Sunken Gardens

   This post goes with the following two posts that I have also written today. Pretty darn good considering Emma had a physical therapy appointment this afternoon. *Sha-bang!*
>> Super Mum (first) and A Week of Snafus (second). Click the links to read those please. :)

  Sunken Gardens had been on my list of places to visit since we moved down to the Sarasota/Tampa area, so I was very excited to get to go with my mom when she stayed with us for a week in May while Michael was on a work trip in London! We don't do too many things in the summer because it is so dang hot in Central Florida and Michael is a sweater. I can deal with it and bring my water bottles of ice and electrolytes, knowing I can take a shower when I get home, but he does not like being hot. Emma is the same way. She is a sweetie pie and doesn't complain about it, but it's not necessarily safe for her little body, so we try not to take her out too much. 

  My mom was happy to take us on Thursday, May 19th, and even got a Groupon! Emma got free entry because of her small size. I like when my mom says that people with medical disabilities should always get free entry, no matter their age. They are already dealing with so much, let them enjoy some free fun! 

  

Bee! :)

Susie and Trollie- it's a thing. I'm surprised they don't have their own travel blog! ;)

   I made sure to bring Emma's Albuterol puffer which we give to her through an anti-static valved holding chamber that sits on the end of her trach. For years we were giving her puffs through the ventilator circuit, but half of the time we could see the puffs not even going in her direction if we didn't push down at the exact right second. This "device" is much more efficient. But on another note, I had to make sure to bring the puffer since I didn't have her electric nebulized Albuterol treatment with us. The puffer is more convenient when out and about. That is what I'm doing below by the cacti:

Grammy pointing out the koi fish to Emmalou!

  After watching the fish, Emma began to repeatedly throw her suction catheter tubing down as if she was fishing! It was very silly, as are so many of the cute things that she does.

  My mom was great to notice Emma's cheeks getting red and poured some of her water into her hand and patted it into Emma's hair and on her forehead. I felt bad that I didn't think to do that. We had a portable fan that clips onto the stroller, but we keep forgetting to put new batteries in it. I don't even know where it is right now. Later, I put some of my water on Emma, including on her arms. Halfway through the trip (after I did her Albuterol puffs) I took off her leg splints and the socks that go over them so she can't rip the Velcro off. Her tiny piggins were free to soak up the air the whole time. Michael likes her wearing her tiny unicorn shoes like a big girl. She does look really cute in them, but he wasn't there with us.

I asked my mom to stand here for a picture because the foliage looked like a scene from
the Wizard of Oz when they meet the Cowardly Lion. (My favorite movie.)
Aaand the trolls are back!!

  Although Emma cannot talk verbally, she uses a lot of hand guestures to tell us what she wants. Here she held her arms out to "tell me" that she wanted me to pick her up. Usually after we pick her up, she will reach towards a toy she wants to play with (right now it's almost always the music jammer table that she got for her 5th birthday), but this day she reached down towards the fish. So we sat on the curb by the fish. Emma kicked her legs contently. She could have watched those fishies all day!

admiring the tiny waterfall ^^

   One thing that I didn't know until the end of the trip was that all the birds were put away. And seeing the flamingos and parrots was one of the main reasons I wanted to go there. They had signs saying there were issues with Bird Flu so they were keeping them in cages most of the time. I wondered if they had them out on the weekends when more people visited? I'll definitely call and ask before driving up next time. But we still had a really good time. I was surprised we were there for an hour and a half.

   I still took pictures of where the flamingos and birds were supposed to be. I was glad that we at least got to see a few turtles and all the fish. Lastly, in the gift shop, I got pictures for Michael of Emma holding little fake snakes. He hates snakes, but still always wants to see pictures if I tell him I saw one in the woods!