Our objective today was to build a sand castle. T had never built a sand castle before, not even on our beaches back home, so the three of us tried to help him out. Without intending to, we apparently annoyed the crap out of him because he started kicking things over and filling in the moat. He had a little time-out on the beach blanket, where he worked his frustrations out by trying to throw handfuls of sand at us. It wasn't long before he calmed down, and came back to join in the construction.
Adrian and I are so proud of T; no matter how upset he gets, if you leave him alone he can calm himself down. And today, not only did he calm himself down, but he also figured out how to deal with our intrusive coaching. When T returned to the castle, he started making sand molds that would just collapse into heaps. Adrian tried to show T how to pack sand firmly into a mold, but T informed him, "Dad... it doesn't have to be perfect."
T couldn't care less about the castle, he really just wanted to move sand around and make beeping noises like construction trucks. So, the rest of worked on the castle while T added to the hustle and bustle of our construction site. We didn't make much of a castle. It was more like a pyramid surrounded by fort walls and a moat. The morning's clouds disappeared and the day was sunny and hot... weather that's better suited for jumping in the waves rather than digging in the hot sand.
After day full of sunshine and play, we filled up on tacos for dinner and watched part of the Planet Earth series of DVDs (click here for the website) before bed. We started watching these shortly before our vacation. The images in the DVDs are breathtaking — the footage draws our kids in and holds them captive. And Adrian and I love that the videos teach the kids so many amazing things about animals, geology, and geography. It was a nice relaxing way to end a "busy" day.
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