The cloudiest day
Another day another workout for Sophie. She ninja-ed her way out not so bright and early. Wesley woke up early too which meant another grueling round of entertain Wesley in the dark while being quite for Lola who's still sleeping. Shitiest game I've played in a long while and I play a lot of games folks… lots of them shitty.
Surprisingly Lola sleeps through the chaos until her usual 7am. She wakes up all smiles which always warms the heart. Sophie arrives shortly after and we get everyone ready and out the door in record time. We are hungry and beeline it for breakfast buffet. Our friends will join us when they are ready. Lola protests the absence of her friend profusely. We have enough time to eat one plate of food before their arrival.
We are on a bit of a time crunch this morning as Sophie signed the kids up to the resort's mascot breakfast event. She tells Lola that she's gonna get to cook. The event starts at 9am in the restaurant next to our new favourite pool and bartender, we have 6 minutes to get there.
Once there I quickly assess the situation and tell Sophie “I think we are just eating breakfast with adults dressed as dogs.” All signs seem to indicate that this is not a cooking class for kids. Regardless we head inside and get seated near the front.
Shortly after they announce breakfast is open, suspicions confirmed. We are pretty full from our previous breakfast to have another. Thankfully this one has things not on offer at the other ones, namely a slew of desert type options.
Lola spots a cartoon chocolate mouse head right away, we grab one along with a number of other sugary snacks. Back at the table as Lola indulges in unhealthy eating habits the rag tag dog mascots arrive.
Lola almost loses her mind, wish I could have recorded that. They announce each dog one by one and they strut down to the front. By the way one of the dogs is called Pido, an unfortunate name for a dog mascot entertainning kids. Once all 3 are there they invite all kids to join them for song and dance. Lola has zero issues complying.
After a few songs families are invited one by one to come and take pictures with the dogs. We wait our turn and get a few snaps. We then bolt it to join our friends by the pool. William the bartender reserved prime chairs for us beside the pool. We cream up and play immediately begins in the pool.
The day is overcast which means the pool isn't as busy as usual. I welcome the breaks from the sun and the breeze that persists throughout the day adds a nice touch. Sophie, my friend's wife and their daughter are walk not feeling well today and this ends up putting quite a damper on the day.
Lunch rolls up on us fairly quickly which works out cause that's when the rain really started to come down. We feast mildly and discuss next steps since a number of us aren't feeling well. The final plan involves naps in our rooms of which Lola is not a fan of. She protests and argues at great length. She just wants to play with her friend but sadly her friend is afflicted and needs to rest but our 3 year old Lola is too young to fully understand what's going on.
So we head back and grab all our things and pack the kids in the stroller. We walk back slowly to our room and despite the heavy protest Lola falls asleep. So does Wesley but this was less of a surprise.
We wheel our little ones into our room and leave them in the stroller. I decide to use the time to catch up on my writing. Sophie prepares to nap in the hopes that it reverses her illness. Wesley awakes around this time and I quickly grab him. I feed him some milk and then try to get him to sleep on me but ultimately it was mommy that succeeded in this endeavour.
Eventually she puts him in the crib and prepares to sleep herself but I signal her to come cuddle with me and we both pass out in each other's arms. We really need to get better at setting time aside for these moments of tenderness between each other. It's too easy to just get caught up in all things kid related.
When I awake she switched bed to continue sleeping while I shift gears and start writing. I prefer writing when nothing is going on as I don't want to sacrifice us time if I can avoid it. Lola is the first to wake up so I grab her and bring her to my bed where we play a few card games together.
After a number of wins for her I let her watch some more Bluey. Wesley wakes up next which wakes up Sophie. We waste more time in our room not doing much until we decide to go play mini putt and pickleball together.
We play 5 holes that sees both Sophie and I get a hole in one when suddenly my friend's wife and their daughter joins us. We switch to playing pickleball while she entertains the kids. We don't play long but Sophie is happy no matter the length. She's particularly stoked that I also enjoy the game as she sees this as an activity we can do together. She's not wrong.
After calling it quits we realize we didn't leave a lot of time for getting ready for dinner. Tonight our reservation is at 7pm so Sophie suggests we get food for Wesley at one of the buffets as to not further delay his bedtime.
We mistakingly go to one that is closed in the evening so to not make it a total waste we grab drinks and head back to our room to change. Then we head to another and Sophie fills up a Tupperware we brought full of food Wesley will like.
With packed food for Wes we the jet to the restaurant, our friends are waiting. We get seated and Lola starts to meltdown again. This time it's extremely difficult to break her out of it and a series of different things just keep setting her off. She is likely hungry, tired, or all of the above.
I try my hardest to keep my cool and be there for her. I almost reach a breaking point but am able to calm down. My friend's daughter was stiynit feeling well so they ate quickly and head out after the main dishes which upset Lola some more. Sophie had to go walking with Wesley in the stroller to get him to sleep.
When she came back everyone was gone. Her meal was cold and she had lost her appetite. We called it quits as well and walked back to our room. While the good was good it was hands out the toughest meal we had yet. I think the later start time might not be workable for our kids. At least not in any meaningful way that could make it reliable.
With another day coming to a close it's nice to know we stiyhave 4 more full days here to enjoy the weather and each other before it's back to reality and cold back home.
Once my family is all sleeping I sit out on the porch with the cool wind blowing through the trees and on me as I finish writing my daily diary.
Nothing much happens down here and the days and experiences seem homogeneous yet sitting here reflecting and writing seems to indicate the contrary… lots happens if you're willing to pay attention.
Life is beautiful!
January 31, 2025
