Jessica's Blog

We went to the beach on Tuesday to meet up with the playgroup.  I went with my dear friend and her daughter (they piled in with mine into our Odessey and we carpooled).  It was great.  Great in the three moms  with five kids kind of fun. ha ha ha muah ah ah.    There were more moms we were meant to meet up with, including Pot Stirrer XL, but never saw them.  PSXL dropped with twins (one whose name she's decided she doesn't like and will dish out a few hundred bucks to change) with her mom so she can just be with her older one (must be nice).  I admittedly felt protective of my dear friend.  I was looking forward to adventure, NOT looking forward to feeling "tension"  AT ALL.  But you know what??? The Divine works in mysterious ways.

We went to Manresa State Beach.  A lovely CA beach with mucho mucho stairs leading down to it.  about 5 stories worth, and I'm not exaggerating... folks around here know what I mean.  As we were herding the pack oh toddlers and two babes down to the beach, a pod of dolphins was just off the shore; about four seals were in the breakers with the surfers, it was totally overcast and cool.  SUCH a Northern California summer beach day.  We were awstruck.  It is no small task pointing our a dolphin pod to a toddler's eyesight! 

Big Boy seemed shy of the water while his gal pals were up to their knees (we have to mind the undertoe).  He decided to take the plunge and got all wet.  He did not want to be wet.  He did not want to be sandy.  He wanted to be naked.  But once he was naked he decided nothing would do but going to the car and getting clean fresh clothes.  As in, " No Momma, I NEEEED to go to the car!  I NNEEEED to go to the Odessey to get my clean dry clothes!  Right NOW Momma, right nooooowww!"  Those with three year olds know that there is no negotiating this.  the towel wrap and clean diaper didn't work because "IT'S SAAANNDYYY!!!!".  So **Thank GOD for dear friend** she took Baby Girl in the sling while I hoisted Big Boy (near 40 pounds of him) back up the five flights of stairs up the cliff. But then I took a wrong turn and ended up hiking through the campground before getting back to the car.  All the while Big Boy is telling me he needs clean dry clothes.  While standing in the parking lot getting dressed he's telling me he needs his sandals back but they are on the beach.  Now..... it is amazing how stating the obvious in times of stress can really make me want to lose my mind all together.  But I didn't.

We made it back to the beach in time for lunch.  Baby Girl leapt back into my arms to nurse and crash out.  Yellow jackets came to join us in our repas.  Big Boy decided to throw sand at them.  Sand went down the back of my pants... giving me a lovely exfoliating scrub on the hike back to the care later (yeow!).  Then he had  to fling his hands at them.  That's all fine, but his hands were holding a spoon full of yummy applesauce... which got all over his clean dry clothes... which (you guessed it) were no longer clean or dry... which attracted more yellow jackets.    *sigh*  So I got the spoon from him and he hid under a towel shrieking for a bit before he started screaming that he wanted to go home, he missed his cats, he wanted to go see Max and cuddle Max.  baby Girl slept through all of this.  Amazing.  I just held him and hummed and told him it was going to be ok... clearly he was beyond "done".  Inside I had sooooo had it with the tantrums that day.  Outside I just used my soothy voice and prayed to make it through.  Thankfully it was really time for everyone to go home...

He walked up the stairs on his own the second time.... and I carried Baby girl (about 26 pounds), lunch bag, diaper bag, sand toy bag, and Big Boys hand.  He proudly carried his own towel around his neck.  Dear Friend and I got the kids changed, packed, buckled, and ready to go in the van, did a high five and hit the road back home.

It really was a great trip.  I really enjoyed having the time with friends.  Despite our misadventure and Big Boy's tempermental day... it was quite nice.  The kicker was that as we were driving out to the highway... we passed a sign for "Manresa State Beach" that was not the same beach we were on!  Turns out THAT was were the other three moms showed up.  We were not meant to see psxl that day.  I was grateful.  We had a wonderful day and I was grateful.  Dear friend and I got such a laugh about it.