Summertime Warriors

There were a few reasons why we chose the coast as our home after Justin graduated from New York University. We weren’t originally from the Santa Cruz area, but the ocean has always been a large part of our lives both individually, as a couple and as a family. We’re drawn to all of its properties; it’s calm, refreshing, peaceful vibe is just something we appreciate and need in our lives. For two years we lived close enough to the water to hear the seagulls and see the blue of the ocean from our upstairs deck, but there were some deal breakers within the community and happily moved to the small town we grew up in, just 20 minutes away.

Heading to the beach is a full day trip now. It’s not something we can do after school or for a morning walk before breakfast, like we used to. Theo’s bi-weekly trips to run in the ocean with his doggie buddies has dwindled to bi-monthly visits, but we are so fortunate to have a family condo to rent for special weekends, and we take advantage of that as often as possible. The first weekend after the kids got out of school this summer, we escaped for a few days to the beach and it was precisely the reset we all needed. There were sand castles and sand dollar hunts, fort building with driftwood, and football and baseball games from dawn until dusk. There were a total of six kids with us that weekend, and that makes for a lot of laughs, a lot of laundry and a lot of little injuries. My children are especially prone to scrapes and bruises it seems (I feel like I’m always explaining different injuries to worried friends and family), so of course we brought our first aid kit.

There are a couple of different schools of thought when it comes to treating small wounds. Justin and I always seem to end up on opposing sides with these things, so while I’m arguing that these open gashes need to be covered and protected from the inevitable sand element, he believes that fresh air and salty water are nature’s remedies. I couldn’t allow sand to get caked into these wounds (my children’s and our guest’s) for fear of infection and irritation, so I covered them with Band-Aid Water Block bandages, which are 100% waterproof, are actually quite breathable and manage to cover and protect the wounds at the same time.Wounds don’t need to be open/uncovered to heal quicker, it is in fact the opposite. Wounds heal quicker when covered! A survey showed that 85% of people are not treating their wounds correctly because they aren’t covering them. I just feel better when there is something in place to prevent more problems. The Water Block Band Aids are also skin-like, so the kids barely even notice they’re on and I think they feel even more confident playing as usual with that kind of comfortable protection of their ouchies.

In true Beau form, he ended up in the Emergency Room on our last day there in a completely random accident, but one that involved a ton of blood and 5 stitches in his ear (he was wrestling with his brother indoors and fell into a coffee table). Aside from that, no other beach related incidents occurred and, while I was able to use our trusty Oh Joy! First Aid kit more than once on more than one kid, I felt even more confident knowing that their wounds would be better off protected from the sand and water than exposed to possibly infectious elements. We love our active, outdoors lifestyle and I’m grateful for the certain factors that allow us to do these amazing things as often as we do. No matter how many times they get hurt, they get up and keep playing. That’s why you’ll almost always see my kids adorned in some kind of bandage or bruise-evidence of a summer well played.