Holden Beach, Year Two for William

We're at the beach! It's late July, so we have made the annual pilgrimage to Holden Beach, North Carolina, where we pile in a couple of beach houses with longtime family friends and enjoy the ocean and camraderie.

William's second trip to Holden Beach has been a little more interactive than his first trip. Last summer, William was barely more than three months old. David and I ran back and forth between the beach and the house, running ragged on baby duty, changing diapers and feeding William and responding to his cries when he got really grumpy. We had a good time when we could get away and get down to the beach, though, but obviously William was too little to do anything or to be out in the sun. William's beach time was limited to a couple of early evening walks in the Baby Bjorn and one tentative dip of his tootsies in the Atlantic Ocean at sunset.

This year, however, William is a big kid. He gets to go to the beach every day and play. And so he is learning about the Joy of Playing in the Sand.
And with shells. Here are some photos from Sunday:


















In fact, we have learned an important lesson. (God, am I always saying that or what?) You don't need to buy expensive beach toys (not that we did, cheapo parents that we are). You just give your kid a bucket and some shells and say, "Go crazy, kiddo!" Which is pretty much what we did. Naturally, William had to taste the sand. And the shells. And maybe even the bucket. But then he realized that it's even MORE fun to fling wet sand around. Wheee! Look how far the sand can fly!

He looks very serious in these photos. He wasn't especially serious the whole time, but I took most of these when we first ventured out onto the beach, when he was still relatively clean.

































He was tentative at first on the sand, but eventually he settled in and dug in and had a wonderful time. Luckily, he doesn't take after his father at the same age in one regard: William isn't afraid of the sand.















And here are some photos from today. By today, William was an old pro at this beach thing. He was ready to plow right into the sand and water today. No warming up necessary.

































William and his daddy and his uncle Mark and I worked on building a big lake with a wall around it, so William could have his own personal little salt water pool to play in.
















It is kinda fun to get dirty in the sand, isn't it?



































I haven't had the chance to get any pictures of them together on the beach yet, but I do have a very cute picture of William and his new friend Graham with their big friend Benton. Graham is Alethea and Glenn's son, who's about four months younger than William--and just as big. I'll work on getting some beach shots later this week...but in the meantime...