maiaselene | Stories from the beach

Zoe and I are sitting at the waters edge. The waves wash over our legs bringing seashells that we collect in a bucket, and carrying others away. Zoe starts to pick up handfuls of wet sand and angrily throws them at the ocean.
"Zoe, what's wrong?"
"I'm mad at him!"
"Him who?"
"The ocean."
"Why are you mad at the ocean?"
"Because he keeps taking the seashells away."
"Oh, no honey. The ocean gave us all these seashells in our bucket. They were his to begin with."
Zoe builds a mountain of sand, and puts a pretty purple shell on top. A wave comes in and takes it away.
"Thank you ocean!" She says, calling after the wave as it ebbs. "Thank you!"

The first day we arrived at the beach, Zoe was terrified of the waves. I carried her up to the edge, where the waves just barely hit my feet as they came in. She didn't want to be put down, but I talked her into it. Holding her hands as we stood there waiting for the first wave, she was clenching so tightly I thought she might break my fingers. Then the wave came and washed over her toes, and the stifled scream turned into a fit of giggles! She let go of my hands immediately and sat down to feel the waves again on her legs. After a while, the waves were all the way up to her chest, and she had not a care in the world.

The beach was so much fun, we decided to go back the next day. That night we got thunderstorms. Hard, fast rain, and brilliant lightning for a couple of hours. The next day it was bright and sunny again. By noon it was so hot, that the beach sounded like a great idea again. So we went with family friend Laurie (who, strangely enough, also moved down to South Carolina from New York). She lived in a community with a private beach, so we decided to check it out. But when we got there, we found that the storm had wreaked havoc on the beach.

Dead jelly-fish, crabs, and other sea creatures littered the shore. This put Zoe off immensely. There was no more ocean in her future. She made the best of it, by burying her legs in the sand and building a sand castle.

The jelly-fish didn't bother everyone, though. :)

Zoe, my mom, Laurie and I decided to take a walk and explore the sea creatures on the shore. Laurie brought her dogs, of whom Zoe *loved* entirely too much. The dogs were not really allowed on the beach yet. Not until after 5pm. & Laurie totally got busted by the beach patrol. Zoe found this hilarious.