Weekend in Westhampton Beach

We spent Saturday and Sunday at the beach. It was really beautiful and relaxing. We drove out after dinner on Friday, thinking Ian might fall asleep on the ride out. Nope. Wide awake. Especially towards the end when we asked him if he wanted to see Uncle Francis. Response: "YAY!!! Uncle Francis! Hehehehehe..."

We were out there with our hosts, Francis and Zeynep, as well as friends Vennie and Paul (about to be married!), Karen, Meltem (just in from Istanbul and taking a break before her business trip in Miami) and Vennie's mom, Lana (just in from Calgary). Ian got all the attention he could possibly want. He was pretty hyper when we arrived Friday night around 10:15. Didn't go to bed until 11:00. He was just too excited by the sight of Uncle Francis. When he woke up on Saturday morning around 7:00, he sat straight up and the first words out of his mouth were, "What's that noise?" It was a helicopter flying overhead. He went to window to look and he was awestruck. "Hao3 duo1 shui3!" ("A lot of water!")

We were pretty much the first ones up and went downstairs. He asked, "Where's Uncle Francis?" I told him Francis was sleeping, so then he would periodically say to me, "Uncle Francis is sleeping? Uncle Francis wake up!" Lana and Meltem were up early, so we hung out with them for a while before everybody else got up. While brunch was being made, Ian dragged Uncle Francis upstairs and made him read all of his books with him. Then we had a fantastic brunch of crunchy peanut butter and jelly french toast and fresh fruit (a la Vennie and Paul) and bacon ("I want bacon!"). That was lunch for Ian because he had an egg first thing in the morning (just the way Wai Po made them for him -- in a flat circle, then cut into triangles). We had to cut him off after three slices of bacon. After lunch, we set up his beach tent (SPF 50), put him in his beach suit (SPF 50) and slathered more "sunscream" (SPF 30) on him -- "You need sunscream? I putting on sunscream." (No skin cancer or wrinkles for Mr. Ian!) He happily dug holes in the sand, made a sand castle with Daddy and then fell asleep on Daddy, taking a glorious 3-hour nap on the beach so I could catch up on my gossip and fashion magazine reading. Ahhh! Peace and quiet on the beach!

After he woke up, we got him showered and changed and dinner preparations were made. He ate a bit, but was more excited about the 80's mix that Uncle Francis put in the CD player. Ian danced like a crazy man, which was great because he slept like a log afterwards.

But he did wake up at 5:45 on Sunday and insisted that I sleep on his bed with him. Which was fine until he finished his milk. Then he started jumping on me. So we got the books out and he quietly sat reading his books until about 7:15, thank goodness. We went downstairs and I made him an egg and then Meltem got up and then Zeynep. He suckered them into reading with him -- and they EACH had to read ALL of his books (the fire engine book, the "Nemo" book which is pictures of sea life, "Because a Little Bug Went Ka-choo!", the school bus book, "How Dinosaurs Clean Their Rooms" and a train book). He rewarded them with big juicy kisses on the lips and hugs. Then it was Mommy's turn to read all the books. Then Daddy came downstairs and he had Daddy read. Daddy managed to escape after reading only two. Then Uncle Francis came downstairs and he made Uncle Francis read them all. Another delicious brunch was made with a bread, goat cheese and scallion concoction that was baked in the oven. Even though I hate scallions and Jeff hates goat cheese, it was fantastic. And there were sausages. Ian sat down at the table and announced, "I wanna eat bacon!" Well, he settled for sausage and had quite a healthy serving (and this is after having TWO eggs earlier). Then we spent another lovely afternoon on the beach. I spent some of it picking splinters out of Ian's feet. Nothing serious. I think his feet are still so soft and tender that some soft splinters got under his skin, but the rest of us old, hardened folks weren't affected.

Anyway, we had another lovely barbecue before heading back and Ian did pass out in the car this time.

Jeff took some video of him reading with Uncle Francis, so I'm hoping to link to that so you can see how much his vocabulary has advanced and what a know-it-all he can be.