Room for Desert?

Growing up I was taught to spell dessert the proper way by remembering that it has 2 S's because you want more of it. That implies that you don't want a desert because it only has 1 S. If you think about it, a desert is kinda like a beach, but only because of the vast amounts of sand. And judging by Kaylani and cousin Zoe's time at the beach yesterday, I'm thinking that the trick to spelling desert or dessert won't necessarily work.

Babies love sand. They love everything about it. Sitting in it, touching it, watching it fall through their fingers, and throwing it. More specifically, babies love eating sand. I'm not entirely sure if they should eat sand, but when we're at the beach, there's really not much you can do about it. When we put a blanket on the grass, Kaylani will stay within her 5'x7' play area since she's deathly afraid of grass. When we put her on the same blanket on the sand, no such luck. She headed straight off the mat, onto the sand, and then it was play time.

Luckily Kaylani's not in love with eating sand. She'll put her hand in her mouth, and she'll eat some sand while she eats her shovel, but it's not like she's purposely eating sand. Cousin Zoe on the other hand, actually eats sand handfulls at a time. And it was actually kinda cute, except when she started eating wet sand/mud out of the bucket. Then after Yea Yea cleaned her face with water right before she fell over into the sand, causing all types of sand to stick to her, she wasn't very happy anymore (but still wanted to eat the sand).

I'm sure we're headed back to the beach at least 1 (or 5) more times this week, so we'll see if Kaylani learns to eat sand like her cousin. If she does, I can't complain since she has learned how to crawl on her knees instead of her army crawl from Zoe. It's great to see Kaylani learning from her cousins, even if it means she learns to eat sand.

Packing for the shore

Let's get this vacation starteddddddddddddddd!!!! As of 5pm today, I am officially on vacation for 9 days, and I ain't going back until Monday morning on August 24. Woo hoo! We're all headed down to Cape May (about 2 hours from here) with Yin Yin, Yea Yea, Bat Bat, Auntie Shannon, and Cousins Connor and Zoe for an extended family trip down the shore. We've got a nice house rented near the beach (with a pool) and just gonna kick back and relax. Now all we gotta do is pack.

We technically started packing on Thursday, which is when we made the official packing list. We've been on trips with Kaylani before, and they were much further away than 2 hour drive to Cape May, but for some reason this trip has brought out the worst in us. We're going a little bit crazy with the packing, and while I haven't even loaded the car yet, I get the feeling that our car is gonna be awfully packed tomorrow. Here's a snapshot of her list:

Pack and play
Box of diapers
Box of wipes
Carton of toys (for eating, for playing, for bath time, and for the beach)
Sunscreen
Floaty for swimming
Mattress
Sheets
First aid kit - thermometer, alcohol swabs, tylenol, motrin, cotton balls, etc
Baby monitor
Beach blanket
Portable 10'x10' shade
10 outfits
3 pajamas
Sun hat
Stroller
Outdoor buggy

That's not even close to everything, but then there's the food. Kaylani's eating 4 oz, or 2 jars, of food for lunch and dinner, as well as 1/2 cup of oatmeal for breakfast, and 2 oz of food for lunch. Since we'll be gone for 8 days, that means we needed to pack at least 32 big jars of food, 8 small jars of food, and a box of oatmeal (and spoons, bibs, bowls, etc).

We thought that this local trip would be easier on all of us considering there were 7 adults, and 3 kids under 3 years of age, but I'm starting to think we're out of control. Apparently the fact that we have our own car means we can bring whatever we can fit. If we were flying somewhere, we would have limited what we brought to 2 suitcases. Now we've got 2 suitcases, plus 10 random containers/bags of stuff for Kaylani.

Well we're almost done packing and Kaylani is down for the night, so I think it's time to turn in. Tomorrow morning officially officially starts vacation, and I can't wait! I'm looking forward to getting to Cape May. I just hope all of our stuff fits in the car and makes it there with us! And don't worry, I'll be blogging from down there so stay tuned because I plan on doing another "live" post from Cape May. Until later...from the beach!