Bintan Holiday - Part 2

6.15 in the morning

Two bleary eyed parents. One bright eyed and bushy tailed baby.

We tried patting Bobo back to sleep but apparently he hadn’t got the memo that said people are supposed to sleep in on holidays.

Bobo’s enthusiasm was unmatched and soon we were sitting in the balcony with him bouncing in our laps, hoping our yawns did not suppress the sound of birds. After a while we headed for breakfast.

This was an interesting experience. Normally, we would have been the last people at the breakfast buffet, making it just before the buffet closed. Now we saw the benefits of being early. I marvelled at the cut fruits whose juice had still not started pooling in their bowls. D enjoyed the zero wait at the egg station. We both enjoyed sitting at a table with its entire cutlery without missing the odd fork/spoon that happens as the day wears on.

Bobo relaxed in his stroller. There was no sign of his bump from the previous day.

Post breakfast, however our battery began to run low and we thankfully dumped the baby in the grandparents’ room and slept for a couple of hours. We had never been more grateful to have family around.

Lunch rolled around and we dug into the buffet again.  I pigged out completely and gave a satisfactory burp.

Spending a lot of time with a baby can make one forget social skills. You yawn rather loudly, stretch completely and burp with gay abandon.

After the burp-inducing meal, I eagerly waited for naptime (mine, not the baby’s). Unfortunately the baby decided he had had enough naps for the day and decided to play. I crashed while D rocked him and played with him.

Finally at 3.30 p.m., when it became clear that Bebo was in no mood to take his afternoon nap, we decided to head to the beach.

With a small baby, you are not sure when the perfect combination of events will happen – the baby is awake and fresh, the weather is pleasant and is not too sunny or rainy, there is no nap or nursing coming up. So when the decision to go to the beach was taken, we paused only to grab a few essentials.

When I say ‘grab’, I of course mean ‘meandered around the room reaching out for most of the baby supplies we had got’

-    -      The baby’s swimming trunks (we had bought him this cutesy blue one. He owns two more. For a baby who has never been exposed to more water than what is in his tiny bathtub every day, he does have a killer beach wardrobe)-

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-       -    The baby’s diaper bag which is always stocked with a complete kit for changing him

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-       - The baby’s towel

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        -    The baby’s hat (Inherited from M, his regular source of clothes) and

-          the camera

Fifteen minutes later, we were lying on a towel on the sand, with the baby changed into his swimwear. The grandparents had also caught up with us. It was time for the big moment – taking Bobo for his first dip in the sea.

Then we realised that in the process of grabbing Bobo’s stuff, we had forgotten to change into swim gear.

Oh well. We would just wade into the water in our regular clothes.

The baby was his usual curious self as we took him to the water. He watched the sea comfortably perched in my arms. Then D stripped down and sat at the edge of the water and held the baby in his hands.

Bobo was sort of ok but clearly a tad anxious. We took multiple snaps, made many videos with the point-and-click camera (the video camera had been forgotten in the room. It had been a dead weight in our luggage).

Then, we moved in a little deeper though the water was still only knee deep. I slowly lowered Bobo in the water and he bawled. The sounds of waves breaking was a bit too deafening for his five month old self.  We beat a hasty retreat and headed back to a couple of beach chairs which had freed up.

The weather was lovely. The baby was calmer now that he was away from the water. We put on his hat and he settled down to lovingly chewing his toe (his latest trick).

The rest of us chatted and snacked (luckily I had remembered to grab food!).

I also indulged myself in people watching. A bunch of four American women played beach volleyball which suddenly turned into football. One of them displayed some really neat footwork. Next to them was a newly married Indian couple. I had spotted the girl earlier in the day shopping for a bikini and now she was in the beach in her new finery, albeit worn with shorts and a sarong draping her modestly. The other side another, presumably newly married couple spent the entire time taking turns to pose and take pictures of each other. And these were not the regular people poses either. The girl would lie down in the water and shake her legs in a girly, flirty manner. The boy would stand immersed to his chest and flex his muscles.

The evening went by quite nicely.

Finally it was time to head back and get started on the baby’s bedtime routine. Which was done fast and without much fuss.

The parents had volunteered to babysit while D and I took off for some much-needed couple time. We sat in the restaurant by the beach and talked. Before we had the baby, we never fully understood the concept of ‘couple time’. We were mostly in each other’s faces. We were now too but with a baby around, conversations were never completed.

Spending time with a baby is one of the most awesome things in my life right now. But every now and then, it is also awesome to walk in the beach holding hands and watching lanterns floating into the air.