When I woke up I smelled breakfast cooking. I walked into the kitchen area after brushing my teeth and saw Quan at the stove and Juju at the table.
"Good morning guys." I greeted them. "What's on the agenda for the day?"
"Baby girl wants to ride the tram car and swim in the pool."
"Sounds good to me."
We ate a breakfast of pancakes, turkey bacon and eggs before getting dressed to ride the tramcar.
The tramcar was just like a train that rode from one end of the boardwalk to the other. It was kind of annoying because the ride was slow as hell and the driver kept making the car say "Watch the tramcar please." If I had to hear it one more time then I was going to jump off and leave Juju and Quan on there alone.
Once that nightmare was over I was so glad that we could finally go hang at the swimming pool. I was surprised that she didn't want to go play in the ocean but I wasn't complaining because I personally hated the sand.
"Mommy watch this." Juju caught my attention as she jumped into the pool.
"Be careful." I was scared but proud of her that she could swim. She just kept jumping close to the edge and my heart couldn't take it.
"I heard you the first time." She huffed. I was about to get up out my chair and grab her little ass up but Quan stopped me.
"Calm down baby." He told me. "You don't let her do a lot on her own and she needs to be independent. She's not always going to need you so let her swim and do what she's doing."
"I just don't want her to get hurt. She's all I have and I'm trying to protect her."
"You have to let her explore. She starts school next week and she isn't going to need you as much as she did before. She will make friends and go to birthday parties and all that shit. Just let her live." He explained.
I pushed my shades over my eyes. "It's so hard though. My baby is growing up on me and I don't like it one bit." I sniffed.
"You don't want to shield her from everything. I mean, when she is able to really do her own thing she will end up running wild because you held her back." He told me. "I mean no offense but your mom sheltered you but as soon as you no longer had to live under her rules you kind of lost it."
"None taken and I get what you mean."
"Mommy and Juan, look at this!"
We watched as she jumped off the highest diving board and my heart stopped while she was in the air and began beating when she resurfaced out of the water. I couldn't take it so I decided to just go ahead and get in the water with her.
We ended up playing around and played a few games of Marco Polo until she was ready to go back to the room.
--
We all showered and took naps before going out for dinner for our last night. We ended up going to a pizza shop at the kid's request. I was tired of pizza so I ordered a panzerotti and wings.
I munched on my food in silence because Juju and Quan were having a conversation of their own. She was telling him about the big fish that she had caught in Hawaii with my grandfather.
I had heard the story plenty of times and knew it by heart.
"Yeah, and it was this big." She held her arms out as wide as they could go.
"As big as you?" Quan looked as if he didn't believe her.
"Uh huh and I almost fell over but Grandpa held me tight."
