My bucket filling, boogie boarding, blue eyed boy at the "beek"

Aaron, our most independent child, quite possibly had the best time of everyone at the beach. He loved the freedom to roam anywhere his heart desired. (Except, you know, into the ocean. I think he would have kept going and going and going had we not kept stopping him. He'd get bowled over by a wave, tumble through the small whitecaps, stand up, smile and charge into them again.) He loved the freedom to dig and play in the sand, get dirty and not be told to stop.

And, he LOVED his Daddy pulling him on the boogie board in the surf.

aaron 1 (1 of 1)

He got mad when he wasn't allowed to take shovels or buckets or toys from his little sister

aaron 7 (1 of 1)

and decided laying in the sand was a good protest.

aaron 2 (1 of 1)

He wore the same, "my parents are exhausted" shirt just about everyday to protect his fair skin from the blaring rays of the sun and to also let everyone know the true state of mine and Luke's energy level.

aaron 3 (1 of 1)

He got his beach bucket filled with Atlantic salt water 5,739 times and followed his Daddy out for a fresh helping almost every time.

aaron 4 (1 of 1)

And, in turn, led Daddy back to his desired location an equal amount of times.

aaron 5 (1 of 1)

He helped dig holes and make sand castles and fill buckets of salty water with sand. He played hard, slept soundly, awoke early and probably had the most fun of his entire 2 years of life.

aaron 6 (1 of 1)

And we loved seeing the beach and ocean, waves and birds, boats and adventures through his 2 year old eyes. He keeps asking when we could go back to the "beek." Buddy, if it were up to me, we'd go back tomorrow.

Meet my new daughter, Sandy

Okay, so I don't really have a new daughter. But, have mercy, if Olivia could have gotten anymore sand on her body I was seriously going to change her name. Okay, maybe not, but STILL.

And to think that her first experience with the sand and ocean started like this...

olivia 1 (1 of 1)

Before we left, I'd began noticing some reoccurring behaviors with her. Since she used to receive Occupational Therapy (OT) and Physical Therapy (PT) I'm always on the look out for her behaviors and watching her fine and gross motor skills. After talking with my BFF Amanda (who is a Speech Pathologist by profession but spent the last several years as a behavior interventionist, working with kids with disorders of all types) I knew it was time to give Olivia's former OT a call.

Although I think most of her behaviors are certainly learned and personality driven (she's the new, reigning Drama Queen, remember?) I also think there could be some sensory issues going on. I say all of that to say that once Olivia got over her issues with the water and the sounds of the surf and the fact that birds were flying 200 feet above her head and the sand, OHMYWORDTHESAND, she was fine and spent quite a bit of her time doing this....

olivia 3 (1 of 1)

Of course, what you cannot see is that each and every time my sweet little princess sat in the sand, she felt the need to immediately do this...

olivia 5 (1 of 1)

What's that? You can't really tell what she's doing? Okay, how's this...

olivia 7 (1 of 1)

SAND.IN.HER.HAIR. SAND IN HER HAIR! SAND IN HER HAIR. Every.single.time. Do you know how hard it is to get sand out of her hair? I wish I could come up with an adequate analogy but all escape me right now so just know IT'S HARD.

Unless she was helping MeMe carry a fresh bucket of water (where I think MeMe had secretly lured her to the water to rinse the sand out of her hair)...

olivia 6 (1 of 1)

Or it was the 10 minutes that MeMe convinced her to wear a hat...

olivia 4 (1 of 1)

my sweet little Drama Queen had sand in her hair. Sandy Olivia loved wearing her shades...

olivia 78 (1 of 1)

and as her Mommy I loved the afternoon where just the two of us sat in the surf, collecting (and promptly throwing) sea shells and allowing the Atlantic waters to wash away the sand our cares. We sat there for at least an hour. And it may have been my most favorite hour all week.

olivia 9 (1 of 1)

How I love this little girl, sand and all.