We packed up the van for my second solo trip with the kids. Ian had to stay back and work and we headed to Topsail Island to visit with his parents, Pop Pop and Gramzie.
Lu was all about it. She knows that going to the beach means waves, sand, surprise visits from pirates, lots of treats, and lots of for-the-kids activities. Harper was game, but really didn't have any clue what "beach" meant. She was just excited to see grandparents. Graham, well, he didn't have a clue, but was up for a carride, nonetheless. All made it in tact, even though we battled some rain and DC/ Richmond traffic held us up for more than 2 hours. We made it there in about 10 hours and all had done just fine.
The week at the beach was a great one. When the week goes by so fast that you can't hardly tell the days apart, all kids sleep each and every night and nobody has any major incident, then you can count yourself lucky.
The kids each had their own agendas at the beach. Lucy's was to spend as much time as possible in the water. She wasn't as concerned this year about going deeper in the waves as she was just wanting to be in the water. This meant, she was happy jumping in the waves, sitting in the water with her toy sharks and dolphins, boogey boarding with Pop Pop and Gramzie or skipping along and splashing about. She always had some major play going on in her head and sometimes we were players in it and sometimes not. Either way, she just wants you to go along, not really add your own two cents.
Harper's agenda was to get a bit braver each day. This meant the first day just looking at the ocean. The second day she was jumping little waves. By the third day she was gliding around on the boogey board and going a little deeper. Sometime late week she got a bit scared of the waves, turned to run, fell down and ate a bit of beach. That took away some of her bravery and she went back to be mroe cautious. She would say every day, "Daddy is going to be so proud of me in the waves!" When it came to the sand, I have to say she is a bit like me. It is fun to play in, but I don't really want it all over me. She spent a lot of time "washing her feet" in the water. She also spent a fair amount of time getting in trouble for throwing sand on Graham or piling wet sand on his head. That's ok though, they both loved the clean-up- rinsing off in the faucet or shower and the subsequent baths.
Graham had his first taste of the beach, literally. He ate sand, drank sea water and ate more sand. He nibbled on shells, spat them out and then tried them again. He would put his face in the ocean and loves splashing in tidal pools. True to form, he loved having shells and rocks stacked or sand castles to smash. And while he did love being in the water, he did not like me getting into the water. It was comical that for the entire week, anytime I got into the water without him, he would instantly cry. It happened every single time. I don't know if he was scared for me, or mad that he wasn't with me.
On another Graham note, he is a mimicking and talking machine. He began saying "shark" at the beach, along with "uh-oh", "no", and a pretty impressive seagull impression, which according to Harper and Lucy say, "Mine! Mine! Mine!" while flapping their wings. He is also communicating more with his hands. He is pointing to things and saying "dat?" and was so impressed by the birds, helicopters and planes that were flying ahead that he would hold his arms up, smile and say "dat!"One week is just enough to have fun, start missing home and not get tired of putting on sunscreen and bathing suits. Lucy wants to know why we don't live at the beach. I told her this way we get to look forward to it and get excited about it for a long time and, yes, we're already looking forward to next year...
