Not in a million years could my husband or I could have predicated BG’s reaction to the pool and the ocean. On friday we left for a last minute trip to Destin Florida (we planned it just 2 weeks ago on a whim, though it’s been on my mind for months). I got a great deal on a beach house with 3 bedrooms, just $200 a night and it had anything and everything you could need or want, down to toddler toys and a pool. We stayed until Monday morning and most the time there, it rained. The ride down was rough, BG doesn’t nap well in cars anymore and just like she did on mothers day, woke up screaming after 30 minutes. Totally inconsolable. Had to pull over the car and hold her for 15 minutes. Screaming so bad she would start to cough like she would throw up. Not. Fun. On the trip down we also got sort of lost and wasted about 1 hour.
When we got to the house it was great, and BG loved just playing in the house with its wide open floor plan, different toys and tiled floors. Saturday morning she was busy playing with all the new stuff and I got to work on some XHTML web page templates for a side project. Later at nap time, I ran off to “Unwind the Yarn Shop” in Fort Walton Beach about 12 miles away.
This was a fantastic yarn shop, they had loads of EZ samples out, and all the nice yarns like Malabrigo, Rowan, Cascade, Tilli Thomas, Trekking, Louet and many more I can’t remember. I even sat and knit for well over an hour, I didn’t want to leave! It is not a huge shop, but really quiet wonderful. The two ladies who were on staff were very helpful and nice, and the two other locals along with the staff ladies and us all sat at the center table and knit. It was clear they all knew each other very well and it was a very comfortable and welcoming atmosphere. I didn’t want to leave! I cast on (for the 4th time) for my soon to be published pattern “Country Kiddie – Toddler Addition” or whatever name I decide to give it! I received so much feedback asking for larger sizes, this will be in sizes 2T, 3T and 4T. I bumped the gauge up to 5.5 stitches per inch to keep the stitch count down on the larger sizes and make it a bit easier to knit. I think all that stockinette would be maddening on size 3 needles.
So I came back to the beach house and it had rained the entire day, we went out for dinner and things went very well. The comes sunday, it was very overcast in the morning but I was determined to take BG to the beach, after all it was technically the 3rd day in Florida and we had yet to see any sand.
The thrill BG got from the water, the happyness it gave her was beyond imagination. I have never seen her so thrilled. The husbeast wound up right in the water, with his flip flops and long corduroy pants still on. There would be no stopping BG from getting into that water, and the concept of drowning? Not even a remote inkling, the child was fearless. She did seem to like holding our hands and that helped but if you did not go the direction she wanted, she would simply go.
Look at the facial expression, insane delight:
We finally had to leave as it started raining again, and what should have been a 5 minute walk took about 20 because we got lost, and honestly how easy is it to concentrate on anything with a child who is screaming so loud and so hard (because we left the ocean) that she made her nose run. It was bad. My husband would say “it was fine, she loved the ocean so it was worth it” but for me that 20 minute walk was just horrible. DH was a trooper, and as long as he knew she was happy he was willing to do whatever it took, because seriously the delight she had over that water was INSANE.
So later after her nap the sun came out for the first time, and I thought we would try to go to the pool. I forgot swim diapers so we doubled up two normal diapers and her bathing suite. Big mistake, her butt blew up like a balloon, it was actually pretty funny. That aside though, the pool was a disaster. She wanted in the water but there was no baby pool, and my wonderful memories of her 6 months old at the YMCA swimming class, in which she allowed me to hold her in the water, well those days are long gone. I would hold her in the water and she would say “down, down!” which meant she wanted me to let her go, in 4 feet of water. We tried putting her in the floating toddler boat I got her, no interest at all. More screaming, and we left. We wound up back at the beach house (short walk) and let her play under the outside sprinkler/shower. We took off the 2 pounds of diapers and let her run around nekkid, which she loved. After catching our breath, DH decided we should try the ocean again, after all she really loved the water and it was more manageable (sort of).
Pointing to the water, asking to go back in.
The whole morning had been awful for me, I can’t physically do anything with her I want to. Anything involving the pool or the ocean was a huge risk. When we had first taken her out to the ocean that morning I tried holding her hand and she kept leaning back when the waves would go in and out and the vertigo of the ocean going back out, and her pulling me and then having to lift her up so the waves didn’t go over her (it was rough due to the storms all weekend) was just too much for me to handle. So DH said if we went back I wasn’t to try to do anything, and he would handle it, and so he did and we had a very pleasant 2 hours at the beach, and I think he got a very good work out.
She went out sans diaper, risking a poop in the ocean but beyond caring at that point. I kept busy slathering on the sun block (both BG and DH) and then on my own pasty white skin. The two of them spent most of their time out on a sandbar, which worked pretty well because the waves couldn’t get her and DH could get a little rest (sort of). We watched a 3 year old go down very badly, falling off the sandbar and going under the water, with her father and mother jumping in after her, lots of screaming and crying. My pregnancy hormones told me not to watch DH and BG, so I kept busy knitting and people watching, and of course took some photos. I had a beach neighbor document my wearing a bathing suite while pregnant, not a glamour shot but I think it’s pretty funny. Really hard to find bathing suites with good “support” ehem.
Somehow after 1.5 hours hours we managed to get BG to let us walk her *away* from the beach and there was more crying involved, not as much as the time before but we knew the short way back to the beach house, and I stayed 20 feet back and let DH handle it this time. She cried a bit, but once we got back to the house we showed her the outside shower and she was happy again, then she got a bath. My mother always said me and my sister loved water as children so I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
It was a nice weekend, but frustrating for me as I can’t give to BG all of myself, being held back by the nearly 4 pound baby in my stomach. It makes normal tasks with a toddler seem damn near impossible, thank goodness I have such a patient husband, I know BG loved playing in the water with him.
