The wonderful world of Justice and Mommy aka Mary!

Monday, November 26, 2007

We Went to Disney!!!!

We had a very wonderful Thanksgiving in West Palm and Ocala this year. It was so nice to spend the holiday with some of my dearest family and friends. After that we headed to Disney for a fun filled, action packed holiday! I have so much to blog about so stay tuned. I'm going to try to have everything posted by Friday or Saturday at the latest.
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posted by Mary Gerber at 11/26/2007 0 comments

Monday, November 19, 2007

And the Academy Award for best dramatic performance goes to.....Justice Gerber!


For most kids a splinter is a painful and unwanted experience. For other kids it's the end of the world. Justice would be in the end of the world category. While we were at McArthur yesterday, he happened to brush the palm of his hand on the wooden banister, on the steps, leading to the beach and got several splinters. Some of them were minuscule, others came out pretty easily and two were somewhat deeply embedded. I got a few out while waiting to see Santa and decided to leave the others for later.

That night directly after Justice's bath while his skin was still moist I tried again to remove the pesky splinters to no avail. At the slightest touch Justice would freak out and jerk his hand away making things very difficult so I decided to try again in the morning. The morning did not go any better. In fact it was worse. About 10-20 seconds into the whole process he was screeching and screaming "Somebody help me!". I give. Justice 3, Mommy 0.

His ability to put out Oscar worthy performance never ceases to amaze me. This kid has some serious talent and he needs very little encouragement to perform. *Sigh*, as a mom I really hope he gets paid for this one day....

Perhaps dad will have better luck tonight than I did.
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posted by Mary Gerber at 11/19/2007 0 comments

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Blizzard on the Beach!

Who says we don't have everything in south Florida? Our kids play in the snow just like any other children except, we do it with style. Who wants to have to put on layers and layers of clothing just to go outside to get cold and wet in a matter of minutes? Down here we just throw on our flip flops, t-shirts and shorts then dive into the snow mound! The best part is when you get a little too cold all you have to do is jump off the mound and let the sun warm you up.
I think Justice really enjoyed this part because he asked to go back a second time before we left!

Next, Santa arrived on a firetruck and took a tram ride down to the beach for pictures. Now I have to say, when I first moved to south Florida, I had my reservations about warm Christmas's and such, but; now that I've been here for over 10 years I can't imagine Christmas any other way. When we reached the beach we found Santa in a folding camp chair next to the dunes with children lined up to take pictures and whisper their Christmas wish list in his ear. Of course we got in line and Justice has his photo taken. They had professional photographers there as well snapping photo's and in a few days we can all look up our pictures online and print them out! I can't wait to see what his looks like.

Last but not least they had FREE kayaking for the event! I think this was the biggest hit for Justice. He was sooooo excited and kept saying "It's my first time ever!" I was very impressed by how well he helped paddle. At first I thought it was going to be more of a chore than anything. I was sure that my arms would be aching in a matter of minutes and that Justice would only be interested in being a passenger. Boy was I wrong! The lightweight kayak seemed to float across the brackish water with very little effort and Justice paddled profusely the entire time. While we were out on the water we had the chance to see flying fish and partially submerged mangroves on an island. The weather was perfect and after about 30 minutes we made our way back to the launch site to turn our kayak over to another park guest.

All in all it was a great day. The best part was that pretty much everything was free. In addition to everything else,they also had bounce houses, face painting, live bluegrass music, Busch Wildlife animal presentations, a scavenger hunt and vendors. This will definitely make it onto our ever growing list of things to do every year.


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posted by Mary Gerber at 11/18/2007 0 comments

A day at the park

Today I took Justice over to Mc Arthur state park. I thought they were having their “Blizzard on the Beach“ however, I had mixed up the dates. The Blizzard was scheduled for Sunday, and today was Saturday. Since I had already spent the $3 to get in I decided that we would to take a look around and see what there was to offer.

In the last year I have really come to know what old Florida is and have become completely enamored with it. Anytime I find a new location that truly shows old Florida it quickly goes onto my “favorite places” list. McArthur State Park is the newest addition to that list.

