Sunday, May 23, 2010

Aruba Day Two: Notes from the Happy Island

There are a few things I need to do that are responsible grown up stuff.
I need to get us to the grocery store for provisions. With a toddler I need to have snacks available every 2 hours or so.
I also need to do laundry before the trips end. We need to do this as we packed lightly.
My theory is this, we don't live in a world where I can't find things we need so why try to pack my entire world back home for holiday. It's a bloody holiday.
I"m a bit worried about the sun and my daughter and husband. They are pretty pale. I can slather TG in sunblock but DH has this 70's mentality that you don't need sunblock. Our latitude to the equator is slim. I hope the wind on the island does not deceive him to the intensity of the sun. He's had sun poisoning once before.
Right now it's 7am and DH has been out since 6am. I think he went to study for his exam and reserve a palapa. I wish he could relax more on this trip but he has a final when we return. I pray he does well.
...
It's day two and it seem DH is more stressed than relaxed. He's slept which he really needed but has now been up since 5am. He reserved a palapa for us and then went out to get breakfast and grocery shop for us.
By the time he got to the palapa it was 10:30am and he said he hadn't eaten yet nor was he able to study. He's feeling massive pressure. So much so he didn't even kiss me when he went off to study. I took it personally as he's never done that in the 14 years we've been together. After airing it out I moved on.
Routines have gone out the window. My poor kid has has minute quantities of egg, copious cheddar bunnies, copious cheese and for the first time in her life 3 pieces of sliced turkey. I'm not a big cold cut fan as the nitrates are not very good for you but to save money DH got some lunch meats and fresh bread for beachtime eats. I really appreciate that he thought of this.
We stayed outdoors facing the most beautiful, serene beach (1st row thanks to DH) from 8:45a to 2pm. Even with the shade and multiple and I mean multiple slatherings of SPF45, we both have some color. In fact, I, the one who was worried about DH and burning, got burnt on my lower back. That's what happens when you don't have DH to help you and remind you to slather your back.
I brought 3 large tubes and 3 small handy tubes and I think we'll need more. Everytime we changed a diaper, I slathered more on. My theory was, we changed her diaper every 2-3 hours usually and if she was in a swim diaper, we were in water so reapply sunscreen.
I'll tell you something, sand gets everywhere. It was even in her diaper at one point. She wasn't too keen on the wet sand at first and didn't even want to sit in the dry sand but after I introduced her to a little boy named, Alexander, who preferred to be called Alejandro after a cute island girl called him that, played with her. The next thing you know, she's sitting in the wet sand by the shore emptying and filling up her pail.
She enjoyed watching the fish swim by and she even liked sitting on my lap on the shore while the waves lapped us. She giggled and found it funny.
At first she liked having me spin her around and jump up and splash down in the water. Towards the end of the day, she wanted to float on my arms and kick.
We nursed twice or three times while on the beach and tried to nap but I think the heat and hunger were too much for her.
In fact the one thing she truly enjoyed was sitting under the palapa on a beach chair and playing with our mini cooler filled with ice.
We went back to the hotel room and took a cool bath to rinse off the sun and sand and she took the plastic champagne flute they gave us at check in and literally laid back in the bathtub and drank water out of it. I wish I had a photo.
She ate a handful of cheddar fish and three slices of turkey and promptly passed out.
Oh, Jay Raffe had his first dunk in the ocean water.
It was an accident. Apparently TG knew it wasn't good because when we got back to the palapa, she immediately asked for a towel and began 'drying' Jay Raffe.
I was worried I didn't bring enough to entertain TG but between the footprints the birds left on the sand, the birds, the speedboats, the sailboats, the ants, the parasailing, the ocean, the fish, the sand, the palapas and everything else she had a ton of questions.
Right now, TG is asleep. She's been asleep since 5pm. I'm not sure if this is her bedtime or her actual nap. I keep telling myself, we're in Aruba. We're on vacation.
So far, aside from worrying about my husband and hoping he could enjoy the island a bit more, I loved being able to spend practically the entire day at the beach. I felt a bit guilty about that since TG could have spent less time outdoors in the sun but it felt so nice. No phone. No computer. No to dos. Sit and enjoy the sound of the ocean. I try to justify it with we were under a shady palapa and I practically used an entire bottle of sunscreen on TG.
I'm fairly certain we'll probably have to buy more and I'll have to get over the fact that it's not the all natural stuff we use.