Cruise, Day5: cozumel

Today brought us to Cozumel.

But first we went down to breakfast.  I noticed this server's name was Isaac and pointed it out to Isaac...he made us a origami Nemo (which we left at the table :(  ).  But it was fun to see him around the rest of the cruise.  Isaac thought it was cool to find someone else with his name.

Joshua wanted his picture by the Mickey Mouse.

We had a little bit of time before our excursion, and so we hung out in our room.  It was pirate night, and Joshua was ready for it!  (Also, I almost didn't bring the Duplos because they are so big but I'm glad I did.  I'm always glad that I did...the boys can get so much play out of a ziplock full of them.)

I managed to get one whole picture of our room.  I wanted to get some right after housekeeping had come, but thought I'd grab this one in case I forgot.  Good thing.  Anyway, Isaac got the top bunk and he loved it.  It folds into the ceiling and they would have done that every day, but we asked them to leave the beds up.  It gave us a bit more room, as crazy as that sounds, and was better for naps. To the right there is a desk and to the left there is a bed.  While not spacious, we also had plenty of room.

Our excursion for the day was a tour of a Mayan Chocolate ...thingy.  It was heavy on the tour and light on the chocolate.  I was hoping that we would be able to see the actual factory and learn about the supply chain to get ingredients and some of the issues affecting chocolate growing.  Instead we got a five minute explanation about the history, a five minute demo on how they used to make chocolate, and assorted other local information.  The chocolate information was good.  The rest was ok.  There were also many samples, which was nice.  After this we went back in the bus, drove around to a tourist stop, and then drove back to the boat.  The guide did a good job explaining the local culture, but I was very glad that I had brought screens for the boys.  Overall, I'd rate it 'ok.'  It didn't really meet my expectations, but wasn't bad either.

This is Joshua drinking a chocolate frosty.  It was delicious.

This is at the tourist stop.

That night for dinner we had mango soup.  It was delicious!!  I had two bowls.  Ben had a migraine and was upstairs, so I asked for some to bring to him.  They gave me three bowls. :)  

 That night was pirate night!  We didn't dress up much, although both boys had pirate shirts on.  I had some hats that Joshua didn't want to wear and Cheryl had eye patches.  I wore a bandanna...a rather normal style for me.

We stayed up late for fireworks and a pirate show.  Joshua really liked the fireworks.

Saturday: who knows

Well, once he got to bed Joshua didn't throw up any more last night.  I woke up a few times as he crashed around with his drinks, but didn't need to help him.  Ben let me sleep in and even brought me breakfast in bed.

We had homemade popsicles for lunch.  They were a hit.

Joshua did throw up around 4pm again, but that was the only time.  He doesn't have a fever.  He doesn't have diarrhea.  So whatever's hitting him is a bit weird and hopefully not as contagious as the other stuff going around.  He hasn't been eating much, but I'm ok with that.  The 1.5 crackers he had for dinner did stay down.

Friday: tonight

Well, I had been looking forward to a relaxing evening of computer games and quilting.  (Side note: I wanted to get my sewing machine a tune-up and the wait list is currently three weeks out.  However, I can't sign up and bring my sewing machine in in two weeks.  I can't get in the queue without bringing my sewing machine in.  It seems a bit ridiculous to me.)

Then at 6:45pm Joshua said he wasn't feeling well.  At 7:15pm, while we were putting him to bed and reading books he threw up.  All over.  I changed everything.  At 7:30, as we were settling down to books again, he threw up.  Most of it got in the bucket this time, but not enough to save the sheets.  (Side note: we had borrowed two copies of the book that we were reading, so we were able to continue in a clean copy.  It stayed clean.)  At 8:15 he threw up again, and since he was alone and had probably been asleep it was all over the place again.  (The volume was thankfully less though.)  I moved to the couch with him since I was out of sheets where he proceeded to throw up about every 15 minutes for the next two to three hours.  Luckily there was nothing left in his stomach, so handling it was easy.

I left him in his room, where he wanted to be, with some pedialite because he was really thirsty.  The frequency had dropped considerably, so I thought we'd try it.  He kept some water down, and I haven't heard anything from the first few sips of pedialite.  Hopefully we're almost over this stage.  However, when I left him he was also wide awake.  Hopefully my leaving him also will help him go to sleep.

(I felt about like I did when pregnant.  A small child, calling Ben to do easy tasks like get me water, and a throw up spot.)

In other news, we got Valentines today and Isaac got right to work.  He has about a third finished...we'll see if the novelty has worn off or if he'll finish the rest easily.

Cruise Day 4: Grand Cayman

We tried the sit down restaruant instead of the buffet for breakfast this morning.  There were some nice things about it - it was less crowded and easier, but the selection wasn't quite as large.  (It was the same food as the buffet though.)  The donuts were super yummy, but also rather sticky.  Joshua decided to eat it with a fork.

We were slowly walking to the next thing but took a break by the windows.

