Beach Nightmares

I never thought I'd ever put those two words together. I love the beach. Especially in the morning when you first wake up and can look out onto the waves. That's just lovely and a really nice way to begin your day.

However, I had a nightmare about the beach. We're going away soon ... yes, to the beach, how'd you guess? Anyway, I had a dream that lil' Monkey runs off into the water like a mad man and is instantly swept away by a wave. I haven't had it again since but the image of it keeps playing in my head. Then today I was talking to my company's CFO and he was describing how he basically played goalie between his daughter and the ocean. Sounds like fun. He did advise that one of those little life vests will give me better piece of mind. But Monkey doesn't seem old enough for the ones I've found on the web so far.

I'm hoping I won't be such a nervous wreck while on vacation this year that I won't ever want to go to the beach again (although I'm pretty sure DH wouldn't mind that at all since he hates being away from the game home for any length of time). So if any of you have tips on taking a toddler to the beach which might reduce either stress or paranoia, I'd love to hear them.

P.S. If any of you have tips on getting your toddler to keep his sunglasses on, that would be helpful, too! I bought him the kind with the strap but he still takes them off!