{Outside}

 We haven't had much of a winter this year.  I say it is good and bad.  Our kids sure have lamented the fact that we bought new snow gear this fall and have used it once.  The time we did get to use it, it was a pretty weak excuse for a snow storm.  But boy howdy is the mild winter good for me, especially on days where my youngest little one needs to be shipped outside.  In his defense it must so hard to be the youngest and only one at home during the day.  On this particular day, we had run some errands and grabbed a few fresh things at the store to hold us over until payday and the major grocery shopping trip.  We came home and I let Wyatt watch some quiet time so I could exercise in peace.  I thought that had worked until I came upstairs to make Wyman lunch.  A sandwich and strawberries were on the menu for that day, but oddly I couldn't find the new carton of strawberries that I had bought not two hours earlier.  I searched for the strawberries and called for Wyatt.  Wouldn't ya know it I found the carton of strawberries under the table and Wyatt was MIA!!  The little booger ate EVERY strawberry in the carton.  There was not ONE that had survived his raid.  When I found the culprit he of course played dumb and told me we needed more strawberries.  

Now if this was an isolated event, then maybe no big deal.  But this was the third time in two days I had found him under the table eating something that either wasn't his or that he wasn't suppose to be into at the time.  One was my Valentine's chocolate (3-4 chocolates were gone in seconds) and the other was Meysa's bag of Valentine's candy.   

 I guess I had had enough, so I strapped that boys' shoes on, threw him into his coat and put him out to play in the backyard.  He had his little dump truck and he found some sticks and he was happy and miraculously so was I.  The sun was out and it was such a nice, mild day.  I couldn't resist stepping out to spend some time with Wyatt too (after I cooled down about the strawberries of course).

 His favorite thing to do was to sit in his dump truck and have me push him across the deck.  Once he reached the end he would then push off the railing and sail back for me to do it all again.  He thought it was so much fun and it ended up being a nice change from the drudgery of my day too.  I hadn't taken my camera out in a while and it was fun to get to play a little too.

So thankful for this boy, and yet so thankful for nice days in order to ship him outside to save my sanity.