ste_noni

I know I've mentioned before how disappointed I was that Ellie's first birthday would be spent in a hotel. To mitigate that, we had a party two weeks ago with some of our friends in Sanford. Despite my worries, however, Ellie's birthday has turned out to be pretty unique. At the very least, it will be lots of fun to tell her about it.

We took her swimming in the ocean for the first time this morning. She ran around in the shallows for a while and then we passed her back and forth and spun her around in the deeper water. As you can see, she loved it.

Then, this afternoon, Ellie and I marched in the Pride Parade. It was totally spur of the moment - the beginning of the parade was going by just as we happened to leave the hotel. I decided to march along and we sort of joined a group walking along the side of the road. We crossed the bridge and headed over to a park. Ellie loved the music - she kept clapping - and she loved looking at all the colorful flags and people. I think she had a good time. On the way back, a guy stopped me to tell me how cute she was. I asked him where he got his flag and he gave me his. I gave it to Ellie and she had a great time waving it. On the way back it seemed like every other person we passed either pointed and smilied at her or took her picture. She did look pretty cute and she was having a great time waving the flag. I look forward to a time when I can explain to my little girl what Pride is all about and how she was part of it on her first birthday.