We've continued this non-stop vacation with non-stop trips. After visiting the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens yesterday, we took the kids to eat at one of the best diners in the country: Moody's Diner. We got their famous 4-berry pie. We even bought a slice for Jordan She'll eat it ONLY if disguised in vanilla ice cream. It was strange, but I was happy to see her try it no matter what. Cam opted for the standard slice of chocolate cake. Oh well. I cooked up my famous scallop dinner. Cam wasn't interested at all, but Jordan took a few bites before throwing it to the floor. She's really into throwing food lately. She mainly throws because she only wants to eat one food type at a time. So if she's eating a hot dog, she'll throw the bun so she can eat the bread. If she eats the bread first, she'll throw the hot dog. If I catch the food first, she'll probably eat what I salvaged, but not until she's done with the first food. You just never know. After a while, she just throws everthing. She throws before she says "all done." By the way, Jordan's "all done" is "no no" in a sing songy "all done" manner.
Today we let Jordan take a good morning nap before we drove off to one of our favorite sandy beaches along the Maine Coast: Reid State Park. I was pretty surprised by Jordan's reaction to it all. After I put her into the water where a little surf was lapping our legs, she screamed. Randy thinks she freaked because the water was so cold. I'm just not sure if she trusts water that moves like that. Either way, we didn't really get into the water very deep. She did enjoy a bit of time in the water jetty nearby. Her brother had a BLAST jumping and running through the frigid cold waves. He's getting braver by the moment. When Cam invited Jordan to join him in the water. She gave him a solid: "No." I almost fell onto the sand from laughing so hard.
Tonight we had our annual home cooked lobster meal. Jordan and Cam got to see the lobsters before they went into the big cooking pot. Cam is still very scared of the hard shelled guys. Jordan wasn't phased at all. She just checked out those guys until she got annoyed with just sitting there.
Speaking of annoyed. The brother/sister dynamic is becoming a lot clearer in this time away from home. Jordan is growing so fast right now. She even said "lobster!" These cool developments in her personality has us zeroing in on her... It's exciting to see her become her own person. But Cam is seriously jealous. He admited to me that he feels left out sometimes. It's one of the hardest parts of growing up. Jordan deserves the attention... Cam deserves attention. Figuring out the right way to give each what they deserve and need is the hard part. I think it doesn't help with the way my girl clings to me. Even after this many days with our whole family, she's still desperate to be in my arms. It's great for my arm muscle growth... Terrible for the overall peace between my son and I. We'll figure this out just like we have all kinds of other things to figure out. I do know that long-term vacationing is wonderful and we've been so damned lucky to do it.
How exciting can life get when Santa brings you the princess pajamas, pink camera and pink Crocs you asked for? Well... For Jordan it also meant a chance to go to Disney World for two days! The thrill of Santa was alive and well in my parents' house on Christmas morning. To make the day more beautiful, it was sunny and gorgeous out. So after the kids played with their new toys and took in all of the excitement in the house, we piled into our bathing suits and ran off to the beach. Seriously, how often can you say you played on the beach on Christmas Day? So very cool.
