Monday, July 3, 2017

Abigail had a July 4th concert over in Seaside as a precursor to the same concert in Pensacola actually on July 4. She asked if I wanted to go with her, and I asked if SJ could come along. I knew it would be challenging, but I really didn’t want to leave her with someone else on a day when the university was closed and both of us were on our own.

She did great on the way over and immediately wanted to hit the beach. Keep in mind it was about 12:45 when we made it out to the shoreline. Ab was tied up from 1-4 with rehearsal, and I knew she wanted to spend some time in between her rehearsal and concert at the beach herself.

I thought I had planned well by choosing to wear my yoga-banded linen pants and a long sleeved knit shirt. I knew that I would be able to monitor her sun exposure and keep up with the sunscreen needs, but I was also quite sure that I wouldn’t be able to do the same for myself.

What I didn’t process was the extent to which the heavy water would pull on my pants and create huge problems while trying to keep her from going under.

She ran back and forth between the shore and me – several yards into the shallow water. Back and forth, back and forth… The people at the water’s edge with their beach chairs and drinks all just laughed at her and remarked that we were having a calisthenics class!

After I convinced her to take a rest and get a drink of water and a snack, she found a lovely spot on her tummy right at the edge. The waves wooshed her to and fro, and she used a shell someone gave her (because she’s that stinkin’ cute) to dig in the sand.

Once Ab got done with rehearsal, she met us and watched Selah June so that I could change clothes and find some shade. This was just a cool view.

While she was way too tired to behave inside the shops, she did find some entertainment along the way.

Ab had to get to the concert venue to warm up and tune about an hour prior to the concert. By then, the outdoor seating area was already pretty full. And of course everyone had brought lawn chairs….except for me. I didn’t even have a dry towel to sit on.

For a while, SJ had fun running around with all the children, but she eventually hit a wall.

She was so tired by the time the concert started that she couldn’t stand being there. She just rolled around in my lap and asked to go home. We left after the second piece of music and sat in Ab’s car with the air conditioning watching Curious George. It made an immediate difference. I think she was overstimulated and dehydrated.

And once Ab was back in the car, she was a goner…