The Beach!

As any parent knows, seeing your kid really enjoy the beach for the first time is so fun for some reason. I have no idea why. But it is great. As my friend Anna said, you just have to embrace the sand. It is everywhere. And it doesn't bother Brown, so I have to try and not let it bother me. As he ran down the beach (or toddled quickly) yesterday, he wiped out face first several times and ate mouthfuls of sand. It would slow him down for only a minute while he waited me to scoop it out of his mouth with my finger as best I could, and then he would stand up and take off again. I can't figure out how he kept his eyes open with grains of sand hanging off of every eye lash. It looked painful, but again, it didn't bother him, so I tried to let it go. Every bite of food he ate on the beach had at least a tablespoon of sand on it, and again, he didn't care. So I tried not to. It's harder than it sounds.

Destin is absolutely gorgeous this time of year. The water is warm, but the air is a perfect 80-85 degrees. Brown is having a great time being led around by his older cousins as they try to teach him the ways of the beach. Digging holes, chasing sea gulls, splashing in the waves, etc. We are having a blast watching him.

Ode to Poop

We have been parents now for about 2 years and have been through some of the typical experiences of these years. Night feedings, colds, bumps on the head, phases of food throwing. And did I mention diaper changes? A quick google search tells me that during the first year, babies go through somewhere in the neighborhood of 2500 to more than 3000 diapers. That’s a few. It is sort of a hazing ritual you have to go through to join the parent club. The loss of sleep is just bonus.

But what the number 3000 does not tell you is the tremendous variety of diapers that you will change during these years. Of course the easy one is the wet diaper. That is one that doesn’t even seem like a diaper change. You can do that one in your sleep. Literally. The only other good diaper is the one that you think is going to be really poopy because he has been smelly for about a half an hour. You finally get a chance to change the diaper and after getting the wipes, the clean diaper, the mat to change him on, and a facemask (not really though I have thought about it), you open the diaper to find nothing. Wow. What a relief. Of course the relief is short lived. Where there is smoke, there will be fire!

But once you get into the true poopy diaper, then the fun begins. The most dreaded is the up-the-back-while-in-the-carseat poop. This one is particularly onerous when you don’t discover it until arriving at your destination. The only cure for this is full body bath which never seems to be an option when this happens. The car seat cover must be washed also which is hard to do on a road trip. Fortunately, we have only had this situation a couple of times.

This post has grown way too detailed so I will only mention the other varietals by name. The run of the mill soft playdo doo. The dripping out of the diaper diarrhea. The walking around naked nugget on the driveway/deck. The hard as rock marble. The liquid. The no smell surpise. The normal poo but left on way too long so it is hard to get off poo. Need I continue?

I say all this to say, we are not poop neophytes. We have endured our share of diaper time. I thought we were experienced. But yesterday, I walked in to get The Brown after a nap, and as soon as I opened the door, I knew one of two things had happened. We had trapped a dead armadillo in the attic (unlikely in Chattanooga) or we had just discovered a new level of smelly poop. I turned around to request back up. She (a.k.a. backup, aka wife) looked as me somewhat doubtfully. I said, come see/smell for yourself. After she had satisfied herself that this was indeed a new level, she said, “oh, no, the pesto.” What? Turns out, Brown had decided to major in pesto the previous day. Lots of pesto.

After double bagging this specimen and rushing it outdoors, a sense of normal odor began to return to our house. However, twice more during the remainder of the day, this ghost of pesto past returned to give freely of its smell. Brown has now been asleep for the night and is only now beginning to wake up. I am all nerves. Will this Pesto Poop, this Granddaddy of Nasal Annoyance, this Most Feared Fecal Fountain return to haunt us yet again today? Only time will tell. But we have now learned 2 more lessons in our parenting. Never underestimate the power of the poo. And never, no matter how tempting or how much he begs for it. Never give the Brown pesto before a long car ride. Trust me. I am a certified poop professional.

Virginia

The Brown and Chris are returning today from a trip to Charlottesville to visit with many a friend there. Just in the last year, we have had several friends relocate there, so Chris decided she should mosey on up to UVA town and tell everyone hello. I am sure she will have lots of stories and pictures to post, but I will leave that for when she returns and recovers. But it sounds like Brown has been a champ, dealing with plane flights, new people, disrupted nap schedules and having fun to boot.

Several people have commented that Brown is not a baby anymore but looks like a little boy. As parents, I think we are the last to see our kids growing up, often thinking of them several months (at this stage) or years (teenage years) behind from where their abilities and thinking currently lie. He will be running along (do toddlers ever walk?) and come to a stair. In the past, he usually gets down on all fours and crawls down/up. But now he is just starting to take them in stride. When I seem him do this, I expect a skinned knee. But most of the time, he is negotiating these things well. He has gotten very good with sign language (more, help, milk, food, etc), so much so that it is hard to get him to try to talk. But I am sure that will happen soon enough so that we will soon be fondly remembering the quiet days. But he is no longer and infant.