Well this place is terrible. They make you sit by the pool and listen to the cooing of doves and distant bamboo chimes from the cow collars. You have to drink fresh watermelon juice and eat food that is delicious. Abbey has to eat a jaffle every day and she's not allowed to get out if the pool. Yesterday they made me have an hour long massage for $12! I think that was overpriced too. And the beach! Cripes! The sand is soft and clean and sinks down really far too low. The volcanic cliffs loom over you while you splash about in water that honestly is far too warm. Today we move across the road to the Flower Bud Bungalows - slightly cheaper and better bungalow layout for us....they'll probably torture us there too.
(yippeee!)
On the flip side, it's worth mentioning that, amazingly, all the parenting stuff still applies in paradise. Kids still whine! And you still have to convince them to do most things - leave somewhere, stay somewhere, eat something, wear sunscreen. Quite regularly there's convincing to do or try something new...ensuing a battle that then results in it being her new favorite thing. Classic example was going to check out the Flower Bud place across the way. Lots of stomping and storming off. Planting herself in one spot while scowling. We are trying to give her some room to adjust to it all...so we coax her gently, and finally, when she relents in unnecessary tears, we finally go over and, upon hearing that there are no rooms available, Abbey bursts into even bigger tears and proclaims she can't go back to the old place. Deep breath. Really, it's all part of adjustment. And, I'm sure, it keeps us real ;)