Sandboxes, Easter Eggs, and Toddler Beds

A couple of weeks ago we finally got our sandbox!  The space under our deck has just been dirt and we decided to make efficient use of the space.  Now the boys have a 12×15 foot sandbox to use as they please.  Just moments after it was finished they were hauling water in buckets from the dogs’ water dish to add to their sand!

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The guy who built it for us enjoyed the extra help.

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Gotta smooth it all out, boys!

About that same time we FINALLY got Billy off the bottle.  Let’s re-cap:  Billy refused to take milk from any other source than breastfeeding until he was 13 months old and I said, “Enough!”  To wean him from me, Kevin successfully got him to take the bottle.  Now a year later, he has refused milk from every source but his bottle.  Again we said, “enough” and now he will only drink chocolate milk and he will only drink it from a regular cup.  Billy likes to do things his own way.

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Grandmama came over to help color Easter Eggs the Saturday night before Easter.  Billy didn’t really get it, but Ricky had a great time.   We put him in charge of the skin colored color — yellow — that way his stained fingers didn’t stand out too much on Easter (he doesn’t like using a spoon to get the egg out of the color when his hand is so much easier).  Toward the end, he decided to make his own color and was stealing a spoonful of blue to add to his yellow and then some green and I think he went for the purple too.  Way to think outside the box, son!

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Kevin likes to take pictures when I’m not really expecting it, hence, my cranky face.  Hunter loves the baby but doesn’t get to snuggle with him as much as he’d like.

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That picture makes Rusty look like he has the worst hair cut ever!  He really does have hair in the bald patch!  It just isn’t long enough to be photographed yet.

Billy made the move from his crib to his toddler bed this weekend.  He’s getting his 2 year molars and I wasn’t planning to make any more changes so soon after taking the bottle away, but it was necessary.  Friday during the boys’ nap time, I heard their door open and expected to see Ricky emerge.  When it was Billy I was very confused.  He hadn’t climbed out of his crib before (well, maybe he did once).  I asked Ricky how Billy got out, because Ricky was not asleep, and he replied, “Well, actually, he climbed out of his crib onto the dresser.  Then he crossed to my bed and got onto the floor.  Actually, he got off my bed onto the fish [their bean bag chair] and then got on the floor.”  Hello!!  The dresser is not super tall, just 3 drawers high and 3 drawers wide, but I did not want a repeat performance, so the crib was dismantled and Billy’s wonderful sleeping habits are no more.  I’m hoping they will return.  The first night he played and played and played.  He’s been very tired since then but he is getting better.  I have resorted to putting a baby gate up if he comes out more than two times.  When that happened today at lunch, Billy opened the door, saw the gate, and cried.  Then he held his arms out to hug Kevin and said, “Poppy, sorry!”  It was very sad, but he was soon asleep.