Meet Florida

From left to right: Bonehead, Smooch, Florida(who is waving at us), and Steve

We adopted Florida in May of 2007 while on vacation in New Jersey. I'm just teasing- it was actually in Florida- just as his name implies. From the moment Florida came home with us, he was part of the family. He’s gone everywhere with Smoochie (except school- I had to put one of my push-over feet down). He goes out to dinner with us, he helps us pick out movies at the video store frequently, and he even hangs out on my steering wheel and “pretends to drive” while we are grocery shopping. Recently, Florida traveled to St. Louis for a mini-vacay.

The morning before Smoochie left for Seattle, the whole family piled on our queen sized bed for a little family hang out time. In our home it's known as "poke and annoy" and involves index fingers and giggling. That would be me, Bonehead, Smoochie, Critter, and Florida. We then all went our separate ways and I packed Smooch up for his trip.

Florida remained out of sight snuggling on our bed and didn’t make the trip. We haven’t received a panicked phone call yet from Smoochie, so I’m assuming it’s not the crisis I thought it might be. All the same, I have a sneaking suspicion we may very well be initiating Seattle into our family soon.

Here’s a confession: In the past year and a half, I have hugged, kissed, bathed, band-aided, washed, dried, read to, scolded, laughed at, baby-sat, and diapered Florida. In the past 2 nights, I have snuggled him close because I miss Smoochie too much. I guess it was a blessing he got left behind because I’m realizing I might probably maybe (just a wee bit) have some inner attachment/separation issues…

When did he get old enough for a 2 week vacation without Mom & Dad?