My family and I are lucky enough to live near the beach. I use the beach a lot in the winter to walk the dog, but since I have had young children I have not spent all that much time there in the summer. It is hard work with young kids at the beach in the summer - you have to feed them, water them, and most importantly, make sure that they don't burn in the sun.
But last year, a couple of friends asked me to share a beach hut with them, and I don't think we will ever look back. Last summer wasn't easy for me - I had both my bunions operated on, and couldn't drive, or even walk much. But my friends all helped - I got lifts down to the hut every time I wanted to go, and once I was there I put my feet up while everyone played and the other adults looked after all the kids together.
This year is so much easier. I can get to the beach under my own steam, and Toddler is so much easier now that he is growing older. In fact, I have to admit that he is no longer a toddler - he will start full-time school in September. He is getting quite independent now - gets himself dressed (when he's in the mood), no longer needs a step to get into the bath or onto the toilet. And at the beach he just plays in the sand, or in the water if he can persuade an adult to take him in.
I have Toddler to thank for my own recent immersion into the British sea - I had not done any more than paddle since I was a child. But the other day his older brother and sisters were larking around in the water and he was so desperate to join them that I had to lift him up and carry him in with me. It was so cold - but so invigorating, and you do warm up eventually...
Yesterday I bought myself a wetsuit (only about £27 for a full-length one from Sainsbury's) and I was amazed at the difference it made. I had thought that they didn't really work - I have bought them for the kids under protest, thinking they only wanted them because their friends had them. But no. Although the sea is still a little cold initially (ok, a lot) you soon warm up, and it is nowhere near as much of a shock to the system.
And once in, I had such fun! My eldest was looking at me in amazement as I jumped the waves and shrieked and yelled with joy. 'You're behaving like a child, Mummy,' she said. I was. And it felt good!
So that's it for the summer. Whatever the weather for the next few weeks, I shall be found at the beach with my family, at the hut and in the sea, behaving like a child and feeling like one too. This is the life for me!
Wetsuits are brilliant aren't they?! They're really good for water sports too and if you can afford it, drysuits are even better at keeping you warm in the coldest of waters! I used to do a lot of water sports but have gone off them in recent years, the rest of my family are still avid sailers and windsurfers though!
ReplyDeleteActing like a child is so much fun I think! I remember going to the beach on my holiday last year and climbing up some steep rocks and grazing my knee, but I was having such a laugh that I didn't realise I'd grazed my knee until I climbed back down and admitted defeat! There's something about a beach that brings out the child in all of us, I still love digging in the sand and burying various family member's body parts or throwing a bucket of seawater over my sunbathing mother! I'm not sure that they love it as much as I do though!
I actually sprained my ankle a few days before the end of that holiday and ended up on crutches for a couple of weeks. It didn't ruin the holiday but I did look a bit strange when I joined the family in a game of crazy golf - on crutches!!
Will keep you up to date on events around the book and I'm also waiting for contact from MIND to see if they're interested in publishing an article I wrote. But if anything gets published it will be all over Twitter and Blogger so I doubt anyone will be able to miss it!!
Best wishes!