Upon entering the park Justice and I drove around and picked a spot to park after we got the lay of the land. I decided to start our exploration of the park at the visitors center. They had some really nice tanks with indigenous snakes and marine life. Justice really like the horseshoe crabs and seahorses, but; I think his favorite exhibit was the microscopes. They had all kinds of things you could look at like sand, shells, feathers and more!

After that we walked along the long boardwalk over the intercostals to get to the hammocksw and beach. When we reached the end of the boardwalk we headed off to the beach first. It was completely untouched and pristine. There were a few ecologically minded people milling about and the weather was perfect for a walk on the beach, however; we decided to take a short hike along the mangrove lined hammock first. Along the way we saw numerous butterfly’s feeding on the wildflowers. Justice was entranced by their fluttering wings. Ever so carefully he crept up on them in the hopes of catching one. One after the other he kept missing them until finally one flew right onto his hand for a brief moment. The look on his face was priceless. “Mommy, one of them just TOUCHED me!” It was so cute. Unfortunately by that point the noseums had become unbearable and I hadn’t thought to bring bug spray so we quickly made our way to the beach.

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As we stepped onto the sand I couldn’t help but notice how the warm sun was perfectly balanced by the cool breeze flowing through the air. We started to stroll along the coastline lazily and although we tried to stay just out of the reach of the breaking waves we couldn’t escape the spray of the surf on our skin. It was like a fine mist, cool to the touch. The sky was perfectly blue with a smattering of puffy white clouds and the sun was shinning as it does in every postcard from Florida. It was Florida at it’s best.

The shoreline was littered with jellyfish which held a particular interest for Justice. He leaned in close to examine one, but carefully headed my warnings not to touch. After that he took great care not to step on any of the washed up marine life so as not to injure himself. About half way through our walk we happened upon Miriam, one of the Outlanders from the Itchetuknee camp out. After a brief conversation we continued on our way until Justice’s energy started to wane.

As we neared the steps leading to the hammock we ran into a couple of older women took a particular interest in Justice. They brought a hatched sea turtle egg over to us and showed him where it had split and explained to him how a baby turtle had been born of that shell. His interest had been peaked and as the ladies went on their way, he insisted on running on to thank them for their kindness.

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Soon we came to the unusually long boardwalk we noticed a tram station and decided to wait for it rather than walk the length back per Justice’s request. As luck would have it when the tram approached us, the same ladies and their male companions were arriving and decided to ride back with us. We all enjoyed the relaxing ride back to our cars while gazing out over the diamond sparkled water and mangrove lined shorelines.

All in all it was a very relaxing afternoon. Miriam had told us about a $40 “Friends of Mc Arthur” pass that would give us free access to the park for a whole year and after our tour we are seriously considering buying one. In addition to the visitors center, hiking and beaches they also offer fishing, kayaking, an outdoor amphitheater with an occasional concert, biking trails, a playground and last but not least picnicking. It’s days like this that really remind me of why I moved to Florida.
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posted by Mary Gerber at 11/18/2007 0 comments

Monday, November 12, 2007

Window Shopping


A couple of Saturdays ago I was particularly broke and wanted something to do when I had a truly brilliant idea. We should go window shopping. As a child my father used to take me window shopping at all the newest home developments to see what the houses looked like and how much they were going for. I always loved that because I would walk through the rooms imagining which would be mine and what my wonderful fantasy life in that house would be like.

As an adult I have found that the only kind of window shopping that works for me is to "shop" for things I have no hope of affording right now. If I window shop at the MAC counter chances are I am going to come out with a small brown bag from Bloomingdales or if I "shop" at Steve Madden.... You guessed it! I will walk out with a great pair of shoes. Of course I'll rationalize the purchase by saying, "Well, they were 60% off so....". With that in mind I decided to check out the new RV's at Palm Beach RV.

Unfortunately they don't carry
Teardrop campers which I have developed a small obsession with. If you've never heard of them check out the link. They are so cute and can be pulled with a motorcycle or small car.

