Going Fourth!
Beach, bags, babies ready for the holiday weekend
Coaster Photo
Bradley Beach residents enjoy a day at the beach this week. From left are moms; Barbara Cizewski, Sue Monroe and Jen Young, with children Ian Sexsmith, 5, Madison Young, 4 and Morgan Young, 1.
By JOANNE L. PAPAIANNI
Summertime can mean lots of fun, but for moms heading to the beach with little ones in tow it also means lots of work.
The moms sitting on local beaches this week carried bags, pulled rolling carts and strollers packed with toys, food, snacks, coverups, towels, cameras, and more.
Sue Monroe of LaReine Avenue in Bradley Beach visits the beach with her friend and neighbor, Barbara Cizewski.
“When the sun is out, we’re here,” they both said. “We love it.”
Monroe has two boys, Thomas, 3 and Ian, 5, both sporting orange rash guards so she can keep an eye on them.
Thomas played by the shore chasing the waves as his mother watched. “He’s a beach baby, he knows not to run in.”
She wheels a double jogging stroller to the beach to carry all her stuff.
“I carry the boogie boards, sand toys, I look like a bag lady,” says Monroe.
Monroe says her husband Tim Sexsmith joins them on the weekends, but comes up every morning at 5 a.m. to take a swim before work.
Cizewski joked that she didn’t have her kids with her, “They’re all in jail.”
“When we don’t have enough kids, we rent them,” she added.
Monroe meets a group of moms on the beach for their regular beach day every Monday morning.
“There are about seven of us,” she said, “but they don’t all always show up.”
Tuesday her friend Jen Young came along with her two daughters, and plenty of beach stuff.
Jen Nichols of Bradley Beach makes the trek to the beach part of her daily routine with young daughters, Sadie and Jamie Hoberman, 3 and 1 respectively.
“We spend the morning here four days a week, and then we go home for a nap,” she says. “There is nothing like the sea air to make you feel restful.”
Asked what they normally bring to the beach three year old Sadie piped up from her stroller, “Mommy.”
She usually meets up with some friends, who like the LaReine Avenue beach because of the little playground and the nearby bathrooms.
Jen had everything to keep the kids covered and comfortable, an umbrella, drinks, pails and shovels and snacks.
“Finger food mostly,” she added.
But the family’s day doesn’t end there. From about 4 to 5 p.m., she and the girls come up to the beach with dad to just hang out.
“We don’t bring much then,” she says, “it’s more casual.”
She says all the work is worth it.
“It’s totally worth it, it takes a little preparation, but it’s a really good experience to raise kids by the ocean.”
Donna McMillen also enjoyed the beach in Bradley this week, but she had her mother along to help with six-month-old Amanda.
Although she had a stroller, chairs and baby toys with her she said, “We downsized today, we didn’t now what the weather would be like.”
Little Amanda, however, was totally prepared for a day at the beach with an orange and yellow flowered bikini, terry hoody coverup, pink shades and a hat.
Grandma, MaryAnn Bruno usually heads to Avon for beach fun, but will take any opportunity to hang out at the beach with Amanda.
Together they were feeding Amanda her first taste of bananas on the beach.
“I just love it,” says Bruno.
On the Ocean Grove beach, au pair Duangnapa Palungrit from Thailand had a nylon cabana set up for Morgan, the girl she cares for.
Morgan, she says, loves to be at the beach, but cannot take too much sun.
“Usually she stays at the beach all day,” says Palungrit, who adds that she likes the New Jersey beaches because they are so long and they have a “walk board” ( I think she meant boardwalk, LOL).
In Thailand, she explained, there are smaller beaches and no places to walk along the shore line. Also there are no lifeguards.
She is currently attending English classes at Seton Hall University. Her year-long care-taking position will be up in March, but she would like to stay for another year, even though she admits with a wide grin that her family misses her.
Also enjoying the Ocean Grove beach was Ellen Clapper, a native of Ireland, whose mother-in-law Joyce Clapper lives on Heck Avenue.
She had her five-year-old twins, a boy Quinn and a girl Maeve, with her, along with a large netted cart with giant sand-worthy wheels.
Clapper and her husband live in Oakland but she says she goes back and forth all summer long and spends as much time at the beach as possible.
“My mother-in-law only lives four blocks away, it’s real convenient,” she says.
Her cart carried two pairs of swimmies, an umbrella, small twin sand chairs and beach toys, which were scattered all over.
She usually goes to the beach herself, but says she frequently meets people to talk to.
“People are very friendly,” she says. “We also have friends from Long Beach Island who come up and they have triplets. We all hang out together.”
Does she ever bring reading material to the beach?
“I do, but I never get to read it, my eyes are constantly on these guys,” she said pointing to the twins who were splashing around in the water at the shoreline.
She says her husband, who owns a liquor store, will come down for two days at a time here and there.
“I don’t mind, being alone, I love it,” she added, “in another year I’ll be going back to work summers are the best.”
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