Memorial Day Weekend

This forgotten Blog. Life has been crazy there is just too much going on! The one thing about living at the beach is visitors. My Mother came down the weekend before Mother's Day, my Mother-in-law was here the weekend after Mother's Day and my sister is visiting again, this time for 10 days. My brother-in-law is coming with his wife next weekend. So if anybody else would like to make reservations at Casa Marley it must be done soon, July 31 is our last day in the house and the month of July will be spent packing/organizing/pulling our hair out, etc. Although we will still be living at the beach, just a different one, so reservations can be made at the "new" beach beginning August 15th.

What a whirlwind of a weekend! Friday I secured a job, a place to live and saw a new "Words of Wisdom" it's the best yet and will be posted before the weeks end. Saturday, Marley and I went to the beach. The weather was gorgeous and hot but I could not convince her to get her feet wet. I can't really blame her, the water is freezing!

Marley is entering a hording phase. She must sleep with as many stuffed animals and toys that can fit in her crib, still allowing room for her to lay down. At the beach she MUST carry, her sand shovel, various toys, a sippy cup and pick up every single seashell (broken or not). Oh and Mom can not help her carry a single item, she must do this herself. Inevitably she dropped most of the items along the way, even the sippy cup that landed in the ocean and was rescued by a brave swimmer. I was allowed to carry the sippy cup after that incident.

Sunday morning was spent cooking various meals for Marley, in an attempt to get veggies inside of her. Among the hording phase, she has also decided that nothing suits her palette unless it is cheese, bananas or peanut butter. Thankfully, she did not turn up her nose to the broccoli, chicken, cheddar nuggets I made.

Sunday evening Marley went to a babysitter for the first time. The babysitter was one of the teachers at her daycare, someone Marley knew, but it was still a little traumatizing for Mom and Dad. For four hours I got to be the old me. It felt great, the trauma of dropping her off at a babysitter wore off very quickly! We had tickets to see Government Mule play in an outdoor setting. It was wonderful, it was fabulous and the weather could not have been more perfect. I picked Marley up from the babysitter at 9 p.m. and she slept until 8:30 the next morning. I could not have asked for a better scenario than that.

Monday was yet another gorgeous day so Marley and I had to go to the beach again. This time Mom remembered to bring a bucket for all the seashells, toys and sand shovel. Marley was yet again apprehensive about the waves. I still could not blame her too much the water was freezing. I did decide that she needed to get her feet wet (literally, ha ha). I started kicking, skipping and splashing in the water, Marley enjoyed watching me but she insisted on staying in the dry sand...until we found a tidal pool. That was it Marley found heaven. She jumped, skipped, splashed and then found the courage to try out the waves. The rest of the time at the beach was spent chasing Marley who was literally trying to drown herself. No more resting quietly on the beach for Mom. Maybe it wasn't such a great idea to show her how much fun the waves can be after all.

Being a relatively new Mom, I see the world very differently than I did before. There is a sense of pride and sheer happiness when your child is bringing joy to strangers who are merely observing your child exploring and at play. What surprised me the two times at the beach this past weekend was the fact that it was not the "Grandmother" types that were cooing over her, it was late teens/early twenties boys! There was one in particular that was playing in the surf on his skim board that stopped to watch Marley. He had a silly grin on his face and I thought to myself what a great Dad this guy is going to make someday.

Happy belated Memorial Day weekend!