Living at the beach....

Once upon a time we really did live at the beach, in Brazil.

For one magical month, my then hippie boyfriend and I rented a concrete beach house on the sand, in a backpacker's hidden paradise. It was during this romantic time that I learned of my hubbies one and ONLY living standard:

No sand in the bed.

The man is worse than the Princess and the Pea. His delicate derriere can detect one AWOL grain of sand on a crisp freshly laid sheet. It's no surprise that my lack of adherence to his vain "Please brush sand off your feet before you come in." pleas, and uncaring attitude for tracking sand through the beach house had my OCD husband squirming in his Chacos. Admittedly, I thought his sand issue a tad bit ridiculous and - not truly believing it was a 'Deal-Breaker' - I didn't respect his only rule as much as I probably should have.

That still stands today.

Now we have two toddlers, and a huge newly built deck space to fill with kiddie wonders. So when we happened upon one of those plastic dino sandpits, this beach loving Mommy couldn't pass it up. Now that, in combo with the Little Tikes slide, gets more mileage than ANY other toy in the house - much to Daddy's dismay.

And with lightweight screen doors, the toddlers are in and out of the cabin all day long traipsing sand as they go. I'm sorry Daddy doesn't like sand (truly I am), but he's just going to have to lump it, because there's no way I'm giving up the best toddler entertainment around - as far as baby is concerned, the sandpit beats the TV hands down!

In any case, after putting up with Graham cracker crumbs in the Family Bed for the past two years, surely a little sand isn't going to hurt........?

I think I detected a hint of wry amusement in his otherwise distraught tone, the other week, when - after bringing Mommy a small paddling pool home, to set up beside the sand pit - he asked defeatedly, "It's going to be like living at the beach from now on isn't it?".

Daddy's crocodile tears were somewhat accepting of his sandy predicament, and once he got our long lost backpacker hammocks strung up along side the kids' 'beach' on the deck, all of his sandy worries - at least for a short time - fell down between the gaps.