Just Beachy!

Weather wise this has been an odd summer.  Not a lot of weather that was conducive to visiting the beach--at least on the weekends, when I am not working and can bring the family.  Fiona was supposed to visit this weekend but the house said they did not recieve either of my 2 emails so they could not accommodate.  I am going up to thehouse tomorrow to spend some time with Fi and to help her do some sorting and hopefully organizing of her room.  It is unacceptable to me that we don't have time to see each other.

This meant though that today was free for the beach--I would not have gone if Fiona was with us as the ocean frightens her.  We went shopping early and set off by 8:30 for the trek.  A bit under an hour later we were there.  The sky was that perfect cerulean blue that I associate with high summer.  The temperaturse were perfect so that you could warm up after being in the water but not burn your feet on the sands.  Truly it doesn't get better for the beach in New England.  I only took a couple of shots as K had to stay home.  If I am watching 4 kids at the ocean, I spend very little time looking through a lens and a LOT Of time in the water making sure all are safe and having fun.  I snapped these during our lunch break.

I have always said that everyone blooms when they are ready.  Today was Chet's day to bloom.  Chet loves the ocean but is over stimulated by it. The first part of the day was spent helping him acclimate.  When Chet gets wound up, even in siuations he likes.  When the sound of the waves, the feel of the water and sand, the birds, etc combine, it is hard for him to regulate his responses.  He begins to talk incessantly, to forget to swallow and start to drool, wave his arms around and lose a sense of personal space.  For the most part in a situation like the beach I can help him through it.  But it takes time.  That can be hard on the other kids--particularly KC who is profoundly upset when he never gets a turn to talk, or when Chet begins to drool.  But we got through it.

And then something amazing happened!  Chet was able to learn how to boogie board.  We have tried to help him with this for years to no avail.  He would wind up using the board to slap the waves, but never get the concept of lying on it and riding the waves in.  Yesterday--it connected and he successfully rode.  And then did so over and over for several hours. This also allowed him to "hang out" as he put it with the other boogie board folks and he did so with appropriate actions to boot.

We finished the day at our favorite ice cream stand on the way home, sandy tired, and full of joy.