Back from the beach! Evan meets the Ocean...

We just got back from a week at Marco Island, Florida where we rented a condo with Mike's high school friends Brian and Amber and their son Landon (6). It was Evan's first experience with the ocean and our first experience lugging a baby, all his required gear to the beach, and all our required must-record-every-second-of-this-experience equipment.

Ah...where do I begin? We knew it was going to be an Evan-baby-dictator trip and so we didn't have any expectations of a great deal of relaxing beach time...which was good b/c there wasn't much of that to be done (although we did trade a fair share of snorkel/shell hunting/suduko time). My mom and dad laughed out loud when I called them after we got home and told them we came back early b/c Evan was D.O.N.E with the beach. I think they thought we had some grandiose expectation of many hours soaking up sun and drinking margaritas. But no! We knew better and so we just focused on keeping Evan as happy as possible and b/c of this we all had a great time with relatively few baby meltdowns.

We did get a little camera and video crazy though. I laughed when Mike said one of his friends on facebook asked how we got so many pictures of Evan smiling at the beach and Brian replied "because he took 6000." Ah yes...the first time parent. That's us. Evan's future siblings will surely be annoyed when they only have 6 pictures of themselves as babies. That's okay, we don't care. Also, we'll sort of apologize for having posted about 600 pictures of Evan on facebook, but only "sort of" because like all the other facebook parents, we really don't care if you like looking at them or not either. We are actively trying hard not to take him to audition for commercials though (Just kidding mom...sort of). We can't help it, we're in love.

So here's how the trip went in summary:

Day 1: Driving to Florida, stop somewhere just north of Tampa. Evan rolls over (completely!) from back to front at our hotel for the first time! It is kind of silly what parents get excited about, but it IS exciting when you've been watching your baby try SO hard for SO long and he finally gets it...so it was the highlight of our day. That and Evan having not been kidnapped by the DQ employee who asked to hold him and then proceeded to glance suspiciously around while she did so. Mama Bear was ready to tackle someone (after this we decided we'd blame it on the swine flu and not allow any other stranger to touch him). I know my mom is going to kill me when she reads this anyway.
Day 2: Stop in St. Petersburg to see the Salvador Dali museum, which I've been wanting to see FOREVER (actually ever since I saw an exhibit of his with my Dad in Europe, when I was in college). It was awesome! I had to buy his autobiography...man was loo loo! Check it out. Mike and Evan really enjoyed it too :). On the way to Marco I look to the water over a bridge and see a manatee! Evan rolls over from back to front and back again three times!! All while Mike is out getting dinner! He hasn't done this again since.
Day 3: Evan meets the ocean and he's not sure what he thinks about it. Ignores most of our attempts to get him smiling (which is good b/c we left the camera behind on purpose...do we really have to experience every "first" behind the lens? no.) while examining carefully the ginormous expanse of water and waves surrounding him. Does not cry so we deem the experience a success. Also gets to swim in the pool for the first time...much less overwhelming and likable. (BTW, this was Mother's Day and what better way for me to spend my first MD than at the ocean w/ Mike and E!! Mike gave me the best heartfelt letter too).
Day 4: Evan decides the ocean is okay and we get him to smile at us making silly noises for the camera so we can pretend he was really smiling about swimming in the ocean.
Day 5: Evan hasn't had a proper nap in a few days now and we happen to decide on this day to take him to another beach far away from the condo. He almost melts down because we all keep waking him up during his nap in his bouncy seat and tent for some reason this day. We skip Evan swimming today and make it back alright in time for a better nap. (We went to tigertail beach. was awesome! tons of shells and wildlife)
Day 6: Give Evan a break day. We let him have a morning nap in the condo and he sleeps for FOUR HOURS! Then we decide he must be ready to go back to the beach but a rainstorm keeps us from arriving in time for him to still be happy when we get there and he almost melts down again. This time when we get back he falls asleep in his wet shirt and diapers and then again naked faceplanted on the floor while I get his bath ready. Poor little guy!! It was kind of funny though. That night was our date night so Mike and I went out to eat at an awesome restaurant in the island founder's historic house. It was SOOOO good.
Day 7: Our last day, we get in a good beach morning and then call it a day. By now we're thinking we'll probably head home a little early.
Day 8: Pack up and head home after Evan's morning nap. We figured we'd probably stop somewhere but we ended up bullying through arriving in ATL at 2am. A rough trip of Mike driving almost the whole way and me crammed in the back seat making sure Evan is happy or asleep. Home sweet home.

Evan was about as perfect as a baby can be for such a long trip and with so many routine interruptions. He was so good, so happy and lovin' on everybody...still a great traveler. But we didn't want to push him too hard. When he did fuss, mostly he just wanted to sleep.

Aside from all our own little family accomplishments I have to write about Landon meeting Evan for the first time. We established the December 18th Birthday Club (What are the odds that Mike and Brian would both have a son on Dec. 18th?). Landon didn't want to be President...he wanted to be "the Veterinarian," and so he is the Vet and Evan is President. Landon was so sweet to Evan all week long, wanting to hold and/or entertain him every moment he was awake. He even bought Evan a present ("with my own money") which was a tiny stuffed sea turtle, while he was out shopping. He also sang Evan Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (with some serious vibrato) and helped me put him to bed when we were babysitting him for Brian and Amber. When they babysat for us one night, Landon made sure we knew how much he helped. I think Evan has a surrogate big brother for life now, as he LOVED every second of this new bigger but littler than normal person. Thanks Landon!!

Now Evan is sick and tired of sleeping in his car seat or any car seat like thing (like his swing), but is also not used to his crib. I'm writing this at 10:45pm and I can tell it's going to be a long night! Especially because his new favorite thing to do is roll over and then cry to be rescued instead of trying to flip back over himself. I am SO glad I don't have to rely on anyone to flip me over everytime I roll over in bed. You can do it Evan!!