My Beach Boy

The cute lifeguard :)

Last Wednesday night, Dominic and I hit the road with my parents and my sister Stephanie and headed down to Amelia Island again.  My parents have an oceanfront rental condo down there on the Plantation.  They’ve been having some work done on it that needed to be checked on, which is why we’ve been able to go down there so much (in case you were wondering).  Anyway, we left around 10:30 Wednesday night.  We had to wait for Stephanie to get in from Athens after she finished her evening class. 

Shoveling shells is apparently a ton of fun.

The car ride went very well – MUCH better than last time!  We played a DVD on his portable DVD player, which he loved, and then he fell asleep.  The only problem we had was that each time we stopped, he would wake up and then it would take some time for him to fall back to sleep when we got back on the road.  We didn’t get down there until close to 6am.  We didn’t get my sleep, but we were down at the beach, so who cares? 

Examining everything.  As usual. 

Dominic LOVED the beach.  All of that open space and soft sand to walk – and run – around on made for endless fun.  This trip he walked all over the sand without a problem at all.  Our last time there 2 months ago, Dominic had a harder time walking on the dry sand, so it was funny to see the difference in just a couple of months.  Something else that was really funny was the fact that Dominic was very fascinated by the sea shells on the beach.  Obsessed might be a better word for it.  2 months ago, he couldn’t care less about sea shells, so it was an interesting change. 

Running to the water...

And then running away! (repeat this cycle about a hundred more times)

Dominic also adored the ocean.  The first couple of days he would run up to the water and then run away when the end of the waves approached his little feet.  He would do this again and again and again and again.  It was absolutely adorable to watch.  After doing that (a lot), Dominic grew more comfortable with the water.  Standing in the water when the waves came in made for a few stumbles and falls as the sand in the water was swept away beneath him and the water knocked around.  After a couple of days of getting used to that though, Dominic was a pro at standing and walking around in the ocean and kept trying to walk in deeper and deeper.  He also loved when we would take him deeper in the ocean and play with him, throwing him up in the air or dipping him in the water.  Dominic is definitely a little fish! 

Throwing his hat off.  He refuses to wear hats.  : /

We learned for sure that Dominic has inherited the Italian skin.  I'm not sure if he inherited that from Brian's side of the family or mine since we're both Italian, although my skin is more Irish than Italian and Brian's is more Italian than Irish.  Despite the fact that I lathered him up in sun screen, Dominic got a major farmer's tan.  Since he refused to wear a hat even with my ongoing efforts to make him wear one, his face got more sun than I wanted.  I feel that it's wrong that my 15 month old has a better tan than I do.  

Check out that farmer's tan.  The good news is that Dominic tans even when wearing sunscreen!

This trip was a lot more successful in a lot of ways than the last beach trip just 2 months ago.  Having Dominic on one nap a day worked out so much better than when he was still on 2 naps a day.  Another big improvement was the fact that since I’m not pumping anymore, I didn’t have to worry about scheduling time to do that or lugging around all of the supplies (pump, pump parts, bottles, etc.), let alone clean and sterilize the pump parts and bottles.  Not to mention, all I had to do was make sure Dominic had cow’s milk instead of worrying about keeping my breast-milk cold in the refrigerator.  All of these things definitely made the trip run much more smoothly.

Standing and walking in the ocean took some getting used to especially when there were waves.

The biggest thing was that Dominic is no longer in that horrible stage he was in a couple of months ago (what I call the Whiny Ones) and is back to – for the most part – being the sweet, adorable boy who is a joy to be around.  There wasn’t as much whining, clinging, or crying this time = a more enjoyable trip for everyone.  Dominic still was a little weary of Lacey at times, although it’s pretty obvious that he loves my family’s cute dog. 

