drumroll please . . .

dear Norah-
You went to the beach! For the first time! We have had several opportunities to go to the beach together, but your daddy was never on those vacations with us, so with Daddy finally in tow, we went to Malibu. The sun was shining (a rarity for us Ohioans) and we were all in good spirits. Sweet Eliza Rose came with us, even though she was sicky (what an amazingly good sport). When you first stepped on the sand, with your sandals on, you were unsure, but OK. Then sand started getting in your sandals and you were not happy. Previously, we've put you in sand at playgrounds and you have never had a positive reaction. In fact you start whining for us to pick you up. If we try to put you down in it, you retract your legs to your chest- midair. So, as we put you down on the beach, you started to realize you were in sand and were not happy. We tried to coax you into holding our hands and walking in it. It didn't work. So I picked you up, we laid down a towel and set you on it.
Here you are, trying to avoid the sand at all costs:



You were playing with ball and a bat. If you threw the ball off the towel, sure enough, you would find away to retrieve it without touching the sand. You were looking at everything around you; soaking in your surroundings at lightning speed, as always.

You started to warm up to the idea- to say the least. Eliza and I were playing with sand and you soon wanted to become a part of it. I was covering my legs with sand and you wanted to experience that too. I was ELATED that my baby was seeing the light! The beach is wonderful! I knew you would love it, you just needed to get used to it.

Look at your focused face!



Covering your legs...



Staring out into the ocean. I thought you'd
want to jump right in because you love swimming
and bath time so much. That was not the case.



I'm so glad I got to show you one of my favorite
places!



Daddy loved playing with you too.



Thank you beach. We hope to see you soon!

Love you Norah,
mommy