Playin' in the Sand

For Gavin's birthday, my mom bought him a sand and water table to play with. I know it practically killed her that the weather didn't really cooperate while she was here for outdoor play. Gavin has enjoyed playing inside with it. There's a tractor with a farmer and two carts to pull behind the tractor. There's a red barn, which he has taken to calling a tunnel (he's into tunnels these days). There are bridges to put up. Lots to stand and play with.

Gavin and I are on Spring Break this week. Earlier in the week, the weather wasn't exactly spring-like. And all week the wind has been ridiculous. And to top it off, Dean has come down with hand-foot-and-mouth, which Gavin had at 7 months, so we haven't been able to play with Dean (or swap out babysitting).

Today, the weather warmed up, so around 4:30, I pulled the sandtable outside. You should have seen the puzzled look on Gavin's face. I explained that it's really an outdoor toy, but we've been playing with it inside.

I pulled the bag of sand over and started shoveling some into the table. Then I realized that Gavin could have a lot of fun filling it himself.

I didn't hear much out of Gavin for the next hour. He played contentedly. I repotted a Christmas cactus, pulled weeds, checked on dinner, sat. Occassionally, he would call, "Mama?" simply because he was too busy playing to look up to see where I was.

I asked him to say "cheese" when I was taking pictures. He said, "cheese," but wouldn't stop long enough to look up at me.

I hope his next play date with the sand table is as captivating as this first one.