august meets the ocean

we did a complete 180 - from mountains to seaside - and spent the weekend with some good friends at the beach. it was august's first time seeing the ocean, which we thought for sure would be an immediate hit because that boy takes to water like, well, ducks do. we spent the entire drive saturday morning talking up the "big agua" he would see and accordingly, he got all worked up repeating after us biiiiig agua, with grand arm gestures. but when we hit the beach hours later, the crashing waves and stiff ocean breeze were a bit too much for him. august refused to so much as dip a toe into the water. even andy's valiant attempts of running into the tide a jumping a few small waves were terrifying and not the least bit reassuring to august. instead, he watched in horror as his mind jumped to what i imagine were tragic conclusions of his dad getting swallowed up by the ocean. so we retreated further back onto the beach, tentatively played with the sand for a bit, and called it a day. 

the next morning dawned a new day, though and a new boy with it. august seemingly woke up fearless and ready to take on the beach. i don't know where his new found gumption came from, but he was running up and down the beach gathering up all the shells he could find to throw into the water. by the afternoon, he even let andy bury half his body in the sand. and he liked it! sometimes, he'd get caught in a trance watching the waves break and at the particularly big ones he'd yell BALLENA! which i know he knows is "whale", but i can only assume he was reminded of because of the salty spray? who knows. the inner workings of a child's mind will always be a mystery, but being there by his side and watching him figure it all out is pretty awesome.