Friends and Fun

Lauren, Ellie and Regan
This week, the Molloy's joined forces with the Sumy family for a week-long vacation in Bethany Beach. Some might say that a week in a two bedroom condo with a 4 month old, a one year old and a two year old is anything but a vacation, but I beg to differ. We actually had a fun-filled relaxing week; the older Molloys got to have some much needed adult time with friends and best of all, Ellie got to make some friends of her own.

At daycare, Elise is always running with the older crowd of girls, so it's really no surprise that she took to idolizing Regan (2 years old) pretty quickly. She was a bit stand offish the first day, but by the end of the week, she cried whenever Regan left the room. At Ellie's age, kids usually do a lot of "parallel play" where they sit side by side other kids playing independently, but don't really play with each other. There was a lot of that that went on, but there was also a lot of chasing and playing and interacting with Regan which was both fun and hilarious. The two were chasing each other around, dancing for baby Lauren, shutting each other in cabinets (much to the chagrin of their parents), playing peek-a-boo and shrieking in childhood joy like a bunch of adorable maniacs. It made us excited at the prospect of Ellie having a brother or sister to play with one day (except when the three girls were simultaneously melting down - that's when we were excited at the prospect of Ellie being an only child forever)

With three kids under the age of 26 months out of their elements and routines, there was much potential for stress and chaos, but there were definitely more fun moments than meltdowns, so I'd say it was a huge success. Ellie wasn't wasn't as fond of the beach this time as she was a few weeks ago in Ocean City, but it was much hotter and more humid and the sand was scalding hot and sticky. We had better luck at
the beach late in the evening when it was less hot and less crowded (although she still preferred the slide that was on beach to playing in the sand) The ocean waves still completely terrified her, no matter what time of day it was.

We had a little better luck with the pool this time around though. We first tried the indoor pool, thinking the water temperature would be more like the bath water that she loves so much. It's true the water was much warmer, but it was so loud in there with kids screaming and splashing, I think that she was overwhelmed and intimidated. So, we went back to the outdoor pool. By the third or fourth day, she went from simply tolerating the outdoor pool, to actually smiling and laughing every once in a while. The big success was with the kiddie pool, which she actually immensely enjoyed. She liked being able to walk around in the water instead of being held (maybe she's a control freak) and thought that climbing up and down the two pool steps was the greatest thing ever. This seemingly endless activity was less fun for Mom and Dad, but we humored her as to encourage her newfound enjoyment of the pool.


Another highlight of the vacation was the Bethany Beach playground (you know you are a parent when you start saying that a playground is the highlight of your vacation). Ellie absolutely loves playgrounds, and this one had ample things for her to climb and slide and swing on. The biggest plus to this was that we took her there every morning and by the time we got back to the condo she was so exhausted she (usually) zonked out for her nap pretty quickly. This playground had lots of good kid sized railings that she could practice using to go down stairs (along with the sit n' scootch method) and by the end of the week she had developed awesome going-down-stairs skills. While she has been a champ at going up stairs for months now, she has stubbornly resisted learning how to safely go down stairs (she wants to walk down stairs like she sees her parents doing which of course she can't, and we have horrifying visions of her taking a faceplant down a flight of steps - thus explains our excitement over learning how to go down stairs safely at a wood chip laden playground). Fun AND learning - now that's a vacation!

This was the longest that Elise has ever been away from home, and I think that she was happy to be in her own bed last night (we could tell by the maniacal running around in her crib infused with squeals of delight). However, she does mournfully point and grunt at the picture we have of Regan on our fridge every time we pass it. Our baby made a friend.