AT THE BEACH!

In the car on the way home from Wrightsville Beach last night, Ben said to me, “James is really lucky. He got to go to the beach when he was only 3 months old! I mean, I think I was 16 before I ever saw the ocean! How old were you?”

To which I had to reply honestly: “Six months…”

Oh well. It was very special to get to go to the beach and I’m still slightly amazed, after a quarter-century of complete landlocked-ness, that the beach is only about 2 hours away from here! James slept through most of the ride there, and was perfectly happy in the carseat after he woke up until we got there, which is a huge breakthrough. This was our first longish car trip since we drove 3 days to get here and I was worried it might bring back some of the traumatic memories James has and be a bad experience, but it wasn’t, thank goodness. On the trip back, he started crying right as soon as we got on the highway, so we pulled over and walked around a handy Food Lion for 30-45 minutes and then put him back in the seat and he fell asleep and we got home without incident as well. Yay!

At the beach, James seemed to enjoy walking in the sand…But NOT the actual ocean water. The water was really nice and warm to us, but I thought it might be too cold for him and wasn’t even going to put him in…but Ben wanted to sit at water’s edge with James in his lap and just barely touch his feet down into the water…and James was perhaps a tad bit freaked out by this new experience. Plus it was his naptime, so probably he was just thinking “What are you people doing and why aren’t you letting me sleep?” Next time I’m sure he’ll like it more.

Other than that, James and I spent a lot of time stretched out on a blanket on the beach, with protective umbrella covering for his delicate little skin, but again, I got slightly burned, but only in a very strange pattern on my feet where apparently the sunscreen didn’t stick. Oh well. Someday I’ll figure this out, and for now, it sort of hurts to try to put on shoes. At least I can say I figured out beach-breastfeeding, which was a little more of a challenge since James wanted to lie down to nurse but the beach was not flat. But we did it! I think if we can nurse there we can probably do it anywhere. Go us!

For dinner we went to an apparently famous place called “Dockside” and I had some grilled tuna, while Ben had….a hamburger! Apparently it was delicious. And that’s pretty much our whole day yesterday, except that when we got back home, we were all 3 so dirty and sandy that we all got in the shower together and I held James tight while Ben washed him off, and THAT? He really loved that. So shower=fun and ocean=not fun, for now.

This was a really busy weekend, actually. Saturday my Uncle Robert and cousin Kyle came to visit, and James seemed to really enjoy Kyle’s company. Now, Kyle is a great guy, but I’m also thinking maybe James was into his beard, since his daddy also has a beard….? And Friday night we had a little BBQ party with Ben’s *Convective Storms Group* which was also lots of fun. All the girls love James, of course! And it was nice to be busy and have lots of social interaction over the weekend, which sometimes is more limited for me and James during the week.

Okay, that’s all for now….I’ll probably post more beach pictures when we get the ones Jerilyn took. Then you can see all of us together! Peace and love.