Ack, too much sun
I think I overdid it today. We went to North Bar Lake around 1:45 and came home at 3:30 and I didn't do any sunscreen. My arms and legs will be okay because I've been base tanning them for a few weeks, but I wore my bikini. That is a wide expanse of untanned baby-belly flesh that I just exposed to the sun for 2 hours. Buh. I should be smarter. But the breeze off the lake was so nice that I didn't feel the sun that much, so it was easy to get lost in my book and forget about the time.
Doob had a ball; North Bar is one of the best kid beaches. It's an inland lake about 1/2 mile across and 1/4 mile long, one foot deep around the edge and plunging to Very Deep within a few steps of the shore. It's crystal clear and beautiful. And it feeds Lake Michigan via a 2-4 inch deep channel that runs straight west. The Lake Michigan beach is very sandy and very windy, so there were tons of wind surfers and kayakers out riding the waves. The kids mainly stay and play in the channel and build sand castles along the swath of beach between the two lakes while the teenagers and young couples camp out along North Bar, sunning and swimming.
Dan's mom bought the Doob a little boat at a flea market this morning, one of those cheap plastic one-piece boats that don't do more than float. He just LOVES it, carried it around the moment she handed it to him and wouldn't part with it the whole time we were at the beach. He floated it in the channel, then took it to the big lake with Grandpa and did I don't know what with it there, then took it over to North Bar and let it float serenely. He's down for a hard core nap at the moment, and I kind of wish I was, too. But somehow afternoon naps don't make me feel much better; they just make me crabby and dizzy.
The difference between this year and last year in terms of the things he can do and what he enjoys is just so profound. Last year he didn't much like the water at all, we couldn't coax him in more than calf-deep and really the only involvement he wanted with the lake was to throw rocks into it. Today he went right into Lake Michigan with Grandpa, jumping waves and squealing with joy -- Grandpa had to stop him from trying to walk deeper than he could hold his head above water. He has no fear. Last year when we took him to the Big Dune we carried him up, then tried to get him to walk down. After two face-plants he started crying and refused to take another step, so we carried him down again. This year he walked UP all by himself, no encouragement from Dan necessary, then turned around and ran down the whole thing without tripping or slowing once. Getting him to sleep last year was a multiple-caregiver, multiple hour effort involving books, patting, singing, full darkness and myriad other calming techniques. Now we read him a few stories, brush his teeth, kiss him goodnight and leave. It's just amazing how grown up he is now.
I definitely overdid it. My chest is all red. Fuck. I'm going to pay for this tonight. That was really stupid. I do this every year. At first I'm all really good about sunscreen, slathering on 30 SPF if I go outside at all between 10 am and 4 pm, then somehow I get lazy or forget or whatever and BAM, totally burned.
I'm 2/3 of the way through the Robert Jordan book I brought up to last me the whole three weeks. What can I say? The man writes a damn good book. So I'm going to go fix myself my afternoon snack and read some more of it.
Doob had a ball; North Bar is one of the best kid beaches. It's an inland lake about 1/2 mile across and 1/4 mile long, one foot deep around the edge and plunging to Very Deep within a few steps of the shore. It's crystal clear and beautiful. And it feeds Lake Michigan via a 2-4 inch deep channel that runs straight west. The Lake Michigan beach is very sandy and very windy, so there were tons of wind surfers and kayakers out riding the waves. The kids mainly stay and play in the channel and build sand castles along the swath of beach between the two lakes while the teenagers and young couples camp out along North Bar, sunning and swimming.
Dan's mom bought the Doob a little boat at a flea market this morning, one of those cheap plastic one-piece boats that don't do more than float. He just LOVES it, carried it around the moment she handed it to him and wouldn't part with it the whole time we were at the beach. He floated it in the channel, then took it to the big lake with Grandpa and did I don't know what with it there, then took it over to North Bar and let it float serenely. He's down for a hard core nap at the moment, and I kind of wish I was, too. But somehow afternoon naps don't make me feel much better; they just make me crabby and dizzy.
The difference between this year and last year in terms of the things he can do and what he enjoys is just so profound. Last year he didn't much like the water at all, we couldn't coax him in more than calf-deep and really the only involvement he wanted with the lake was to throw rocks into it. Today he went right into Lake Michigan with Grandpa, jumping waves and squealing with joy -- Grandpa had to stop him from trying to walk deeper than he could hold his head above water. He has no fear. Last year when we took him to the Big Dune we carried him up, then tried to get him to walk down. After two face-plants he started crying and refused to take another step, so we carried him down again. This year he walked UP all by himself, no encouragement from Dan necessary, then turned around and ran down the whole thing without tripping or slowing once. Getting him to sleep last year was a multiple-caregiver, multiple hour effort involving books, patting, singing, full darkness and myriad other calming techniques. Now we read him a few stories, brush his teeth, kiss him goodnight and leave. It's just amazing how grown up he is now.
I definitely overdid it. My chest is all red. Fuck. I'm going to pay for this tonight. That was really stupid. I do this every year. At first I'm all really good about sunscreen, slathering on 30 SPF if I go outside at all between 10 am and 4 pm, then somehow I get lazy or forget or whatever and BAM, totally burned.
I'm 2/3 of the way through the Robert Jordan book I brought up to last me the whole three weeks. What can I say? The man writes a damn good book. So I'm going to go fix myself my afternoon snack and read some more of it.