First vacation

Last weekend, Taiyo and I went on our first vacation out of this island to another island, Bermuda. It was his first flight, our first real away from home vacation alone, and of course I was pretty nervous about it. I picked a close destination and a short trip, only three nights. All my friends were so happy for us and said, "Oh, you're going to have a good time." Well.. did we?

Taiyo doesn't like taxi, so I packed light and took subway to JFK. He fell asleep by the time we got to Air Train. At the security check point, they made me pick him up, and told me to fold the stroller to run through the scanner. It was a difficult task and nobody gave me a hand. I was already discouraged about the trip. While gathering my stuff Taiyo woke up, of course cranky with only half hour nap. We circled around the terminal three times before finally settling for a sandwich at the cafeteria. He was then excited to see the airplanes at the gate, and jumped around to amuse other travelers. Aboard the plane, we luckily had the row of three seats to ourselves, but he refused to sit by the window, complaining the harsh reflection of the sun because we were right next to the wing. Then of course he didn't want to sit and wear seatbelt. Forty minutes later finally we took off and by the time the seatbelt sign went off I just let him be. He was jumping around the isle, talking constantly, sometimes stretched on the floor, amusing some passengers. Then mean old lady stewardess came over and went "Shhhhhhh...!" right into his face. He went, "La la lala la, la..." shaking his hips, right back to her face. I decided I didn't like American Airlines. He wasn't even very loud. He was just being a two-year old. Anyway, we landed, made it to the hotel, and he was at least impressed with the big TV. He jumped around the room and the next door a baby (or more like a toddler) was crying. This happened to be the noisiest room I've stayed in- if the kid wasn't crying, adults were talking loudly. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was on some movie channel, and of course he had to watch his favorite movie.

Next day we went down to the beautiful little beach. Taiyo enjoyed destroying someone else's sand castle. Then he enjoyed hanging around the beach cabana bar having smoothie. I also wanted to enjoy swimming pools at the hotel but he refused to go. Then we had dinner at an Italian restaurant at the hotel, where he received very warm welcome. He was cranky after a short nap, but the view of ducks walking across the golf course outside helped. I thought the day went relatively well but back at the hotel room he said, "Let's go home and have an orange." Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was on TV again and of course he had to watch his favorite movie again.

Next morning he's quite cranky and broke down at the breakfast buffet. Eventually a few blueberry muffins put him back to a better mood. We took a ferry ride into the city of Hamilton, then first we had to go buy some diapers since I realized I packed just a few short. And to my surprise they didn't sell any at the hotel, although they claim to be a family resort. At the supermarket they had only Huggies, no Pampers. Taiyo said, "I don't like it." "But this is the only thing they have, look!" Oh, yes I've been hating this vacation, as much as he has! Then the chatty driver took us to the cute aquarium and zoo, which was nothing impressive compared to the NYC zoos and aquarium he frequents, but he loved a little playground there, which gave me a few minutes of relief. He faded in my arms on the ride back to the city. I circled around the touristy shopping area, waiting for the restaurants to open for dinner. Finally settled in at a seafood restaurant, had an expensive and gross dinner, which Taiyo still slept through, then had to wake him up for a ride back to the hotel, which he whined through. I asked him if he wanted to go down at the lounge to have a bite, but he wanted to order in. So we get a room service, and sat in front of the big TV for the evening. Next morning we had to get up super early to catch our returning flight. I said, "we are going home today," and Taiyo said, I swear, "I can't wait." I wanted to shoot myself. Then of course the security people gave me hard time at the airport because Taiyo was asleep. The lady at the check point told me to hold him away from my body like a teddy bear. I said, "I can't. He's 35 pounds!" Seriously, I'm not strong enough to hold the sleeping boy, plus, they think I'm hiding a bomb under my kid? Well, somehow we made it back, and he made me take a long subway ride home since he hates taxis. We made it back safely, and we survived our first vacation. Now the joke is that when he misbehaves, I threatens him, "I'm going to take you for another vacation!" Then he says, "NOOOOOO!" and does what I ask him to do.