Take Your Baby to The Beach...

And he's gonna eat sand!
That was a shocker, and a bit disturbing, especially when he started using a piece of coral for a spoon.

Jeremy, Isaac and I went to Culebra, Puerto Rico for our first vacation only us as a family. It was quite a roller coaster of awesome fun, gentleness, and bleary exhaustion.

I wrote myself a few emails from our porch because I really didn't want to forget. Here are a few excerpts, and photos:

watching out for airplanes at JFK

From the first email, 4/1/12


"King king Kong, ahhnnghh..."
Isaac sang this over and over again that first morning, sitting, bouncing, lying down, in between Jeremy and I, while we deliriously tried to sleep, and finally gave up at 6:22am. (He had been up and singing since 4am.)

This stray kitty got way more sleep than we did!

The sun flooded the porch this evening around 5:30 with golden light. It was before dinner and Isaac was totally naked, looking so content holding an empty trash can, and then broom, and then both.

pre-dinner raisin snack

There was last night lying in the hammock with Jeremy. Isaac (who says "hammock" now too!) was finally asleep and Jeremy and I were reading, listening to the the froggies say, "ko-kee!" and every once in a while, smelling that incredible blossom, blooming just outside our wooden fence. It smelled like heaven: vanilla and orange, and something mysterious.

Oh beautiful plant, thank you for making our nights so smell-diferous

Isaac loves to be in the baby-pack here! He fell asleep yesterday on our way back from Carlos Rosario beach, which was kind of awful because we couldn't get him to take another nap, even though he was so tired and poopy and so were we. Plus it was raining and raining and we needed to go to town for food. It was nice getting there though, we met a nice and beautiful Puerto Rican lady with her Italian husband, their kids, and his sweet family, visiting all the way from Italy. The grandmother wore a gold chain and had dyed blond short hair, lots of wrinkles and glasses. She kept squeezing Isaac's thighs and joking with him in Italian. We were all very tired when we got home.

hammock nap-time

Today the beach was amazing and reminded us of why we wanted to come.

Two little fishes, with hats.

So much to do!

"Oh, that momma making me go in the water again?", or "No wonder they got burned and I didn't!"

After all this activity, I must nap.

Second email, 4/3/12

I love how Isaac calls a rooster a wostershire, like the sauce.

Last night when Jeremy was waltzing him to sleep Isaac said, "eipaine...heel...ovaa..." He was reviewing his day! Remembering how in the evening, while Jeremy cooked dinner, he and I went for a swim. We saw an airplane go over the green hills above the beach, and talked quite a bit about it.

We went into the water early today, and it was so clear blue! Like a swimming pool with waves. Isaac said "daddy, fish, swim." Then later when we asked if he was a fish he said, "baby!" Jeremy said,"he's really puttin' it together."

In the wild blue.

 Playing in the sand, eating sand, with his little blue rashguard suit and green hat, he looks quite the part of beach baby. We were happy that we only burned ourselves and not him.

I am very well sun-protected.

When we were out into the ocean ("osheeen") yesterday afternoon, the water was so beautiful and clear. Isaac was in my arms and the wind was blowing our hair. We were cuddling and laughing and enjoying the moment and he says, "walk...visit...trash..."

I never want to forget how Isaac looked on Jeremy's shoulders two nights ago, his head plopped on Jeremy's head. His warm browned hands holding Jeremy's ears, the pink and periwinkle sunset behind the osheeen. They were so beautiful and human.

Sweet, tired boy.

Kir-plop.

Gentle sunset

Jeremy lost his wedding ring yesterday morning. It was a rough morning, even though Carlos Rosario beach is beautiful, and I saw pretty little fishes. We got into a stupid fight about where to put the beach umbrella. I thought it would be ok next to a driftwood log. Maybe I was feeling birdie-like and wanting to nest, but J thought it a terrible idea. He also lost his wedding ring in the water. He was very sad about it, but said, "now, don't think of this as symbolic of anything." And I thought, "wow, he knows me so well.", because of course, I did.

amazing yellow crab with big tall eyes at Carlos Rosario!

Surveying Carlos Rosario beach.

Later when I was happy he reminded me that the ring is just a symbol of what we have in our hearts and cannot lose, and he was very right.

I want to come back, with our friends or with more family. Isaac would be so happy to have Patou along.

Now we leave tomorrow, way too early. Ah well, I'm very happy we came!

The art of relaxation.