Notes From A Trip, Part III

[I'm just going to pretend that my comments aren't working, and that, really, you all WANT to hear the final installment of my trip. Lalalalalalala.]

She found a friend today, and instantly turned back into my Em. Thank goodness.

If I had ten seconds’ worth of strength left, I’d write about how much fun today was, with the cooking tour and the shopping, and the dipping of toes into the water, and the tequila tasting/educating. Not to mention the big dance party by poolside and the 11 pm buffet and the comidian/magician act in the Masquerade, which was hilarious. I’d recount a few stories about Em, such as the man in the jewelry store who thought she was so smart because she knew where the sapphire counter was. (There was a sign overhead.) As I told him, “She sure does know her gemstones, but I’m not sure that’s such a good thing for me.” I’d talk about how proud of herself she was that she knew how to make guacamole even efore we ‘learned’ how to do it in cooking class. Or about how all day long, people just kept giving her things, and not just at the stores that offer a freebie to get you in the door, but also from the little marketplace booth owners who were impressed by how she was buying souvenirs for her friends with her own money.

But I don’t have the strength. So instead, here’s the lowdown: I couldn’t have asked for a nicer day with my daughter, who was more or less perfect the entire time, even when we had a little chat about her jealousy over her brother. (When I say little chat, I mean just that; not a scoloding, a talk. We worked some stuff out, I told her how much more fun I can have with her than I can with N at this point in our lives, she gloated, all was well.)

The next two days, the last days aboard te ship, are at sea only. I’m hoping they will be relaxing, now that Em has this girl M to play with at the kids’ club, and so is no longer fighting the idea of going. But I’ll miss the ports of call and the adventures there. It feels like the vacation is almost over, and that makes me very wistful.

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It is a sheer and utter impossibility that the child I saw tonight, that little, irrepressible boy who got up on a stage in an honest-to-god theater in front of more than just a couple of hundred people, talked to a lady with a microphone and then danced center stage while his fathr sang, the child who I picked up from the day camp on board this afternoon who was playing with two other boys like there was nothing to it, this making of friends out of minutes-before strangers...I cannot comprehend how that child can be the little boy I had evaluated over and over again for possible autistic features, about whose future social life I have spent so much time obsessing. I simply cannot wrap my head around the idea that this is the same child. Hell, I have a hard time convincing myself that he’s even in the same species as that other kid.

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It should come as no surprise that Em just fell apart after the show. She wanted to go up with Baroy, but he told her only one kid could go up, and N really wanted to, so...She held up beautifully thoughout the show, right up until the time that they gave N a trophy along with Baroy (everyone was a winner tonight), and then everyone stopped by our seats to ruffle N's hair and chat with him. Add to that the fact that her friend M left during the show and she had to say goodbye to her, the fact that she’d already had to say goodbye to all her favorite waiters and other staff along the way today, the fact that she’s going back to school in two days...and top it with the fact that every other singer was asked to give a shout out to their family members in the audience EXCEPT Baroy, because the emcee was too busy chatting away to and about N...Frankly, if he weren’t my son, and one of the two lights of my life, I’d have been jealous, too.

[She and Baroy are, as I type this, off having a celebratory drink together while I put N to bed. I hope that helps take the sting out of the evening, if only just a little.]