Okay, you caught me, I’m lying. I totally backdated this blog post so it would seem like I was blogging from the beach. The truth is that I had great intentions of doing this, but I saw right from the beginning that this was probably not going to happen. This was mainly due to the fact that most evenings, if you drove by the townhouse and could see in, you would (a) see me in a beach chair directly in front of the front door (sometimes with it open),(b) see me sitting on a specific step on the staircase inside (in what was eventually known as our version of a “wi-fi area”), or (c) swinging from the balcony–all in an effort to obtain a wireless internet signal. The last one isn’t real, but there were a few times that I thought I was this desperate because of the NO INTERNET CONNECTION problem. Thank goodness for “beachykeen,” whoever he might be. Although spotty, his unsecured network was the only one I could count on being there. That being said, I found out early that my butt could not handle that staircase step long enough to write a blog post. Because we all know how long my blog posts can be.

Gosh, I’m really getting ahead of myself. Let me back up a little and say thanks to Pappy and some other members of the family, we now have a townhouse at the beach! Yay! The townhouse at Mexico Beach was purchased a few months ago and it was finally time to take advantage of this place and have a vacation! During the days leading up to the departure day I had feelings of excitement, stress, and sometimes pure dread. I went from thinking, “This is going to be the greatest trip ever!” to “Vacations are way too much trouble and I’d just rather stay home.” I’m glad I decided not to do this.

Because Griffin Choral Arts was performing the night we were planning to leave, Dan and I made the “we’re still new at this parenting thing” decision that it would be much easier on us if we drove IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT instead of waiting until the next morning. We had it all planned out. Leave at 10 p.m.. Brittain would fall asleep and stay that way the rest of the 5-hour drive. Arrive at the townhouse and immediately put her in bed. Unpack the car. Go to sleep. You see where this is going, don’t you!? Well, so part of this went as planned. The drive down was perfect. She slept the entire way. Dan drove and I had planned on snoozing along with Brittain, but I guess I was still experiencing an adrenaline rush from the concert, or perhaps I was that excited about the long awaited vacation, because I was wide awake the entire time. We finally arrived in Mexico Beach at 3:00 a.m. We parked and Dan carefully and quietly got Brittain out and took her directly upstairs to her bed. Nope! Wasn’t happening. Surprisingly, we both laughed. We figured that this was our vacation for goodness’ sake. It’s okay if she stays up a little while. I mean, it’s 3:00, she’ll have to go back to sleep at some point, right? This giddiness waned as the sleeping hours continued to disappear. It went kind of like this:

3:00 a.m. – Arrival with Brittain waking up and not wanting to go back to sleep.

3:45 a.m. – Crying. LOTS of crying because Aunt CC had woken up to come and greet us and then went back to bed. The going back to bed thing was not what Brittain had in mind. Fortunately, we were still in fairly good moods, so we tried laughing her out of it. I still have the image of Dan standing up and doing some kind of hilarious “jig” to get her to stop crying.

4:30 a.m. – Crying someone subsided, but still NO SLEEPING. Dan threatened to give her a half a Benadryl so that she would go to sleep. Yes, a half of an ADULT Benadryl. I informed him of the death of the two year old that would probably happen by giving her this kind of dose before taking the first “shift.”

5:30 a.m. – I am SO done with my shift after I had balanced my laptop on my leg in bed so that Brittain could watch Noggin videos. I walked in the room where Dan was sleeping and informed him that it was his shift.

9:00 a.m. – I wake up still very much tired, but much more awake than Dan is at this point. (He let me “sleep in”). We had the realization that it was NOT a good start to the trip, but we were at the beach and yay! this was going to be so much fun. We started all over again.

After eating breakfast and getting lotioned up, we headed to the beach where Brittain would be seeing and experiencing the sand and ocean for the first time! It was so exciting and I was ecstatic that Cecilia and Matt were there to also witness it. There’s just no way to describe the feeling from that day. It was wonderful being there with family and…SO much fun…and let’s face it, the homemade pina coladas that Cecilia made certainly didn’t hurt a thing!

Her first steps on the beach!:

It was obvious on this first day how different a vacation this was going to be because we were only able to stay out for an hour or two so that the two year old wouldn’t get sunburned and hate us for the rest of our lives. But it was worth it.

She could hardly believe her eyes. For the rest of the trip, she referred to the beach as “The Big Sandbox.”:

I know. They kind of look like “my two gay dads”…but aren’t they cute?!:

On the first day Brittain experienced the ocean a little bit with her dad. She tolerated it, but it wasn’t her favorite part of the trip and she never did it again the rest of the 8 days we were there.:

Me, Dan, Brittain, Cecilia, and Matt all arrived on Thursday night. Mama and Daddy came down the next day. This was day 2 at the beach. Brittain felt that she was too good to walk on the beach. She had to either be rolled in her wagon or carried by someone on foot.:

Thank goodness that my sister and her husband are so organized! The most planning I had done for food was making sure I had some spagettios and milk for Brittain. Cecilia and Matt planned and brought food for the whole trip (which was nice since there really wasn’t a grocery store around there to speak of). Saturday night was our going-out-to-eat night, so we went to a restaurant called Toucans. Since we were all dressed in something other than our bathing suits, I took advantage of the opportunity and got some family pictures. Yes, I brought along the tripod and set it up (I’m sure we were quite a sight). Unintentionally, we timed it perfectly with the sunset:

