Last Christmas, some of DadJovi’s cousins bought E a sandbox. Not Christmas two months ago. Christmas 14 months ago.
Since then, the box has sat in our garage, waiting to be assembled. I’ve tried to convince DadJovi to put it together with me. He’s insisted that sandboxes are nothing more than giant kitty litter boxes. It’s been a standoff.
As you may know, we’re in full-scale party planning mode ’round these parts. And so far, everyone keeps saying yes. Help me now.
Until recently, the yard was our late dogs’ domain. So there’s very few things for kids to play with out there other than a few soccer balls. In a moment of panic, I had the ammunition I needed to end the Great Sandbox Standoff of 2011: the promise of a dozen 2- and 3-year-olds running around our yard and house next weekend with nothing to do.
Begrudgingly, DadJovi agreed to put it together. He looks excited, no?
Well at least one of our contractors was having a good time. We put the frame together in our living room the other night. For such a small sandbox, there sure were a lot of screws.
E. had two very important questions about the project: “Why is there no bottom?” and “Where’s the sand?” I think she asked those two questions about 126 times each. You know how toddlers sometimes like to say “why?” over and over again? She likes to say the same sentence/questions over and over and over and over again. Since DadJovi was in the process of a project he wanted no part of in the first place, it really helped the mood in the room.
But today was the big day. Today we finally answered those two questions. The sandbox got a bottom (some mesh lining) and more importantly, SAND!
We knew she’d like it, but we were not prepared for her sheer joy of “MY SANDBOX! MY SANDBOX!”
I mean, if we knew it was going to make her *this* happy, we would have done this a long time ago. Even Mr. Grumpy gave in to the joy and admitted later he was glad he did it.
“SANDBOX! SANDBOX! SANDBOX! SANDBOX!” I guess there’s a reason sandboxes have stood the test of time. For at least one afternoon (and hopefully countless more to come), it’s brought our little one hours of joy.
Now if someone can just teach us how to keep all the neighborhood cats and critters from using it as their new luxurious toilet? We’ve got a tarp, weighed down with pavers, covering it right now. Not sure how secure that is. Any tips?
This is too funny! We are currently having the same standoff at our house. I want to get a sandbox for the backyard and my husband doesn’t ..for the same reason as your husband! I can’t wait to show him this post so he can see the excitement on E’s face! 🙂
Well if it helps, my husband is completely converted to Team Sandbox now. We’re only two days in, but so far, so good. We saw friends at a Super Bowl party last night and they had a great idea for securing their sandbox: cover it with a tarp, then lay four boards cut to lengths just shorter than the sandbox’s sides on top of the sandbox around the four sides. They’ve had theirs for more than a year and have never had a cat incident so far! And the happiness continued for Day 2!