Baby and the Beach

I wouldn't say that Elizabeth exactly hated the beach. She certainly liked it better than Campbell did at the same age. He wouldn't even sit on a chair on the blanket without screaming.

Elizabeth was just fine as long as her little feet didn't touch the sand. She was quite content stand at the very edge of the blanket and dig in the sand, always making sure that her toes never crossed the line. It actually made it quite easy to keep an eye on her - I always knew right where she was.

We eventually convinced her to sit on my lap at the very edge of the water and let the little waves lap over her legs, and she ended up loving it. Elizabeth would happily kick and splash in the water, but if her feet actually touched the sand, she'd scream - just like in the picture below.

I'm hoping that Elizabeth will come to love the beach as much as the rest of us do. I think she's at the age when anything new or different is bad, bad, bad.

Like mother, like son

I think I've figured out why Campbell's been a mess here at the beach. Like his mama, he is a creature of habit and routine. He's discombobulated by being out of his element. Just like me.

My tolerance level for being away from home is about five days. After that I start to get antsy. I miss my bed and my clean laundry and my routine. I simply was not made to be a world traveller, unless I can some day buy an apartment on that ship that travels the world constantly. To me that is an ideal way to go - you can take your routine and home with you, no packing and unpacking required.

Campbell was a wreck this morning, clinging to me and fussing while I was trying to eat breakfast and read the paper. Bribing him with bacon and donut holes had no effect on his mood. In desperation, I plopped him on the sofa with his milk cup, his water cup, his lovie, his Pigeon, and his blanket and turned on Sesame Street, and suddenly all was right in the world. He just needed his morning routine.

Fortunately, we go home tomorrow and he and I can settle back into our boring little rut routine.

But I can report progress on Campbell and the beach. I took him down for half an hour yesterday afternoon, and he sat on the blanket with me and watched the birds fly around. Later in the day, B convinced Campbell to walk down to find us. Campbell got so involved in watching the big kids dig holes and build sand castles that he forgot to be miserable for about half an hour. It all came to an end when one of the big kids accidentally dumped a shovel full of sand on his foot. But we still view it as step in the right direction. Perhaps today we'll get him to actually dig in the sand. Getting him in the water seems too much to ask.

Midnight Party Crew

The house we're staying in at the beach is actually two separate three-bedroom apartments. We're sharing one apartment with our neighbors, the Rs. We pile all the kids (except Campbell) in one bedroom, and they have a big slumber party the whole time we're here. Turns out there's a lot more going on at night than the parents realize.

The first night we were here, at about midnight, Ella showed up in my room and woke me up to announce that she and L were awake and hungry. I told her that it was the middle of the night and that she and L needed to go back to bed.

Instead, the went into the kitchen and made themselves snacks of cereal and milk.

When I asked Ella about it the next morning, she said that I had told her it was OK to get up and get a snack. I replied that I had told her no such thing, and she said, "Oh. I guess I forgot what you said." She and L claim that they stayed awake until 2:00 am.

R, L's dad, said that he heard odd noises at 3:00 am and went into the kitchen to find Ella and M, L's little sister, sitting at the table drawing pictures. They apparently thought it was morning, just a very dark morning. He shooed them back to bed.

We've warned the kids that anymore middle-of-the-night shenanigans will result in their having to sleep in the same room as their parents. Gasp!

Fortunately, all the kids were so tired last night that they conked out and stayed asleep - all of them except Campbell, that is. But that's a complaint for a different post.

Am I at the beach?

Really, can somebody tell me please if I am? Because I have yet to spend more than 5 minutes actually on the sand. And I haven't put more than my feet in the water.

Why?

Because Campbell.hates.the.beach.

Hates it as in starts screaming the second his toes touch the sand and climbs up my body if a ripple of water so much as comes within yard of him. Last night I wrote his reaction off to his being tired and hungry. But the same thing happened this morning, only more so.

He sat in my lap in a chair and sobbed uncontrollably. When I tried to interest him in digging in the sand, he shrieked even louder when a few molecules of sand on the shovel transferred themselves to his hand.

