The Beach

So we took Lilly to the beach this weekend. We went with our friends Bill and Jessica and their five month son, Parker. We were either extremely adventurous or silly for bringing the infants at such a young age. But either way, it turned out well, though it was their first meeting (between Lilly and Parker), they didn't have a whole lot of interaction. Parker was more interested in Lilly - she didn't have the interest in him! Though in all fairness, she's most interested in eating, pooing, and sleeping. She is quite alert but like I said her main interests are the ones above.

The drive down was a bit of a challenge - we wanted to leave early to miss the Mobile traffic, so while Mark was able to come home for 12:15, we didn't leave the house until 1:30. I cannot tell you how much stuff we had- so many baby items - diapers, pack and play, wipes, bottles, breast pump, towels, washcloths, blankets, sound machine, sleep wedge. Just packing it all was a lot! And we even forgot things - like the bathtub, bottle caps, and Sheep Sleep. But I digress, we got off well, she ate, slept in the car. But then we encountered a bit of traffic leaving the city. And she woke up, just as we crossed the border into Mississippi. So we pulled off at the Stennis Space Center parking lot, changed her, and fed her. This turned into an one hour detour. But at least she was good to go.

We got back on I-10, was going along well for 30 miles or so and came upon bad rain showers. Hazards on. Speeds reduced to 30 mph, it was really hard to see the cars in front of us. Then once we got of the rain showers, we came up on super bad back up. We literally went 8 miles in about an hour. She slept through it all, which was a godsend. We were nervous about Mobile traffic, as we came upon it right at rush hour, but it was no big deal! We got through it no problem.

As we got off the interstate and onto Hwy. 59, she started to stir. We decided to forge ahead, to see how far we could get before pulling over to feed. She lasted about 25-30 minutes, just before we came to the Foley Beach Express. But she did a super efficient and fast feeding. No more than 20 minutes! Which was just enough time for Bill and Jessica to catch up with us. So once we made it to the Foley Beach Express, we were being followed by them.

Anyway, I am getting sidetracked. Traveling with an infant is definitely a change. Normally when we get to the beach, we head to the store, kick back, cook some dinner, drink a beer, etc. But this time, it was divide and conquer. Feed Lilly. Get her changed into sleep gown. Unpack her stuff. Put together the Pack and Play. Then send someone out to the store. Then fix dinner (I think we finally ate around 9:30-10). And then crash.

Lilly slept well. Which meant we were able to sleep well! Parker went down around 9 or so and he sleeps through the night. Lilly didn't go to sleep until about 11-11:30 but she did sleep until a little after 6. And then it was a day where she napped, ate, and enjoyed being at the beach. While we didn't venture down to the beach, we did go to the pool. We even had a hat and new towel (Small Paul, of course). So we were ready for the water. Mark went in. I brought her to the water, and first put her feet in. She didn't take to kindly to this. I told her it was just like taking a bath without the soap. She does pretty well with baths but she didn't really understand me. Because when Mark dipped her in the water, she wailed and wailed. And wailed some more. I had these hopes that because she does so well in the bath that I thought she would take to the pool, like a fish. So we took her out. Brought her upstairs and out of her wet onesie and diaper. And then she quieted down. And was ok.

Saturday was Jessica's birthday, so we went out to Franco's, which is a faux-Olive Garden. Same unlimited salad and breadsticks. And general Italian fare. Both kids did well at the restaurant. And we were even able to see some of the Saints-Texans Pre-Season game (looking like a two-dat). She didn't sleep through the night, woke up around 3:30AM, ate and went back to sleep, awoke around 8, which was nice. So after breakfast (we always seem to eat bacon at the beach - it's pretty much the only place we eat it, go figure) she ate, and then we packed (ok, Mark did the packing) and we hit the road. We wanted to take advantage of her naptime and hopefully no traffic. So a sleeping baby and a pretty much open road were ideal conditions for a Sunday drive back to NOLA (well except for the bad driver towing a car who swerved out in front of us, but we're ok, Mark has very good reflexes). But she was super good and thank goodness for her pacifier (peace pipe) as it certainly kept the peace as we came across the Louisiana border. We knew we had about 30-40 minutes left and we wanted to make it without stopping, so thank you pacifier.

Also we downloaded Carl Hiassen's new book, Star Island, and it is HYSTERICAL. We are about 6-7 chapters into it, and definitely worth reading. We need another car ride to listen to more of the book. But all in all she did well. On the way there, I only thought about asking Mark to turn the car around a couple of times (once at the rest stop and once in the hour-long back up). But we went with the flow. I let go, or as much as I could. And we made it through. And now we know that she a)hates the pool b)can survive a car ride to the beach c)has a new friend named Parker.