Beach Bum

I have so much to write about these days that I’m a little overwhelmed and don’t know where to begin. Then my Momma told me I should just take things one step at a time. Oh, Hey! I just got that, “one step at a time,” I should remember that when I try to walk! Anyway, last week we went on a big trip to see Grandma and Grandpa in Indiana and before that I went to the beach with Momma. I’ve decided that I’m going to tell you little pieces of my past few weeks at a time, because it’s about all I can do before I have to go to bed.

So first, I will tell you about my trip to the beach. The weekend before we were going to Indiana my Daddy had to work so my Momma planned a little adventure for us because it was sunny out and she didn’t want to stay inside. I didn’t know what she was planning but I knew something was up when she started to smear white stuff all over me. I didn’t really like it at first but Momma gave me a toy to play with. Then after awhile it felt pretty relaxing with her rubbing my arms and my legs. After that she gathered up all my stuff and put me in the car. She had more then my usual backpack so I knew we were doing something more than just going to the store.

When we got to the place I looked out over this huge, gigantic swimming pool. It really blew my mind. We had just gone to my swim lesson that morning, and I thought that that pool was big, but this one… wow… I was a little nervous. What if Momma was going to make me swim across the whole thing??

My mom strapped me to her front and my bags to her back and we started walking down this big long stairway. She stopped a couple of times to make sure I wasn’t too hot, and the sun wasn’t shining on me too much but I couldn’t take my eyes off the water. When we finally got to the bottom of the hill, Mom put some towels on the ground and put me down, luckily not in the water. I looked around me and was really confused because it looked like I was sitting in the middle of a huge cat litterbox. There were no cats there, but there were dogs running around. I didn’t see any doody though, so I felt it was safe to stick my hands in it. Mom gave me cups to pick up sand and it was really fun, although very hot sometimes. At one point she picked me up off the sand and took me to the water and explained that it wasn’t a swimming pool but it was called an “ocean” and told me it was the biggest body of water I’ll ever see. I kept looking for the arms and legs on this body of water, but I could never find them. The water kept creeping towards us and just when I thought it would hit us it would go away again – maybe that was its arms. One time when the ocean's arms were pulled back Mom touched my toes to the sand and it was COLD. It made me me breath quickly, I really hoped that she wouldn’t make me touch the water too.

Playing on the Beach

After we got really hot she packed up all of our stuff and put me in my carrier so we could hike back up the hill again. I felt so bad for Momma because I could tell she was tired when we were hiking. I wanted to get down and help by pushing her up but I’m too small for that so instead I just stayed very still so she wouldn’t have to worry about me while she was walking. We’d stop here and there so she could rest and I’d look up at her and smile to let her know she was doing a good job. When we finally got back to the car we were both very tired, but it was a good tired – not a hungry tired – and I was so glad we had our adventure.

The next day my Momma and I went back to the beach, but this time she had learned her lesson. We went to a different beach that was very close to the parking lot AND she brought her friend Karin to help carry my bags so it wasn’t so hard. This time I felt like a beach expert. The sand was a little different at this beach. It wasn’t as soft and it had more colors in it. When I was eating my lunch I decided to put a handful of sand in my mouth to see what it tasted like and let me tell you, it is NOT seasoning. Blech. It was kind of hard to get it out of my mouth, but Momma gave me water from a big person bottle and it kind of washed it out. I’m sure I swallowed some too, but that’s ok, it didn’t hurt my tummy. I talked to Karin too and she was a lot of fun. I could see other men talking to ladies at the beach like I was talking to Karin so it made me feel all growed up. I could tell other boys were jealous. I still didn’t go into this water either, but that’s ok with me. I like bath-time, and I’m getting used to the swimming pool, but I’m not ready to go into the ocean yet. I’m afraid it might just pull me in with its arms and swallow me up.