Taylor's Ocean Encounter

It's been a long weekend....

We took Tay to Ventura Harbor yesterday where we saw real live boats, which was very exciting to Tay. We strolled around, and spent a good hour on the beach. Tay LOVED the ocean. We let it chase our feet, and she ran screaming with glee back to the sand. We did that for a good ten minutes until she saw someone actually walk IN the ocean. That gave her all sorts of ideas, and she bolted, full speed, into the Pacific's freezing cold water with mommy close behind. She had a blast, and only face planted twice, but didn't even cry. I can tell we'll be making a lot of beach trips this summer. We finished off our trip with McDonalds ice cream.

I'm not really what you'd call a "beach person." I'm not the kind of girl who can have her hair tossed in the wind, and still look good. I wear makeup to the beach. And I haven't gone into the ocean past my waist since I was 13. It's cold, and there's all sorts of things living in there that I can't see. (Not to mention we saw a dog take a giant crap on the beach yesterday, and it's owner simply left it there and continued a game of Frisbee. Doesn't take a scientist to figure out where that poop is headed.) But Taylor has made me enjoy the beach again. Everything is so new to her, that it's made me stop and slow down to appreciate things I normally wouldn't. In the past couple of weeks she's spent many hours studying bugs, picking flowers, noticing the sights and sounds around her, not to mention pointing at every circle we see and proudly yelling "CIRCLE!" I'm really enjoying these moments. She's been sent here for me to love, and to teach me patience. I've got a lot to learn about patience, but I'm getting there. In the mean time, I'm enjoying seeing things for the first time, again.

"Thanks for the white pants Nana! I'm just ganna sit down on this blue chalk painting."