The cruise, part one

On Monday morning (1/26) Pepe, mom, Ioana (mom's friend) and myself woke up at 4:30am to get to Logan on time for our flight to MIAMI. Everyone was excited. Pepe loved the ride to the airport, especially driving over the Zakam (sp?) bridge. After getting over a ticket fiasco, we settled nicely into the plane, mom and Ioana in the front, myself and Pepe in the back. I confess I was a bit worried about the flight, perhaps some PTSD from my last plane trip with Pepe, when he was 1 year old, and crawling all over the place. I was prepared for the challenge - books, legos, crayons, snacks, music on Ipod. But the boy was so well behaved. He had his belt on the entire time. He only asked a few times "Are we in Florida?", had his snacks, watched TV, played with the Legos. Such a good boy.
















We took a taxi to the boat, which was a difficult task bc we did not have a carseat for Pepe and so a few drivers refused to take us on. We finally made it on the boat -Norvegian Sky, after a long check in process delayed by the fact that mom and I share the same first and last name. Once on the boat, we had lunch, but were unable to enter our rooms. It was very hot and our luggages were on transit. Pepe was very excited, and after his first icecream decided that he "needed" to get into the kiddie pool. As such, I took his clothes off and left him in his diaper, without realizing that it was "superabsorbant". The result? Check out the pics.


Yup, at least 3 people asked permission to take pics with the boy. What can I say, he was the talk of the Norvegian Sky!


And at home, daddy, well daddy was so proud: "That's my boy"!
Having a great time!

In the afternoon we settled in and signed Pepe up for "Kid's Corner", the daycare on the boat. Pepe loved it! He ended up going there every day for 2 hours in the am (so I could get my workouts in) and 2 in the afternoon/evening (so we could go see the adult shows). He wanted to go longer, but I just could not make myself let him....I know, pathetic:)
Speaking on Kid's Corner, Pepe charmed everyone over there. They found out about his lighthouse obsession and they made these huge lighthouse posters for him. They made a rule that only Pepe could go into the pretend lighthouse. They let him jump on their tummies. They took him for icecream. Check out the pics below.
"Pirate night" - "Coach" and "Alligator" opening the treasure. Pepe got a fish toy!

"Princes and princesses night" - going for icecream (was nr 4 for Pepe for the day, but who is counting?)

Everyday we did the following things:

*We went to the pool, first mini pool with Pepe, then big pool with iced cold water. I was the only one who swam laps in it the entire trip! Pepe was glued to me, as you can see below.

He ate on me.

And ate some more.

We ate together - I had to eat the skin of Pepe's pears..



And...I even managed to take a short nap!



* We played basketball

Mom was a superstar. She moved around the court like a pro, and even shot a few baskets with her back at the hoop, over her head!




And Pepe, well ...he is daddy's son!
* We took the ferry to the beach

In the background - Norvegian Sky!

* Mom and Pepe played in the pool while the other mommy took a "mental health" break.

Everyone had such a good time. I was really impressed with how reasonable Pepe was, how understanding, negotiating, making deals, sitting down for meals, being so affectionate, so engaging, charming everyone. I was so proud to walk around with him because he put a smile on everyones' face. Such a charmer. I gave him as much freedom as possible. Icecream and chocolate? As much as he wanted (after one day he started saying "no" to icecream). Fall asleep watching cartoons? Why not! Sleep naked (no diaper)? Sure....Sleep with mommy? Sure.

He is now in Miami with mom (I returned on Friday so that I could do my 18 mile run and have a couple of nights with Chris), and I hear there's lots to blog about that... So stay tuned!