Saturday, July 31, 2010

first beach day of the summer!

i've been going to the beach since i was a baby on the back of my mom's bike, and i was glad to continue that summer tradition with my own daughter last year, minus the bike. it was fun dipping her toes in the water and digging holes in the warm sand, and just letting her explore a new environment a little bit.

i was really looking forward to this season for a number of reasons. she was older, and a much different kid than only a year ago. this time around she had her own curiosities and questions, coupled with the vocabulary to communicate them. i wanted to see what she would find interesting, what she'd be scared of (so i could threaten her with it later), and how she played and interacted with the environment this time around.

we normally start hitting the beach as soon as warm weather hits, but with mommy's work schedule it took us until last weekend to make it there for the first time this year.



helping mommy get her swim diaper on, along with an obscene amount of sun screen. bebe helping mommy get her own swim diaper on, not mommy's swim diaper. mommy doesn't wear a swim diaper. that would be weird.




gotta get every little part!




hey lady, i think you missed a spot, har har har!



"that's very funny, daddy. you want i should sunscreen your tongue?"




fully screened and diapered, it's time to suit up:



okay! what should we do first?



getting all sandy is always fun!



then you get to go rinse off in the water!



"filling a bucket with sand, emptying it out, filling it up again..."


"there's just something that's so fulfilling about it! and then unfulfulling! and then refulfilling! and then..."






should we hit the surf? let's do it!




"whoa whoa whoa! what the crap is this all about?"

"dude, the floor is moving. you better pick me up before i barf."



another new development for this year was bebe's own beach chair!






the perfect little seat to tear apart a sand-filled cookie!



"gross! i think i got a little sugar filling in my sand! yech!"



since grammie lives so close to the beach, we like to stop there on our way home. there's also a pool in case we want to take one last dip before we head home to the hot city.

the hugapalooza that began at her birthday party continued at our next visit.


she not only barely had to be coerced into giving out hugs



she just kept on hugging!


and hugging



and hugging

and hugging! she really made auntie ash's day with this ten-minute long hug!


hopefully we'll get to the beach a few more times this summer!

Friday, July 30, 2010

saturdaddyday pt. 3

i found this set kicking around the bottom of my photo library and had somehow never gotten around to posting it. i think it's one of the first times that we took the train downtown. it started off as an innocent trip to the big playground...


"i like swinging okay."



"but i can't help but feel there's more to life than this."



"i mean, really? back and forth? is that it? i..."



"whup, never mind. just some gas."
don't worry, beebs. you're not the first person to mistake a little flatulence for intelligent conversation.



"let's get on with it then. big push, daddy."



a real yardstick measurement of any playground we go to involves going down the big twisty slide. they're high and intimidating, often reserved for big kids, sometimes only accessible via tall ladders or climbing net- the big twisty is a real accomplishment for the little ones.






TA-DAAAAAA! great slide, bebe!



and then it was back up the net for more (she needed some help with the net)!




such a big kid!



once the play ground started to fill up, bebe thought we should get in the orange train. the station is right next door, so we pushed our way over:






we decided we'd go to the duck pond, but first we said good bye to the train that dropped us off:


then it was out onto the street!



first intersection we came to was an ambulance bonus!



bebe assumed pushing duties once we hit the common.




and we sat by the water's edge and watched the ducks swim and look for food.



i think this was her first swan boat sighting. funny how something she doesn't even look at twice, or barely at all, once started out as such a curiosity. she's more jaded than a hipster kickball game.



swing the chains, however, never gets old.




whoa! this time she swung herself right through. which she thought was hilarious.




not as funny as crawling under to get back though.



she wanted to walk a little more, so off we went.



we found this cool statue right before we turned around to head for home. it cracked her up to touch his feet. what a simpleton.



while we wait for our train, we watch the trains on the other side come and go, and practice our "din! ding!" noises to let the people on and off.




hey, it's our train! let's go!



sometimes on our walks, daddy gets an iced coffee

and beebs gets a cool straw. wait till she's old enough for iced coffee. she'll really like the straws then!



word, sucka!


so that's the end of the little back-log of daddy days that i had. tomorrow we'll have some coverage of our first trip this season to the beach, followed by some older stuff that's too cute not to post!