Saturday, April 18, 2009

Kayaking S.

Ever since we met SS, we have been worried about how she would react to being inside a kayak. Being water whores, we enjoy paddling, and vowed to do our best to get SS out there with us. We felt ready to try it out today. The weather was nice, but not too hot, and the wind was negligible. We stuffed her little face with a corn dog, and headed out to the lake. It was a miracle that we got in the water. As I was about to put the paddle together, I realized that I brought the same ends. P took it very well and asked me to stay with SS while he drove home.

P called me when he was almost home, to tell me that he was heading back to grab the keys. Yep, the house keys were in the diaper bag, and I had the diaper bag. I was honestly expecting him to return, and tell me we were going back home for good. P picked up the keys and made another trip to get that darn paddle. Talk about being up a creek...

SS did really well, because the whole thing took at least an hour and a half. At times like this, I am truly amazed by her behavior. SS is perpetual motion when she is home, but she does very well when out and about. She was wearing a wet suit, and that would have made me so uncomfortable. But she was a trooper and even asked me to put her PFD on. We bought her PFD two years ago, when we lived by the bay, so she has a thick, neoprene albatross. Tomorrow we are buying her a lighter PFD.

We used JJ's kayak, since it is far better than ours. We own two cheap, C0$tco kayaks. We paid more for JJ's than ours combined. It was after he recuperated from what should have been a fatal pulmonary embolism, and we wanted to get him out in the water and improve his level of fitness. I think he's been in it twice. Oh well, it is here, waiting for him to visit. Next time he comes home, we are dragging his a$$ to the lake with us.

I went in first by myself, to acquaint myself with the kayak (never used it before). Also, I have not paddled since last June, so I'm terribly out of practice. SS did not take well to my solo venture and screamed her head off. Good, at least she is interested. P placed her between my legs and she started chanting, "happy, happy, happy." I paddled for a while, and she did very well. I then messed up (I'm sure you knew this was coming) by paddling out of P's sight, and she had a meltdown. OK, so she is OK as long as she can see the parent that can actually swim. Can't blame her for feeling that way.

I had a bit of difficulty turning, and I asked P to try out the kayak (also a first for him). I was concerned that it was because I was so out of shape and practice. Again, SS was not amused by our actions. She had a major fit, and screamed for her Baba. P returned to shore and SS happily joined him. SS did very well, and P is already talking about returning with both kayaks. I guess he thinks that she is ready. We are going to ditch the wet suit though. I might just put it in our wet bag, to use when we stop for a dip. But it is too much, even in 80+ weather. BTW, the difficulty turning is due to the skeg. It is meant to keep you in a straight line, so it takes more muscle to turn.

We were hoping that SS would fall asleep on the way home, but no luck. We rewarded our over heated kayaker with a cherry Slurpee. She cracked us up, because she kept getting ice cream headaches, but would ask for more. Once home, SS was ready to play and goof around, so no nap today.

We went out to dinner, and we had to wait about 20 minutes for a table. SS did great, just sitting on a bench, waiting for her turn to be fed. Again, we were very surprised at how well she behaved, sans nap. We had a great dinner and SS preferred the Porterhouse over the Rib Eye. Seriously, she was a freaking complete angel the entire time. She really knows how to make liars out of us.

After dinner, we headed to the Mall, for SS's first Ferris Wheel ride. P had really been looking forward to this for a few days. When he opened the door of SS's side, I heard him exclaim, "You've got to be kidding me!" He moved aside, and I saw a totally wiped out SS. It was exactly 8:00 p.m. P tried to wake her up, to no avail. Our poor baby girl had reached her limit. She was so out, that I brought her upstairs, changed her clothes and diaper, put PJs on, and she went back to sleep. Tomorrow is our last chance to try the Ferris Wheel, I hope she doesn't freak out.

SS is getting really good at sleeping while standing up.

Quick bite to get her energy up for all that paddling.

Inspecting her gear.

Being a beach bum is energy draining. Got to stuff my face with Cheeri0s to keep my strength.

Littlest kayaker.

OK Mama, this is how I am going to sit.

SS's first time in a kayak. Gosh, she looks so tiny.

Hi Baba, look at me, I'm liking this.

Although it was in the mid 80s the water was very cold.

Baba's turn to paddle.

I got really nervous when P went so far out. I heard SS cry, and was cussing him out under my breath. What was he thinking? She'll freak out. It turns out that she dropped her hat in the water and was pi$$ed. P was able to retrieve her hat, and problem solved.

I'll have the fried zucchini as an appetizer, with plenty of Ranch dressing. For my entree, I'll have the 16 oz. Porterhouse, steak fries and a diet coke. I'm watching my toddler figure.

See the dangling arm? She was holding Funky Dog and dropped him when she conked out.






1 comment:

Michelle said...

Looks like you guys had a great time!

I would love to have a Kayak. I fell in love with paddling last year when I did the dragon boat races and we live so close to the water(well, the ocean, which I'm sure is different than a lake).