The Great Outdoors

Zoe laughing at mommy singing/signing the good night song while getting ready for a nap in the tent.

Zoe helping daddy play cards while camping.

Zoe has always been sensitive to being outside. Typically, Zoe will cry and arch when she is out in the sunlight. We have learned to keep her in the shade, use sunglasses and a hat, time outside to be when she is well rested, etc. We are pushing Zoe more and more to cope with outside and some days she does great (others days are still really hard and we end up staying inside all day feeling like hermits).
We went camping last week and we were unsure about how Zoe would cope with being outside all day. She did great. We quickly learned that as long as we hung around the campsite and took it easy, Zoe was able to cope well. We attempted a hike with Zoe in the backpack, but that was just too much. So, we took it easy and had a great time camping. I wish we could have made it to the beach, but it was just too much for Zoe this trip.
We had made it to the beach near our home once this summer when my brother Tom, his wife, and their four children were visiting. Zoe did great with being at the beach most of the day. After a while, she did get over stimulated so we put her in her car seat and covered it with a blanket. That did the trick and we were able to stay to enjoy the beach.
So, we are learning how to help Zoe cope with being outside. Outside is not much fun if she is upset or over stimulated. We are glad that Zoe is now able to enjoy being outside at times. I think as she has gotten older, she has been tolerating outside more. Zoe used to scream when we would put her in her stroller (the stimulation was just too much), but now she laughs and enjoys it (most of the time).