The First Family Vacation
It took some doing, but Neil managed to convince Eva that they should take time off from work and go on a summer vacation with Grace. Vacationing itself wasn't an issue—after all, summer tended to be their least busy season, and in any case, Eva and Neil had plenty of vacation days saved up—but she'd had some concerns about their daughter's age. Grace was about six months old, and while that meant she wasn't a newborn anymore, six months was still very young. It was entirely possible that she would get overstimulated from all the new sights and sounds or cranky about having her usual routine disrupted, leading to the opposite of a relaxing time. It was only after Eva did extensive online research that she became more onboard with the idea.
And that was how she, Neil, and Grace ended up at a beach house not too far from home. Once they were settled in, Neil wasted no time in picking the baby up and showing her around the place.
"So," he was now saying, "this is where we'll be sleeping in the lap of luxury." He glanced around the pale blue walls and white furniture—a crib on the lefthand side set opposite of a queen-sized bed, which was flanked on either side by night tables—and beamed down at Grace. "Whaddya think, sweetie?"
Grace's only answer was to grimace and shake her head, waving an arm around all the while.
"Not very impressed, huh?" Neil asked rhetorically, his smile fading slightly. "Must be the blue walls. How about we go see the bathroom?" he added, brightening up again. "I bet its walls are prettier."
"Hold that thought, Neil," Eva said as she partially unbuttoned her nursing dress. "Grace's due for a feeding. Would you mind getting her baby food ready?"
"Why?" he wanted to know, his brow furrowing in confusion as he handed Grace to her. "Can't you do that after she's breastfed?"
"It'd be quicker if you do it," Eva told him, now pulling one of the cups of her strapless bra down and putting the cradled baby to her exposed breast. "The sooner Grace eats, the sooner we can eat, too."
A teasing grin tugged at Neil's lips. "You just want me to leave the room, don't you?"
"Don't be ridiculous," Eva scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Now, get to it."
"All right, all right." Chuckling, Neil picked up her carry-on bag from its spot at the foot of the bed and headed out of the room.
As the sound of his footsteps grew fainter, Eva's gaze shifted to Grace, who was still happily suckling. "Goodness, you are a hungry baby, aren't you? But that's okay," she added, smiling. "Breakfast was forever ago, wasn't it?"
Grace let go of her mother's nipple and smiled up at her in return, and Eva could've sworn she'd never seen anything sweeter. Still smiling, she made quick work of putting her daughter to her other breast. Once Grace was finished, Eva moved her to her right arm, pulled her bra back up, and rebuttoned her dress. "Let's see if Daddy's done with the rest of your food."
Eva took Grace out of the bedroom and downstairs to the kitchen, where she found Neil standing at the counter. He turned to face her with a grin. "One Apples Supreme for the little princess," he announced, presenting a bowl filled with apple puree.
"That doesn't look like a pie, but it'll do." Without another word, Eva sat Grace down in the nearby high chair, fished a bib out of her bag, and tied it around the baby's neck. Neil then stepped forward, placing the bowl on the tray in front of Grace and dipping a plastic spoon in the puree.
"Down ya go," he said, offering Grace the spoon, then beaming when she accepted and swallowed the little spoonful. "Isn't that good, Gracie? Want some more?" Again, he dipped the spoon into the puree and brought it to her mouth, but Grace now turned her head.
Neil's face fell. "Aw, come on, hun." He tried bringing the spoon to Grace's mouth again, but she turned her head in the other direction. "You liked it just two seconds ago!"
"At least she took one bite of it this time," Eva pointed out. "That's some progress."
"Yeah, but shouldn't she be eating more?" Neil asked, switching his gaze to her.
"She's still getting most of what she needs from breastmilk," Eva told him. "Baby food's more of an experimental snack right now than anything else. In the meantime, we might as well put the rest of the puree in the fridge and try again later."
And so they did. Soon enough, they were all out of the kitchen and ready to go out for brunch. The nearest restaurant was thankfully quite close to the beach house, so Eva and Neil decided to walk there, pushing Grace in her stroller as they went.
Before long, they reached a long, low building made of light yellow tile and topped with a white roof. Inside, they were greeted with rows of small square tables, a bar lined with comfortable-looking green chairs, and several yellow lanterns hanging from the ceiling. The restaurant was, luckily, not very crowded—there was only a small handful of people seated amongst the tables—so Eva and Neil were able to find a booth quickly and park Grace's stroller next to it.
"Want to take Grace to the beach after this?" Neil later asked as he poured maple syrup on his fried chicken and waffles.
"Maybe later," Eva said, taking a bite of her onion and cheese omelet, "some time this afternoon when it's not as hot. There's an indoor pool at the beach house, though—you could show her that."
