The Zim Life: Beach baby

We left our New York friends for the Onder family beach weekend on Sunday. Nick and Cindy rented a fantastic new house in Rehoboth so we crashed with them for a few nights. Rehoboth is where my family vacationed in our early years, so I had many memories to share with Adam and relive through Ella’s eyes.

As becoming a beach bum goes – Ella is 50/50. She LOVES walking the boardwalk but HATES the sand. Swimming in the ocean is a 50/50 split too – half the time I couldn’t tell if she was crying or laughing.

The first day at the beach was cool and a little rainy so we mainly explored the boardwalk. Ella went bananas for the all the birds and airplanes that fly above the old wood in front of Candy Kitchen, Grottos Pizza, and Kohr’s ice cream shops on the boardwalk. She was fascinated by all the people, kiddy rides, and the sounds and smells of the sea. She would run down the boardwalk yelling – “Hi” “Birds” “Plane” “ahhhhhh!” it was hilarious. See video below.

Ella seemed mesmerized by the vastness of the sea when we showed her the ocean for the first time (pictures below) but she had no interest in figuring out what sand was all about. Even chunks of sand on the boardwalk made her nervous. Below are some photos of us attempting to put her down to walk on the sand.

By day two we setup at the beach for some fun…so we thought. Ella enjoyed gazing off into the horizon while someone was holding her, she kind of enjoyed going into the water (but refused to be put down), but hated anything to do with the sand – which is pretty unavailable. Even sitting on my lap to each lunch was too close for comfort.

The highlight of the trip for miss Ella was spending the afternoon at fun land. Oh fun land, home to many of my childhood vacation memories, is a little amusement park right on Rehoboth’s boardwalk. Shockingly – most of the rides and ticket prices are the same as when I was a child.

Ella would cheer with glee “more, more” after each ride – the helicopter, merry-go-round, truck train and more. Her cousins make everything extra special so she was trilled to have them join her on some of the rides.

I have heard that kids often hit new milestones on vacations. This was true for Ella – she is now opening doors, walking up stairs on her feet while she supports with her hands (no more keens), and started saying new phrases. Adam and I pretty much melted when she said “Daddy, hold me.” She is also spotting numbers and letters everywhere, more on that in an upcoming blog post.

We also learned a new fun game to play with her. Adam and I would sit across the room from each other and whisper a command into her ear – “go give daddy a hug,” “find mommy’s ear,” “tickle daddy’s feet,” then she would run over to the other person and do the action while laughing and feeling proud.

Nights were spent on the porch with Nick, Cindy, and Adrienne – talking about hilarious stories while enjoying wine and some fantastic homemade margaritas.

Wishing we were still there…