The good parts about Puerto Rico

The plague has officially left our house, thank God.  Of course, not before we all got taken down.  Poor Sofia was sick on Tuesday and Wednesday, we both were sick on Thursday and Drew got it on Friday and part of Saturday.  That stomach bug is no joke and from what I understand, there's nothing you can do about it but endure its wrath and hope you make it out alive.  Thankfully, by Sunday we were all back to normal, minus a few pounds.  Drew and I were okay with a bit o' weight loss, but it broke my heart to pick up Sofia and feel that she was definitely lighter.  Ever since then, I've been on a mission to fatten her back up.

Sick and pitiful.  We were posted up on the sofa all day 

Thursday and watched more Yo Gabba Gabba than I would care to admit.

Oh!  I wanted to pass along a recipe for homemade Pedialyte in case your family gets struck by the plague and you're like me and have nothing in the house.  Believe me, it is no fun to have to go to the grocery store with a pukey kid.  But since we have nothing but water and milk in our house, I didn't have a choice.  Poor kid puked three times while we were out.

Anyway, homemade Pedialyte:  1 quart of water, 2 tbsp sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt.  Warm the water so the salt and sugar will melt and give it in tiny sips to your pukey baby.  Or your pukey self, if necessary.  Hopefully you won't need it, but if you do, there ya go.  It's from here.

But now that everyone is back to normal, it's time to get back to writing.  I don't know about other bloggers, but I can't write out of order.  I have a bunch of topics I want to write about but if I feel like something hasn't been addressed, I can't move on.  In this case, it's Puerto Rico.

The only post I wrote about our trip had to do with the difficulty.  And while good LORD it was difficult, it wasn't all bad.  It's never all bad when you get to escape the snow and hang out on the beach in January.  So first off, the flight.

Sofia is a champion traveler - she always has been.  We've taken her on vacation to Rio, Kauai and now Puerto Rico.  She's also flown several times from Dallas to Kansas City and Philadelphia and I've not ever had one incident with her.  This is nearly all due to the fact that we're still nursing (and I want to blog about that shit too, but it'll have to be later), and I can pop a boob in her mouth at the first sign of fussiness.  It works every single time and I'm pretty sure once we wean and we have to travel I will eat my words.  But for now, we're still good.

The last time we flew, I was seriously prepared and it went well.  This time I was way more lax because my child is an addict and it's NOT the boob.

My little junkie

We loaded the iPad with all the episodes of Yo Gabba Gabba and we heard not a peep out of her for nearly the whole flight.  I'm not proud of this - I wish with everything that I had never shown her even one episode, because there is something about that show that draws them the very first time and the kid is HOOKED.  She knows the songs, the characters and while I wish she were as addicted to books, I can't be too upset.  Once, she was trying to put her shoes on and she couldn't get it and was getting frustrated.  With no prompting, she started singing, "Keep try-ing, keep try-ing, don't give up, don't give up" which is a Gabba song.  So I guess there are worse things, and if it keeps my kid quiet on a plane without me having to nurse her, I'll take it.

A must if you have kids.

I got these window clings for our last flight and they were an even bigger hit this time.  Before, the gummy texture confused Sofia and she tried to eat them, but this time she knew they were stickers and had a ball sticking and re-sticking them to the window.  I got these at Target, but I'm sure you can find them at the dollar store or someplace like that.

We made it to Miami without incident!

We got up at 4:30 that morning and arrived in San Juan at 8 at night.

She was such a trooper!

Since this was Drew's work trip, we had to stay in two different hotels.  We'd arrived a couple of days before the conference, so that hotel stay was on us.  We used points and scored a great hotel room with an amazing view.

It doesn't suck.

Unfortunately, we had to leave our awesome hotel and go to the company hotel, which was nowhere near as nice.  I try not to complain about free stuff, but still.  There was mold on the ceiling and rust in the bathroom.  I didn't like it, but that's all I'm going to say because I already wrote my complain-y post.

We got to the beach as soon as we could.

There's a lot that's right with this picture:  the beach in January, chubby baby legs,

sand castles, a sexy husband doing his best Marlboro Man impression. 

 It's all winning - are people still saying that?

How cool is my diva baby with her movie star glasses on her head?

*Sigh*, she's not even a baby anymore!

Because oh yes, the outfits.  I was so excited to put Sofia in summer clothes and I pretty much died when I found a fedora at Old Navy for less than 50 cents.

She rocked that fedora like a boss.

That's the cool thing about having a kid that's a little older:  She kept that hat on

for most of the day and I squealed inside every time someone saw her and said

how cute she was.  And check the jellies!

The jellies deserve their own post, I love them that much.  

On Christmas Eve, I took Sofia to see Santa and it was epic.  Our pathetic mall had a billion people in it, Sofia hated Santa and screamed her face off for her picture.  When it was over, we BOTH needed a treat.  We went to the Gap, I spied the jellies, squealed because they were perfect and ran to pay for them.  Like the good eco-conscious person I am, I refused a bag, saying I'd just put them in the stroller.

But there were a billion people in the mall, Sofia was melting down and in my haste, I must have left the store without them.  I don't want to think that someone took them from me in my distracted state.  I didn't realize until I got aaaalllll the way back to the car, but don't you know I went aaaaalllll the way back to the store because I loved those jellies so much, but of course they were gone.  I was SO PISSED and sad.  The people at the store couldn't do anything for me so I actually hand-wrote a letter to Gap customer service begging them to do something and do you know they gave me a refund?  Isn't that awesome!  By then, I'd already gotten another pair but they ended up being too big.  I didn't realize until Sofia's feet kept flopping out of her shoes, so I bought another pair in Puerto Rico, this time in a smaller size.  So it's safe to say that Sofia will be rocking her jellies with every outfit this summer.

But back to our trip!

There was a fountain in the square near our hotel and Sofia was in heaven.  She absolutely loved playing in the water and was literally screaming with joy.

She got drenched but was never happier.
Fountain from Desiree on Vimeo.
She loved that fountain!!

Now, I wasn't super impressed with San Juan as a city.  I was looking for it to be more old-world or even tropical and I was surprised to see Ben and Jerry's, Subway and Walgreens all right on the main strip.  However, we finally got down to Old San Juan and it was much more to my liking.

Finally, here were the cobblestone streets and colorful exteriors I was craving!

It started raining just as we arrived but it was still so pretty.

We walked around the fort taking pictures and sightseeing.

I told Drew to "look manly" and he completely succeeded.

The stroller and purse only add to his manliness. 

More pretty exteriors.  I always wonder about the people who get to live in houses like these.

Are they happy when they come home when they see their pretty houses, or do they get

sensitized to it and just take their surroundings for granted?  One of these days I'm going to knock on a door and see what happens.  

House-crashing, guerilla style.  It could happen!

As it happened, my cousin and her family were in Puerto Rico for a wedding at the same time we were there.  Her son is a week older than Sofia and it was so cool to get them together.

At the fountain, of course.

"This fountain is awesome!"

Playing at the waterfall wall.

Of course, we didn't really think it through and had no dry clothes for afterwards.

Thank goodness it was 80 degrees at 8 at night.

So, see?  Puerto Rico wasn't all bad.  Anytime I don't have to cook, clean or walk a dog isn't a bad time and I really was glad we got to go.  I know that our next trip will be different because Sofia will be older and we'll be on a real vacation.  Because that will definitely be the last time I accompany Drew on a work trip.  We're going to Hilton Head in August and I know that will be better.

It was real Puerto Rico.  

Stay classy.