So I gave up and lugged him back up to the house, with him shrieking the whole way. He didn't stop crying until I got him inside and out of his bathing suit.

I let him noodle around for a while before attempting to settle him down for a nap. It took an hour for him to fall asleep, and the nap lasted all of 30 minutes because Lily came up from the beach and burst into the room yelling.

So I'm in a dandy mood, trying not be a little black rain cloud of doom, squelching everyone else's fun.

Off to the beach

We leave tomorrow for S. Padre for our annual pilgrimmage to the beach. I'm still packing and getting the house ready for the house sitter. The girls are so excited that their heads are going to pop. And Mollie-dog is pacing because she knows suitcases mean we're going away without her.

Maybe I'll blog while I'm gone; maybe I won't. We'll see if the mood strikes me.

But I'll enjoy floating in the salt water and feeling sand in my toes. And the way the kids sleep like the dead from the salt air and water.

Ta.

A better day at the beach

I'm going to be honest, yesterday was a pretty sucky day here at the beach for me. And I ended up just so sad that it was a bad day. The beach is my favorite place to be, but I was having a lousy time. It was just so wrong to be in a funk, but there I was, a little black rain cloud hovering over the house.

Mostly it was because of my kids. Campbell decided yesterday morning that he just didn't like the beach - not one little bit. He spent most of the time we were down there clinging to me and whining. Lily was just exhausted, so she spent most of the morning crying over every little thing - putting on sunblock, hot sand, waves, salt water. You name it, she cried about it. So after an hour, I gave up and trudged back to the house, lugging Campbell and dragging Lily, who protested the whole way that she was NOT tired. I hosed them off and settled Lily in her bed with Bitty-Baby and Baby Maggie Eudora and told her I'd put on a movie after I fed Campbell his lunch. Of course, by the time I was finished bathing Campbell and feeding him, Lily was sound asleep.

Lily woke up a new child after her three-hour nap, but Campbell was still miserable. We spent an hour at the beach in the afternoon before I gave up again and headed back to the house. Once we were cleaned up, I took him to the store to buy baby tylenol since I suspected his teeth were bothering him and stuff for dinner. Then we went back to the house where I cleaned up the kitchen and swept the floor, grumbling about how I was doing the same thing I'd be doing at home, just with a different view.

I was not in a good mood by the time everyone arrived for the group dinner, and B's pouring a drink down my throat didn't really help. I sat in the corner and glowered before finally going to bed.

But I woke up this morning feeling so much better about the universe. I dropped Campbell on B at 8:00 so I could go running, and I actually had a decent run. Campbell was a much happier baby and actually loved the beach today. He spent an hour in the shade moving seashells from one bucket to another and back again. When I took him down to the water, he happily crawled around in the shallows and splashing in the waves. Everyone took a good rest time and we had a great afternoon at the beach. It was a wonderful way to finish up our time here.

So now we pack and round up towels and bathing suits and books and head for home tomorrow, back to real life and work and school - Ella starts first grade on Monday. It doesn't seem possible.

Ahh, the beach

We're at the beach for our annual end-of-summer vacation with the neighbors. This is the 4th year we've done this with the Rs. We've stayed at the same house each year, and in the same apartment in the house for the past three. This year we're here with the Rs, Ks and Ss, which means 8 adults and 9 kids - it's organized chaos.

This house has been the perfect place for us to stay. It's right on the beach, which means we can come and go all day long. We usually head down to the beach at about 10 am, once we've gotten everyone in suits and slathered in sun screen. We stay at the beach until kids start complaining of hunger and then come in for lunch and rest time. The older kids watch a movie or play board games while the littler ones and parents nap. We head back to the beach at about 4, after the heat of the day, and stay until 7, or the kids start begging for dinner, which ever happens first.

This year's trip has been especially fun with Campbell along. He loves sitting in the sand and "digging" with his shovel. And yesterday he spent half an hour crawling all over the place, looking very like a small sea turtle wearing a hat. He's not sure about the waves, but he eventually works his way up to sitting and splashing in the waveletts.

