Man there is nothing I don't love about a beach day!
Well... I guess I lied. I don't love the prep, the drive, the trek, carrying all our crap. But so worth it!
Soren is at that age (is it just an age? It's seems to be lasting forever) where everything goes into the mouth. And when I say everything, I mean everything. Toys, food, wood, dirt, rocks, sand, absolutely everything is delicious to him. A week or two ago Soren had his first choking experience which was absolutely terrifying. He choked on a lego and I ended up having to give him the Heimlich maneuver, which you never want to have to do to your baby. After that experience I am very wary of him putting things in his mouth.
Thankfully my son has some incredible self control and listens incredibly well. If I tell him no as he is reaching the object to his mouth, he stops and puts it down. If I say, "Give it to mama" he will spit the object out into my hand. Thus what happened continuously while playing on the rocky beach.
But I'm pretty lucky to have a little boy who listens so well. He knows "close it" "put it away" "no" and "put it in." And those are just the commands (Is that the right word?!?!) that he follows. Best of all when I say those things, he does them, even though he doesn't always want to.
Lately he has been obsessed with toilet. Most kids go through this faze and we are trying to teach him early that things don't go in there, buuuuut there have been a few mishaps. The binky has gone in and a various toys. As long as he doesn't take them back out and put them in his mouth... We were considering getting a childproof lock for the toilet but I think I would prefer teaching him not to put things in. What did you do about your child's interest in the toilet? How about other typically childproofed areas? The cabinet or outlets?
So our day at the beach was glorious and Soren took a great nap in our Ergo pack (which I love that he still does that). Hood Canal is such a beautiful area. Jacob and I have been talking, barely at all, about a vacation home that we could rent out. This is wayyy down the road but I would love to have a house in the Hood Canal area. Its super close to Lake Cushman, Staircase, so many camping spots, and some great under rock
exploration! :) But those are really just dreams right now. How I would love to have a vacation home someday to make a little extra income from.
Soren really hasn't spent much time on the ocean. I found out I was pregnant with him before a trip to Manzanita and when I was 6-months along we went to Longbeach, WA. But since he's come out we've only taken him to a local park, Burfoot, and Hood Canal which Jacob didn't come with us. I want to take him to the coast before the Summer is gone and let him see the real ocean. We love Kalaloch and the Hoh, maybe we'll take a day trip up there for his birthday... who knows?!
We have been adventuring nonstop it seems. Which I love. We always said that when we had a baby we wouldn't waste our time laying around at home and we haven't been. We have most all of the Summer planned out and are starting to plan a trip to Lassen in the fall. We want to show Soren the world. Well maybe not the world yet, we've barely been anywhere, but at least the amazing things we can see here in out own country. The National Parks here are out of this world and we may not have much time to appreciate their prestine beauty (insert rant here) so we need to get there while we can! Also it can be hard financially to constantly go go go but we tell ourselves that in 20 years we won't be like "oh man remember how poor we were" we'll say "wow remember when we went up to XYZ and did those amazing things?!" It is ALL worth it to us.
So here's to the last months of Summer being full of adventure and family! And hopefully we'll make it to the ocean with Soren... at some point!
