To the Beach!

This weekend was filled with firsts for Griffin...a first all-day excursion to the beach, first sand in the diaper, first full night of sleep in Greece, first fireworks, first time trying bananas, and first cucumber, olive oil, salt, pepper, oragano, parsley, and dill.

Let's cover these one at a time, shall we?

First of all, Griffin had been to a beach on Santorini, but we spent less than an hour there, so really this was Griffin's first real beach excursion. We spent most of the morning and into the afternoon on Vouliagmeni Beach. Griffin actually went into the sea with us, but I didn't dare bring a camera into the water, so here's a shot of him just before venturing into the sea. He wasn't sure what he thought about the water at first, but after he got used to it, he absolutely loved to splash and swim with Landon. We ate lunch and Griffin even napped on the beach for about an hour. That evening we went swimming in the hotel pool, mostly to get pictures of Griffin's face when he swims because it's so darn cute.
And perhaps you'll think I've gotten my comuppance when I tell you that jet lag and an inconsistent sleeping environment have left Griffin getting up 2 or 3 times during the night. Anyway, this weekend he started sleeping through the night again, hoorah!!! It's been three nights in a row of solid sleep. I don't want to jinx myself by calling that a pattern, but I'm definitely grateful for it.


Oddly enough, the first night that he slept 8 hours included a midnight fireworks show. We put him to bed at around 10 p.m. and then at midnight Landon and I were jolted awake by an explosive noise. Because I'd been watching the news about the riots in Iran right before I went to bed, in my sleep-stupor I told Landon to stay away from the windows. Luckily, he ignored me and opened our curtains to discover that there was a fireworks show on the beach across the street from our hotel. We were able to watch it from the sofa in our room. It was pretty darn impressive. Even more impressive was that Griffin slept right through it.


We've been trying to ease Griffin into eating solids. So far he's tried rice cereal, apple sauce, mushed pears, smooshed peaches, bread, and this weekend: bananas. He does really well with most of the stuf we've offered him. The only problem he has is that he's apparently allergic to powdered dry milk (since all of the food labels are in Greek, that's a guess based on the translation of the girl at the front desk...yes, food science at it's best).


Anyway, we've been really pleased with his progress into the land of solids...and then we went to dinner on Saturday. We found a little mom and pop restaurant near the beach where we ordered a Greek salad and a couple of gyros for dinner. The owner (I think) of the restaurant came over and made faces at Griffin and offered him a little slice of bread. We didn't object because we already knew that Griffin liked and could handle bread, so we fed him little pieces until our salad came. When our salad arrived, the same guy came over and before Landon or I realized what was going on, he had a cucumber from our salad skewered on a fork and in our baby's mouth. Griffin made a ravenous face and started lapping at the olive oil and seasonings. Landon, as politely as one can launch himself across a table and jerk a fork out of your hand, did just that. The owner chuckled and left. We thought that was the end of it. Nope.


Five minutes later he was back with a waiter (presumably his nephew or something) and again before we could remember the Greek word for "no" had a cucumber in our baby's mouth. Griffin, recognizing a good thing when he tastes one, clamped down on the cucumber with his two little teeth and refused to let go. Luckily Landon kept a level head and was able to fish the cucumber out of Griffin's mouth before things got too dicey...but the whole time I was wishing I knew the Greek words for, "Get that fork out of my baby's mouth before he chokes!" and also, "If he has an allergic reaction to cucumbers, you're in big fat greek trouble!" Luckily, Griffin neither choked, nor had an allergic reaction, so we just paid our bill and left.