Vacation! A Little One, Anyway

Prior to Evangeline's timely entrance into our lives, A and I didn't have things particularly easy. We've dealt with a lot of adversity in the form of health struggles and OCD, and that made dealing with mundane stressors, like money and jobs, extremely difficult. Neither of us can take much time away from work because we've used it all addressing health problems, or having our gorgeous girl. While I am grateful for the 11 weeks I had off, it was not exactly peaceful, and we needed a little getaway desperately. I booked our trip a few months ago and this weekend we finally got to go to my favorite place - the beach!

Taking a long weekend trip is a completely different animal when you do it with a baby. We had to pack an entire box of toys, a bag full of food, tons of clothes (and bibs and burp cloths for our messy spitter), diapers and wipes, a rock n play for her to sleep in, and the bumbo for her to sit in to eat. There's a lot more that goes into a simple beach excursion with an infant (shade, diapers, food, etc.). We had to make sure we had an opportunity for her to take her required naps (which have evened out to 2-3 a day) and we had to be back in at a reasonable hour so she could go to bed. We forwent mini golf, since we'd have to put her in the stroller since I forgot my carrier. It was a little crazy. But, all in all, it was an awesome trip.

E was an amazing baby on the way down. She didn't cry. Not once - not at all. It took over 5 hours by the time we stopped to eat and grab some water and such at Walmart. When we finally opened our curtains in the room, this was our view!

We spent a total of about an hour and a half on the beach. The weather and water were amazing, but I didn't want E to get too much sun, and even with a beach tent there was no comfortable place to nap. She did dress for the occasion, though, with her little crab butt! And proud daddy holding his little one. Her whole butt fits in one hand lol.

This is E ready to hit the beach! This hat was too big, so we switched it up the next day, but oh my God that swimsuit. In case you're curious, little girl swimsuits run WAY small. E is not even close to being out of 6 month stuff despite turning 6 months in 2 weeks, and that swimsuit is a 6-12 month. The 3-6 was WAY too small. It was ridiculous. She cried when I tried to put it on. This one she liked.

This is daddy holding E in the water. We didn't go out past our knees. This is "what is this stuff hat keeps coming at me" face. She was trying so hard to figure out what was going on. She actually really enjoyed the water. She kicked her feet at it and dug her toes in the sand. But she's extremely inquisitive and tactile and wants to know what everything is. The ocean she just hasn't figured out quite yet.

This picture's just to show how insanely huge her daddy's hands are. His wedding ring nearly fits on my big toe.

We spent a lot more time in the hotel than we would pre-E. We did a lot of playing and snuggling in the morning, and she decided she doesn't need to hold herself up when she's sitting anymore. She'd rather grab her toes. She was barely touching my leg. She's getting so grown up. 

We did get out some, though, and our time at the Boardwalk was spent winning our sweet girl some new toys. Below we have a dolphin, a pink shark, a whale, a Sonic, a duck, a Share Bear, and a ninja lemon! It has a ninja headband on. She loved her toys, but we have to be careful because they're for ages 3 and up, so she can't play too much with them yet. She loved sitting in her stroller taking in the sites. About 8000 people came up to us to tell us how beautiful she was, and that she looked like a baby doll. Her habit of smiling at strangers has got to end. Everyone loves her.

Next year we're planning on taking a real vacation. I need to build up some time off so we can go to the beach for an entire week. We want to go with our whole family because my dad loves the beach and they love E so much and want to hang out with her. Plus it would be nice to have extra hands. We may go to a different beach though. Unfortunately, my baby wont be so little. She wont look like this anymore:



She'll be a year and a half old for our next vacation. Walking, talking, eating big girl food... I can't take it. She's growing up way too fast.