The next thing was a Wake-Up Disney thing.  We were the only people there for the first half.  We weren't sure what we were getting into, so at first we were 'worried.'  We needn't have worried.  The leader was energetic and Isaac was in the mood.  Joshua hung back, but still had a good time.

They started by asking Isaac if he watches Disney Jr.  "Yeah!"  "What's your favorite show?"  "Paw Patrol" "...well, ok!"  The leader tried really hard, but it turns out that we don't watch Disney Jr. and so Isaac didn't have the right knowledge.

Goofy showed up half way through and the leader faked ignorance and Goofy stayed behind him.  Isaac and Joshua tried so hard to point out that Goofy was there.

They did the hot dog dance.  Goofy and the leader were doing something semi-coordinated, while Isaac put his arms straight up in the air and wiggled around.  I knew exactly what he was doing, but the leader (nicely) asked, what are you doing?  Isaac said, "I'm being a hot dog," and the leader laughed.

At the very end the leader said, "well, I hope this helped to wake you up this morning," and Joshua immediately lay down and started snoring.  He has a funny sense of humor sometimes.

There were some characters up for pictures, so we did that.  We didn't have a ton of time, and Isaac wanted Stitch and Joshua wanted Buzz, so we split up.

Then it was time for Ben and Isaac to go on their excursion.  They were going in a submarine.

(This is the view from shore.  We were in the boat in the middle with a black bottom.)

They had a nice card to identify the wildlife.

They went down to about 100ft and saw a large cliff where the sea floor just dropped off. 

Joshua and I went back to the room for a bit.  He watched TV and I read on the balcony.

We had that little port door open for part of the week.  The balconies can be connected, but it is more like a little hallway between them versus actually being the same balcony.  (Most are more hallway like as shown in the second.)

On the ferry ride to shore Joshua fell asleep.  I was kind of hoping for this as he had been rather grumpy all morning.  I carried him off the ferry, to the waiting place (at which point someone nicely gave me a seat), and through the short bus ride.  We had a trip that we were calling a sub ride, but the top of the boat never actually went under the water.  (Joshua wasn't old enough for the other.)

We had square windows.  It was interesting to hear what Joshua was looking for...I think he found a fish maze in the coral at one point.

This trip was just right for Joshua.  Not too long, but long enough.  The coral didn't seem very colorful; they said it was due to hurricane Irma.  We didn't have a fish identifier card, which would have been nice, but we saw lots of fish and some barracudas.

He was able to do the seat belt on the bus back by himself and wanted me to take a video because he was so excited.  I compromised with a picture.

Our boat again.

Joshua enjoyed being at the front of the ferry on the way back.

Time for ice cream!  It was a late ice cream and that was a mistake...they didn't eat much for dinner.

Dinner was at Animator's Restaurant.  I think this was my favorite of the three...the kids loved it a lot too.  This first time there was a Nemo theme, so on screens all over the restaurant Nemo characters were swimming in and out.  Then Crush came and talked to our table, asking where we were from and how we greet other people.  ("Hey" was what he heard.)  He went to another table then, doing the same thing.  They also said "hey", so then Crush came back to our table and told us to yell "Hey" to the other table.

This evening (or possibly yesterday...some of my days are getting mixed up) we went to a show with juggling, hula hoops, ceiling ribbons, and a unicycle.  It was interesting to watch.

Thursday: Joshua

This morning Joshua zipped up his coat all by himself!  I was proud of him and saying so.  Turns out that he was so mad that I didn't do it that he immediately unzipped his coat.  *sigh*

After dinner Joshua brought stuff to Ben and I on the couch.  Including some hats.

Wednesday: kids

I remembered yesterday's story.  I was changing my clothes after work and was freezing.  Joshua is talking to me and wearing just socks and the T-shirt we got him on the Disney cruise.  I ask him why he isn't cold.  "The cruise ship keeps me warm," was his response.  This is the vacation the boys don't stop talking about...it is super fun!

Isaac brings home these sheets about once a week.  I think there are some cards that he needs to copy the word and draw the picture - it's all copying, but it is interesting to see how he interprets the picture.

Joshua cracked his first egg today (and it was on purpose).  He's been close the last few times we cooked, so this time I just handed him the egg to see what would happen.  tap-tap. check: small crack. tap-tap. check: slightly bigger crack. Tap. It broke.  He pulled it apart and dumped the insides into the container, but then wasn't sure what to do with the shell.

Tuesday:Joshua

Joshua woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.  Er, maybe I should say that he didn't wake up and I had to wake him up, which had all sorts of problems.  He cried his way through getting ready for school.

*He wanted water instead of milk.
*His pajama zipper only wanted to go up instead of down.  (Guess who was controlling the zipper.)
*He wanted a shirt without pictures.  No, he wanted a shirt with pictures.
*He couldn't get the old shirt off
*His socks weren't on right.

Oh my goodness.  I feel especially sorry for Isaac on these days, since he's not a parent but still has to deal with the loudness.

He got initiated into the use of knives this evening with strawberries.  He didn't cut many, but he did cut some.

He said something cute this evening too, but now we can't remember it.  Bother, it would have been a nicer way to end the story about his day.