And a beach trip,too!
When my brother returned from his Hawaiian vacation a few months ago, he brought back some shirts for the girls. Today my oldest decided that we would have a Hawaiian party! We were trying to take them out to a nearby playground and to do a little bit of shopping but they spent about half an hour naked upstairs in the bedroom, having a great old time. I gave up trying to get them dressed. Eventually the big one found the Hawaiian stuff and brought it down – she was still naked – and somehow my wife managed to keep talking with her mother while all this was going on. I just watched and listened to the football pregame shows on the radio, and tried not to be too stressed that the little one might have an accident on the floor (she’s still learning the potty).
Eventually my wife went out to buy dinner at the butcher’s, and the girls and I got dressed in our Hawaiian shirts! There were according to my oldest several “parts” to the party – the first was the running around the table and dancing. Then there were “refreshments” – that involved me giving them some snacks! Eventually the two girls went off into different activities, and I was worried for the youngest because she was still sick with chest congestion, but they loved wearing their Hawaiian shirts and it was fun to watch them be so free.
The day before, I took them to the aquarium. It was a good afternoon – we saw the jellyfish exhibit, which is still the coolest, and what’s nice about this aquarium is that it’s fairly small – and not too crowded first thing in the morning. It was a warm January day – eventually it would hit 60 Fahrenheit – and we also brought our lunches: PBJ for the little one, just J for the big one, and apple slices, and half-bagels. I was trying to get the little one to sleep, but she would not conk out in the stroller (see my other blog about that!).
The really cool thing about the Aquarium is that you’re right on the boardwalk in Coney Island, so we strolled along, looking for cotton candy. Unfortunately, this being January, very few places are ever open, even on a weekend as warm as this, and this is also the time of year that the boardwalk gets fixed up. It definitely needed it – there were lots of broken pieces of wood and loose bolts all around. While you could still walk the entire length of the thing, there were whole chunks under repair, so there were a few narrow paths. Also, a recent storm blew lots of sand onto the walk, and crews were still out there cleaning it up and putting it back on the beach. So that slowed us down a bit.
But finally, we did it. I left the stroller at the bottom of a ramp near the beach. I took the shoes off my oldest, and carried her across the shells and broken class until we got closer and cleaner. The little one walked in her shoes (she had a very bad bruise/cut on her foot). At first the big one complained the sand was too cool, but soon she got used to it – even wrote her name and her sister’s in the sand. We walked along the beach happily.
Nothing like tastes of summer in the middle of winter. Good thing my nearby Blockbuster sells cotton candy.