Beside the Seaside

Last week I had another entry for Max’s diary of “firsts”– his first trip to the seaside!

Well, OK, it was technically his SECOND trip to the seaside: he was with us when we went to South Queensferry a couple of weeks ago too, but he managed to sleep right through the coastal part of that particular outing, so when we arrived at Portobello Beach on a sunny spring day last week, it was technically the first time he’d seen the sea. And very impressed he was, too:

Ahem.

Naturally, I chose to dress him like a sailor for the occasion:

His t-shirt and cardi are both from Matalan, and his trousers were a gift from Newbie. I’d love to be able to say this is the only nautical-inspired getup I have for him, but that would obviously be a blatant lie – I mean, do you even KNOW me? So, yeah, obviously I’m still having WAY too much fun dressing him – and am actually a bit sad sometimes, when I think that one day he’s going to want to pick out his own outfits, so then I’ll just be back to just dressing myself again, and where’s the fun in THAT, I ask you? I DID ask Terry if he would let me start dressing HIM once the sad day arrives when Max is all, “Actually, mum, I think I might wear something other that stripes today, if that’s OK with you?” but his answer was a resounding “NO”. Which, honestly, was a rookie mistake on Terry’s part, because if he’d just let me pick out his outfit for him, we might not have ended up both wearing white tops, and looking like we were in some kind of cult:

Yay for awkward family photos! Looks like Max is ALREADY embarrassed by us, huh?

I know feel I have to prove to you that Terry isn’t ALSO wearing blue gingham trousers here, so here ya go:

This photo also marks the last known sighting of Max’s right shoe, lost to us forever a mere 10 minutes after I’d thought to myself, “Wow, this is the longest time he’s ever managed to keep both of his shoes on his feet!” Please join me in a moment of silence as we honour its services to childrenswear, and reflect on the fact that, if we’d just looked at this photo BEFORE setting off along the promenade, we’d maybe have realised that the shoe’s grip on Max’s foot was but a tenuous one, and that the two would soon be parting ways.

As for me, meanwhile, you can probably tell that I spent ages picking out Max’s oufit, and then approximately 30 seconds on my own, but that’s the way we roll these days, so we’ll just have to do our best to accept it. Basic though my outfit is, though, I do just want to quickly pay tribute to these Boden trousers, which are now approaching their third summer with me, and still going strong. They’re the Richmond capri trousers, which come in various different prints, including this blue gingham: as I said, mine are actually a few years old now, so I can’t swear to them being absolutely identical to the ones currently on the Boden site (I mean, they LOOK the same to me, but who knows, there may well be some subtle differences in cut/fit that I’ve no way of knowing…), but if you’re not convinced, I’m also loving the Richmond 7/8th trousers, which come in pink gingham, and which I’m very bravely managing to resist buying. Pray for me.

And that was Max’s first trip to the beach: one lost shoe, two inexplicably matchy-matchy parents, but a whole lot of fun. I will be double-checking Terry’s outfit choice before we leave next time, though…