The sandbox

Returning from Kansas, I'm always struck by how completely different living in Nyc is than where I grew up. Were it not so late, I'd ramble on that thought for quite a bit, but another day :)

Tonight - just a brief difference: sand pits. Gramps put the sandpit back together this summer and the little man reveled in the solitude of his own private sandbox. No grubby toddler hands grabbing his stuff, no big kids running through, crushing his projects and throwing sand in his face, no pre-schoolers begging him for his digger. All valid parts of life, for sure, but the sweet bliss of just getting to play in the sand without constantly maneuvering social morays was fabulous for Phoenix. And, he could make it as messy as he wished :)

And here, dear Grams opened the floodgates. As I traipsed back and forth into the house to fill buckets of water, she mentioned that there was a hose just beside P's palatial sandbox. Umm, probably not what he should have heard :)



"Just a wee bit of water" is a laughable phrase to a four year old. And so what started as a small pond, grew into waterways and eventually, the ocean. It was all part of the colossal plot P had hatched centered around BB excavating mososaur bones with his jeep. So, of course, it had to become an ocean, Mama, since mososaur bones would only be in Kansas from when it was all under the great ocean.... duh :)

P became unfathomably dirty. And itchy. And needed a bath directly upon exiting the excavation site. Grams' tub was just through the door and therefore won out over ours. And whoa, was some tub time! E came in on his lunch break (yup, all this before the sun had hit its highest!) and had to laugh seeing the little man lounging in such a large tub. Poor E. Here we'd spent the morning excavating dinosaurs, creating waterways and getting dirty and he'd had to work! Ahh, well, P keeps saying he's saving up so Papa can quit his job and play with us all the time :)

P: quite pleased with himself: