Post #34: Our First Post-Covid Visit with our Grandson
- Nana Beryl Jupiter
- Jan 26, 2022
- 11 min read
Updated: Aug 14, 2023
I am very happy to publish my 34th blog post on my January 26 birthday, having established my Finally Nana blog three years ago.
And having told you in Post #33 about all the trials and tribulations we experienced to visit our Fiji-residing family after 21 months of separation, we were ecstatic to enter Fiji on December 15, 2021. (So be advised, this is a rather long post but also filled with lots of illustrative photos.)
Fiji’s obligatory arrival hotel stay for international visitors actually provided a relaxing way to begin our visit. Since Stacy was planning to pick us up from the Marriott Momi Bay Hotel anyway, a two-hour drive from their home, she decided to arrive with Cooper and Jason on our third day with reservations to spend two nights so we could all spend a delightful start to our time together. That weekend also marked the beginning of Stacy’s work holiday vacation and Cooper’s school vacation.
In anticipation of their arrival, I sorted through the two extra duffel bags we had carted along with us that were predominantly filled with deliveries for our Fiji family. I reserved one duffel for all the Christmas presents, those deliberately purchased by me for all of them and many others ordered by Stacy, especially to keep Cooper’s gifts hidden from him. But of course, we couldn’t arrive empty-handed with Christmas still a week away. So I had also packed up a selection of toys and curios, many accumulated through Stacy’s youth that had been stored away for some time and more recently deemed of Cooper interest, selected from the many possessions boxed up and moved from our sold Massachusetts home to our new Florida residence. I was glad to have noticed over the last few years that well-preserved, hand-me-down playthings were typically well-received by Cooper and his mom.
However, I wasn’t sure how Cooper would react to us, his distant grandparents, after many months of FaceTime small screen viewing, where mostly, due to the time differential, we watched his early weekend mornings of playtime and breakfast, which often seemed to be more intrusive than interactive. But what a happy, hug-filled greeting when Cooper and parents entered the spacious, open-air lobby of the resort where we had been anxiously awaiting their arrival.
Happily, there was virtually no loss of connection due to our lengthy physical separation, which I credit to Stacy for her efforts to keep us in touch regularly and frequently. As much as Cooper was glad to see us after so long, he also peered with five year-old expectation at the bag I was holding.
“Do you have something for meee?”
Of course, I was not waiting for Cooper empty-handed and produced from the nondescript plastic bag a well-preserved, large green plush dragon which I had bought years ago for our young son Benjy when he loved the song Puff, The Magic Dragon. An immediate hit with Cooper, which he hugged and toted around lovingly.
After Stacy checked into her family hotel room, Cooper was anxious to see what other surprises had arrived for him from America. We obligingly went to our room to examine the contents of one duffel bag. There were several other stuffed animals that had survived both my childhood and/or my children’s. My prized childhood Steiff collection had been especially durable, and I had been selectively sending or bringing some of the stuffed toys to Cooper, depending on his current animal favorites. The new arrivals included a few African animals, as well as young Stacy’s Steiff seal and a kitty cat, Gund soft duck and stuffed otter clutching a shell.
Also found among Stacy’s longtime possessions was a trio of long forgotten shell sailboats which I had protectively bubble wrapped for their journey. My instincts were right about the two enameled Chinese eggs, given as decorative gifts to Jesse from visiting foreign surgeons. On FaceTime calls Cooper seemed especially interested in animal babies hatching from eggs, so these two might add to his egg collection. And they did, especially as Stacy had bought him a Christmas present of a requested toy Peregrine falcon which is a native Fiji bird.
As I usually brought in past visits, I bought clothes for fast growing Cooper, including T-shirts with cool designs like camouflage and astronauts. Though not met with immediate excitement, they were happily worn as our visit progressed. Stacy’s footwear purchases for Cooper, flip flops and water shoes, met more initial interest.
Two small plastic crocodiles that Stacy had ordered inadvertently ended up in the first distribution duffel, so Stacy presented them to Cooper for immediate play. The crocs became part of his retinue of constant toy accompaniments for the next few days.
Special deliveries distributed. What next? Cooper chose swimming in the hotel pool. Papa and Nana were glad to join our island-living grandson to see how his swimming skills had greatly improved during our lengthy separation. Cooper’s abilities certainly lived up to photos we had seen, as we watched him cavort capably and fearlessly in the water, often donning his mask and flippers having become so comfortable from his snorkel competency. And if we took a water break, our grandson of boundless energy did not. He unabashedly swam up to groups of strangers, kids or young adults, and inserted himself into their activities and conversations.
Their two days at the resort also included beach time with sand digging and lagoon swimming, Stacy always encouraging Cooper to improve skills and explore. Cooper eagerly swam alongside mom to a distant raft in the middle of the lagoon, where they climbed out for a rest and view, and just as comfortably swam back.
We ate most meals watching Stacy trying to get Cooper to eat anything besides chips, which is the local name for American French fries. Every so often, Stacy offered Cooper a special beverage treat that she called “black water.” Something special in Fiji? No, actually it’s Stacy’s euphemism for cola, hoping Cooper would not get too familiar with the kid-addictive sugary drink. Buffets at the main dining area had the added attraction of being situated on stilts over water, where schools of fish could be immediately attracted with some tossed bread or crackers.
Stacy apologized to us because Cooper wanted to spend a bulk of time at the Turtles Kids Club, attracted to all their playground equipment, indoor games, other kids and counselor-led activities. No problem for us as grandparents need a break too, especially knowing we’d be having more than two weeks of close-up Cooper.
At the evening show of local dancers on the beach, Cooper was first to join the performers when guests were encouraged to participate. An adorable extrovert!
Checking out on Sunday, December 17, we headed to our main vacation command central, their house in Pacific Harbor where Stacy and Jason had moved three months earlier. Just before our last visit in March, 2020, they had begun house hunting and had already focused on this particular property. At that time Jason had taken me and Jesse to see their real estate interest, complete with lush tropical gardens, swimming pool, and dock on the river, but cluttered from prior renters, and in need of some repairs, paint and other improvements. More recently we had seen on FaceTime the house’s freshly painted, improved state, neatly organized with their own belongings and artwork. The in-person version was even better, and a vast improvement over their overflowing Suva rental, which had initially worked very well for single Stacy 13 years ago but was bursting more recently with three people, dogs, cats and their personal effects.
Stacy and Jason had a new comfortable king-size bed, much better to accommodate a night visitor to the master bedroom. Jason had dismantled and re-assembled Cooper’s fire truck bed for the move, and Cooper was even sleeping more often in his own spacious room, filled with many containers of toys, organized by type.
Stacy had assured us that we would have room to stay in their new house, so Nana and Papa were comfortably installed in Stacy’s office/guest room with a king-size bed that takes up a large part of the floor space. Cooper was willing to share his bathroom and closet.
We arrived at their house in the week leading up to the much anticipated Christmas holiday. Cooper had already hung the ornaments on their small live potted Christmas tree, and many presents were wrapped and stored tantalizingly nearby. But Cooper had been strongly warned that Santa would not leave the gifts if they were disturbed before Christmas. And Stacy managed to surreptitiously wrap the newly delivered presents out of Cooper’s sight.
But with the gift pile growing, Stacy offered Cooper one new delivery soon after coming home. A packet of small, plastic, multi-colored lizards was met with squeals of delight. Cooper instantly identified one as his “favorite” which he tends to do with each collection.
“Do you know which is my favorite?” was a frequent refrain, typically followed by, “And do you know why?” Explaining the characteristics of the lizard (substitute crab, lobster, fish, dinosaur, etc.) which he prized. Usually followed by, “Right mom (or dad), right?”
And so began learning about home life and play with our active, creative 5 year-old grandson. We saw how Cooper has vast categories of playthings, be they animal, reptile, birds, sea creatures, dinosaurs, vehicles, building materials, etc. Any play activity involves imaginative scenarios with specific Cooper chosen toys to create his story line. Any kid video watched is accompanied by appropriate paraphernalia to coordinate with the movie plot and set design. In coordination with Cooper’s current play theme, I usually tried to find personal photos from my Ipad Photos collection, or Google other examples, to show my inquisitive grandson about his specific creature focus.
After Cooper built a giraffe of Duplos (larger size Legos), for example, he congregated all his giraffes: the old Steiff one that survived since my childhood, a plastic duo from Cooper’s Noah’s ark, and a baby giraffe Stacy had bought at the Bronx zoo (the headquarters of her employer Wildlife Conservation Society). Whether Cooper watched the animated Lion King, the documentary The Elephant, or one of the Madagascar films, he set up a variety of African animals to accompany the viewing.
All Cooper’s stuffed dogs must join the pack for watching Paw Patrol.
Even watching Rango, a weird animated film starring a cowboy chameleon, Cooper created a desert habitat for his plastic tan and yellow, horned desert lizards, and built a Saguaro cactus out of Duplos. In the spirit of the southwest, Cooper dressed in western-inspired costume wearing Stacy’s leather outback hat, his red rain boots (the only boots that still fit), a small handbag/holster and wielding a water pistol.
We also had plenty of outdoor activities, almost daily in the swimming pool at their new house, another locale where Cooper congregated his collections such as plastic crocs and lizards, octopi and other seas creatures, or snakes. He could also try balancing on his surfboard or practicing cannon ball jumps to create the biggest possible splashes. Hanging out in the pool at length as a foil to Cooper’s watery scenarios worked well for me, especially since Fiji, being summer in the southern hemisphere, was almost too hot and humid do anything outside in the sun without being wet.
The nearby public beach was great for a snorkel excursions to an easily accessible reef. I was particularly thrilled to personally watch Cooper’s snorkeling expertise, as well as enjoy the underwater landscape. And the beach has many scurrying hermit crabs to be temporarily held captive in a bucket.
