Where the Wild Things Are

(or "Clewiston: Day 1")

This week, Rob needed to do extra work in Clewiston and he was able to trade radio underwriting for lodging - specifically 7 days at a fishing resort. Clewiston is about 90 minutes north of Miami and small by Florida standards...or even by Arkansas standards - the population is around 7000. Clewiston is where we attended the Sugar Festival and the Winter Wonderland. This is a work trip for him, and really not terribly unlike being home for me - I did two loads of laundry yesterday, just like normal - it is vacation like - particularly because:

a. Everything and everyone are on ONE floor.
b. The condo is larger than our townhouse.
c. The washer and dryer are a half step from the kitchen.

I am going to be so spoiled by Sunday!

That said, here is how yesterday went down:

some time earlier than 7am - enter Caleb, insisting that we go swimming
- I concede and (realizing that I left my swimsuit in Miami) go swimming with the kids in my clothes - in the pool there are hundreds of bugs (some alive) including several dragonflies and a huge grasshopper. We also found a live toad swimming in the pool, which we rescue.
- We return, shower, dress, and manage to get all the solid-food eating members of our family fed before Natalie wakes up.
- Natalie awakes, I nurse her, midway she has a "blowout" affecting my pants, as I carefully hold her up, she spits up all over my shirt. Total clothing change - between my pool soaked clothes and my pooped on clothes, I end up in a very mismatched outfit.
- Caleb makes a fleet of paper boats while Annalise tends to her babies.
- Natalie takes nap A and I propose to the kids we go outside to play, but this is a fishing resort and there is no playground (anywhere, let alone nearby), so we end up at the pool (in front of our condo), which means their feet get wet and suddenly Caleb's shorts are soaked and suddenly the swim rings have appeared and the kids are swimming in their clothes.
- We clean up, get lunch and Natalie wakes up to eat - it rains for a while.
- Perfectly timed, the rain stops and we all go out to the grocery store, and when I have exactly too many cold items to "go back to the van" the kids behave as much like wild animals as possible, suddenly realizing the implications of their behavior, they straighten up and instantly Natalie needs a diaper change - as in now, no questions asked - and I (with 3 kids and a cart full of groceries) change her diaper on the floor in the meat department next to the ground beef. We check out and it starts raining again, but I have had enough of U-Save, so I pulled the shade on Natalie's car seat, covered her feet with a plastic bag and marched all of us to the van. Wet, but not cold - something I love about Florida!
- Natalie takes Nap B - while she is sleeping, Caleb asks me, "Who is the guy talking in front of our door?" I dismissed his question because there are other guests in the building, but next Annalise tells me excitedly, "Mama! The man in my window has FROGS!" And lo and behold right out her window a man was skinning bullfrogs. He had a big bag of skinned legs and about 5 more whole frogs waiting their turn (one was alive). We went out and the kids were "educated" - actually I was too. The man was cleaning the frogs on a homemade table with a board laid over a large tub. After he finished the frogs he lifted the board and showed us the dead ALLIGATORS in the tub! He had two, which he cleaned on a picnic table - Rob took the kids to see when he got home. (Note: he was cleaning the frogs by her window because there was a water hose there.)
- Natalie wakes up, eats, etc. and when she goes back to sleep, the kids and I went out to the canal by the road (on the other side of the condo and watch the barn swallows dive-bomb for bugs.
- Rob comes home, they go see the alligators and fish in the canal while I make dinner, then after dinner we all go fishing and they catch several fish that are "so cute", which in Annalise-speak means they were small :)
- We clean everyone up, put the bigs to bed and Natalie takes a couple of mini-naps before she finally decides to hit the hay around 11:30! Fortunately, she slept (are you ready for this) SEVEN HOURS! And today was much less "interesting" than yesterday.