Withdrawal

The sand-and-water table I bought Liza comes complete with a castle, a boat, a dragon, a knight, and a princess. After I put it together and set it all up for her, she pitched the princess down the stairs, dumped the knight, boat, and dragon on the floor, and spent 30 minutes playing with her new plastic bugs in the castle. Notice how she's got them lined up nicely in front of the side door?

Between the bugs and the screwdriver she used to pretend to put the castle together, she was a happy, happy kid. I've figured out how to get her to smile for the camera, at least temporarily - turns out, "Say cheese!" works pretty well when you've got a cheese-obsessed toddler in front of the lens. When that stops working, "Say Super Duper Party Pooper!" usually fills the gap.

And she was even happier while I put together the picnic table, since she could spend another half an hour putting the screws into the wrong holes in the wood. And peeling off the stickers that told me which parts were what. Once I had the table together, she immediately jumped up on the bench and said, "Lunch!" I guess she knows what it's for.

Whenever her grandparents come to visit, Liza spends hours in the swing. It's not that she's hiding from the house, or anything, it's more that it's something she loves to do that isn't too physically taxing on the grandparents (unlike games of tag or "throw me up in the air" or crawling around on the floor). So this is what Susie saw for long stretches of the afternoon while we were in Columbus this past weekend.

There - now you've all had your cute kid fix for the week. Don't say I never did anything for you!