In a strange twist of fate, shortly after I moved in with Chris and began pursuing my Canadian residency, his mother fell for an American, moved to Florida, and began pursuing her US residency. Regardless, we see her a few times a year, but at the end of March we brought Maia down to Florida for the first time.

The first thing we did was go for a walk in the warmth.  This walk started with all of us in sweatshirts and jeans, but within half a block the sunshine reminded us that this ain’t Canada, folks!

Aside from taking walks, we were able to go in Grandma’s swimming pool.  Maia wasn’t really too sure about it at first:

But she sure as hell looked adorable, right?

Once we got her into the water and began pushing her little floaty around, she realized this was kind of fun!

Another day, we went to the Sarasota Jungle Gardens.  This was a fun little place with lots of birds, bugs, and reptiles to see.  Most of their animals are donated by pet owners who can no longer take care of their exotic animals, not realizing the time and money commitment necessary. There are (paved) trails winding through tropical foliage, with occasional placards to let you know what type of plant you’re looking at and where it’s from.  This was my favourite plant there, although, of course, it didn’t have a placard.

One of the best features of the Gardens was the flamingo park, a wide-open area with a small pond nearby and something like 40 flamingos wandering around.  And those birds are fearless.  Fortunately, so is Maia (until one of them actually pushed her away from a kibble she was standing on, at which point I’m not sure she actually became scared of them so much as REALLY ANGRY).

And, of course, what fun would a jungle garden be without the opportunity for a touristy snapshot of a daddy feeding his baby to an alligator?

On this vacation, Maia lost a huge advantage over us.  We realized, finally, that she understands a lot of what we say.  We realized that she learns very quickly, and when she’s interested in what we have to say, she listens well.  For example, in Florida, she learned the words “bird”, “cat”, and “squirrel” — all of which are creatures she decided she loved quite a lot.  Her love of “bird” was our main reason for going to the Jungle Gardens in fact, and also our motivation behind eating lunch another day overlooking the water:

Bird watching is a hobby she takes very seriously.

All too soon, though, it was time for a different type of bird, one that flies thirty-nine thousand feet in the sky…