On our very first excursion to the beach this summer, we learned 3 things.
1. Our cute little bikini wearing princess loves to eat rocks. Small rocks, Large rocks, sandy rocks, it makes no difference. After retrieving the 15th rock from our child’s large mouth, we decided to move to the less rocky, but more populated, Silver Beach.
2. Sand is good. We played in the sand for nearly an hour without boredom. Walking in sand, however, is much tougher than walking on, say, the carpeted bedroom floor. But no matter! Sand is still good.
3. The lake is bad. No, the lake is very bad. The cold water crashing on our little baby toes was not good at all. There was much crying with REAL tears until we moved back to the safety of the blanket and the warm, dry sand. We didn’t even want Mommy to hold us within 10 feet of the water.
But the adorable pictures were well worth the hour and half spent on an early Saturday morning. As soon as we replace the batteries in the camera, I will convince Daddy to put those up for your viewing pleasure.
I was recently remembering how much Daddy and I were waiting for our lovely little offspring to roll over. We would encourage her, and help her out, and even push her over so that she could roll from her back to her stomach and back again. Then, one day, she did it. All on her own. We were so very proud. Of course, that wasn’t enough. Then we wanted to see her crawl. Not 5 minutes after she rolled over, we both said, man, it’ll be so cool when she can crawl!
So, the story continues, and we would watch our little apple dumpling get to her knees and rock back and forth. Oh, it’ll be so wonderful to see this tiny creature scurrying around the house. And eventually, she did. What a sight it was to see our miniature person scooting all around the house and doing some nose dives because her head was still too heavy. But, of course, a few days after that, we both said, man it’ll be so cool to see her walking all around!
Well, that day has finally arrived. Our little punkin’ got up, looked around to see if anyone was watching, and then “woooosh!” out the door she went! And we haven’t been able to slow her down yet. When she wants to go, she wants to go! She has almost entirely skipped the cute little toddling stage where she wobbles back and forth. No, our daughter is a walking champ. She just gets up and takes off in the direction of the most breakable, tearable, messiest item she can find and wreaks havoc on our home. Now, Daddy and I are saying, “man won’t it be cool when she learns how to slow down?”
Cute pink baby bikini. Check.
SPF 50 baby sunscreen. Check.
Pool heated to a comfortable 82 degrees. Check.
Floaty baby ring. Check.
God Parents. Check. Camera. Check.
One wet, super-clingy, tearful, scared, wide-eyed baby. Check.
And that is how our first swimming experience went.
