This morning my sister-in-law called and said she was taking the kids to the beach that is about ten minutes from our house. So we dropped our plans and packed up our beach toys and took off for our first beach trip of the season. Bella’s first time.
Bella at the beach.
I wasn’t sure how she was going to react. When Dom first put her down on the sand she kinda stood there for a second but she didn’t cry. Then we held her hands and walked her along a bit. When the sand on her feet didn’t seem to bother her, we let go and she took a couple of steps on her own and then dropped down and started to crawl. Before we could blink, she was off, crawling at full speed up the beach.
All alone in the big world.
Freedom! What a heady experience. Since that long ago day in the fall when I plopped a little girl who could just barely sit down on the last of the green grass, Isabella has not been able to simply crawl around on the grass, on her own in the big wide world. She didn’t look back, just headed for the horizon. No walls, no barriers, no bookshelves she can’t pull books from, no outlets.
Bella shows Daddy her rock.
We didn’t stay long. Maybe an hour or so. Long enough for Bella to pick up a rock and lick it, for Dom to attempt a castle, for one of my nieces to get soaked to the chest, for several grapes to fall into the sand and for Bella to attempt to eat them anyway, for sand to make its way into her diaper, and for a good time to be had by all.
Bella makes her getaway.
