Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude

We have been in Florida, visiting Grandparents Grimm and soaking up some warm sunshine. There is no better way to recharge a cold soul in the waning months of a bleak winter than to head south to warmer latitudes and sit on a tropical (or sub-tropical, if you want to get technical) beach, slather on sunscreen, and stare dumbfounded at the waves and palm trees and your extremely white legs poking out of the shorts that you haven't worn since September. You can feel the sunshine and warm breeze recharge your spirit, like the battery on your favorite personal electronic gizmo.

I strongly advocate vacations as a way to physically and mentally remove yourself from your dusty daily routines and allow you to look at your life from the outside and find some perspective. After a few days in your temporary vacation mode, you realize that those problems you had to deal with back home weren't necessarily all that dreadful.

There's one small hitch: routines are good if you want babies to sleep through the night. Spud's been getting good 10-11 hour nights of sleep for a couple of months, but he's fallen off the wagon a little on the trip. Also, tooth #3 is here, which probably isn't helping.

The highlight of the trip was Spud's first visit to the beach. When we arrived at the beach he was napping. He's used to waking up in all sorts of different places (the Mall, school, the park, the grocery store), but this time it was an entirely new ecosystem. He groggily took in the waves and sandy beach and was a little intimidated at first, but it grew on him.