On December 10th 2016, Kari and I ventured out with Milo and Makena to the Cardiff State Beach. It was a special day, because it was going to be Makena’s time at the beach, and we knew that it was going to have a special meaning and significance for both Makena and our family.
At this point, Makena was a little over two weeks. She was born on November 23rd, 2016, at 3:08 PM. She weighed eight pounds, 12 ounces and was 21 inches long. All very good numerical figures. So we swaddled her up, made sure she had warm clothes and headed for the Cardiff State Beach. However, on our journey to the beach, we took a few detours. One was to Target, and the other was to Buy Buy Baby. We had come to believe that Makena was a little bit colicky. And we thought if we had some proper support, via a new bottle, some gripe water and probiotics, that would help to reduce her colic. Kari made a successful trip to both Buy Buy Baby and Target and came back to the car with some much needed supplies. During this time Makena took a nice long nap. Milo and I had a few conversations and took him out to potty…just in time for Kari’s arrival.
This detour took us off our schedule by about 1-2 hours, however, once we were ready, we felt better equipped and ready to take on the day. We made our way to Cardiff State Beach in Encinitas because it’s a dog-friendly beach. You have to have your dog on-leash but the beach it well worth the trips as it is very well kept and clean. Also, all the other dogs seem pretty well behaved. I’ve never had any issues with any dogs there. And the beach is pretty quiet – it’s not heavily crowded. So that’s always nice and makes you feel like you’re walking on the beach all by yourself. People are friendly and usually clean up after their dogs.
Upon arrival when we got to Cardiff State Beach, Kari had to feed Makena so Milo and I took to the beach by ourselves and walked around a bit. I made sure Milo got out as much energy out as possible, even 
though Milo is such a good dog, energy can get pent up and he needs to release that in a healthy way. He’s been great with Makena over the weekend, and over the last few weeks. He’s very calm and very patient. Normally we have a lot of time with him to get his energy out, but because we’re still adapting to having Makena, you can imagine we didn’t have as much time to play with him as we normally had in the past. That has since passed and we’re back on routine with Milo. It was all a success, as Milo was much calmer when we went for a walk with Makena and Kari. It was such a nice night. On top of that, Cardiff Sate Beach is really well lit at night as there are some lights that shine on the beach due to the restaurants along the 101.
On a side note, we met another couple with a baby – who was born just a week after Makena. They had a nice dog who was a ridgeback – it was beautiful and very hyper. We enjoyed conversing with them about some of the challenges and victories of being a new parent and having a newborn.
To close out the night we made sure Makena had some tummy time and bed time reading.