Downhill slide

We arrived on the island around 1 on Saturday. Other than a key goof-up (the wrong keys were left for us, but fortunately that was rectified about 10 minutes after we made it to the condo), day 1 went fine. Jane and David went swimming right after we arrived, we had a very good dinner at Sharky's, and everyone went to bed tired pretty early in the evening after playing down at South Beach for a while.

Day 2 - Nice morning (a drive up-island in the morning with lunch at the dock), with a grumpy afternoon punctuated by a nap before we went back to OB for dinner. A lot of whinyness.

Day 3 - meltdown. Awful behavior all around, from breakfast on through the evening. After breakfast in town, we came back home to watch movies (quite a few have been provided here for us) and wait out the rainstorm. David's been foul, complaining that we won't play games with him and that he misses his cat. Finally, after the rain passed we went back into town for a walk and to get some stamps - when he went strolling out the door against my orders at the post office we finally decided enough was enough for the day, went back home, and confined David to his room until supper.

I'm hoping for better tomorrow, but I'm not overly optimistic. We've had a lot of this sort of trouble with him lately. Fortunately, there are some well-regarded babysitting services here that we can turn to for a break if he becomes unbearable. This vacation will be fun, dammit!

More seriously, what we're trying to do is mix in a decent number of the kind of stuff he enjoys (outside play, exploring, bookstores, and anything water/beachfront) with the slower-paced stuff we like to do. Today was really tough, though, because the weather held us back. I think the improved forecast will help some but he's really going through a tough stage right now. We're demanding more maturity from David than he wants to give, and eventually one side will break. We're counting on it being him. You don't need to be an adult at 5, but you can't be a toddler anymore, either. We'll get there.

And my business seems to be taking care of itself fairly well in my absence. Also a plus.