The day was slightly cooler, at least, and there was a nice breeze blowing through the screened-in porch, where we spent much of our time.
Abby had another beach adventure today, however, this time with Nana, Papa, Tom, Uncle James, Aunt Ali, and Uncle Joe. It was not quite the success of yesterday's outing.
Abby's first steps into the ocean were hesitant and fearful. She found the water too cold, too strange. But her father gave her gentle encouragement, and eventually she began to grow excited about the novelty of it all.
At first she wasn't happy at being lowered into the water, even though it wasn't even up to her ankles. Her Nana pulled her back a bit and had her walk around in the wet (but not submerged) sand, slowly getting used to the feeling. The first time she had ever felt sand, she didn't like it, so we were already seeing progress.
Finally, she calmed down enough for Nana to bring her a little closer and let just the edge of the tide come to her feet. As she adjusted more to the temperature, she felt more comfortable moving deeper and deeper into the water. The tide was pretty gentle, giving her perfect waves rolling into her without knocking her back.
At this point, her father got excited and grabbed her again, dipping her a bit more into the water and coasting in the shallow tide. Even when her father slipped and fell into the water with her, submerging her head, she recovered quickly and was ready to go back in again.
By this time, she wanted to hold hands and stay mid-thigh deep, letting the waves keep hitting her. On the rare occasions when a larger wave would come in, she would either be lifted up above the water, or pick up her own feet and try to ride with the wave (though this may just be her father's affections reading too much into her picking up her legs). Even when the wave would splash her in the face and up her nose, she wouldn't let it dissuade her from continuing with her fun.
Today, however, things went much differently. A pretty fearsome wind had picked up by the time the gang ventured out onto the sand, and Abby was too frightened to go near the shore line. She stayed oceanside for a short while, playing in the sand with Ali, Joe, and Nana, but soon was on her way back home, alternating between Ali and Nana's arms. She had no interest in returning the wagon she'd hitched a ride on for the trip there.
I believe that part of the trouble was that her mood had never really recovered from her difficult nap-awakening. She's normally a 12-13 hour nighttime sleeper, and 1-1.5 hour napper. Unfortunately, due to insufficiently light-blocking curtains in the bedroom, and shared quarters with a baby brother who awakens frequently, she's been sleeping much less at night, and much more during the day. However, she doesn't do well with long naps. I suspect that she's waking up feeling more tired than she did when she went down, which often happens to me when I sleep for too long/at the wrong time. My poor little monkey.
She'll have her own room tonight, and I hope that she gets a nice, long, uninterrupted sleep. And maybe I will have the energy to join her on a return trip to the beach, tomorrow. Let's hope it's a good one.
* Credit where credit is due- Tom helped me write this post tonight, since I was not present to observe the details of either outing.
