A beach play date deferred

A big part of why we moved from Colorado to California was this.

However, we also have these.

Despite what Coppertone commercials may lead you to believe, 

babies and the beach just don't go together very well...or at least they don't go together easily.

Some friends were heading to the beach this morning for a play date.  Sam is at a YMCA day camp this week, so it would have been just Abby and me at the coast.  I thought about joining these fabulous moms and kiddos to frolic in the sand and surf, but then I thought about HOW MUCH WORK IT IS to have a 15 month old at the beach...at least my 15 month old.  The sunscreen, the sand, the bending over, the futile efforts to keep the hat on her head, the never ever taking your eyes of your kid for a single solitary second.

I've seen kids sit nicely on the sand and play with buckets and shovels while periodically dipping their toes in the water.  But I have NEVER seen my kids do this. Saltwater runs through my husband's veins, and I do believe it may run through my daughter's veins as well. I spend my time at the beach saving my kids from themselves. As babies and toddlers, both of my girls have approached the beach experience in the same way....they crawl or run straight for the water.  Every time. Over and over and over again.

Exhibit A.

It wasn't until age 3 that Sam was safe enough to actually play well at the ocean.  We got to this place of fun and safety because we had to let her be taken out (multiple times!) by waves in order to teach her a healthy fear of the water.  That, and we got her a wetsuit.  The problem for Sam is that despite the fact she has finally reached a great age for the beach, she now has a baby sister...who isn't walking...and who is brave...and who likes to eat sand. I just can't handle them both at the ocean by myself right now.

Don't hear this post as a complaint.  It most certainly is not.

We go to the beach a lot (with Daddy).  And we love it.  And we feel so blessed to live near it.
But even things you love can be a lot of work.  Like marriage.
I digress.

I just didn't have a beach play date in me today.  That's all I'm saying.