Stacy likes to exercise by stand-up paddle board with Cooper life-jacketed on board. They can depart directly from their dock, with equipment conveniently stored in their own boathouse. A couple times I accompanied in a kayak, paddling upriver along mangrove-lined banks. Their two dogs, Charlie and Pineapple, love to swim or run along the way too. A favorite destination is crab island which appears at low tide and is populated by tiny mud burrowing crabs which fascinate Cooper.
Fishing from the dock provided another activity with Cooper's parents and Papa. Cooper is surprisingly adept at casting his line but impatiently reels it in often to re-cast. His dad typically got called to detangle fishing lines. Sadly, no fish were caught but Cooper was sure he had some bites from big ones.
Stacy organized backyard “tennis,” tossing a tennis ball to Cooper to hit with a badminton racquet. He connected fairly well for a five year-old but any missed connection was whiningly blamed on his mom. “Mo-om, you threw it too high” or “too far away from me” or “too fast,” etc. Nevertheless, I am looking forward to Cooper visiting us in Florida where we can attempt some tennis together on a court.
Some evenings even had some mellow downtime with story reading.
Meanwhile, the pressure was building for Christmas, the wrapped gifts piling up, Cooper inquiring, “How many more sleeps?” To take the pressure off of the big morning, Mom promised Cooper he could open one gift on Christmas eve. And it was a big hit: a Jason-purchased, motorized T-rex complete with (grandparent annoying) sound effects.
As in most celebrating homes, Christmas morning was a bonanza of gifts and good cheer. And as parents and grandparents everywhere, we were delighted to watch our child’s wide-eyed excitement as gifts were unwrapped and revealed.
These came from Nana and Papa: a baby stuffed turtle in a soft egg and a dino face covid mask that were added to the stocking stuffers, a Jurassic World T-rex Lego set including Cooper’s favorite dino-whisperer Owen, crocodile pool float, colorful stuffed T-rex, and a lizard which promised to triple its size by immersion in water.
Our gifts appeared well received, especially Lego Owen, but of course Stacy had the inside track to Cooper’s Santa wish list, many of which she had purchased online and had sent to our Florida house for Fiji transport. The most exciting was a remote controlled, motorized version of velociraptor Blue from the Jurassic World movies. The voluminous gift pile exuberantly and methodically opened by Cooper also included a plastic brontosaurus and her hatching babies, Toothless dragon from How to Train Your Dragon, the stuffed toy falcon (“It’s so cute!”), books including a personalized one about a Cooper-asaurus, an undersea Lego set, many plastic sea creatures, and a shark pool float. At this point, you probably get the drift of what generally appeals to a five year-old son of a marine biologist.
Of course, the adults were not ignored as Stacy and I had found reciprocal gifts. I brought Stacy a requested handbag and her choice of Tiffany earrings. Stacy recommended our gifts for Jason, new snorkel gear and the book Born to Run, to which I added a Tommy Bahama shirt. Stacy thoughtfully gave me a Pure Fiji set in my favorite starfruit fragrance, a handmade drinking glass from a local glass blower, and colorful beach cover-up that Cooper helped to select. Jesse received a Bula shirt (essentially the Fiji version of an Hawaiian one), a book of Fiji history and a bottle of his favorite scotch.
All having been well-gifted, that was only the beginning of our holiday. With guests, including kids, invited to Christmas dinner, Chef Jason spent the first half of the day preparing his multi-course buffet feast, which included Pacific lobster in garlic butter sauce, as well as presentations of fish, chicken and beef with lots of accompanying sides. The bubbly was flowing and the delicious dessert was a tiramisu preparation in individual glasses.
The afternoon party progressed into evening concluding with the live music of a melodious Fijian singer. How special from morning 'til night!
Holiday festivities continued through the week as Stacy and Jason warmly hosted more friends at their new house. During our visit we had plenty of Cooper time, yet certainly appreciated his energetic playtimes with friends.
One evening we went for a special dinner at the luxurious setting of a nearby Auberge resort called Nanuku, which gave us a good reason to dress up and take memorable family photos.
On New Year’s Eve Day, Jesse and I joined Stacy as she drove into Suva, dropping Cooper off at a friend’s house for a playdate, enjoying a pleasant restaurant lunch, and doing some errands in town. We stopped at a large grocery store to re-supply the house. I added a box of granola, even though we had only a couple more days at their house, as I was missing some of my usual breakfast food. Of course, we picked up more wine, beer and bubbly, as we would be counting down the end of 2021, and good riddance. And of course, Chef Jason was preparing another excellent supper to ring in the New Year.
We had enjoyed a great end to our year with our Fiji family, and finally were able to spend great in-person quality time with our bright, adorable grandson. Our trip, nearing to a close, had been wonderful, and the future was looking brighter… until … it wasn’t.
With this blog post quite long already, you will have to wait until my next post to learn about this continuing saga: how the contagious coronavirus had kept us apart for so long but just like that* … covid ironically kept us together longer.
*(My nod to the Sex in the City reboot, having mixed feelings about that too)
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