Mick and I were both kind of excited to see how Flynn would react the first time he saw the ocean. Good news is we got a great " Oh wow Mum! Dats da beach! " and a very excited little smile. Bad news is he wasnt exactly fond of the water until the fourth and last visit to the beach, and by that time Daddy had already headed back to Dubbo ( Flynn and i stayed on an extra day, as i dont work Mondays, and drove home with my parents ). He loved the sand - he kept saying " i playing in the big sand pit! " and had a ball chasing the seagulls and looking for shells, and he was very interested in all the little hermit crabs that Poppy and I found in the shallows - he just wasnt too keen on getting his toes wet. I think it was a combination of just being completely overwhelmed by the sheer volume of water ( as a kid from the country the most water he sees on a regular basis is in the bathtub... ) and the fact that though the air temperature was lovely, the water temperature was still a bit cool.I'll admit that though we had fun all four times we went down to the beach, i was a little bit upset that Mick had to miss out on Flynn finally taking to the water. We went down to a small bay not far from our holiday house late Sunday afternoon and, with a bit of patience and a bit of coaxing from Poppy, Flynn not only came in for a swim being carried by an adult but he was eventually running into the shallows all by himself. Once he figured out that he could splash and kick and that the little waves werent going to knock him over, he got into the whole beach experience. And though i was disappointed that Mick missed it, I'm glad that Flynn did eventually take to the beach - its an Australian rite of passage to have summer holidays to the beach, and i want him to enjoy them and look forward to them, the same way I did as a kid.
So after the success of the weekend ( which just wasnt long enough ) we are hoping to be able to go back down in the Christmas break, as long as we can jag some accommodation at the right price. By that time of course we will have a 4 month old aswell as Flynn so 3 or 4 days will be more than enough!
