Kid Interest, Outside Play Yard

The weather has been amazing. The kids aren't hardly even wearing coats for the fall. They are playing outside and it's been so nice. They have been playing in their house and their new sandbox. We took one of the garden beds and dumped their sandbox into it. We had the cute little box that I had been given from Kerri at Commerce and it was fine. For one child. The problem when you have more than one is that you can either have kids in the box or sand in the box. Not both. HOWEVER, when you look at the garden bed that produced only one flower bloom and one pepper it was determined that there could be a better purpose at play. Right now, I venture to say there's too much dirt and it's easily coming out as they play but I guess we've been there before. The other thing that makes me smile is E pulling Ains around on Buckey, the horse that was given to me when I was 2 or so. I've looked at Buckey a few times and wondered if his time was up but haven't brought myself to the point of getting rid of him. He's had some wild rides. 

Here's where the kids are at personally for interests:

Ains: Babies. Everything with babies. She rocks them, she shushes them, she carries them, she puts them in blankies, she pulls them out of blankies. She will feed them and also push them around in their stroller. And if her rotten siblings wouldn't take away a baby OR the blankie that she deems important to wrap them in, life would be fine. It's when they don't that the anger BOILS out of that sweet tiny child, who has been wearing size three diapers for approx a year now. 

E: Cutting and gluing. The girl goes through glue sticks like a crack whore on a labor day weekend. Everything needs to be cut and when it's cut it must be glued and we can't ration our glue - noooooo, the more the merrier and if you don't lather it she seems to think there's no chance of things sticking. But things stick - to each other, to my socks, to my counter. There is stick and tiny scrapes of paper, that are sticky, everywhere. 

G: Tools. He loves his tools and fixing things. And it's sweet. That is so sweet but nothing is broken. So there is he with his screw driver and his pliers and wants to fix and use them but now they appear to me more like weapons. He works at his tool bench constantly banging away. At NOTH-ing. Just hammering to use his hammer. I love that he's excited and interested and I gave him some scrap metal to have a change of subject but I feel like creating a project for his father just so he can help. 

Ains also has developed a solid grasp of "nuh-uh" which is the verbal grunts for no and is dabbling in the head nod. I always thought Grady did this adorably and she gives him a run for his money with the head nod. The negative grunts are only half amusing as her resistance can be painful sometimes. 

Upon being home and getting dinner ready one night with Matt, I looked out the window and saw this... this may be the most beautiful thing I've seen... top 10 for sure. They started doing it each night with an apple. Snacking and chatting and laying together. And my world stops each time they do it.