Nathan's 1st Time At The Beach

Yesterday I took the day off from work and went to Ocean City, NJ. This was my first trip there ever and Nathan's first time to a beach (I've only been to Atlantic City and Wildwood as an adult). He was so scared of walking on the sand and going near the water as he was clinging to me. But after we put him in our laps while sitting near the water, he started getting used to it. As the water came crashing on us, he would yell "Whoooaaa!". Gradually he got used to his surroundings...eventually he would stand in the water while I was holding both his hands and then he started to actually run into the ocean without stopping! I had to run after him and grab him before he went too far. He was sooo happy to be in the water with me...as he was watching the waves crashing on him, at one point, he just looked at me and puckered his lips towards me. I was so surprised because he only does that with his stuffed animals! So I kissed him back and he kept on wanting to kiss me for a long time....too long in fact that I was almost grossed out! I almost started tearing up as I thought how he was this tiny baby 20 months ago who couldn't show how much he loved me and now he's a toddler with expression, feelings and emotion. He was such a good boy and didn't complain as he put him in the stroller for about 2 hours while strolling the boardwalk in the early evening. We really had such a good time....today Nathan wanted to go back to the beach as he kept asking us to go outside. I think he was disappointed there was no beach outside our house, so he started pulling on my car door handle telling us to drive to NJ again!

We plan on going to the beach again later this month or early September as we all had so much fun. I thought about how going to the beach with a child was so different than going with friends or your spouse in the past. Before it was just lounging around with a book, chatting or sleeping while we tanned. Now it was funny watching Nathan enjoy the beach and water, like he was enjoying God's creation and appreciating the little things.

Interesting note about Ocean City: We had read that Ocean City is the most family friendly beach in NJ as no alcohol is allowed there. But we had also noticed that there were not many Asians or other races there...it was all Caucasians. Don't know if it was coincidence on the day we went, but just something we noticed as we were leaving.