Day with my kiddos

This was my first day out with both kids and no other adults. When I went to the aquarium, it was my first day without Dave and both kids but there were other mom's there so that helped with nursing. It was also just a few hours and Nathan slept most of the time so I didn't really have to deal with nursing; when he needed to I tried there, was unsuccessful, so I went home (it's also close to home so not a big deal to do that). If it weren't for nursing this wouldn't be AS big a deal (still would to some extent) but hopefully this was a step in the right direction. I really need to get the knack of nursing while babywearing and then we'll be golden I think.

We went to Walmart to get a beach tent for Nathan. I don't want him exposed to the sun, especially when he can't wear sunblock yet. He also seems to be extremely fair skinned like I am. Even the pediatrician commented on it. Since we live near the beach now, we'll get a lot more use out of our own beach tent.

Then we went to Rocky Neck State Park. It's early enough in the season that parking was free. I didn't have a clue where I was going so I just parked at the first spot I could see. The beach itself was kind of dirty and there were signs saying don't swim because of bacteria in the water, rocks, etc. But we didn't care about swimming. I can't even get Neil to go in when we've gone to Savannah, unless I'm holding him.

I was probably a sight- it was a decent walk from the car to the actual beach and we went under some train tracks. I was carrying the diaper bag, the beach tent, a bucket with shovel for Neil (he was dragging it), and towels, along with Nathan in the ring sling and holding Neil's hand. But it worked.

I forgot that unfortunately Neil doesn't seem to like sand. He plays in a sandbox at daycare and loves it but other than his hands he doesn't want anything touching the sand and didn't want to walk in it even with shoes. I had to threaten to go home if he didn't walk (he wanted to be carried and with all that stuff in my hands there was no way). So he tentatively walked on the sand in his sandals but refused barefoot. I also tried to tell him this was a huge sandbox but that didn't improve things either.

We set out the towels and I couldn't easily figure out the tent so I gave up on that pretty fast. I had Nathan laying on a towel at that point and I figured I could shade him myself. I nursed him and then put him in the ring sling and he spent the entire time asleep in the ring sling after that (probably about an hour).

Notice he's trying to drink sand out of the cup

It was 70 as we were driving in but at the actual beach my car said it was 60 out. I was actually pretty comfortable in a tank top and shorts though so I think it was warmer than 60...

Neil ended up dumping sand on the towels, but didn't seem to notice that this meant he was now sitting in sand. Maybe that's the way to do it. The train tracks are right there so we got to see 2 trains go by while we were there. And despite the fact that Neil just sat on a towel while I held Nathan trying to keep him out of the sun, he had fun and didn't want to leave. (After the children's museum when I said we were going home he said no I want to go to the beach. I promised we'll go back to the beach but another day.)

I headed from the beach to Kidcity in Middletown, CT. I had heard good things about it- it's a lot of pretend play type stuff. It also is super nursing friendly.

The snack area- the tables were kid sized

I really liked it. They had a snack area you could eat in, so we ate lunch first there. Then I let Neil do what he wanted. I felt bad he was by himself. I think he'd have more fun with other kids. They had a lot of rooms with different themes and types of play and Neil really liked it.

There is a toddler area for kids 2 and under. The way it's described on the web site I thought it was a water play area so I had Neil's bathing suit and some swim diapers. But it turned out it was just a padded area, so I have to admit I was disappointed there wasn't a water area. With that said, though, it was nice and Neil liked that as well. We were the only ones in there and you had to wear socks, no shoes. Neil had sandals on but they provided socks if you didn't have any.

The toddler area

They really pay a lot of attention to detail here. The bathrooms had paper rolls (like at the doctor's office) for changing diapers. Each bathroom also had a bin with extra diapers and even a change of clothes. I didn't open the bins but that's what they were labeled. One bathroom even had a seat shaped such that kids could use it easily. And there were stools in each bathroom for the kids to reach the sink. Neil loved that and spent the entire time I was changing Nathan's diaper and going to the bathroom myself washing his hands over and over.

It was kind of expensive- $9 a person (so $18 for the two of us and the only free kids are those under a year). It might be worth a membership if you live close but I didn't even look into that cost because it's about a 45 minute drive away from where we live.

"music" room and you could hit drums and bells on a wall here. Neil loved it.
It might be hard to tell but he was dancing as he hit the wall.

Neil's favorite room was a fishery where you could put fish different places and then move them around through pulleys, conveyors, etc. Some of the older kids in the room showed him how to do things.

Nursing wise it was nice that Neil was somewhat contained and happy in a single room. I had no problem nursing Nathan and it was nice to know that Neil was preoccupied so there wasn't any sibling jealousy that I was spending really close time with Nathan.

I had to promise we would come back here sometime as well. I'm glad we had a great day at both places and that things went well. I was really nervous about having them both by myself and trying to nurse Nathan. I'm still nervous about less nursing friendly places. I don't mind nursing in public but the combination of keeping Neil happy and nursing is a bit daunting to me. It will also get better as Nathan gets older and nurses less often though. And I can't wait until the 2 of them can run around and play together!