Breakthrough

Happy Beach Boy

Day 4, Coronado

Three days of driving, with a good long overnight stop in Las Vegas that involved two trips to the pool, we found ourselves in San Diego surrounded by lots of family. A visit late into the evening at Uncle Jerry and Aunt Suzy’s beautiful new house on Coronado, and a good sleep at Amy and Tom’s (Thanks everyone, for your hospitality!!) prepared us for a day at the beach; or so we thought. We were tired, no doubt, but this is one of the top 10 beaches in the country, and we’re there with Grandma and Grandpa, aunties, uncles, cousins, and nothing could spoil it. Except the wind.

Ian was terrified to get out of the car. The wind was blowing and we had so much beach gear to blow away. Nothing, not even the soothing and enticement from his big girl cousins, could get him out of that car. This was it; we drove all the way to California for some serious beach time, and his fear of the wind was going to ruin it for him and at least one of us. At a loss, and at an all-time pinnacle of frustration, Maggie and Mommy set out for the beach just a block away while Daddy and Ian sat in the car. I was heartbroken. With tears swelling in my eyes and my stomach wrenched, I took Maggie to the beach. Back at the car, the boys without a plan or a clue what to do next, sat in the heat for a while. Matt had a realization a few minutes into this torture; we had been giving Ian too much responsibility for this. All the negotiation, “we’ll go to the beach and if it’s too windy we’ll leave”, had been too much. He needed to be told that this is what we are doing and he could scream or get mad or do whatever he needed to do to get through this, but we were taking him to the beach. This was for his own good, this boy who loves water was going to be in heaven when he touched that ocean. He was not going to be allowed to ruin this for himself.

Armed with new conviction, Matt set his iPhone timer for 20 minutes. When it went off, they were going to walk to the beach. When the time came, Ian screamed and cried, but he walked. When a little “gust” of breeziness (it is the beach, after all) picked up, his cries would escalate. But as they rounded the corner and the beach came into view, he stopped crying. He said “Daddy, what’s that?”. Matt told him that this was the beach, and he should take his shoes off to feel the sand under his feet. A little reassurance that his shoes would be safe from the wind with Daddy holding them, he started running to the water and never looked back. Three hours of playing in the waves ensued; running, kicking, punching, karate chopping, and getting out all of that angst. The water had defeated the wind, for a day anyway. It truly was a breakthrough, with very, very little mention of any breeze (or outright wind, for that matter) for the rest of the trip. Thank God that at least one parent had some clarity, so the other’s heart was mended seeing her blissful little boy on that beach. Within one hour, we had seen our low and our high of the whole trip.