Playing in the sand. :)

Even though this was a great, smooth beach trip, the question that kept popping up for me was “Will I ever be able to lay on my beach towel again?”  For a “relaxing” beach vacation, I was pretty exhausting from chasing my little runner around the beach, pool, and everywhere else you can think of.  Stephanie and my parents both helped, but Dominic’s early schedule often had Dominic and I at the beach by ourselves before everyone else could make it down there.  Needless to say, I’m still getting used to the whole “beach trip with a child” thing, but I have to say it’s way more fun than going without kids. J

taking a long walk on the beach with one of the loves of my life ♥

 

The car ride home was a little rougher than the ride there, but overall it went well too.  As we were packing up and getting ready to head back to Atlanta, my mom and I noticed that Dominic felt like he had a fever.  When I took his temperature, he ended up having a fever of 103.3.  I gave him some Ibuprofen and that lowered his temperature pretty quickly.  Between that and letting him watch his favorite DVD on the portable DVD player, he was an angel for a good bit of the car ride.  When it got dark, he fell asleep.  Around 9:00, we had to wake him up so we could stop and have [a very late] dinner.  Apparently, being woken up and the Ibuprofen wearing off made Dominic very unhappy.  He cried and cried the entire time.  Once I gave him more Ibuprofen and we got back on the road, Dominic went right back to sleep, and the world was good again.  When we got home, Dominic went straight to bed.

Looking at one of the many turtles we encountered.

The next morning we coincidentally had Dominic’s 15 month pediatrician’s appointment.  He woke up [extra early] with a fever again.  Because he was sick, he wasn’t able to get his immunizations, but he did get a strep test thanks to Dr. Smith seeing spots on his throat.  Dominic was negative for strep, so Dr. Smith believes this is ANOTHER virus (a different one from last weekend).  It is most likely Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease, and he’ll be pretty miserable for the next couple of days.  How does Dominic keep getting sick?  Or I guess the better question is when does Dominic stop putting anything and everything in his mouth?  After the doctor's appointment, he went home and took a 6 hour nap.  Yes, 6 hours!  He was still so tired even after that monster nap that he had to go to bed almost an hour early.  Obviously, he was a tired, little boy!  

As far as the checkup, it went well.  Dominic is in the 80^th percentile in height being 32 inches tall and the 70^th percentile in head size, but what was surprising to me is that he fell to the 35^th percentile in weight being 24 ¼ pounds.  I was honestly a bit concerned about this drop considering at his 12 month appointment, Dominic was in the 50^th percentile, but Dr. Smith assured me that this is normal and that it’s great that Dominic is taller than heavier.  I guess at this age toddlers don’t eat as much and burn a lot more calories with all of their walking and active playing, and I wonder if no longer being breastfed has anything to do with the drop. 

The happiest baby [or toddler] on the beach

What’s better than a beach trip?  Coming home to your husband who you’ve missed so much and a clean garage and painted soon-to-be office!  What a great husband I have, don’t I?   While we were gone, Brian painted the living room, prepping it to become the office.  He did it while we were out of the house so Dominic and I could avoid smelling the paints fumes.  Now we just need to move the furniture out and start moving the office furniture downstairs before painting the old office/Dominic’s new bedroom.  I seriously have the sweetest husband in the world. 

Preggers News: I just hit 12 weeks in my pregnancy!  My 11^th week of pregnancy was actually a good one as I stopped having morning sickness and got my energy back…well, most of it anyway.  I’m also officially starting to “show.”  Of course, this happened just in time for me to wear bathing suits on my beach trip.  When I was pregnant with Dominic, I didn’t start showing this early, but I read that it’s actually very common for this to happen with your 2^nd pregnancy compared to your first.  It’s because the mother’s uterus stays larger after carrying a baby, kind of giving it a head start in size.  In my reading about this, I also learned that for the same reason, 2^nd time moms will start needing to use the bathroom more often earlier on in the pregnancy, which has definitely been a problem for me more and more.  Having the belly – which looks more like a beer belly than a baby belly at this point – actually makes this whole having-a-baby thing much more real for me.  It makes me even more excited!! 

This is the life! :)