May:
First Official Words
We were fortunate to be able vacation in Florida with our dear friends Steve, Elena and their 2 daughters. Both trips, we were invited to stay at their family home in Cape Coral. The first trip was in May and Tristan officially began to speak uttering those famous 'first words,'that didn't include mama or dada. Drum roll please: Bubble ...** His bottle had a little picture with a bunny and bubbles. We were sitting on the bed and he pointed to the bubbles and said 'bubble' clear as a bell. Cool. Another 'first' word: Steve ...** Tristan adores his Uncle Steve and he very much wanted to keep him aprised on all of his activities. How else can you get someone's attention..you call their name! Yes, my son is brilliant!
Pool Antics:
Of course, me and the husband could not have been happier spending our days running after our boy. he loved the pool, he loved the ocean, he loved the sand, he was eating heartily and sleeping great. He enjoyed getting tossed high in the air by the husband. Too high. Not surprised, as the husband is always tossing my not-so-fragile boy around. Tristan can't get enough of it. Me, well I am in constant fear that the husband is going to break my not-so-fragile, yet still breakable child. He hasn't yet. Good sign. It still makes me nervous.
Can't forget about the boats. He enjoyed collecting the three plastic boats in the pool. If one is good, 3 must be better. Every time and anytime he got his hands on one, he methodically scanned the pool for missing boat #2 and missing boat #3. Once he spotted them we were ordered to take him to retrieve them. now. We didn't think of ignoring his orders.
When he wasn't being possessive over the boats, he was dumping cups of water over his head. The sensation of water running down his face was almost too much for him stand. 
On an adult note
We drank everyday. Heavily. Did nothing but eat, bob in the pool, drink, watch tv and drink. Alot. It was a divine escape from our realities of the phone company jobs, scooping litter, whining cats, rushing around and such. I'll never forget pulling out of the driveway on our way to the airport to return home. The garbage men have not picked up teh recycleables yet and all you see are boxes and boxes of empty beer bottles peppered with Tristan's formula bottles. Doesn't that warrant a call to authorities?? Luckily we were gettin out of town.
Uncle Steve's Goggles
The 2nd trip Tristan was already speaking in short sentences, learning how to swim, and revealing his super powers to us. If Tristan was a super hero his power would be his astonishing memory. During our first trip in May we were all hanging out in the pool. Steve was swimming with his goggles on. When Tristan spotted the goggles he panicked. He not the panicky type but for some reason the goggles freaked him out. For the rest of the week, anytime anyone put the goggles on he was very disturbed by them. Fast forward to July. We are swimming in Steve and Elena's pool back at home. Again, Tristan notices the goggles but it was basically a non-event. Goggles or the incident is never mentioned again. Fast forward to September while we are preparing to travel to Florida for our second trip. I was babbling on to Tristan about how we are going back to Florida to swim in the pool blah blah blah fun blah blah swimming blah blah. After a moment of listening to me, he cocked his head slightly to the side and said very clearly 'Uncle Steve's goggles'. He said it in a ' how-can-i-ever-forget-those-freaky-goggles' kinda way. How can a child remember such an incident from 5 months before? I wonder what else he remembers, I mean should you really worry about what you do in front of a 13 month old?? Apparently so. Fast forward to October in florida on vacation: Tristan was obsessed with the goggles. He talked about them every day. Anything and everything was about 'Uncle Steve's goggles.' He wasn't so much scared of the goggles anymore but intriqued to the point of distraction. On the last day we got him to pose for a picture wearing the infamous goggles. Silly boy. It has been 4 months since that trip and if you mention Florida to him he will still talk about those goggles.
