Not counting the trip to Orange Beach when Baby K was almost 2 months old, he had never been to the beach. Now that the weather is a bit cooler-- mid-eighties for the high instead of the mid-nineties-- it seemed like the perfect time to take him. So we got together our beach things, including towels and sand toys, and headed to Gulf Shores this morning. Baby K got antsy about five minutes before we arrived, so our timing was perfect. His first feel of the sand on his toes did not go well; he cried a bit and tried to climb up my leg, actually. The waves were a bit frightening for him as well. Daddy, ever the engineer, dug a hole with a little seat for Baby K, and water slowly pooled into it, so Baby K could sit and play in the sand and water in his own small little area without feeling overwhelmed.
Later, Daddy took Baby K on a walk through the small tidal pool that was near our beach spot. Baby K loved that! He realized that the water was not scary, and he walked and crawled all through it. He studied some big boys (ages 3 and 5) who were playing and realized he could run (well, sort of) through the tide pool, which he did very gleefully. He learned that, at the beach, he could get as dirty and as wet as he wanted, and nobody got mad at him for it! :-)
Unfortunately, we left K's change of clothes at home (he had been playing with the bag they were in before we left, so we missed putting it in the car), so he had to wear just a diaper and one of Daddy's t-shirts home. He napped for about 30 minutes in the car and that was it, so he had an early bedtime this evening.
