A Tale of a Reluctant Beach Baby

I really talked up the beach before we went on vacation, elaborating on the awesomeness of the ocean, sand, sea shells, etc. Jonathan really bought into it and wanted to see the ocean immediately upon our arrival on Saturday. So Bryan said he would unload the van while Mom (who had not been to the beach for at least 15 years), Jonathan, Pebbles and I walked down to the ocean. Jonathan eagerly ran across the beach and into the ocean. The ocean responded, as oceans do, by splashing on him and then retreating. This startled the poor boy, causing him to turn abruptly and fall down. He apparently blamed this incident on the ocean, vowing never to return to said ocean without a good deal of coaxing by yours truly and even then only if I was holding him.

This was disappointing to me, but what can you do? I LOVE the ocean, despite my swimming inadequacies, and I hoped he would feel the same, but not so much. So, much like last year, Jonathan was perfectly content to sit in the sand and play with ocean water in a bucket. Not too exciting, but it did amuse him for upwards of thirty minutes at a time, leaving me free to read a book. That, I liked.



He was even apprehensive about the hole Jody dug. How any little boy could resist this creation is beyond me:



And this next one is Bryan's attempt to be artistic. It's actually a pretty good attempt in my opinion. You can see (if you look closely) that I am holding Jonathan. He was probably crying because that's what he did for the first few days whenever I went near the ocean with him, but you can't tell because our backs are to the camera.



Maybe he was smarter than the rest of us because there were a lot of these in the water and on the beach. We found out later they were not poisonous due to their lack of tentacles, but still pretty yuck nonetheless.



And also these, apparently due to the tropical storms a'brewing out in the Atlantic:



Interestingly, although he was scared of the ocean, if I asked him right this second if he liked the ocean, he would emphatically answer yes. There is truly nothing like the workings of a two-year-old brain.