"Vacation"

So, we spent a week at the beach with a 16 month old...notice how I didn't call it vacation?
My idea of vacation includes quiet, relaxation, sleeping in, and adult beverages. Oh, we had plenty of adult beverages....just not the rest of it.

Apparently 16 month olds do not subscribe to the sleeping in model of vacation. Sophia shared a room with us on this vacation and we learned the following things:
1. Sophia is a very light sleeper.
2. Creaky floors, doors and beds will wake her up.
3. Sophia thinks 5:45 am is a wonderful wake up time on vacation even though she wakes up at 7am at home.
4. Sophia sings to herself in the morning when she wakes up. We knew this but learned that you can't sleep through it when its at the foot of your bed.
5. Saying "sshhh" only works until your 16 month old "shhhhs" you back!
6. Bill is a very good guy and got up most of the days when Sophia did letting me sleep in....although that was probably in his best interest, seeing as I am a nasty piece of business without the proper amount of sleep.

Once we downed several cups of coffee each day...it was off the beach. And in Sophia's case, off to the races! She LOVED the beach. The sand, the water, the sea gulls, all of it. She was non-stop for 2 hours at a time each morning and then again in the afternoon. It was awesome! And exhausting.Bill and I had to tag out every 20 minutes or so just to keep up.
Some babies are afraid of the ocean, not ours. She would run head first into waves breaking on the shore if we weren't there to grab her. She took a couple of headers into the waves and still wasn't deterred.
Sand became Sophia's new best friend and my worst enemy. She would roll in it, dig in it, pile it on herself, fling it this way and that. She was like a pig in well you know. I learned a valuable lesson from a friend....BABY POWDER! if you put a little one your hands or theirs and rub it in, sand falls off! Thank you Erica! Sophia also became accustomed to cold hose downs before we entered the house every day. And she learned what its like to go commando in her bathing suit :) I learned that any diaper, swim diaper or not is really just a glorified sand trap. So my daughter had the most adorable plumbers butt for most of the week :D
Sea gulls (aka DUCKS according to Sophia) became a huge attraction. Sophia would see one, point, yell "Duuss!" and go running. And I mean running. Her little chub legs were pumping and she didn't stop. Finally when the "duus" would get smart and fly away, I would have Sophia wave bye bye and back to the water we would go. This only happened 20-30 times each day.....

Midday we would have 1 to 1 and a half hours of vacation in the form of nap time. Sitting on the beach or on the deck, relaxing and doing nothing. It was awesome. Then the beach tornado would wake up and we would do it all over again!

I will say that Sophia learned a TON of new words at the beach: boat (boa), bird (which replaced duck), plane (pane), bye bye, fish (fissss), Parker her cousin(par-per), and many more. It was very fun :)

Bedtime would come and Mommy and Daddy would pretty much collapse in a deck chair with a cocktail or 4 and then drag ourselves quietly to bed so as not to wake the little beach bum. And the next day it started all over again!

Now we are home and back to sleeping in our own beds (heaven). Sophia is sleeping until 6:45....vast improvement. And I am wondering what our next beach "vacation" will be like.

Our Little Surfer Girl :)