A Sand Table is a Daddy’s Best Friend

One of our best purchases ever, the sand table has been the thing that reintroduced a chair into my Saturday afternoon.  The sandbox helped, but the sand table has been great. 

As you can see, Elaina’s quite intent on her work at the sand table.  Intent is good.  Intent means I get to sit down for a bit.  I’ve even checked my email on my phone. 

It’s a pretty cool addition to the backyard fun, actually.  You can put sand in one side and water in the other.  There are ramps and bridges.  She has a bunch of pots and bowls and scoops to play with.  She loves to mix the water and sand into a kind of less objectionable version of mud, and from that she makes “cupcakes” by packing the wet sand into bowls and cups.  She even sprinkles dry sand on top to give them that extra something special.

Another shot of Elaina, concentrating on her work at the sand table.  I just like her look of concentration and her hair in a topknot.  Historically, she pulled out anything that I did with her hair, but she’s been more tolerant lately, and I guess I was taking advantage of  that.  She doesn’t really have enough for a ponytail—or at least I wasn’t having any luck making one—and I thought, “This is something cute that she won’t let me do when she’s 12.”