Norah at the Beach

Norah had so much fun at the beach and she made the most of every minute she had there. The last time Norah went to the beach was August 2011 and she was scared of getting in the ocean. I knew this year would be different and I looked forward to showing her the ocean all summer. She doesn’t remember going to the beach two years ago so I had the same excitement of taking her for the first time.

I made a goal to focus on Norah during this trip. When Bryan and I “divide and conquer” the kids at home I always end up with Alice and he always ends up with Norah. At first it was just because I needed to nurse Alice and its continued like that because of Alice’s separation anxiety. I worry that I don’t have enough quality one on one time with Norah or that she will think Alice is my favorite. Sometimes Norah wants to read with me at bedtime and Alice inevitably throws such a fit about switching primary parents that even Norah gives up and decides its not worth it. I told Bryan that unless I needed to try to get Alice to nap I wanted him to take Alice and I would take Norah. Norah is so independent and social that she quickly made friends on the beach and played with them (especially with Ceci) but I still made a conscious effort to focus on her and sit by her while she played in the sand with friends. I don’t have an pictures to prove it but I think nearly every day I held Norah on my hip and jumped in the waves with her. It was so wonderful having the luxury of one on one time with her her all week long. I loved talking to her about how big and beautiful the ocean was and trying to answer her constant ‘why?’ questions. I know she won’t remember any of this but I hope she’ll read this post someday know how much I treasure my time with her.

In this picture Norah is running to fill up this bucket with water so she could sit in it She did this until she fell out and then she’d repeat Norah wanted to learn to boogie board like her friend Ceci so I relinquished her to Bryan for lessons Norah was fascinated by this huge spider in front of our beach house and checked to see if it was still in its web a few times each day Norah riding in the hummer on the beach looking for horses. We saw two dolphins coming up for air.  She also flew a kite – not in this picture though – it wasn’t windy enough. I didn’t get a picture of the day we were successfulAnd she was very nice to her sister all week I love this little girl!