Early Morning

My morning began at 4 AM when I woke up to W. walking around the hotel room. I tried to co-erce him back into bed, unsuccessfully. He kept going to the door and saying, "Qu Qu, ye you" (qu qu means "go out", and "ye you" is his version of "you Yong" or in English, "swimming"). No way was I going to accede to his desires at that hour. He then wanted "Elmo" on the computer. I didn't want to do that either. I finally allowed him to watch Sesame Street on the Iphone, in his bed. He didn't fall asleep and just kept crying to go swim.
Our poor neighbors. What can you do, but let your child have an early morning ocean dip at now 5 AM. My intention was to just walk around, and hopefully have him fall asleep out by the pool--still dark at this hour--in my arms. He wanted to get in. So we continued our walk down to the dark ocean, with bats flying overhead, squeaking their early morning squeals. Will didn't want to sit-only to play in the sand. I let him while I listened to the waves and the tide coming in. It was really beautiful. Then he started throwing rocks. Then he ran toward the ocean. He is getting fast. We watched the sunrise colors of oranges and yellows, and saw the round orange sun fill the sky with light. Will insisted on swimming, and since we rarely have this opportunity I stripped him down and let him play in the ocean. The water was warm after all.
3 Philippino men came down to the ocean with handfuls of bread to feed the fish. I picked up Will so we could see the fishes eat too. We followed them into the ocean knee deep and we watched the fishes jump and leap for the bread. They gave us some to throw in too. I told Will to 'throw hard'. He loves to throw. Because of the lightness of the bread it landed near my legs and soon we had schools of fish surrounding us, touching my legs, all fighting for the bread. I panicked a little-it's a very weird feeling being surrounded by fish. But Will was loving it. We did this for a while, and then as we were walking out of the ocean we saw a blue starfish. I took a stick and touched it, but it didn't move. We watched it until the tide took it away. As we were walking back in the early light W. fell asleep in my arms. Our vacations have changed dramatically since having a child, but it's so worth it. I wouldn't change a thing.


OCEAN SWIM

While W. was napping yesterday I took the opportunity to swim in the ocean. I knew that if I didn't-despite the saltwater in my hair and eyes-I would forevermore wish I had.
I felt a little giddy walking down to the beach, kid-less, and quick. The water was a perfect swimming temperature, nice and cool. Warm after a minute. It took a minute to get used to the thick murky sea-water. I decided to head out to the end of the buoys, where they had a dock. I would swim there and back. It was so awesome to swim with the fish, as long as they didn't touch me. It's a very different experience swimming in the ocean vs. a nice, clean pool. (I have started swimming again with this pregnancy, and have come to love it again). I forgot to breathe out underwater and didn't realize for a minute why I was so out of breath. The ocean is so expansive, and majestic. Quite intimidating. I remembered to breathe just as a wave washed over me and I swallowed a mouthful of sea-water. I continued on after gagging, quite determined. The further I got out the more fish I saw. Beautiful fish, brightly colored. A few strokes from the deck I swam right into a school of those same brightly colored fishes. They were all around me-my legs, and arms, and head, and I panicked a bit. It's such an odd feeling, and I quickly called it good, and swam out of there as fast as I could. It's a lot harder to swim in the ocean over a pool. I got out, showered, and jumped in the pool and did a few laps to clean myself. This was refreshing, but the ocean was such a thrill.