The Picture...

As I stood, bare foot, on the sand hovering over a half naked, wriggling 6 month old I could feel the color drain from my face.  "She's going to blind herself," I kept thinking as I watched fat little fingers, covered in salty sand, form fists and go for her perfect little face.  Baby Girl loves to rub her eyes when she's tired and boy was she tired.

I wanted to cry, but crying wouldn't have changed anything.  I was the genius who had decided to put the baby lotion on the baby before her pictures... never thinking about how beach sand and lotion are deadly combinations.  Damned baby eczema.  Damned sea salt and sand.

My friend, my dear, sweet and patient friend, who also happens to be our baby photographer, quickly stepped in and helped me remove the sand from the baby's hands, face and eye area.  If I'm a crazed, guilt-ridden, idiot... well, she's the complete opposite.  Calmly she dabbed wet wipes at my child's face.  "It's just sand," she kept telling me as I tried to keep myself from loosing it. 

At that very moment I was deciding, in my head, on whether or not I should tell Husband what was going on... the blinding of our child when we returned to the beach house.  Even though he is not always the most observant of husband's (he never can tell when I get my hair cut) surely he would notice that our baby girl no longer was sighted.  He would not be pleased.... No, he would not be pleased.

And just as my dear friend had removed the sand from my child's face, Husband was coming over the dunes to see what we were up to with the pictures.  I was relieved to see him, regardless of whether or not the child was truly blinded.  He needed to be there for the baby's first contact with the ocean--sentimentality aside, I needed an extra pair of hands as most of my belongings were now scattered up and down Ocean Isle Beach.

The pictures were completed soon after.  My friend is fast, quick... skilled-- a true artist. 

She posted a "peek" picture from that day on her Facebook page and I must say I'm blown away at how beautiful the image turned out to be.  You'd never know that mere moments before Baby Girl was covered in sand and her poor, perpetually-guilt-ridden mother was helplessly dying inside.

If you look closely at the picture you can see the sea dripping of her chubby little feet... her first contact with the ocean and it is beautifully documented-- how special is that?

Thank goodness for artistic, sane and calm friends who aren't afraid of a little sand....