Welcome back, Beth!

[Rachels]

Can't wait to hear about your trip! It has been freezing here. I want to live vicariously!

-Rachel
Mom to Abigail Rose
5/18/02

[mama2be]

OH I can't wait to hear about it too. Honestly I was taking my bubble bath last night with candles and thought "OH this feels so good"...and then I got to thinking about Beth's trip and I was thinking, "OH that would feel soooo good"...

Details and pics please!!!! We've missed you, glad you are home safely!!!

[nigele]

I was sooooo jealous of you!!! I hope you had a good trip - give us details!

[egoldber]

Hi all! Well we just back from warm sunny Jamaica.... I miss it already! :)

Actually, it is really nice to be home. The older Sarah gets, the harder it gets to travel with her. She was very picky about the food. I think other than the stuff I thought to bring from home she ate bananas and bread. She hated all the yummy fresh tropical fruits. Sigh.

She loved Jamaica and being outside and warm. She also loved the ocean. However, she HATED and I mean HATED the beach and the sand. Thank goodness I thought to bring a Neat Sheet so that she had soemwhere to sit that wasn't sandy. Also, the resort we were at had a very nice boardwalk area and she happily spent the day crawling around the boardwalk.

I also bought a mesh sling for the water and she LOVED that. We waded in the ocean and she thought that was the greatest thing. I really recommend one of these. I got mine here: http://www.taylormadetreasures.com

It is cold here, but not as bad as I feared. But it supposed to get REALLY cold tonight...

[August Mom]

Welcome back, Beth. It sounds like your trip was great. I was just thinking this morning how nice it would be if someone made a carrier that could be worn in water. I guess I wasn't the first one to think of this idea. Thanks for the tip.

[atlbaby]

Hi Beth!

Welcome back!! Glad to hear you had a great time, and that Sarah enjoyed the ocean! Did she seem scared of the sand (had she seen sand/beach before?) or did she not like the feel of it? Just curious, not like it's beach weather here or anything :) ...
Not sure what a Neat Sheet is either, a towel-like thing??

-Rachel
Mom to Arielle Jill, 10/30/01

[jojo2324]

Glad you had such a good time! Did she toddle at all? Did you use kneepads on the boardwalk? :D Only asking because we just picked up a pair for Gannon the other day. Too funny!

It sounds like you had a wonderful time...Hoping the nasty weather does not continue for too long here...Sigh. Interesting about the water sling! We'll need to look into that for this summer here on the beach! Welcome back!

[himom]

It's a funny thing about some babies and sand. (I live in Hawaii so I noticed this a while back.....)

Kids who don't like to be dirty very often HATE sand. My parents told me that when I was learning to crawl they could put me on a blanket on the beach and were guaranteed I wouldn't budge because I hated the feeling of the sand on my hands. They said that if I got any on me I'd immediately stop and spend the all my time trying to rub it off.

One of my cousins used to cry and scream when there was sand on her feet and she wouldn't stop until we cleaned her off. (She's 19 and she's outgrown it now!)

We both loved the water, just not the sand.

On the opposite side of the page, my niece doesn't mind the sand so much but she'll spend the whole day trying to clean every tiny piece of twig, shell, or driftwood off the beach. We can sit there and talk all day while she'll toddle around us and deposit every little piece she finds in my lap, admonishing me with the word "dirt" with every twig.

Sorry to ramble on so, but I love babies at the beach and just wanted to share. I can't wait to take Joshua on his first beach trip.

Jodi
(past due 2 days....)

[sweetbasil]

Thanks for the mesh sling tip, Beth. So glad you had a nice time!

[August Mom]

A Neat Sheet is a relatively new product that you can buy at discount stores. It's a water-repellent ground cover. I think they sell for around $8. If you're really interested, you can read all about it. http://www.theneatsheet.com/

[egoldber]

Well we didn't use knee pads, but maybe we should have. It was actually sort of tragic, she was doing a kind of half "crab walk" half crawl. But THEN she discovered the trick of using a chair as a walk behind toy on the boardwalk and then she had loads of fun.

I actually got my Neat Sheet at Costco last summer. I think they were two for $10. I have discovered a ton of uses for mine. I keep one in the back of the car at all times.

And she was just scared of the sand mainly. There was a small patch of sand near the boardwalk and she happily played in that. But sitting on the sand or standing on the sand really freaked her out. I guess she hadn't been exposed to sand before this. I was concerned about her being afraid of the ocean, but being afraid of the sand didn't really occur to me. But in general, she has always been a baby that was easily overstimulated. By the end of the trip she was OK sitting on my lap if I was sitting on the sand, but that was as close as she got.

[dd_ani]

Beth,

If I might ask, which resort did you go to? We have been debating vacation ideas for the last month, so I keep looking out for kid-friendly destinations. Preferably someplace warm....... (Although we had a heat wave where it got up to 30 a couple of days ago....)

Thanks,

Michelle

[twins r fun]

When I was little we lived in Australia so we have tons of pictures of me on the beach. In almost every single one I am naked. My parents say they always put a bathing suit on me, but after a few minutes I'd cry and complain about the sand getting in my bathing suit. Once they'd take it off I was happy as could be-apparently sand all over you is okay when you are naked, but DON"T let it get in your bathing suit!!

Welcome back Beth-glad you had a nice trip.

Nicole