beach baby, beach baby

As the end of summer is drawing near, I'm itching to make it out to a beach somewhere on the coast before it's over. If I do succeed in planning a little mini-vacay, I'm going to need to pull out my tot tent from storage. That thing was a great-great purchase for a beach trip with an infant and I'm excited to get some more use out of it!

Last fall, before I went back to work, we took our first family vacation to Montauk. I wanted to be able to spend time on the beach, but with a two-and-a-half-month-old baby, there were logistics to think about...How do I keep the sand out of her face? How do I keep the sun from melting her? Where will I breastfeed? The answer to all of these questions was a little pop-up tot tent! I read lots of reviews and chose this one. It was perfect for our needs. It was compact for traveling, it popped up and was easy to close, it has open flap pockets lining the outside to weight down with sand so it wouldn't fly away, it was big enough for me to crawl in and nurse the baby, and it had a screen mesh zip-door so we could see Ruby when she was napping. Good stuff! One thing I did that was *really* helpful was that I brought enough gallon freezer bags for each of the pockets plus an extra one. That way, I didn't have to get the actual tent super sandy to weight down the side pockets. I filled the bags each day at the beach and plopped one in each pocket. Then, at the end of the day, I would dump out each bag and stuff them all inside the clean, non-sandy carrying bag and pack them up with the tent. Clean and easy.

Here is Ruby's wonderful napping place, with real-life ocean sounds to lull her to sleep and fresh breezes!

Happy blue-tinted baby in her little hideout:

Big enough for mama to fit inside to nurse!

I'm excited to use this tent again now that Ruby is on the verge of being a full-fledged toddler!