Beach Trip

We’ve just returned from a week at the beach. This was our first vacation with That Baby and it was a little different. Great, but different. This trip I foolishly and ambitiously packed three books and a waist-high stack of magazines and brought the entire stack of untouched New Yorks, Vanity Fairs and Verandas back home with me. Apparently there is not much time for pleasure reading with an infant in tow.

Though the days spent beach cruising, lounging, resting and combing through hundreds of glossy pages may be in the past, we tried not to let That Baby cramp our vacation style too much. Harper is on something of a schedule but we decided to let the schedule slide whilst on vacay because we didn’t want to be home-bound for naptime and in early for her Atlanta bedtime. Instead, she napped in the stroller or by the pool or not at all, and stayed up late so she could join us for half-priced glasses of wine and raw oysters at happy hour. We took long walks together to ogle at the gorgeous houses and made shady beach-side oases to keep pristine baby skin burn free. ((A note about the photo below: Harper was all, “Mom these glasses totally clash with my swimsuit.” And I was all, “I know baby, but they were the only ones I could find in your size.” Harper’s hoping Santa brings her a pair of baby wayfarers just like her archrival Blue Ivy Carter. Kids these days.))

Though we let the schedule slide on vacation, there is one thing I hold onto for dear life at home and away. You see, Harper wakes up for the day between 7:30 and 8am and then goes back down for a long nap right after she eats and plays a bit. We are talking at least 2 or 3 hours of solid peepless baby sleep. So most days on vacation, when the little one took a morning nap, so did we. I don’t know how long this blessed season will last, but My Man and I are enjoying it. Leisurely mornings are my love language.

We shared a house with my parents at Watercolor the first half of the week. They were delighted to have so much quality time with Harper and were willing babysitters so My Man and I could play tennis, do some mild gallivanting and have a night or two on the town. My parents (Buzzo and Honey to Harper) are absolutely over the moon in love with That Baby and it became even more evident after our time together at the beach. My mom took great delight in being the “naptime hero,” the one who gets Harper out of her crib after a nap. Then there was the time when my mom woke me up from a nap to see if she could wake Harper up. I was taking a flying first class style nap with ear plugs and an eye mask and was in a deep sleep when the overzealous grandmother knocked on my bedroom door to see if she could go wake up That Baby. Needless to say, that didn’t go over well. That day Honey learned that waking a sleeping mother is arguably worse than waking a sleeping baby.

The second half of the week our little family of three rented a house of our own, a little way down the beach at Seagrove. We rolled the dice and went for a deal we found on VRBO. The house was juuust fine. Cons: loud 1980s beach décor, really uncomfortable beds, and lacking the Watercolor charm we had grown accustomed to. Pros: amazing water pressure, cranking up the AC to my heart’s content on the owner’s dime, and being at the beach.

The week went by way too fast and before we knew it we were on the road back to Atlanta. Harper did better than expected on the 5+hour drive each way. She did a good bit of sleeping and babbling and fortunately her tears were few. However, about 20 minutes away from home, tears lead to screams and screams lead to projectile vomiting the entire contents of her stomach over the back seat of the car. It seems she’s learned young that vacation is amazing and reentry to the real world can be rough. I can’t wait for the days where we can take her absolutely anywhere.