There’s sand in my ears
I learned several valuable life lessons today:
1. I can not imagine the pains in the ass involved with going to and from the beach with a small child when you are NOT actually staying on the beach. I had to go back and forth a million times today for hats, juice, naps, sunscreen, more naps and towels and if we had been staying across a street or up an elevator from the beach? I might have just stayed indoors all day. If you have a small and needy human depending on you? Staying on the beach is the total way to go.
2. My husband drinks about three times more beer at the beach than he does at home.
3. There is no possible way to regulate a baby’s sleep schedule when you’re on vacation. Anything that has ever worked to get a baby to sleep at home? Will not work at the beach. But be patient, eventually they just pass out in the middle of the floor somewhere.
4. It is possible to avoid sunburn if you apply sunscreen every hour. However, this makes you very sticky and it becomes impossible to ever remove all of the sand from your body. Cope with it quickly – it gets worse as the day goes on.
5. An 11-year old staying in a house on the beach will still find time to become absorbed in video games. This will make you say stupid things like, “This is a vacation, dammit, you should be having fun!” He will be a good child and choose not to point out the faulty logic in that statement.
6. That same kid will also be very willing to walk the half mile to the sandbar and back whenever you ask, even though at home he wouldn’t even walk to the kitchen to get you a coke if you paid him. And you know, you’ve tried. You try to mentally absorb those walks with that boy because he is growing up so fast and one day soon, he may refuse to walk with you anywhere.
7. It is totally worth postponing your birthday celebration a few days if that means you get to celebrate it at the beach. It is even more worth it when your cake is decorated to look like the beach. My mother-in-law rocks my socks.
8. It is also impossible to stick to a diet at the beach. Especially with the previously mentioned birthday. I may have eaten three pieces of birthday cake tonight. I don’t think that’s on my diet plan. (But damn, it should be.)
Very valuable lessons:-)
Sounds like you’re having a fabulous time. And all the walks to and from the house? Totally walking off the calories from those extra piece(s) of cake!
Is NikkiZ eating sand?
I had to laugh at your post.
#1: SO many people around here do the beach schlep just for the day every weekend. It AMAZES me the stamina they have!
#2 I think everyone does
#4 feeling sticky from sunscreen and covered in sand IS SUMMER – and it makes your shower feel so much more worth it at the end of the day.
#6 awwww
#7 Happy Birthday
#8 Diet. Beach. Forget about it!
1. We made that mistake once…. ONCE!
2. Heat and Sun = beer. Ocean Breeze – More Beer and on vacation removes any last reason to not drink beer. Thus more beer.
3. Too true.
4. This is a losing battle, just acknowlege it and rise yourself off frequently to avoid sand buildup.
5. At least he was kind enough not to point it out.
6. There are things to see on the walk across the midway that you simply to not get on the walk across the house.
7. Birthday celebrations away from the “usual” are always nice.
8. When it is YOUR birthday, birthday cake has no calories, so don’t worry about it. The rest of the hunger I swear has something to do with the smell of salt water, at least that is my excuse and I am sticking to it.
LOVE #2 and Live by #3. When traveling with a baby, it’s always best to play things by ears. It cracks me up when I hear people rattle off their extensive vacation itineraries and fail to schedule for the fact that their baby may not agree with their careful planning. hee hee
So, you’re at the beach? Well that means I can’t talk to you or make any sort of conversation with you about this post b/c I am an insanely jealous whore. (Okay, so I’m not insane and I’m not a whore but I am oh so jealous!)
I will get over it for one second though and say have fun and Happy (belated) Birthday!!!!!
Well, I was checking out the beach pictures on your flicker account and I just have to say….dayummmmm Zoot. You look hot! Seriously, way to go with the diet and all because you, my interwebnet bloggin’ friend, are smokin’!!!
Have a superific vacation!!!
Cake should most definatly be in a diet plan. It was my friends birthday last week and she gave me a huge slice of cake to share between myself and my boyfriend…. I tried my best to hide it from him so I could have it all but he found it. I did eat most of it first though.
Enjoy your bday! Enjoy your cake! Enjoy your vacatioN! You deserve it!
First, birthday cake totally doesn’t even count! Why do you think I couldn’t find it in the Weight Watchers book? Duh.
I feel you on the sandy sleepy tireless babes. We got a house on the lake when mine was 5 months old. No one warned us (yes, we’re dumbasses) how DARK, HOT, and SWARMING WITH MOSQUITOS it was. We ended up sleeping in the truck with the baby because at least there was a light in there where we could frickin SEE her!
Amalah sent me – love the blog! Off to your archives….
Hope you’re having having fun, Zoot…sure sounds like it!
I live at the beach – not on it, too bad, but I’m 100 feet from the bay and 3 miles from the ocean and we are on a beach year round a few times a week. Even in the snow! But my niece just called me this past week, she has a 5 montth old and wanted to know how we dealt with the whole beach thing….
I was lucky, my kids would get tired and we’d have a nice shady area for them to lay down and have nap time at the beach. Some people use a plastic wagon to cart everything, but I just scaled down. A chair for me and lots of towels and buckets.
But, the secret …. baby powder. You head back to the car and shake the baby powder on you and the sand just falls off. I love it cause I don’t like driving with sandy feet! And my kids hate sandy butt, so they like to put the sand in their pants! Don’t tell them I told you! Have a great vacation and birthday!
Hey, it was vacation.
Your blog is entertaining and amusing. But your habit of ending sentences with a question mark? ANNOYING!
I give you SO MUCH credit for hitting the beach with a little kid. My 2 older ones are gone for camp this week so I thought I’d take the baby to the beach since, heck, one kid HAS to be easier than taking all three right? But then I thought of the naps and the bottles and the sunscreen and the sunscreen and the sand sticking to the sunscreen and decided I am not going to the beach for the next ten years.
Sounds like a great vacation. Having just started a new job, a vacation is pretty far off for me. Happy belated birthday, too!