the sandbox

we came across a free sandbox last month and thought we would offer it to beth and seth. they, however, have acquired a beautiful new swing set complete with a built-in sandbox. so the turtle sandbox has made it's triumphant return to our backyard. miles couldn't be more pleased. he had a blast helping daddy fill it up with sand. ok...so he obviously enjoyed the wheelbarrow ride the most.
henry supervised the operation from the backseat of the subaru. he was testing out miles' car seat. shhh...don't tell miles!
kyle had it filled with sand in the corner of the driveway when I had a brilliant idea! apparently kyle had also had this idea, but thought I would say no...I'm not sure where he gets these crazy thoughts? in any case, kyle unfilled (is that a word? let's just say emptied) the sandbox and we moved it to the back of the garage in the dog kennel. you see, miles has become a sort of houdini lately. he can disappear from your sight in seconds. with the river running through our backyard and a VERY busy road a mere stones throw from our house, you can understand the dozen or so near panic attacks I've had this spring. I figured that the option to pen him in the kennel will make our mornings in the sandbox much more relaxing. bonus: this little corner is almost completely shaded until noon and the dogs can run around in there with us!

not to shabby for free :)

as we were about to go in for the night, miles assumed this position. I see potty-training on the horizon. I'm exhausted just thinking about it.

"I go poopy mommy"

rain rain go away

after DAYS of clouds and rain...we are ready for the sunshine!

the joker

I found miles on the couch chewing on something. the conversation went as follows:
me: are you eating something?
miles: yeah.
me: what is it?
miles: it's a joker
me: a joker?
miles: this one!
unfortunately, he wasn't kidding.

dee-wish-us

on tuesday, miles and I decided to make cupcakes. he's really starting to like helping out in the kitchen...although I think the opportunity to stand on his stool is what really draws him in. we have to restrict the use of said stool, though. not long ago he used it to microwave his crackers. I realized it when I could smell some sort of cheesy aroma filling up the house. nice. however, I was ecstatic that we are cheap and buy the generic "sharks" instead of actual "goldfish" as the bag was plastic - not lined with foil. just another great reason to shop at ALDI! but I digress. I have found that at some point during our little baking adventures, it is best to put miles in the highchair. for one - he asks to go in there and for two - it contains the messes to a smaller area. his main job was to put the paper liners in each of the cups. I whipped up the mix while he was busy saying "this one here." after I filled them with batter, I stuck a little bit in an extra liner and set it on his tray. he said "don't like it!" (a familiar phrase in our house) and I told him he could try it if he wanted to. I turned around and started washing dishes. I heard him talking, so I shut the water off and asked, "what did you say?" he was licking off his finger and said, "it's dee-wish-us" ahhhh...a child after my own heart! unfortunately, I think he now prefers the batter to the actual cupcake. oh well, just one more reason for cold stone to make "cake batter ice cream." once all of the cupcakes were cooled and frosted, miles declared that he "don't like frosty the snowman" - referring to the frosting, of course. I think the pictures show another story:

dee-wish-us!
got milk?
what you get when you ask miles to show you what "excited" looks like!