Beach bum

Sebi's first time at the beach was a sight to behold!

It happened over the 4th of July weekend, when we rented a small cottage on the Cape with a vague plan to shuttle between beach and cottage as the mood hit us. So, on a sunny morning (well actually, afternoon) we grabbed our beach towels (well actually, armed to the teeth with everything we could ever need) and sauntered down to the beach (well actually, it was more like an expedition - we sent Rahul ahead to recce, divided the 15 Shaw jholas amongst the three of us, strapped Sebi to Alex's chest and set off.) We chose a quiet spot on the flat beach, with a few inches of bath-warm water where we deposited Sebi. From the moment he touched the sand, he dug in, happy as a clam, and loving the feel of the sand between fingers and toes.

At that delightful time of his life where nothing came within reach without making a trip to his mouth, he suddenly found himself within reach of fistfuls of sand - aaah! The first mouthful felt strange - accompanied by grimaces as he tried to chew. But luckily he quickly figured out that chewing was optional, after which it went down much more quickly. In a futile attempt to distract him, we produced a bucket and shovel, but all that changed was the volume - he could now shovel down bucketfuls of sand. Ah well.


I spent most of that afternoon clicking away obsessively with the camera as he explored the new sensations, sights and sounds. The hermit crabs were closely examined, the seawater sampled, the sun basked in.

After a while, we retired to the towels where we stripped him down to his birthday suit to enjoy the breeze in the shade and discovered that a game of peekaboo becomes a thousand times more entertaining when it features a beach wrap fluttering in the wind.

Finally, tanned, happy, spent, we wended our way back to the cottage for a well-earned nap, and to look forward to the exodus of the sand from the digestive tract. All in all, a day full of new experiences, textures, tastes and lots and lots of pictures.

Perfect.


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