I used to love going to the beach. There was nothing better than tanning with my toes in the sand. Just the wind, the waves and me.

Enter a 2-year-old.

Forget relaxation; a beach vacation with a toddler is an exercise in patience, and the only time you can lie around on the beach is while being buried in a sand castle.

Yes, the beach has changed since I had a kid.

Last week, as we ventured out on a family beach trip, I realized just how different that once-relaxing spot is for me now.

It all started with the preparation, which began approximately six months ago. I think the best rule of thumb for packing for a beach excursion with a toddler is that the trunk of your car should be filled with roughly 10 percent clothing, 30 percent sunscreen and 60 percent sand toys, shovels, beach balls and water rafts.

If you have at least one sand toy per hour of the time you'll be at the beach, I think you're safe.

Once I was satisfied that I had met the sand-toy requirement, I turned my attention to sunscreen.

I used to abhor sunscreen and worship the sun. I thought SPF 15 was too high, so I rarely put anything on. I know, I know, I'm already preparing for my spot in a public service announcement on skin cancer saying something like, "If only I'd known."

My own naivety aside, I'm a sunscreen maniac now. My mother's admonition that one bad burn as a child could haunt you for the rest of your life rings in my head every time I see my little girl step into the sun.

So, before this beach trip, I loaded up on the highest SPF for babies I could find. I ended up settling on SPF 70, which will block not only UVA and UVB rays, but also emissions from nuclear weapons. Perfect.

And once I got to the beach, I spent roughly 99.5 percent of my time running after my daughter to apply gobs of sunscreen to her white little body. No sun was going to hurt that baby-soft skin as long as I was around.

I even stood behind her one afternoon to block the sun while she made a sand castle. It was at that moment I realized that my sun-worshipping, beach-vacation days are forever changed.

Rather than sprawling out in the heat of the day, I was dodging between shadows and positioning beach umbrellas.

Instead of dipping my toes in the sand, I was cleaning out buckets of sand from my daughter's diaper. I'm not sure how toddlers do it, but let's just say she got some sand in some places. No orifice was spared in my daughter's endeavor to bring the beach home with her.

But when I wasn't cursing the sun or sifting sand out of my clothes, I realized that the new beach experience wasn't all bad. In fact, it was kind of wonderful.

I jumped over the waves brimming with "soap," as my daughter calls it.

I giggled with her as we ran from the tide. I built sand castles and chased after crabs. I took time to notice seashells on the beach and pile them in my daughter's bucket.

For the first time since I was a kid, I actually played on the beach.

So even though I'll be shaking sand out of my luggage for at least another week, it was worth it.

All the sunscreen lathering, sun dodging and sand-toy buying was a small price to pay to see the wonder of the ocean through a 2-year-old's eyes.

Erin Stewart's blog, Just4Mom, can be found Tuesdays and Thursdays.

e-mail: estewart@desnews.com