Lily has been a rockstar so far this trip. Her sudden love of the water has been on display here. She's been boogie boarding for hours each day; yesterday her knees were rubbed raw from landing in the sand after riding the waves. This morning she crashed big time, though. She spent most of her time on the beach crying about everything that was wrong. So at lunch time I brought her and Campbell up to the house to rest. She was asleep within minutes of crawling into her bed.

Ella, of course, is having the time of her life boogie boarding and floating around in inner tubes with the other kids. Today she was the last one out of the water when it was time to come up for lunch.

We have one more full day at the beach tomorrow before heading home on Sunday. Our stay of five days and four nights is always the perfect length - the kids are always wiped out by the time we leave and sleep the whole way home.

Beach, here we come!

Russell called down to the beach house this morning and spoke with the owners, who assured him everything is just fine on S. Padre. They said people aren't even boarding up the windows. So I guess tonight I'm packing the car so that we can hop in first thing tomorrow morning and head south. We'll be picking B up in Harlingen/Brownsville on our way down there. He's flying into Harlingen, but he may catch a shuttle over to Brownsville in search of a good hotel.

I'm a bit nervous about the drive with the three kids. I've decided I'm packing a stroller, just so I have someplace to park Campbell when we go into restrooms. I don't want to have to put him down to crawl around in god-knows-what. I've also decided that we're eating at "real" restaurants - Applebee's or Luby's or the like, just so I'm not trying to wrestle three kids and trays at a fast-food place. Fortunately, it's only one meal that I have to worry about. I'll put a small cooler in the front seat with juice boxes and bottles for the kids and a bag with lots of easy-to-distribute snacks. Each girl is allowed to pick out three movies to take with us, and I'll be allowing them to veg out the whole way there. Driving solo is not the time to encourage activities like license plate bingo and I Spy. The girls will be fine - it's Campbell who's likely to be the big problem. He still faces backwards, so he can't watch movies, and he doesn't like being trapped in his seat for more than an hour or so. I foresee lots of rest breaks.

I'm reminding myself to treat it as an adventure, not a source of stress and frustration. We'll get there when we get there; B can easily cool his heels waiting for us. Plus I will earn SO many bonus points on the marriage/parenting scorecard for this one! I'll win any debate with, "Remember the time I drove for six hours with three kids all by myself?"

So now I'm off to make lists of things to remember - keys and instructions for housesitter; power cords for the laptop, cell phone, and iPod; my work files; dictionary and thesaurus for my new work project; clothes for the kids; etc.

Wish me luck!

Blogging at the beach

Hello from the beach. Isn't modern technology amazing? I'm sitting here blogging while listening to the waves, which are threatening to swamp my feet, and watching the sun peek in and out from behind the storm clouds off shore that are threatening to rain, but so far haven't done more than threaten. This is about as close to a perfect way to spend a morning as I can think of.

As much as I love bringing the kids to the beach and watching them splash in the waves and body surf and build sand castles and dig huge holes, it's wonderful to only be responsible for myself. Yesterday, B and I came to the beach for the afternoon and read and napped and swam without having to entertain anyone or play lifeguard or provide endless snacks and drinks. It was divine.

I fully admit I was pretty hostile at being forced to go to the beach and leave the kids, actually leaving Campbell was the only real problem, but I am so glad B made me do this. I needed this break in the worst way. I'm not exagerrating in the least when I say I was on the verge of a complete and total breakdown. Brandon found me curled up in the shower crying one night - that was a bad night. At dinner last night we talked about my last trip away from the kids and realized it was in January of 2006 when I went to New York with Lisa and Heidi. The last time B and I went away together, just the two of us, was in January of 2004 when we went to San Antonio for a night. That is just ridiculous that it's been that long. We need to take better care of our marriage.

But now I feel like I can go back to Austin and face daily life again. I can get everyone up and dressed and out the door tomorrow with a smile, or at least without screaming in frustration, because I had this break. Life won't seem so dreary.

Plus, we're all headed to the beach in three weeks with the Roes, Krells and Scanlons. I'll have had three beach trips this summer, which is wonderful. The beach is my favorite place to be. I love the salt air, the sound of the waves. I'm quite content to just sit and watch the world go by with my toes in the sand. So I'm going to sign off and do just that.