Baby's Big Dip in the Gulf

Ah, here we are in sunny Sarasota, Florida. We've had quite a time. The highlights: visiting Joe's parents and his Uncle Mink (who lives on Marcos Island, quite a tony area--many residents have their boats moored in their backyard!); dinner at the Phillipi Creek Oyster House which served an astounding amount of food per plate and features an amazing selection of fried seafood (I had a kabob with lobster, shrimp and grouper) and the large plastic shark hanging out front!; and a heavenly lunch at The Columbia, a Cuban restaurant, which served delectable dishes and a marvelous sangria.

Two big points of our trip, which both feature Joaquin: today, we took him to Siesta Beach and he and I both dipped our toes in the Gulf of Mexico for the first time. He laughed and squealed and I held onto him, and swung him about a bit. We had a lot of fun. Joe was great and took pictures. Check out the chubby thighs on our little guy!

The other neat thing is that Baby J has finally started crawling, in a sort of caveman style: one leg straight, the other bent at the knee. He'll get to wherever he's going eventually, but it adds a whole new dimension to the baby-proofing (or lack thereof) at our house. Time to knuckle down!

We fly home tomorrow, and all I can say is, boy, will our arms be tired!