough TV time for the morning, he started playing with his toys, while I put on Pardon My Take in the background.

When Mr. O went down for a nap, I took a drive to my grandma’s house. She had made cookies for Mr. O to eat on our flight on Tuesday (I may have snuck a few into my mouth on the drive home). When I came home, Mr. O was up and ready to play again. So we did jus that. I turned on the first Bears game of the season and we played on the floor. The Bears are hopeless, by. the way. Chicago sports are cursed. That’s all I will say about that!

Going to bed Monday night was tough. There were so many things going through my head. I was severly ticked off about the Bears game and how they completely fell apart in the second half. Also, I was running a million different scenarios about our flight on Tuesday since it was going to be Mr. O’s first time on a plane. I was up until midnight, then around 2:30 AM, Mr. O woke up from what I think was a bad dream. I brought him to our room and we didn’t fall back asleep for about an hour. Before I knew it, my 5:30 AM alarm was going off and it was time to get ready to leave for the airport. It was officially Tuesday. The day we were taking our first family trip, and Mr. O ‘s first time flying through the sky.

While we were finishing packing, my aunt was in our driveway to pick us up. She was taking us to the airport and helping us take our bags, and Mr. O, through the airport for a bit. I don’t know what we were so worried about…Mr. O is the best toddler ever! He was SO GOOD. He loved seeing all the people, and all the planes outside. Going through security was a breeze, too! While we were waiting to board, Mr. O and I took a stroll through the airport, staying close to our gate, but far enough for him to think it was a long walk, lol.

Once we boarded the plane (which he loved doing) we found our seats and realized how lucky we were that United had screens on the back of every seat. We never United, Lea and I usually fly Southwest, but I think that is going to change. The employees were all so kind, and the TV’s were so great in keeping Mr. O content and happy. We turned on Bluey, but had to figure out how to turn it back to English because Mr. O clicked Spanish when the screen asked which language he wanted to use. Neither of us speak spanish so it took a few minutes to figure out, lol.

Once we figured it out and he relaxed to watch Bluey, I turned on Shrek and enjoyed it for as long as I could. When the plane took off, Mr. O was not afraid. Instead, he was so excited and loved flying into the sky.

He was constantly going back and forth between watching his show and looking out the window. Then, he would get bored of his show, he would bully Lea into switching seats with him so he could be closer to me. He made her switch at least five times throughout the flight, lol. When we arrived in Florida, Mr. O cheered for the landing. In fact, he was looking out the window screaming, “Faster! Go faster!”. Once we grabbed our luggage and found our rental car, we headed over the condo we were staying in.

On Tuesday evening, my aunt, uncle, and cousin who live in the area, and who’s condo we were staying in, met us at the condo before we went to dinner. It was tons of fun!

When we came back to the condo, we tried to get Mr. O to sleep in his pack-and-play in the second bedroom, but he was too afraid and climbed out. He ended up sleeping between us all week, lol. It was fun though, and super cute!

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Mr. O was tossing and turning all night from bad dreams. He was randomly waking up screaming “No! No!” and we think he was dreaming about us putting him back in the pack-and-play. Once the sun rose over the ocean (we had a fantastic view), we all got out of bed to start our day.

Lea took a drive to the nearest grocery store to buy us some food for the week, while Mr. O and I sat on the balcony eating our Cheerios. When she came back, we cleaned ourselves up and headed to the Palm Beach Zoo! Mr. O loved it, of course. He loves seeing all the animals, as well as pushing his stroller around himself with almost free-range, lol.

Yes, he is using binoculars my aunt bought him in the gift shop, and yes, he is using them backwards. Also, yes, he hasn’t stopped using them backwards even though we’ve told him all week that he’s using them wrong.

We were at the zoo for a little over an hour. It was so hot and humid that day, and we were all getting ready to leave, until Mr. O saw the giant splash pad right by the entrance and exit, lol. So he played in there for about twenty minutes and then we had to wrap him up in his towel and leave while he threw a little fit about it. Overall, it was a great time at the Palm Beach Zoo, and we plan to go again whenever we are in the area next. When we arrived back to the condo, Mr. O was exhausted. Him and Lea took a nice nap, while I made myself a sandwich and stared at the ocean for a while. The plan was for Lea to let him fall asleep, and then sneak out of the room to come hang out with me, but she ended up falling asleep too. Which was unfortunate because all my things were locked in that room. I was banking on her bringing them out. My backpack was stuck in there, now, with my headphones, my book, my journal, my iPad, and snacks. I had nothing but my phone and it was losing battery. I couldn’t charge it because the charger was in the rental car, and the keys to the rental car were in Lea’s purse. Guess where Lea’s purse was?! IN THE ROOM THEY WERE NAPPING IN, lol. It was a struggle, but staring at the ocean for a few hours wasn’t so bad.

When the two of them finally woke up, we hung out for an hour or two, and then gathered our things to go to my aunt’s house to swim and eat dinner. When we got there we were greeted by Stella, their big dog! She’s the sweetest and cutest. Mr. O loved her, and she loved him! She gave him tons of kisses and he splashed her with a bunch of water, lol. After we swam for maybe thirty minutes, dinner was ready. So, we dried off and went to eat. The rest of the night was relaxing. They pulled out some old toys my cousin had so Mr. O could play on the ground. We ate ice cream, watched him play, and caught up on life for the next few hours.