On the way there I asked Justice if he knew what window shopping was and he said
"No"
"Well what do you think it is?"
"Um, we're going shopping for windows?"
"No sweetie, it means you go shopping, but you're not going to buy anything."
"I don't get it."
"Well, back in the day when towns were smaller there used to be one street with all the stores and they would display their best stuff in the windows. People would walk by and look into the windows just to see what they could buy if they had more money."
"Mommy, I don't want to do that. Let's do something else today."

Of course after we got there and he saw how cool the campers were he wanted to go into every one 2 and 3 times!

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posted by Mary Gerber at 11/12/2007 0 comments

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Our first visit from the tooth fairy :)


Well I had to start somewhere so, I've wound the clock back a few weeks to early October of 2007.

One day after Justice came home from his dad's house he kind of nonchalantly announced "Hey, one of my teeth is wiggly". My head quickly turned in his direction in complete shock. Did I hear him correctly? Could he really be ready to loose his first tooth at 5 1/2? Hmmm let me think....no, I'm sure me and Katie didn't loose our first tooth until we were 6 or 7. Is normal I asked myself? My first impulse was to go and grab one of the dusty baby books of the shelf to see what happens at what age. I can tell you for the first 2 years those books were my constant companions and 2nd bible! Like most mothers I constantly obsessed with his development and wanted to be sure my sweet angel was developing or par with his peers.

It's funny, but; you slowly come to a point where, as a mom you begin to accept your child's development as it is and stop pouring over books that tell you what and when your child should be doing something. It doesn't happen overnight. It's more of a slow change that occurs over such a long period of time, that you don't even realize it. And then SNAP! Something happens that seems out of the ordinary and there you are once again running to those "What and When" books.

Well, I held off my urge to check his normalcy long enough to go over and inspect this wiggly tooth of his. My eyes welled up with tears as I saw the glee in his face and I took my thumb and forefinger to shake his little tooth back and forth. It was exciting and sad all at the same time. It was a right of passage for him and the end of another chapter for me.

After inspecting the tooth, I checked the books and low and behold he was right on track! A sigh of relief escaped my lips and I rested my back on the chair a little easier.

My next thought jumped to the when. When would this tooth come out? Panic ensued. What if he lost it at school? Or worse what if he lost it at his dad's house? I had to make sure the tooth made it home safely and sound for the Tooth Fairy's visit. I grabbed a Tupperware box and made a label on plain white paper that said "tooth box". I used scotch tape to affix it to the box and called Justice over to explain what it was for. We had a good talk about what happens when a tooth falls out (so he would know what to expect and not freak out if he saw a bit of blood) and what to do with a lost tooth to keep it safe for the Tooth Fairy.

As luck would have it he lost his tooth at school. His substitute, Mrs. Katz was very helpful in wrapping the tooth up for safekeeping. By the way- he lost his first tooth while in time out!

That night he went to bed faster than I'd ever seen. He even refused to use the pillow for fear that he would somehow knock the tooth about and not get a surprise from the beloved Tooth Fairy. As always she visited our house that night. She left $5 under the pillow and a line of red sparkly fairy dust lead to a spiderman web blaster and mask set! Also there was a line of what Justice called "Pixie Dust" leading to the front door. When we opened the door we noticed it went out into the grass and then stopped abruptly. We looked at each other and know that must have been where she up and flew away back to her magical land of teeth!
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posted by Mary Gerber at 11/11/2007 0 comments

We're so cool we blog now!

Well, I've finally decided to join the growing number of people who document their entire lives through blogs for all the world to see. Of course Justice and I both have our own myspace and facebook accounts where anyone can check us out and view our current pictures, but; I've noticed that blogs are much more personal. They seem to resemble a journal from days past in which people would record their daily comings and goings along with their deepest hopes and fears. At one time journals were these very personal things that were carefully guarded under lock and key lest anyone find them and know your most secret thoughts. Now all that has changed. In the information age we have taken to posting our journals on the internet for all to see and we even allow others to comment on our blogs! So for anyone who cares to see this is where you are given a window to the wonderful world of mommy and justice.
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posted by Mary Gerber at 11/11/2007 0 comments