my little getaway

[go_romanovs]

I had an amazing little vacation this week. My youngest daughter and I went to Daytona for La Leche League Parenting Conference.

They are organazed yearly and if you want to be a part of it  next fall, keep your eyes on www.floridaparentingconference.com

We lived in a fancy hotel that was RIGHT on the beach.

The little  group 2 minutes away from the hotel was very appropriate :))

The ocean view was just amazing! When we were in the room we spent most of the time on the balcony, just soaking in the beautiful ocean view, the sounds and the air. We lived on the 8th floor, so the view was just breath taking!

Mama, look, SO HIGH!!! :)

We have even scored and saw some very interested hari crishna procession - bunch of people some dressed up and dancing and all singing their pretty Indian tunes.

The weather was fantastic - it was always overcast and cool, drizzled for an half an hour or so but never actually poured. The whole 3 days we kept the balcony door open and felt comfortable. We went to the beach and Maya enjoyed playing in the HUGE waves :) Sleeping with the door wide open and listening to the ocean waves is just the best!

Here's all of our local leaders together. We have such a wonderful and supportive leaders! I love them all :)) We were supposed to take this picture with Marian Tompson, one of the LLL founders - but she snuck out before we could corner her :)

The whole place was like a dream come true :)) for me, a sling fanatic, anyway :) There were sling mamas all over the place, browsing slings and natural products or awesome books for sale in the market place. Coming to think of it.. the only crying baby I saw was the one in the stroller - the mom was busy talking and tried to shake the stroller to calm her baby and eventually it just wasn't enough anymore. Check out some of the pictures of the market place

Slings slings slings everywhere! :)

Here's my friend's table. Jessica is an awesome photographer - check out her website at http://www.jessicastudios.com/ Her pictures are amazing! And note my big pregnant belly up on display :))

Here's another good friend Mallie with a sleeping baby on her back explaining all the secrets of cloth diapering to a mama new to all this. She carries all sorts of cool stuff for babies and moms in her store http://babymoonflower.com/

And on to the conference itself. May I say really quick that Maya was a very good girl during the most informative sessions, I guess coming prepared relaly payed off - she'd nurse a lot (I wish she could still nurse  through the whole 1 and a half hour sessions :)), she'd color, then nurse again, then play play-dough, then nurse again and fall asleep for 2 hours.
She even snuggled her baby doll in one of my slings - and won the hearts of quiet a few health care professionals who attended with us :))
Here's the highlight of the whole weekend for me - I got to listen to and chat with the great and wonderful Jack Newman. If you don't know why I refer to him this way, just check out his website http://www.drjacknewman.com/.

Here's him speaking and that picture on the power point just cracks me up

And of course I had to

And then I told my friends and they had to too :)

Another highlight for me were the sessions by Dr. Glori Enzor. She is our wonderful tooth fairy :) and a big proponent of breastfeeding - if you are looking for a breastfeeding, baby and kid friendly dentist - look no further! She is the best! She does grown ups too :)

Enzor Glori DDS PA
3220 South Tamiami Trail,

Sarasota, FL 34239

Phone: [phone]

Her sessions were muchas informative! I wish you were there. This is stuff that every mother should know! If you ever do go to her ask her for the hand-out of her sessions - she'd be happy to share!

When we were not in sessions Maya had lots of fun playing with her friend. They were so super cute together!

One of the nights all of us Sarasota-Bradenton people went out to eat at

Goodness - it was CHEAP (with HUGE plates), delicious (and I don't even like Mexican) and HEALTHY! I hear they have one of these in Sarasota, somewhere on Tamiami Trail. I have to find it for our date nights :) I loved that place! :)

It was a great fun weekend. The only thing, I felt like it went by way too fast!  I felt like we were constantly doing something never really just chilling. An extra full day at the hotel would be super wonderfully nice :) but oh well, .. I better start saving for next years conference! :)

[AthenaOboe]

Sep. 15, 2009 at 12:33 PM

Awesome, what a nice, informative journal!  The pictures really help tell the story.  I hope I can go to the conference next year.

The TJ in Sarasota is on Tamiami Trail, a couple blocks south of Bahia Vista, right across the street from the hospital.  It is yummy!

[go_romanovs]

Sep. 15, 2009 at 12:47 PM

I hope you can too :) It's nice to take a break every now and then.. and this is like mixing business with pleasure  :)
Thanks for the info! We are so going to go there one of these days :)

(Original Poster)

[PorcelainMom81]

Sep. 15, 2009 at 1:07 PM

Very awesome!

[Taytays_mommy]

Sep. 15, 2009 at 2:08 PM

sounds like a blast....glad you had a good time!

[catholicmamamia]

Sep. 15, 2009 at 7:13 PM

I wish I had known, I would have gone! It looks wonderful, and how awesome is it meeting Dr Jack Newman? He and I had coffee together the second morning of my district's Conference.. he truly is remarkable!

Marian Thompson is the same Founding Leader I met, too. Another LLLeader and I bowed before her saying "we're not worthy! we're not worthy!"  Ahh.. memories!

[go_romanovs]

Sep. 15, 2009 at 8:11 PM

LOL.. I felt like doing the same thing for both her and Jack Newman :) Jack Neman though turned out to be such a simple down to earth guy.. funny too :)

(Original Poster)

[blssdmumof2]

Sep. 16, 2009 at 9:15 PM

Wish I saw this many people where I lived babywearing...or in that case knew that many people babywearing. :)

Sounds like such a wonderful time!

[go_romanovs]

Sep. 16, 2009 at 10:57 PM

I know! I started our local group here 2 years ago for the same reason - I felt like I was alone!  Amazinly the meeting got SO popular! I got so many new friends and I love seeing all the sling mamas around!

(Original Poster)