Mother's Day at the Beach

Last year on Mother's Day, Cora had had heart surgery about a month prior.  We were still keeping her somewhat quarantined at the time, she was still fussy and erratic, and we were still reeling a bit from all the major events of the prior few months.

But this year the sun was shining bright and life felt good and easy, so we decided to drive to the beach on Saturday to celebrate.  Somehow it had been 2 years since we'd been to the open ocean.  How did that happen, since it's only about an hour and a half away?  The last time we went to the coast was actually when I was newly pregnant with Cora, yet still didn't know it.  In fact, I had taken a negative pregnancy test that very morning, just minutes after my sister announced her own pregnancy.   Little did we know, as we traced the name of the baby girl we envisioned in the sand that weekend, that she was already on her way into our lives.

On Saturday we drove to one of the close, less remote beaches, content to trade extra time in the car for time on the sand creating our own little haven.  Lots of sunscreen, our beach umbrella and a picnic transformed our day as we watched our little girlie experience the beach for the first time.



Sand, of course, was a huge hit and ended up everywhere.  She managed a few sneak handfuls into the mouth, looking at us with mild surprise as she tasted the grains and smiled with her new sand goatee.





Skipping along the water's edge, she crowed with laughter, and tentatively dipped her toes into the cold water.



Several hours later, we went into town to have dinner, and decided to see if we could get a room for the night.  Pretty much lacking all the "essentials", we hunkered down in our room with a view over the water and watched the sun set over the Pacific.

Pretty amazing, really.  Its felt like so long since we've really taken even a day to get out of our routines and relax.  We do take trips to visit family, but with travel and visiting, it's not about pure relaxation.  So it felt wonderful to feel our anxieties melt away and watch our girl enjoy her mini vacation.

On Sunday, we walked, had a lovely breakfast, enjoyed our morning and then headed back home.  Just a few minutes from home, Cora started vomiting all over herself in the backseat, and spent the rest of the day fussing and crying and fighting a low fever.  And although I felt badly for my girlie, spending the rest of the day cuddling and soothing and nursing actually felt like a pretty realistic Mother's Day to me.  Sure, it's nice to be wined and dined and treated like a queen, but it's really all about caring for your little one.

And today, my little one is under the weather again.  I'm hoping that it can be explained by her drawn out teething episode, but it looks like it may be a bug of some kind.  I'll be in full mothering mode again, taking a break from our regularly scheduled program.

But even ending as it did, what a lovely weekend.  Happy Mother's Day to all the mamas out there.