On Thursday morning, after waking up from a night full of Mr. O farting in my face and putting his foot on my neck while he snuggled his mother, we went straight to the beach. It was Mr. O’s first time on a beach, and his first time seeing (and feeling) the ocean. It wasn’t as important to him as it was for me, lol. One day, though, I think he will feel the same. The ocean is such a beautiful and incredible thing. It’s what connects all of us around the world. From where we were standing in the ocean, someone on the other side of the world could be standing across from us, in the same water, and I think that is just incredible. Yes, I know the world is round, but you all know what I mean, right? Lol.

Mr. O could have dug in the sand all day, but after an hour we convinced him to go swim in the pool at the condo. We swam in there for about thirty minutes, then we realized we were all hungry. We quickly dried off and went back upstairs to eat. Once again, Mr. O and Lea took a long nap, while I relaxed on the couch, eating my little sandwich and looking at the ocean. When they woke up, we had some time to kill before dinner, so we put on Shrek while Mr. O played and kind of watched. It was nice to relax together. In the evening, we met my aunt and uncle for dinner at this nice restaurant, which was right on the water.

The food was good, but I have to say, the staff was even better. They were all so kind, especially to Mr. O. They loved him! Right next to our table was this giant fishtank, and of course, he was obsessed. Some of the staff would play hide-and-seek with him around this giant pillar, and some would pick him up and take him to go see the fish in the tank, lol. He was having the best time. To top his night off, we ordered desert and let him have some ice cream. When we went to grab our car from the valet, the man was walking towards us with his hand extended to grab out ticket, but Mr. O cut in front of us and went to shake his hand, lol. The valet was dying of laughter, as we all were. It was so cute. When we got back to the condo, we changed into comfortable clothes, turned on some football, and relaxed the rest of the night before we went to bed.

When Friday morning came around we were a little bummed, since it was our last full day in Florida, but we were also excited because we had fun things planned. First, we watched the movie Minions after we woke up. We ate breakfast and planned our day out. Then, we took Mr. O to the Cox Science Center and Aquarium. He had an amazing time looking at all the fish!

They also had a cool section where you could press buttons and try to solve interesting little experiments, but it’s for older children, so Mr. O found little-to-no interest in it yet. Needless to say, our trip lasted about thirty minutes, and it was only 10:30 in the morning, lol. Thankfully, we spent some time in the gift shop (We bought him three new dinosaur toys) and spoke with the employee there, who was kind enough to recommend another place to take Mr. O when we left the science center. She said to take him to Loggerhead Marinelife Center. It’s an ocean and sea turtle conservation, and it was really cool. They don’t charge you an entrance fee, but you can donate at the door (which we did).

This place was very cool. It was very calming and Mr. O loved seeing the fish, the turtles, and a shark! We also saw some jellyfish. It was a great last-minute addition to our day. We had a blast!

When we left Loggerhead, we went back to the condo so Mr. O and Lea could take their daily nap. I warmed up some leftovers for myself and caught up on the newest episode of Peacemaker. I took my bag out of the room before they fell asleep this time! After they woke up, hours later, we got ourselves cleaned up and met my aunt and uncle for one last dinner.

We went to eat at Brio Italian Grill, which is a nice restaurant located inside a local mall. We arrived a bit ealry so we could walk around with Mr. O and get some of his energy out before dinner, so he would sit down, lol. Lea also bought a couple of dresses, so I guess going early had more than one purpose. I know, I know, she did need them! We have a wedding coming up and it worked out well that we were at the mall. Before we knew it, the night was over, and it was our last night sleeping in the condo, just the three of us crammed in the bed.

When Saturday arrived, we rolled out of bed, packed all of our belongings, and left the condo. Mr. O was sad. He loves the condo, and Florida, so much. When we were about 20 minutes away from the airport, they notified us our flight was delayed. We were supposed to take off around 12:30 PM, and now we won’t be leaving until 2 PM. We had to be at the airport before 10 AM, though, to return the rental car. It was tough, but we made it work. I was hangry, so I had no patience for a while, lol. Mr. O was getting on my nerves, and I feel bad for being irritated with him. I made it up to him by buying him a toy airplane from one the shops by our gate. He loves that plane and has been playing with it all weekend.

When we finally took off, Mr. O was knocked out almost the entire flight home. It was relaxing. I was able to read through at least two full sections of the book Greenlights, and Lea was able to read some of her book too. When we landed, we rushed to baggage claim. This long day couldn’t end soon enough. We met my aunt at baggage claim, grabbed out stuff, and went to the car. Finally, we were headed home. Thankfully, my mom was back from her three-week trip to Greece, so she met us at our house and brought us dinner. Mr. O was so excited to see her, he stopped what he was doing, shrieked a bit, and ran over to hug her as soon as she walked in the door. I didn’t realize how much he missed her, it was so sweet!

After we ate, and showed my mom all of our pictures, we gave Mr. O a bath and he fell asleep quickly. Lea and I laid in bed, enjoying the room we had to sleep and the silence, lol. On Sunday, we washed all of our clothes from the trip, cleaned up the house a bit, watched the Bears get smoked by the Detroit Lions (humiliating), made some chili, and played with Mr. O the rest of the day. It was an incredible week off, and a great first family vacation. The first of many, I hope.

I hope you all had a great week, too!

Peter