Life's a Beach!

I decided to take a break from my usual study routine today and take a trip to the beach with my friend and her little girl.  It was Killian's first time experiencing the ocean.  Needless to say it was quite the adventure for both of us.  Here's a few things I learned about bringing an 11 month old to the beach:

1. Sand gets everywhere!!!  My friend told me this when we first arrived, and I was like, "Well sure, it's a beach!"  But seriously, it gets everywhere!!! In every crevice, orifice, on all your food, in your hair.... I'm pretty sure even after his bath tonight, Killian still has sand up his bum.  I know I definitely do since I haven't showered yet.  On a good note, we discovered that baby powder is a quick and easy way to rub the sand away.  I will be sure to pack some on my next visit.

2. Your child will definitely swallow salt water. Even when I had Killian sitting what I thought was a safe distance away from the water as to not drown, sure enough a big-ass wave came at him and knocked him over.  You could almost see it happen in slow motion.  Water approaching, look of surprise on his face (with mouth wide open), then a wave of ocean water toppling him over.  To my surprise he didn't cry and was still happy sitting in the sand.

3. SUNBLOCK, SUNBLOCK, SUNBLOCK!  Together we probably used a whole bottle of sunblock, but that still wasn't enough.  My little dude came home a little pink tonight.  And that was even after two very generous applications of Baby Aveeno (my favorite brand!), a UV protected tent, and a very stylish beach hat.  Oh well, it was bound to happen.

4. Nap before you leave the house.  Well, not YOU, I mean the babies.  We both thought that the kiddos would snooze on the drive there, but boy were we wrong!  Funny thing about babies is, when one cries, the other does too!  Which meant a very long car ride with two screaming kids and two mommies singing "Wheels on the Bus" over and over again.  They rallied together though for the actually beach-time and were hanging in strong.  Then not even two minutes after getting in the car to head home they were out like a light.  Two sleeping angels and two very happy mommies.

If you're already a mom then you know that anything you do with a child is never easy.  Just like we experienced today carrying two 20-something pound kids and about six bags of crap down the beach.  Sure we had our moments where we thought it was the stupidest idea in the world, but we survived, our kids survived and we even had some fun.  I'll chalk it up to a win and next time around I'll remember to bring some baby powder and a wagon to tote our stuff in!