Backyard Fun

So, it has actually been beautiful in Atlanta the last few mornings (and by beautiful I mean in the 80s with low humidity... this is beautiful by anyone's definition - no?).  We've been to the park, Evan went out with a sitter yesterday (make-up from when the nanny had a sick day), so this morning we decided to play in our own backyard.

After about 30 minutes, my son settled in the dirt with his shovel and pail.

And of course the socks and shoes came off immediately.  I don't know why I even try to put shoes on this boy.

We played with the shovel until the plastic shovel I got for $1 at Target broke... go figure.  So, mommy had to improvise.

Cue the sturdy kitchen spatula (I believe originally "borrowed" from my own mother's kitchen) and monkey is smiling again.  Let the fun continue.

And shovel away he did (for anyone who will be visiting my house, I promise I wil wash this spatula thoroughly before I use it again).

But what is this?  The spatula can't even hold the Monkey's attention for more than 5 minutes (I've been told this is no unusual for 2 year olds)?

Aah, all we needed was a new game to re-interest Monkey.  This one involved banging the spatula on the wood to get that nice ringing sound.

And this game is all about trying to figure out what Mommy will let him do. The answer is outside almost anything goes.

I think Monkey likes that answer!

Oh wait, another new game.  This one involved shoveling wood chips into Monkey's sneakers.  This one will definitely be fun for Mommy to clean out later... but, outside almost anything goes.

Seriously, it's fun and it improves his manual dexterity.  How could I say no? 

And where is Chloe you ask?

Where else but asleep on our back patio in one of her bouncy chairs.  I figured the fresh air was good for her and might even convince her to sleep at night? 

You'll notice strewn around Chloe are some of the games we already abandoned...  a doll and a water gun...

... bubbles, construction paper and crayons, a scrub brush (what - you don't know that cleaning is fun?)...

... and the magic T-Ball set which keeps mysteriously making its way to the patio and dangerously close to Chloe.

Right now I'm writing this blog in our screened-in porch while Evan is crawling around me on the table trying to figure out how to connect my camera to the computer.  And he is coming really close so I should probably shut down the computer and try out some parenting skills.