This place was a parent’s dream because they had a playground set up right by the restaurant. This was wonderful for children who need something to do while waiting on the table to be ready (which she did) and also for children who wouldn’t last more than 30 seconds at the table (which she didn’t):

My favorite picture from the vacation:

Kyla Rose and Brittain had the opportunity to have not one, but two playdates in a row a couple of weekends ago. Kyla Rose and her mommy came to Griffin for a weekend visit, so we decided to take advantage of the opportunity. Not only did the girls have fun, but Amanda and I got in some good adult mommy gossip in between yelling things like, “No, the sand stays IN the sandbox,” and “No, the grass stays OUTSIDE the sandbox,” and “No, don’t go over there. You could fall off that cement wall and crack your skull open.”

Last weekend we got together with Matt, Jenny, and Ava Parker. Dan and I grew up with Jenny, and we have continued the close relationship after Matt and Jenny married. (I even sang at their wedding!) We couldn’t have been more thrilled when we found out she was pregnant just a few months after I became pregnant. We knew that our children would be friends. Since Ava was born, they have lived in Macon so it was difficult to get together as much as we would have liked. It goes without saying that we were thrilled when we found out that were moving back to Griffin. It has taken us a couple of months to plan a get-together, but we finally did it. This would be only the third time that Ava and Brittain would be around each other. The other times had been at birthday parties and such, so not such a great place for them to really get to know each other and play together. Jenny and I were excited to watch the beginning of their relationship.

I’ve been intrigued as I’ve watched other children’s personalities who are around Brittain’s age. I figured that Ava would probably be a lot like Brittain. Like Brittain, Ava hasn’t gone to daycare. Since she was born she’s been in the care of her parents, Jenny’s mother, or Jenny’s grandmother. So, I have to admit that I was a little surprised when the Parkers arrived and I saw Ava’s confidence and invincible attitude. When Ava walked into the house you could see Brittain giving her the “once over.” She was taking her time, looking her over, checking her out, making sure she wasn’t a serial killer. Ava, on the other hand, ran straight up to Brittain to greet her with a huge hug. You could tell that Brittain was a little uncomfortable with this straightforwardness (is this a word?), but she allowed it. The unfortunate part of this moment happened when both girls lost their footing and fell to the floor. Neither of them were hurt in the least. In fact, Ava immediately jumped back up and went onto something else. Brittain, however, acted as if she had broken a limb on the way down and she would never recover. I did what any mother would do. I picked her up and comforted her, but I found myself in an awkward situation. While I wanted to say, “Baby. It’s okay. Mommy’s here. Let me hold you and comfort you and make it all better,” I also found myself attempting to have the nonchalant mother attitude like, “ha ha ha. what in the world? you’re okay. nothing’s wrong with you. you NEVER do this!” Let me tell you, it’s difficult to do both of these at the same time. After about a half hour of consoling, Brittain seemed to be okay and was ready to get back in the game. The funny part is that Ava continued to be affectionate and was determined to let Brittain know how much she cared. After the first hug that resulted in the tumble to the floor, we saw that Brittain was apparently NOT into this. The rest of the evening was spent with Ava having the time of her life (while showing her adoration to Brittain) and Brittain keeping a safe distance from Ava while watching her out of the corner of her eye to make sure she didn’t get too close.

I believe that the night ended well. I finally realized that we were among friends and there was no way Jenny was judging my child or my mothering skills. The real relief came in the days following. Since last Friday, Brittain frequently talks about “Matt, Aunt Jenny, and Ava.”   She obviously has fond memories as well.

Jenny emailed me a couple days later and told me that her mom had a good laugh as she told her that she had the “town bully.” I laughed as I realized that Ava was the first “hugging bully” I had ever met. After this night, Jenny and I vowed to get the girls together often.  Perhaps this will serve to “toughen” Brittain up.  You know, the “Tough Love” approach : )

Ava arrived dressed to the nines and ready to play:

The first hug that didn’t end well:

“I’m okay. You’re okay.”:

A hug attempt:

and the result:

You can’t see me, of course, but I’m the one behind the camera continuing to take pictures hoping that would make me seem like I was easily able to laugh this off. (All the while I was DYING on the inside as Brittain was screaming, “MOMMY!!!! HOLDYOU!!!!”):

Ava took a few minutes to relax:

then do a few lunges:

then put on her game face. She was ready to go in again:

And she did:

“Hee hee. Hee hee. Hee hee. Yes, I’m having fun. Why do you ask? Do I look nervous or something? Hee hee. Hee hee.”:

A sweet moment as Brittain and Ava shared in the joy of stickers:

“Yeah, we’re sharing. We’re fine. See?”:

I ALMOST caught a cute picture. Ava and Brittain were both sitting in these chairs, reclined. Of course I waited a half of a second, which is like 30 minutes in toddler time:

“I’m good now. It’s 2 hours past my bedtime. I’m so delirious I don’t even realize I’m here.”:

Since Jenny and I had been watching after the kids all evening, the boys offered to give us a break. This is one of the pictures I found on the camera the next day:

Brittain finally gave in at about 10:30 and passed out on Daddy. Ava, however, hung in there until the bitter end. When they left at midnight, she was still going strong.