Spontaneous Florida Trip - Part 3: Musings and antics

Jeff and I both had pretty good cameras, and we occasionally pointed them at each other. This post is all Jeff's photography (except the pic I took of him above, behind the tree in the black shirt, snapping a picture of me in the blue sweatshirt).

Katie is growing up. She is taking an active interest in her surroundings. She was fascinated by the puppy this fisherman brought to his pier. She wanted to pet the dog, and the dog was super excited to see... um.. well... anything. Since the dog was teething, it was in a semi-biting mode. Since it was so frisky, it was also a little bit of a scratcher, and it drew a little blood from Katie's arm, but she didn't seem to mind. It hurt, but she moved on, still interested in the puppy and the rest of the world. In fact, we hardly mentioned the scratch after the trip except to put a small adhesive bandage on it when we got home.

Here's a little of Katie's version of hide-and-seek:

On this trip, Katie's communication bumped up a notch. My expectation and her ability have finally aligned neatly. She played quietly in the back of the car and asked politely when it was time to press play on the DVD player, have a snack, or a potty break. When she was overcome with emotion, I took a moment to ask her what was bothering her and how I could help. She usually stopped crying within just a few seconds, explained the issue politely, and we moved on.

No doubt, as we neared the end of the trip, we were both tired. I took the opportunity to explain, "Katie, we're both tired, so we both have to work extra-hard to be polite." She understood and worked extra-hard. It was great!

Another sign that Katie is growing up came at the Post Office after our return. We were mailing some heavy envelopes. She helped affix the return address labels at home, and once we got to the post office, she helped put them in the box. She asked what happened to the letters after they went in the drop box.