I’m one of THOSE people. You know, the type that lived her first 18 years in Colorado but doesn’t know how to ski. And the type that lived in Ireland for 2 1/2 years but has never driven on the left side of the road. And the type that lives 20 minutes from the beach but never goes.
The beach is one of those things that is always there so we never go (we can go next weekend…month…year?). We only go when we have family in town that wants to go, we seriously never go by ourselves.
Honeybun’s first trip was when she was right about a month old and my cousin was in town. Being first time beaching-going-parents we weren’t sure how to do the baby so we took her in the stroller (which was not fun to push/pull/carry across the sand). We put her on a towel, using the buggy for shade. She just laid there.
I don’t actually remember when her first time going and playing was. I know she went in Massachusetts when hubby was in a wedding and loved the sand and kept trying to run into the freezing cold water but I can not confirm nor deny if this was her first time playing in the water and sand.
Sugarplum’s first beach visit was a night-time romp when she was only about 2 weeks old. She slept in my sling the whole time.
Her first time to play was when we went to Costa del Sol in Spain. She was not quite 3 months old and spent most of our beach days sitting on a blanket in hole in the sand I dug for her. We took her again when she was about 7 months and we came back to Florida for a visit and let her really dig into the sand and splash in the water.
Doodle’s first official visit was back in August when my sister was visiting but since hubby wasn’t with us I kept him up in the sling. Well, we finally (at almost 6 months old and again without hubby) we took him again. I intended to keep him out of the sand and water but he had different plans and dove right in to the sand when I put him down on his towel.
The beach doesn’t really mean much to kids until they’re able to sit up and play in the sand and water but that hasn’t stopped us from taking each one before that point! We have also learned to leave the stroller at home as we usually get frustrated and end up carrying it so we now just carry the little ones if necessary and put them on towels when we get there. This method also keeps the sand out of the buggy!
More beach babies: My tips and advice for taking babies to the beach
