to the beach and beyond

Since my last post, we've had a most relaxing family vacation at the beach, Rachel's first real experience. We went last year, but she was still just so enthralled to be walking and independent, that she mostly walked circles on the beach, in our condo, and wherever else we were. She hardly noticed the water and the sand last year, but this year, she was fascinated by all of it. She loved swimming, especially in the pool, where she figured out how to slowly get herself around with the aid of her swimmies and nothing else. "Rachel do it by yourself" was her catch phrase for the week, and she did: she jumped in, she swam, she dug holes in the sand, and she collected seashells, all "by yourself."

I theorize that this vacation will go down in history as our easiest because we had three of us hanging out with just 2-year-old Rachel all week (GiGi came with us), and sweet, young, innocent Rachel was perfectly content to play and enjoy her surroundings at all times. When she wanted to go from the ocean to the pool, we went, and when she wanted Daddy to play with her, he did. Next year, and forevermore, she will have to share everything. And I'm sure that, just when we think it should get easier--when the kids are old enough to kind of take care of themselves--they'll start getting grand, conflicting ideas of all the things they'd rather be doing. One will want Daddy to come to the pool, while one will refuse to leave the beach, and another will just want to go inside for lunch, or maybe off to the local beach junk store. And so, in honor of the most relaxing vacation ever, a video by Daddy...