Neil grinned over at Grace, who was turning her head and looking all around the restaurant. "I'll bet you anything she'll love the water."
"I wouldn't get your hopes up," Eva told him. "She might not think it's any different from bathwater."
"Doesn't mean she wouldn't want to play it in," Neil pointed out, returning his attention to Eva and stabbing a piece of waffle with his fork. "Water's water."
Eva frowned as Neil put said waffle piece in his mouth. "Until it gets in her eyes."
"Unless it gets in her eyes, you mean."
"You expect a six-month-old baby to not splash water around at least a little?"
"No, but why should that mean her eyes will totally get stung?"
"All I'm saying is it's better to be safe than sorry." Eva chose that moment to take a sip of her tea. "Which reminds me—if we'll be going to the beach, do not forget Grace's baby pool. It's safer for her to be in that than in the ocean."
"Relax, I'm not a complete ditz," Neil said, swallowing a bite of chicken before taking a gulp of his coffee. "Besides, do you really think I'm crazy enough to dunk our kid in seawater?"
Eva rolled her eyes. "You'll be tossing her in the air as soon as she's a year old. If the shoe fits..."
His only response to that was an indignant, "Eva!"
The rest of brunch came and went, and Eva, Neil, and Grace returned to the beach house, where Neil got into his trunks and Eva dressed Grace in her little swimsuit, complete with a swim diaper. They found the pool in the back of the house on the first floor, and once Eva had checked the pool's temperature to make sure it was warm enough, Neil stepped into the water with Grace. Like she did at the restaurant, the baby was turning her head everywhere she could look, staring at the bright blue water all around.
"See, hun? This is water that isn't for bathing," Neil explained as he waded through the pool. In his arms, Grace splashed at the water, and he laughed. Grinning over to where Eva sat on one of several sunloungers, he said, "You owe me money, dumpling."
"I wasn't aware we were actually betting," Eva quipped, turning a page in the paperback she'd brought from home. With that said, as Neil continued wading with Grace, Eva alternated between reading her book and checking on her husband and daughter. After about ten minutes had passed, she got up from the sunlounger, putting her book aside and grabbing the beach towel that she'd set nearby.
"Time for some warming up," Eva said. Once Neil had given her Grace, she wrapped the shivering baby up in the towel. "And a nap, too," she added as Grace yawned.
"Guess that's enough excitement for now," Neil commented as he got out of the pool.
After putting Grace down for her nap, it wasn't long before Neil coaxed Eva into indulging in some cuddles—and light dozing—in bed. A couple of hours later, everyone was fully awake, and Eva and Neil readied themselves and Grace for the beach (including applying sunscreen, much to Eva's insistence and Neil's annoyance). The beach itself was just a stone's throw away from the house, so it was sooner rather than later that they and Grace made it there. While Neil set up Grace's plastic pool and filled it by the bucketful with water from the ocean, Eva breastfed the baby again.
"Hey, Grace, look what I brought you," Neil said after the pool was all set and the feeding was done. Grace turned her head to watch as he knelt in the sand to get two cupcake-shaped squirt toys and two rubber ducks out of Eva's bag and put them in the water. At the sight of her bath toys, Grace started babbling excitedly.
Eva chuckled. "Yes, those are your toys." She knelt down beside the pool and placed Grace in it. Naturally, Grace didn't waste any time in plucking one of the ducks up and squeezing it in her tiny hands, shrieking with laughter as it squeaked. After a few more squeak-inducing squeezes, though, Grace dropped the duck with a splash onto the water and grabbed one of the cupcakes, passing it from one hand to the other.
"Watch this, princess," Neil told her. He sank the remaining cupcake into the water, then drew it out again. Pulling the cupcake towards him and aiming it skyward, he squeezed it, causing water to squirt out from the top of the rubber frosting in a thin tendril, much to the baby's squealing glee.
Beaming, Grace also sank the cupcake she was holding into the water and pulled it out. The instant she pointed the squirting end of the cupcake at Neil, though, was enough for Eva to exclaim, "Grace, no, don't—"
Too late—Grace squeezed the cupcake, causing the water to squirt straight into Neil's face. Neil yelped and flinched back, wiping the water off his face and glasses, while Grace giggled as if congratulating herself on a job well done.
Although squirting water at her father wasn't exactly something to be encouraged, Eva couldn't help but laugh. "Well, she's a fast learner, I'll give her that."
"Hey, whose side are you on?" But Neil was laughing, too. Adjusting his glasses, he grinned and reached out to pat Grace on her head. "Not bad for her first time, though. Not bad at all."
Author's Note: Fun fact I learned while researching for this chapter—Apples Supreme is the name of an actual apple pie recipe. Hence the bit of Rosawatts banter right before Neil tries giving Grace apple puree. ^_^