Fort Lauderdale - Part II

I’m not a beach person so I can’t lie on the beach for the whole duration of the vacation, while hubby is the opposite. So, hubby and I agreed that anywhere we go, there must be some other stuff for me to do. I’m a sight seeing person, my ideal vacation would be a sight seeing tour.

Therefore, on the 3rd day of our Florida vacation, we decided to take the water taxi for a sight seeing tour and also do some shopping Florida is known as the Venice of USA. There are water ways that connect places by boats.

We hopped on the water taxi and along the way, were introduced to million dollar mansions and yachts of filthy rich people like Nicholas Cage, owner of Best Buy etc. Some of the boats cost $25 mil!!


That day was an exceptionally hot day and hubby was feeling weak from the heat, so we stopped at a huge mall to have lunch and do some shopping.

The 4th day was spent at the beach cos it was too hot to go anywhere. It was also the last full day of our vacation. The next day, time to go home. We can’t wait to see Olivia.

This is most likely our last vacation just by ourselves. My in-laws are getting old and they are finding it difficult to keep up with Olivia.

Fort Lauderdale - Part I

We are back from our vacation. It was a very nice few days away, just by ourselves. But on boy, was it HOT down there. This is coming from someone who hates the cold and is very tolerant of the heat. Even I could not stand it. Hubby was sweating like a pig…hehe. The city had record heat when we were there – 95F (38C). Luckily, we spent most of the days by the beach.

The water there is so nice and warm and crystal clear. You can just walk into the ocean without having to test if the water is cold. I can walk quite far out into the ocean and the water is only up to my chest and I can see my feet in the water. That is how clean the water is.

The hotel we were at was heavenly. Nice updated room with contemporary décor. We spent the first 2 days lounging by the beach.

Oh yes, I also had a free pedicure by the beach. Sand and sea water….lol.

On Vacation

Hubby and I are going away for a vacation in Florida. We are not bringing Olivia, she will stay with my in-laws.

After coming home from last year's vacation (without Olivia), I vowed that I would not go on vacation again without her but here we are, doing it again. We could not find a place where they have kids club for Olivia's age at the resort. She is still too young. Most kids club start at 4 years of age.

I'm a worry wart, so I worry about her whenever I'm apart from her, even though I know she is in good hands.

See you next week...I hope I survive this trip. :)

Evaluation results

Olivia was evaluated by a speech pathologist a few days ago to assess the seriousness of her stuttering. This is through the early intervention program which I had mentioned in the post below.

As expected, Olivia did not qualify for any services. Her stuttering, they call it disfluency, is very common among children aged between 1 ½ - 3 ½, when they are learning new skills everyday. In fact, services are not even provided for children this young.

The speech pathologist gave us a few tips on how to talk to Olivia:

1. Speak in an unhurried way, pausing frequently. This does not mean speaking so slow that it became unnatural.
2. Reduce the number of questions we ask Olivia. Instead of questions, simply comment on what she has said.
3. Use facial expressions and other body language to convey that we are listening to the content of her message and not how she’s talking.
4. Set aside a few minutes each day to give her our undivided attention. This can be a confidence builder for younger children.
5. Do not show that we are impatiently waiting for her to say the words, just act calm.
   

Hopefully, with these tips, her stuttering would go away eventually. If there are no improvements in 5-6 months, we can always get her evaluated again.

My nephew also stuttered when he was Olivia’s age and his went away eventually. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Fun Memorial Day Weekend

I’m a little late in posting this but we took Olivia to a host of activities during the 3 day weekend that I would like to share here.

On Saturday, we took her to a carnival about 30 minutes away from home. During spring, there are carnivals everywhere with rides, food and games. Olivia is a little daredevil; she loves rides that are fast. First she went on the carousel, the helicopter ride, then the race car ride and the mini roller coaster with daddy.

The rides she loves most are the race car (which she went on 3 times) and mini roller coaster. I thought she would be scared on the roller coaster but nooo…..she was screaming with joy.

Daddy also managed to win her this pink bear, which is almost as big as her, after spending $12 trying to dunk a basketball.


Sunday, we stayed at home but daddy took her swimming while mommy got some down time for herself.

On Monday, we left early to go to White Post Farm. It’s a petting zoo and just for this weekend, there were bouncy castles and Dora & Diego were there! Olivia had fun feeding the goats, deers & cows.

Then she went on to jump on the bouncy castle and go down the giant slide. You would be amazed that she needed no help in going up the steps and sliding down. Look at how high the steps/slide is (on the right), she went up by herself.

Then, off we went to stand in line to take photos with Dora & Diego. As usual, she is not afraid; she hugged and shook hands with Diego & Dora.

It had been a fun weekend and we were glad that Olivia had a blast.

Poopology

So, I attempted to potty train Olivia officially during the 3 day Memorial Day weekend. I used the bare bottom method – which is keeping her bare from waist downwards. Luckily it was a warm weekend.

To my surprise, the training has been painless. Before this, she is almost trained on doing #2 in the potty. It’s the #1 that is not consistent. Over the 3 day weekend, if I keep her bare bottom, she would go every time in the potty, no accidents! If I put her in underwear and pants and she was distracted (eating or watching TV), she will pee in the underwear. This is ok as she needs time to get use to it.

Fast forward 2 weeks later, she is doing great. She can wear underwear and no accidents. She would go potty by herself; I don’t even have to ask. But if we go out, I put a pull up on her as I don’t want to be cleaning up pee in case we can’t get to a bathroom quickly.

She still wears diapers at daycare because I know if she gets distracted – playing, doing arts & crafts, she would forget to go potty.

We’re getting there….and I’m doing the happy dance.

Word of wisdom: If you potty train when your child is ready, you’ll save a lot of frustration.