More about the beach
Madison was worried before we got here because she’s developed a fear of sharks. And crabs. So we told her that sharks don’t come to Oregon beaches because it’s too cold and that there aren’t any pinchy crabs here anyway. And we decided to put away the ocean book before she got to the jellyfish. She’s very nearly four, which means she’s just figuring out that she’s mortal and she worries.
The ocean is, of course, pretty darn big even if you’re not a very small person so she stood on the sand and just started. Noah took off to leap into the waves but she was afraid to even put her feet in the edges and the foam spooked her, too. So she built sand castles while Noah and Brett ran in and splashed around. She’d look up to see what they were doing and shake her head.
Then we walked down to the rocks (where the sea lions sun themselves but they weren’t out today — there was one out in the waves bobbing his head but that was it). And she was grossed out by the seaweed until I got her to touch it and then she was more brave about touching things. She started gathering shells (really shell fragments) and I led her bit by bit closer to the wet sand, close to the waves, until one came up and pooled around her feet. It surprised her but she didn’t run this time. She stopped and we watched it come in again, pooling around her feet again and this time she laughed. Then she shouted, “I did it!” and then she started to dance.
Pics of these events in the next entry. (Written without coffee after sleeping crammed into the bed with two wriggly children. Typos are a given.)
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