Vacation, part 4...Highs and a couple of lows

For the most part our time at the shore was pretty great. The one defining negative in most of our days was a progressive lack of sleep for both boys.  Not that we didn't try mind you, but the sun rose a full 40 minutes earlier in the north than it does at our home.  It also set later.  Our boys apparently are pretty well tuned to the sun's rise and set, so they too (primarily LO) woke about 5:30 am nearly every morning.  They also fell asleep later and may or may not have napped well on any given day.  It took about five days for us to finally get LO to at least stay in his room when he woke up.  A few mornings, near the end of our trip, he even went back to sleep after being up an hour.  Most mornings though he was like our own personal rooster.  Up with the sun and singing at the top of his lungs.  As the days turned to weeks, the lack of sleep accumulated, and, especially for NB, took its toll on their behavior.  There was one morning, July 4th, that we all slept through the night and until 7:30 am.  That was sleeping in. Unfortunately there were also several nights when NB woke at 3:30 am and screamed for an hour before going back to sleep.  About the time he went back to sleep, LO woke up for the day.  These were definitely the low points in our day.  Fortunately they were outnumbered by some pretty memorable high points.

I haven't mentioned it in a while, so I will here.  I'm married to a dear, kind, generous man who is my best friend and an excellent father and husband.  It was such a pleasure to have him on this trip with us, and we were such a team through the two weeks.  It's always neat to me when we both attack a situation the same way and meet the needs of our family without really having to coordinate.  It is fun and rewarding to be on the same wavelength that way.  It doesn't always happen, but it is neat to me when it does.  There was a lot of that this trip and I was grateful for it.  I was also grateful for a gift of personal time that DH gave me five mornings while we were away.  When the boys were waking so early and no one was getting sleep, I found myself feeling grumpy and irritable before I even got out of bed.  I decided early on that, since I was up, I should go for a run.  I didn't really ask DH so much as tell him I was heading out.  Right up until the last time, he just rolled with it.  The beach is my favorite place to run.  Since I was always running before 7 am, the temperatures were pretty cool, and the humidity bearable. I ran once in Toona and Gido's neighborhood, three times on the boardwalk at the shore, and once through a neighborhood, up a bridge and along the beach itself.   This last run was my final one on the shore, and I ran to vintage Bon Jovi.  Seemed fitting for a Jersey run.  These runs helped me rearrange my attitude a lot and gave me a more pleasant start to my day.  I am so grateful to DH for making them happen.  It was such a gift to run outside and without pushing a heavy stroller. Thanks Hon.

The other highs of the trip were largely treats for LO.  I'll talk about DH's extended family time on another post, but three of the boys' four cousins were at the shore for four days.  They stayed in the top two floors over where we were.  Cousin time is always a little bit crazy.  There are more of them, they are older, and they have fewer rules.  In spite of that, cousin time is always fun for my guys.  All the cousins are really good to my guys.  They aren't usually around long enough to get on each other's nerves, so we haven't had any of those issues.  They do, however, entertain each other easily.  It was a special treat this visit for the cousins to just be able to pop down early in the morning to get LO, or for him to just run up and have playmates.

In addition to the fun of having cousins, LO also had a number of food treat for vacation.  DH and I wanted to let him have all the things we remembered really enjoying as a kid at the beach.  We knew they didn't have to all happen this trip, but the food ones could.  We don't allow LO a lot of junk, but we felt vacation was a good time to bend those rules a little.  So...LO had a chocolate custard from Kohr Bros, a fried oreo, a Rita's gelato, a nutella crepe, fried crepe chips with honey and cinnamon (the crepe treats were courtesy of a boardwalk chef who wanted to treat the boys after we bought lunch and dinner there), and a whole ice cream bar bought after the ice cream man rang his bell at the beach.

"Mama, do I get the whole thing?" he asked.  Yes buddy.  Enjoy!

 The other quintessential boardwalk experience for us was riding rides.  We weren't sure LO would be interested, but we thought we'd let him at least see them.  Nanny K has taught LO that the toy machines at the mall are just to sit in, he has never ridden in one, nor has he seemed interested.  Our first step was to show him similar machines (which turned out to be diggers) at "Wonderland" on the boardwalk.  He loved sitting in them.  To my surprise, NB loved them too.  He got very excited about the lights and sounds there.  He was especially interested in a froggy ride and an elevated train ride.   We visited once our second day at the shore.  LO kept asking to go back to the diggers.  So, Tuesday we returned.  I had some extra tickets from Uncle Joe, and we found that all rides were just two tickets on Tuesdays.  (The train is normally five tickets each person)  We returned and let the boys sit in the diggers again.  

Then LO said he would like to ride on some cars that went in a circle. It was a tame ride he could do himself, so we let him try.  He loved it, so we let him ride another similar ride.  Then, I got on the frog ride with NB.  Every time the ride bounced us, he just giggled in my lap.  We then all four went on the train ride.  LO loved that one too, while NB liked it ok, I think he enjoyed watching it from below even more.  Once we got Lo started, he went quickly from one ride to another.  He was cautious about which rides he chose, but did enjoy several that I thought he'd shy away from.  His favorite seemed to be the "Speedway" ride which had race cars that drove straight then whipped him around the end of an oval track.  He ride that one three times by himself.  

