I occasionally get asked what I love most about motherhood/parenthood. And I will say that there are a lot of things I love about it very much (also a decent number of things I cannot stand, like dealing with temper tantrums and negotiating with a tiny person), but if I had to say just one thing, I would say that I absolutely love watching her experience new things for the first time and what her reaction is. It also helps keep me more in the moment because she completely and totally lives for the moment. Whether it was the first time she had something sweet and the look of pure surprise and joy on her face, to the giggle-induced glee she got when she first stomped in puddles, I just love seeing all of her firsts and her reactions. I love watching her delight in discovering more and more about life — at least, the beauty of life. The hard and ugly stuff… well, we’ll inevitably eventually get there, won’t we?

We spent the morning at the beach just steps from the hotel, and I will say, with certainty, that this is likely my favorite beach of all time. I thought this was the case with the beaches in Boracay, but this tops that experience because here, I can actually swim not too far out from the beach and already see the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef! Where else can you go and be just a short swim away from the shore to see the barrier reef and endless colorful fishes of different shapes and sizes?!

When we stepped into the water together, Kaia immediately noticed that little fishies were swimming in the water with us. And she giggled and shrieked with so much delight that I could feel like my heart was overflowing. My little baby was so happy to see all these fishies swimming around her. And it made me so happy to see that she was happy and enjoying herself; it was a reminder of mudita, joy for someone else’s joy, once again. And then I felt this internal dilemma because I didn’t have my phone with me and wanted to capture the moment. But I still wanted to be in the moment. What to do?! So I let her splash and stare and ooh and ahh and giggle over the sergeant major fish and other silver fish swim around her and watched her revel in her joy. But after about ten minutes, I knew that the joy was going to eventually subside, as this would be her “new normal” at this beach, so I rushed to grab my phone and came back to capture just seconds of her fish-induced giggling. I could’ve listened to her giggling over the fishies swimming around her all day; I may even have that video on loop, just the audio, when we go back home.

Before this trip, I’d only ever been snorkeling two times: the very first time was in December 2014 in Cairns in the Great Barrier Reef, where we were on a boat to go out far enough to snorkel. The second time was just this last January in Cebu where we also had to go out on a island-hopping-tour boat, and we got to see the coral and endless beautiful fish in the Philippines. In Cairns, I had a “proper” snorkeling experience because all my snorkeling gear worked as intended. In the Philippines, the gear was jenky and I had to constantly adjust it because water kept flooding into my goggles. Here given we rented our gear from the hotel, everything was in perfect condition, so I didn’t have to worry about malfunctioning issues. This third time would be the first time we did snorkeling independent of a tour or boat. I love snorkeling; it’s likely one of the most fun and calming experiences ever. I’m obsessed with all the different colors that are out there in the ocean. It is a little intimidating for me because I never fully “graduated” from swimming classes and am not a strong swimmer, but thank goodness for life vests and good snorkeling equipment! The coral, fish, and water are all worth it! Unfortunately, most of the coral right off the shore is dead. And weirdly enough, some parts are so shallow (not even two feet?) and then it immediately gets really, really deep). But despite all of that, I lost count of the number of exotic, florescent fish we saw. Like in the Philippines, we saw different varieties of the florescent, rainbow colored parrotfish (stoplight parrotfish, princess parrotfish, and queen parrotfish), the sergeant majors at the shore and beyond, endless silver hued fish of different shapes and sizes, blue chromis, fairy basslets (these were so fun; bright florescent blue-purple on the front of their little bodies and florescent bright yellow on the back!), Spanish hogfish, and at least a dozen different types of angelfish and butterfly fish. I always got really, really excited whenever a school of fish would pass by. There were multiple schools of florescent dark blue and black angel-like fish swimming by me like I was just part of the furniture! I also saw a very interesting coral that was bright red and pink, and shaped like a perfect sofa cushion… and made sure to stay far away as possible from it to avoid any coral stings.

Another interesting thing happened today at the beach: Chris decided to get into sand castle making with us. He’s never done this before and has always left Kaia and me to this activity ourselves. Sand castle making, alongside searching for interesting seashells (unfortunately, there were ZERO shells on this beach), are also part of my favorite beach activities. With the borrowed shovels and buckets from the activity center, Chris was taking this job very, very seriously. He not only ensured that the castle had a moat (I always say that if there’s no moat, then it’s not a real sand castle!), but he created two watch towers and a river that ran into the moat from the shallow waves. Kaia relished Chris building the castle and eventually just delegated most of the work to her dad… classic princess behavior. I posted a video of Chris and Kaia building the castle on my private Instagram Stories, to which one of his cousins semi accurately responded, “I’ve never seen Chris do so much manual labor in my life!” I told him she said this, to which he replied, “I define manual labor.”

Kaia is always glee-filled at the beach. Ever since she was a baby, she has loved the beach. There is nothing else my Pookie loves more than warm weather, clear water (and calm waves), and sand literally everywhere. And adding all the fish swimming around her was likely the cherry on top for her morning.