Montauk!

In the world of Park Slope, Brooklyn nannydom, the industry standard is 2-weeks paid vacation. Realizing that it would actually cost my parents more to pay for additional child care on one of Ira's week's off than it would for them to actually take a vacation, they decided we'd head to Montauk. How very free-spirited. Of course, my dad had work obligations on a Monday and a Friday, killing any chances of extending our vacation into the weekend. And so off we went for our awkwardly timed mid-week holiday.

Despite the uninspired context, the vacation itself turned out to be surprisingly pleasant and relaxing. We all had a blast in Montauk. I mastered my breast stroke, connected with the ocean in ways I never had before, and ate, lounged and slept heartily. My mom only forgot to pack a few things, including:

• diapers (seriously?)
• swim diapers (again, seriously?)
• a back-up sippy cup - which only became an issue when my favorite sippy cup landed on the side of the road somewhere in East Hampton. (Tip: tossing things out an open window is a great way to pass time on a 3+ hour car-ride.)

She did, however, remember her bike helmet, even though my parents didn't bring their bikes.

I will confess, there was an element of schaudenfreude to the whole experience knowing that it was 10-degrees hotter back in NYC.