{"id":758,"date":"2011-11-14T12:02:24","date_gmt":"2011-11-14T16:02:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/?p=758"},"modified":"2011-11-14T12:02:30","modified_gmt":"2011-11-14T16:02:30","slug":"an-island-living-perk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/?p=758","title":{"rendered":"An Island Living Perk"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday afternoon went something like this:<\/p>\n

Me: C\u00e2\u20ac\u2122mon, guys, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s turn off the Power Rangers movie and go to the beach. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll stop by the park on the way.<\/p>\n

My Oldest: (with a dramatic groan) No, I just want to watch movies all day.<\/p>\n

My Middle Child: (having just woken up after drifting off to sleep during the movie, he stares blankly at me and says nothing)<\/p>\n

My Youngest: (with a wail) I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have my shell bucket!<\/p>\n

Repeat the above exchange over and over for the next 37 minutes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Finally, we all manage to make it to the beach, despite ourselves. As we head down the crossover to the beach, baby-girl leads, the oldest walks still begrudgingly, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m in the middle, and the middle child and the middle-aged man I’m married to are clearly doing immature things behind me.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Then, the beach emerges from between the trees,<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>and there go the three small people, as predicted.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>After a few minutes of running around and exploring, we discover these sand dollars beached at the edge of a small tidal pool. Casually finding sand dollars is one of the many perks of island living, in my book anyway.<\/p>\n

We all stare at them for a while, trying to figure out if they are still alive. Given that they hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t turned white, we suspect that they are. Suddenly, my eldest launches into a stream of facts about sand dollars. We all turn and stare at him.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153What? I read, you know,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he responds, shrugs his shoulders slightly, and walks away.<\/p>\n

LCB and I stare at each other for a second, and then start laughing. Even though he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nine, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re still getting over the fact that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s somehow managed to acquire a life outside of us. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re slow learners, unlike our son.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>To get a closer look, LCB picks up one of the sand dollars. Sure enough, after a moment, the little hairs start moving. The other one does the same. We debate about what to do for a minute, suddenly struck by the lack of marine biologists in our lives. If we leave the sand dollars where they are, they could be crushed by a bike or a runner, or taken by a tourist who might assume they are dead. Hoping to increase their odds of survival, LCB picks up both the sand dollars and tosses them as far out into the ocean as he can.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>We stay for a while longer, talking to some people we meet on the beach. The sun sets, and the small people begin to get hungry and, as usual, are wet despite their original intent to stay dry. Everyone grabs their shoes, and we start the trek away from the beach, the remnants of pink still in the sky.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help it. I am the last to leave.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday afternoon went something like this: Me: C\u00e2\u20ac\u2122mon, guys, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s turn off the Power Rangers movie and go to the beach. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll stop by the park on the way. My Oldest: (with a dramatic groan) No, I just want to watch movies all day. My Middle Child: (having just woken up after drifting off to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,4],"tags":[512,669,105,100,465,670,554,668],"class_list":["post-758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-islandlife","category-island-parenting","tag-beach-mom","tag-finding-a-sand-dollar","tag-island-life","tag-island-living","tag-island-mom","tag-kids-on-the-beach","tag-living-on-the-beach","tag-sand-dollars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}