Beach Baby, Part 1

We've been home from the beach for over a week now and I'm finally getting around to writing a blog post about it. I think I needed to detox from the vacation, sort-of take a vacation after my vacation, if you know what I mean. I guess that's how vacations will be for the next several years...a lot of fun, but also a LOT of work. Now that I've had a week to reflect on the trip, I'd say it was a definite success, but I think Eric and I both now have some different expectations of what a successful vacation is. I've divided this post into 2 parts. Since I'm in a writing mood, I'll start by reflecting on my thoughts about the trip. Part 2 will include many more pictures.

We spent the week in this beautiful house in Emerald Isle with Eric's family and extended family, which included his parents, siblings, aunt, uncle, cousins, and respective spouses...13 people total plus 2 very adorable babies. Molly had a playmate all week in her second-cousin, Lillian, who is only a few weeks younger than her.

They had to scope each other out a bit first, but in no time they were playing away like old friends.Not exactly sure what Molly's doing here, but I think she's sharing a very important piece of information with Lillian.Two 11-month olds are certainly capable of creating quite a mess in a very short period of time!Lillian LOVED Molly. She kept trying to kiss her and hold her hand. Molly wasn't too sure at first, but at this particular time, they held hands for quite a while. So cute!

We spent the week playing on the beach, splashing in the pool, walking, biking, and driving around the island, playing games, watching movies, engaging in great conversation, and eating some fabulous food. We've done this same exact trip before with the same group of people, but having a baby definitely changes the way you do things. For example:

• Saying "We only live 3 hours from the beach" used to make us feel so lucky. What we learned this trip is that Molly does NOT like to travel in the car during the daytime and those 3 hours seemed MIGHTY long. We normally travel in the middle of the night while she's sleeping and it looks like we'll continue to do just that. Lesson learned.
• "Going to spend some time on the beach" used to mean packing the cooler and heading down for the day. You'd spend 4 or 5 hours swimming, boogie-boarding, sun-bathing, reading, or playing in the sand. Now it means spending 20 minutes covering every inch of Molly's body in sunscreen, fighting her to put her swimsuit on, packing a bag of diapers-wipes-snacks-water-extra sunscreen-camera-etc., and heading down to the beach for an hour, possibly two. You'll spend that hour or two trying to keep her from eating sand, washing her face off when she does inevitably eat sand, and getting yourself covered in sand as she crawls all over you with her wet sandy hands.

(FACE PLANT!)

(Cleaning up the sandy face plant.)

But it was all totally worth it to see her staring wide-eyed at the ocean for the first time, to see her splashing in her watering hole and smacking her lips when she tasted the salt in her mouth, to see her adorable little sand-covered ruffle-butt crawling all over the beach. I know she won't remember the experience, but it's now a part of her, if that makes sense.

• "Beach time" used to mean "Go to bed when you want, get up when you want because it doesn't matter." Well, with Molly sharing a room with us, her "beach time" meant that she was ready to get up whenever it was bright enough in the room for her to see Mommy and Daddy in bed beside her, usually 5:30 or 6am. Although this made for some early mornings and sleepy afternoons, it was kind of nice to be up when the house was still mostly quiet. We could eat a leisurely breakfast, drink tea on the deck before it got too hot, go for walks in the neighborhood, and, since Molly was ready for a nap by 8:30, we were relaxing in the pool by 9am.

  

Probably the most challenging aspect of the trip was working through Molly's newest development, "stranger anxiety" (or separation anxiety or mommy-attachment, whatever you'd like to call it). She's accustomed to spending most of her time at home with her Mommy and Daddy where everything is familiar and there are predictable routines in the day. Of course we take her out to church, restaurants, shopping, etc. and we've seen glimpses of stranger anxiety, mostly displayed as suspicious looks at strangers. But, the beach trip was a big challenge for her. She was in a strange house with lots of people she hardly remembered and was NOT a big fan of any of it. She's especially afraid of men, so her poor Pop and her Uncles Jonathan and Stephen bore the brunt of the screaming rejection.

Sly Pop sneaked into this picture with his little Molly. No screaming and she was none the wiser.

At first, the only people who could hold her without her screaming were me and Eric. I was proud of her though. As the week went by, she was eating most of her meals with her GG, which quickly became a spectator event. She was letting other people play with her. She even took a couple meals from her Pop! By the end of the week, she even spent an afternoon at the house with her GG and Pop while Eric and I went to the beach! I wish everyone could've seen more of the happy, silly, playful Molly that we know here at home. But, I understand that it's just a phase and this is just her time to go through it. This too shall pass.

Towards the end of the week, Molly was getting along wonderfully with her GG. We were able to capture this moment of pure joy even with her Pop snapping the photo!

All in all, it was a great week spent with a fantastic group of people. Everyone in the family was so helpful and encouraging all week. No one complained about her fussiness and they all worked extra hard to win her over. You couldn't ask for a better family to be welcomed into and I feel blessed that Molly has the opportunity to grow up in it. Eventually, she WILL like all of her family members...I promise!