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The Summer of Armando

My name is Armando, a Venezuelan living in Massachusetts and I work for a company that offers a few great benefits. One of them is what the...

Showing posts with label Beach. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Beach. Show all posts

Friday, August 11, 2017

The Pool Guy

Getting Lucas to swim with us has been a struggle. The first day we bought some floaties that were apparently too small for him. He was very excited to jump in the pool and swim, but when I let him go to test the floaties he just sank. After that we bought a vest, but while my mom was putting it on him he slipped and fell face first into the water. From that point on he has refused going back into the pool or the beach. I have forced him a couple of times by holding him and promising that I will not let go of him, but he starts shaking in fear and then I just feel terrible. Today was Alegna's last day before returning home and leaving us in Florida for an extra week, so we tried to use this to convince him to go swim with us.

We took him to the beach and tried but he was still too scared. He stayed by the shore playing with sand with my mom while we swam and exaggerated how much fun we were having. We even bought him a spider man floating device and convinced him that he would be able to throw spiderwebs from it if he swam, but it did not work. My mom used a different technique and gradually approached him to the water. First it was by throwing rocks and sand into the water. Then she made him walk a little closer to see the fish swimming. Finally he reached Alegna's arms and we were able to convince him to splash with his feet and make some swimming movements. It didn't last long, soon he wanted to get back to the shore, but we were happy that the fear wasn't as bad this time. I hope that by the end of the week he will have lost it completely.

As I said previously Alegna will be returning home tomorrow. She is a bit sentimental and I can understand why. My recommendation is to use this week to do everything that she hasn't been able to do in the past 3 years. Use it as a vacation from us. She will be writing this weekend as a guest again to describe her feelings and her experiences in being left alone to do as she pleases. I will still be here in Florida for another week. The only worry I have is handling the two at the same time at the airport on the trip back.

Monday, August 7, 2017

The Trip (Part 2)

We are on vacation mode and it's been great. We had a great weekend at the beach and spending time with our family. We have gotten a lot of help with Lucas and Matias, so our hands are now a little more free to sleep a little later, have meals without having to rush, and enjoying some free time. We are back to the slow life, where you can actually take breaks.

Today we had a fun day. Just hanging around in my parent's home in the morning. It felt like a Sunday morning. Lucas has been wanting to see the Emoji Movie since he saw the trailer on TV. Last time he went to the movies it was with me and Alegna stayed home with Matias. I wanted Alegna to have that same experience and also that movie looked terrible, so they went to the see it together. While I was waiting for them I went Pokemon hunting with my cousins and raiding some gyms trying to catch a Legendary Pokemon. Lucas really liked the movie, Alegna not so much but I think she enjoyed the experience and the bonding.

Lucas had some popcorn, juice and chocolate while at the movies. He also had had a few glasses of chocolate milk in the morning. I guess it all came together in his bloodstream and by mid afternoon he was running all over the house tackling whoever was in front of him while screaming at the top of his lungs. We decided to take him to a water playground near my parents home so he would use up all that energy. He ran and played and by the time we came home he was ready to go to bed. It was a relief to finally get him to bed at a reasonable hour. The past couple of nights he's been going to bed pretty late. We had some time on our hands so we went to have dinner at a Venezuelan restaurant. We had some arepas, patacones, malta, chicha, papelon and a lot more. It was a Venezuelan food feast.

What did I watch?
The Space Between Us: These next couple of weeks I will not have access to my DVR so I will not have a wide selection of movies to choose from. Nothing special about this movie, if you get past the absurd premise and that it is probably targeted to teenage girls, it is a little entertaining movie to pass the time. Nothing more.