naps -- can't live with them, can't live without them

We spent the weekend in Spring Lake visiting my in-laws in their air conditioned house one mile from the beach - I mention these two points because the high in Philly on Saturday was 97, and that's not a dry 97. We arrived around 10:45 on Saturday morning. My in-laws had a christening to go to so they left a half hour after we arrived. Baby Doodle didn't seem that tired so we decided to have lunch and then go to the beach before his nap. After we ate it seemed like baby Doodle was tired after all. So I cuddled with him and sang many many baby songs then deposited him in the pack and play and waited for him to fall asleep. While we were waiting we heard him talking and singing. Then we heard a loud thud on the floor and ran upstairs. Baby Doodle was standing smiling at us when we burst through the door. He had stood on his tiptoes and reached as far as he could to get to the book end that was sitting on the desk. He picked it up and threw it on the floor.

I rocked and cuddled with him to try to get him to fall asleep. He wanted no part of it. He squirmed and tried to get down. He was giddy and now didn't seem tired. I guess achieving his goal of reaching that brass book end gave him a high. We packed up our stuff, put baby Doodle in his bathing suit, lathered him with sunscreen, got our own bathing suits on and got into the car. During the one-mile drive to the beach (yes, we drove both because of the heat and because we didn't know how long BD was going to last) baby Doodle fell asleep so we drove right back home. I took him out of the car, put him in the pack and play and stuck his pacifier in his mouth when he protested.

An hour and a half later -- it is now 3:30 -- baby Doodle woke up. I reapplied the sunscreen and we headed back to the beach. BD took to the ocean and the sand quite well this time. He loved throwing the sand around, letting it land in his hair and stick to his arms and legs. Then we brought him to the baby pool at the boardwalk. He had a lot of fun climbing up and down the stairs. We got back home about 5:45, hosed baby Doodle's naked body off, fed him dinner and got him ready for bed. My in-laws came home and got to spend some time with him before we put him to bed at 7:30. He went down without a fuss, as he usually does at night.