Before I really get going on this post, I feel the urge to
apologize for lying to all 12 readers yesterday. You see, I made a mistake in
saying Ellie had only been on one vacation in her lifetime. I totally forgot
about her trip to the Lake of the Ozarks. I apologize to all for my
transgression and hope you find it in your heart to forgive me. Now, onto
today's post!
I think everyone's afraid of something at some point. You
know, unless you're Taylor Swift or Daredevil.
At this point, I'll freely admit that I have used this lame
joke once before in the illustrious history of #DaddyWrite. It was way, way
back on Day
221. I'll even insert the same lame photo I made that day. Feel free to
take a brief moment to insult my lack of creativity as well as my immense laziness
in recycling previously-used comments that weren't that clever to begin with.
Anyway, the point at hand is that everyone is afraid of
something at one time or another. However, as Ellie learned this past
weekend, there comes a time when one must decide whether to overcome that fear
or let it control them.
It seems fairly obvious that one of the main parts of any
beach vacation is spending time on the beach. At least, that's what we did. At
some point between 8:00 and 9:00 am, we would head down to the water to spend
at least a couple of hours hanging out before the sun got too intense. Then, we
would head back inside for a brief reprieve before heading back for a little
bit in the afternoon to actually play in the ocean.
 |
| Wrong Ocean... |
While the rest of our party all enjoyed our time on the
beach, Ellie did not. First and foremost, she found herself completely overcome
by a fear of touching sand. That's ammophobia in case you're
curious. Lucky for us though, we figured there was more than just sand to enjoy
at the beach and as such, decided to formally introduce Ellie to the ocean.
Unfortunately, that attempt was met by Ellie working her impressive abdominal
strength to lift her legs out of the ocean each time we tried to let her feet
touch it.
You might think our initial lack of
success in enjoying the beach with Ellie would leave us dejected. Well, you'd
be correct. However, we weren't going to let that stop us from trying to make
our daughter have fun.
On our second day of beach fun, we
unveiled to Ellie an item designed to give us an advantage in making her enjoy
the beach; a $5 sand toy kit. Despite her initial trepidation, once I dug into
the kit and began burying my feet underneath a mountain of sand, Ellie's
curiosity was peaked and she was ready to have her own sand sculpting
adventures. Although, I feel it should be said we still couldn't get her to
walk in the sand, or go near the water on this day.
Before we knew it, our final day had
arrived and after one more fruitless attempt to goad Ellie into actually
walking in the sand, we gave up and I decided to instead bury my feet under
massive piles of sand...again. Soon, the time had come for us to head inside to
finish our packing in order to leave our condo by checkout time. Therefore, we
asked Ellie if she would like to say goodbye to the ocean.
As Bethany walked down to the water with
Ellie in her hands, something strange happened. Instead of sticking her bottom
lip out and quivering in fear, Ellie instead bravely reached for the ocean.
Bethany finally asked Ellie if she would like to touch the water. Ellie did.
After a few times touching the water with the tips of her fingers, Ellie actually
signaled that she wanted down. Bethany did so and this is where the real fun
began.
As our daughter took turns holding onto hands,
she valiantly kicked the waves as each rolled in, laughing and smiling
hysterically as each wave crashed against her tiny body. Before we knew it,
Ellie was completely soaked from head to toe by the ocean waters. Finally, the
time arrived to bid adieu to the ocean blue (Hey, that rhymed!) and we carried
Ellie away with her desperately grasping at the waters while screaming
"Ocean" loud enough for the entire beach to hear.
And to think, she had been so terrified
that she nearly missed out on this super fun experience. Hopefully, she now knows that being a chicken never pays
off for anyone. You know, except a chicken. Unless they've been served extra
crispy with a side of mashed potatoes. #DaddyWrite
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