Month 6: Creep, Pivot, and Wiggle – Day 164

Compare to Sister’s Blog:  Month 6:  Crawl

Trim Monkey Doodlez swim diaper.

8/5 Day 164 Su:   Another cough filled night.  The Little One’s slept through my hacking.    We were supposed to leave by 9AM to go on a day trip to Walden Pond — a very picturesque spot to spend the day on a sandy bank and shaded by trees.  Unfortunately, if we don’t leave at the right time the park gets packed full and they close it for several hours to new entry.  Since it is a little over an hour to get there, with two kids, it just wasn’t worth chancing it.    Daddy Man discovered that they had a twitter feed and we were right…they would have been closed before we were halfway there.      We’ll try another weekend.      I was very disappointed.   I’m tired and sore but we also all have cabin fever.  With the summer nearly over, I wonder where it all went!

Daddy Man found a local state park with a man made pond and sandy bank (they call it a beach but…it’s not an ocean!).     My spirits brightened and it really was a fantastic find much closer to our house and it had two life guards on duty at all times.    It is much bigger though so while it is less “cheek by jowl” it is also harder to keep track of our Social Stalker (aka.  Itty Bitty).    We set up just a few feet from the water.   We are going to have to start explaining that not every one is “my friend” just because she says hello and they say hello back.      We tried to let her have a little roaming freedom but she is not quite three and her logic is too literal and her impulse control just developing.        We told her she couldn’t go pas the “rope” where we knew it was shallow enough to be up to her waist (it was shallow pretty far out for adults and big kids within the roped off area — so we wanted her outside of it closer to the bank).    So…she pushed it further.     When we explained that “no you can’t push it”  and you need to be with mommy and daddy to go farther, she decided that if there was an adult who was “my friend” she could go with them if Mommy and Daddy were taking a break.  Gah.   So we had to clarify and discourage her “stalking” of people who didn’t want to play.     She then found a group of kids a bit of a way from our territory but we could see her clearly.   She once went over a rope line where no one was allowed and Daddy Man brought her back to our sun shelter base crying.      When she calmed down, we let her go back but pointed out first where she could not cross.    She flirted with it for a while but for 40 minutes as we watched from a nearby distance she didn’t cross it.      It was all fine until she forgot herself and started to follow some kids out into the parking lot (there was a large picnic area where people were gathered).     Daddy Man fetched her and she came back wailing because, “I didn’t cross the line Daddy!”      Well, true she didn’t.   We never said anything about not leaving the beach.   Gah!

So, we’ve got to try and find a way to curb her overt friendliness and trusting nature for her safety without squashing it.    She is more used to enclosed play areas and not so used to such wide open spaces.

Anyway, we were in the water pretty much all day and Mini Moose LOVED it.  He still has the swim reflex with the kicking arms and legs.   I had him in Itty Bitty’s old swim diaper with the crocodile on the butt.     We had a big pee before we left, a miss in the car seat because we left him in it while we unpacked everything (It’s Daddy Man’s bucket that I can barely lift).      I’m sure he had a pee in the water and one pee on me (but I was already wet) and I gave him a potty opp in the potty bowl with cover.      Not a big deal honestly.    We practiced sitting a couple of times and he was able to hold on for a few seconds before toppling.  Any day now he’ll make the connection!       He had a big pee when we got home.

Another EC bonus:  I did see quite a few toddler in regular diapers that looked like they were carrying boulders on their butts.   They must have been carrying around an extra five pounds and could barely walk!    I saw a couple of disposable swim diapers but they were often sagging.   Neither of which looked like they would contain a poo because they were so full of water.     Non-bulked cloth swim diapers have elastic on the leg and waist and don’t get waterlogged, so if there is a poo (incidentally we’ve never had a poo in it in my recollection)  it is well contained.

We left when Daddy Man saw the weather shift.  As we were half packed , the lifeguards had everyone depart the area because of the thunder and lightning.   It was rolling in fairly quickly.   Just as we were getting Itty Bitty in her seat the first drops started falling and we left the park just as it started raining hard.     We stopped at an awesome place to bring home some sandwhichs and we’ll defiitely have to go back many many times to try everything on the menu!

Despite my coughing and Daddy Man’s coughing we had a nice day and Itty Bitty go to run off all of that energy.  I got a little sunburn on a spot I missed on my back.    Everyone has a rash guard and got reminded to reapply except for mommy!      I had Daddy Man put some aloe on it and it should be fine.     Both kids should both sleep very well tonight.   I don’t expect to sleep much again!