He also rode the train three times with me. While this was certainly a treat for the boys, DH and I had a lot of fun watching them have this first amusement ride experience.  NB's reaction to the place leaves me no doubt that there will be many rides in his future.  LO really surprised me though on how easily he joined in. The boys had so much fun, that we were late getting back to the house for their afternoon nap.  DH and NB walked back to the car and drove to meet us while LO had one last ride.  NB was asleep instantly in the car seat.  In the meantime, I thought a custard cone was the perfect way to end LO's amusement experience, so we scooted over to get his first custard cone.  He chose chocolate and we shared it quickly as I carried him to the car.  I don't know it he'll even remember this trip to the shore as he gets older, but I think it was a pretty perfect afternoon.  Thanks Uncle Joe, we owe you some tickets!

Our last big beach vacation first was kite flying.  I think it has been at least 25years since I've flown a kite.  Quite possibly longer.  I'm pretty sure my last time was with my dad at the beach in Florida.  I wasn't sure LO would have the interest or the skill, but I was excited to try my hand at it so we did.  I bought a rainbow colored box kite similar to the one I remembered having as a kid.  LO was actually excited to get it up in the air.  Once we got it off the ground he really enjoyed holding it.  We got it pretty high and kept it up twice for about 20 minutes each time.  LO was proud to be flying it high in the air when DH returned to the beach for the afternoon.  DH said he could see it from all the way by the beach house.  We don't have a picture since it wouldn't fit in one shot anyway, but it was a really fun experience.  We were able to squeeze the bag into our luggage on the way home, so maybe it will make it into southern skies too. 

One other random treat for LO came form another friendly civil servant.  LO was pleased to follow the mailman around one rainy day.  When the mailman noticed LO checking out his truck he offered to let him sit inside.  LO was a little uneasy, but he let me get a picture.  It started to rain in the process, so the poor mailman got wet.  He was really friendly though, and said he'd look for LO the next day.  We never saw him again.  When I told Papa about this picture he said LO now needs to make it his goal to have pictures in all the municipal vehicles.  We already have garbage truck, fire truck, police car, and, now mail truck.  Maybe ambulance is next?  Hopefully just for fun!

*************

Good thing no one is reading my posts anymore.  I forgot a couple of fun things that were treats for LO.  

1) LO and DH are homebodies.  Two weeks was a long time for them to be away.  I didn't realize that about Lo until this trip.  About half way through the week at the shore, LO started to tell me that, while he was enjoying the beach, Lovie really missed home.  He started asking how many days until he got to play with his garbage truck again.  Right about the time we started counting down the days to garbage truck play (there were 6 left), two things happened.  First, it was trash day at the shore.  Somehow LO managed to see about five garbage trucks on that day.  Five! We never see that many in one day at home.  One of these LO found using his "spidey senses."  Really, this kid is so observant.  That, or I'm getting oblivious and deaf in my middle age.  I guess both might be true.  So we were walking to Toona and Gido's condo just a couple of blocks away.  LO had already seen three garbage trucks and it was after 5pm, I figure they were pretty much finished in our area.  As I was pushing LO in the stroller he said "what was that sound mama?"  I hadn't heard anything, so I told him so.  "Was it a garbage truck? he asked.  "No buddy, I think they are done for the day."  "Yes it was, mama" he countered as he looked down a side street.  Out of the corner of my eye I saw he was right.  I backed him up in the stroller and we sat in the middle of the sidewalk and watched the truck collect garbage up the street.  They were kind enough to wave as they turned the corner just in front of us.   The next day Uncle Joe and cousin E, who had no idea LO was missing his truck, showed up with a pint-sized back loader for LO.  That cured LO's homesickness.  Unfortunately it also had him out of his room at 4:30 the next morning looking for his new truck.  We managed that though.  You can check out LO's new truck in our 4th of July post when I get it written.  It's the fifth "person" in our family photo.  

2) When LO and I had our snacks on the beach, we had to be careful of the seagulls.  They were really aggressive.  DH actually had one swoop down and take a half-eaten cheese stick, wrapper and all, out of his hand when it was on the way to his mouth!  As we ate our lunch the next day, LO announced "those seagulls are pesky mama."  Obviously he had learned this from DH, but he was right on.  The sea gulls made eating on the beach even more complicated than average.  One afternoon LO and I had watermelon snacks. It seems to me that sea gulls are carb lovers, so I thought our watermelon pretty safe.  Though it was a seedless watermelon, there were a few brown seeds in there.  I thought LO would enjoy spitting them, so I introduced him to the idea.  He needs a little practice still.  More robust seeds would probably have helped too.  It was fun though to share that little piece of my childhood with him.  I think we'll do it again soon.  Oh, and we managed to avoid any further close encounters with those pesky gulls.

********

Oh my goodness!  How could I have forgotten another treat?  On the mornings I ran along the boardwalk I passed two places that made fresh donuts every morning.  One specialized in apple cider donuts, but was further from where we were staying.  Both had lines of people at 7 am when they started serving.  When I talked to the regulars, the consensus seemed split on which place had the better donut.  The only reasonable solution then was to try them both.  After my second morning run, I stopped at the place closest to us, it was the last stop before the boardwalk ended, so I was able to run three or so miles, then get the donuts and walk back.  It was a fun surprise for DH, and the donuts were still warm when we ate them.  The next morning I stayed in, but we decided to hit up the other restaurant for breakfast.  Seemed like a perfect time to try their apple cider donuts.  It was a tough call, but I think we liked theirs the best.  Possibly because they were about 10 minutes fresher than the ones I  had to take back the morning prior.  My last boardwalk run I nabbed our favorite flavors from the first place.  They threw in a free water which was much appreciated as I was still panting when I ordered.  (I had just beat the early morning rush.)  There were no complaints when I returned home with those even though they were not the official favorites.  Two people commented as I walked the couple of blocks back to the house.  One woman said she could smell them from across the street.  Yummmm!