July 4th at the Beach

Like most North Carolinians, the July 4th Holiday means beach weekend for our family. We typically head to Grandma and Pop’s house in Calabash and get to spend time with Nan and GG (Jill’s grandparents) and Aunt Shannon, Uncle Mike and of course little Mikey. This past holiday was no exception, complete with two days of playing on the beach, two cookouts, 7 temper tantrums, 1 trip to Urgent Care, Abby’s first trip to the movies (Kung Fu Panda – Abby got scared and left early with Pop) and margaritas on the beach (for Jill and I of course!).

But the real reason I’m writing this to recount the early-morning events of Friday, 7/4. We arrived on Thursday and Emmy (almost 6 months) slept GREAT much to our surprise that night. However, the next night was a different story. Emmy was sleeping in a port-o-crib next to Jill and I when she started fussing around 4:30AM. Jill got up with her and tried to feed her/comfort her. No luck. By this time it was close to 5AM and Grandma is usually up at this point. So Jill left the room with Emmy hoping to have Grandma sit with her while Jill slept. Only problem was that Grandma was nowhere to be found (she was sleeping with Abby). So Jill brought her back to the bedroom and in the kindest possible way (sarcasm) said to me “Your turn.” Half asleep, I said – “what should I do with her?” Jill responded with, “I don’t know. Put her in the swing I guess”. Well that made sense to me as rocking/swinging usually gets a baby back to sleep. Since I was half-asleep and only vaguely aware of the new infant indoor swing at Grandma’s, I assumed Jill meant the OUTDOOR swing. So I started walking towards the door to place Emmy in the outdoor swing by the driveway and I would go back to bed. That’s right – outdoors in the pitch-black of early AM. Being the sharp guy that I am (sarcasm), I thought I should double-check this plan with Jill. So I went back in the bedroom and said to her “The outdoor swing? Really?” Jill immediately sat up in bed and exclaimed, “NO DAVID! The swing by the TV!!” Well that made more sense. Responding to Jill’s quick and harsh response, I shot back with “Just CHECKING…Gosh!” So I put Emmy in the swing next to the pull-out couch with Pop and went back to bed.


It wasn’t until the next morning over breakfast that we all realized I ALMOST put our 5 ½ month-old outside in a swing at 5AM. In the dark. By herself with no supervision. We had a pretty good laugh at that point. So if you’re reading this Em, you dodged a bullet kiddo!