Fun With a Toddler on a Windy Spring Day

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     I have shared activities I've done with my grandchildren with you on past posts.  I love to try to make memories with them.  For example, this post was from last year when my grandchildren who now live in Wyoming were here.  (sigh)
      At this time in my life, I am watching my 15 month old granddaughter 4 days a week. She is at the age where she is curious about many things, strives to be independent, needs to be constantly supervised, is a little too young for art projects and loves to be outside. I know that this stage is going to fly by quickly and I am trying to enjoy it with her as much as I can.  It is so cute to hear her learning language and to see her experience new things.  I am so blessed to be a part of her growth.  
      Now that the weather is nice, she loves to go outside as much as possible, I thought I would share with you some of the fun that we have together during these beautiful Spring days. 

After we eat breakfast, we put on sunscreen (a must all year round in Phoenix), and then we go outside to water the garden. She "talks" to me all about it as we water. This watering can is heavy for her. I get it started pouring and she holds it for me. I am ordering this cute child sized watering can from Amazon for her to use. It is a Melissa and Doug Brand, which I have always been happy with. Compared with all of the kid sized watering cans I've seen, this one is a very good price! Look how cute it is! She will love it, as will my other grandchildren when they come to visit. I had some small metal cans for my older grandchildren, but they have seen better days. If you would prefer metal, this is a reasonably priced one.

      While we were in the garden today, we found a great surprise! Look! 

We have tomatoes! They look bigger in the picture than they really are.

I think I counted about 6 so far!

After the excitement of finding the tomatoes, Emily started picking up rocks to carry around. If she doesn't have a rock in her hand, she likes to have a piece of sidewalk chalk. She loves to use the back block fence as her canvas to use the chalk on and likes me to draw with her. If you don't like getting your hands all chalky, my daughter-in-law purchased some chalk holders for my grandson that help with that. They are awesome because they provide good grip for little fingers. These are by Melissa and Doug. The others are Peppa Pig themed. My grandson would love those. Chalk with chalk holders would be a welcome Easter Basket gift!
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Today, as Emily picked up rocks, I thought about the rock painting craze that seems to have happened lately.  She is too young for paints, but I found some rocks that we could draw on and she really got into that! 

Coloring on the old bench was also a lot of fun.

A few of our creations.

One thing that we are thankful to have in our backyard is a wagon! Emily has to have a ride in it everyday. When her cousin Spencer comes to visit, our wagon is a two seater and they can both have a ride together. Our wagon is a hand-me-down, but here is a similar one. The kids have all loved to either ride in it or pull each other around. I love pulling her around the yard not only because she gets a kick out of it, it also gives me some exercise! 4 laps around my yard gave me 200 steps this morning. Then we did 2 more laps in the afternoon! The added weight of pulling the wagon with the toddler in it has to burn more calories, right? Ha ha

Sometimes she likes to pretend that she is driving!

      When we come in from our time in the backyard in the morning, she is about ready for a morning nap, so we wash our hands and read a book and then listen to some songs on the Echo Dot, more commonly known as Alexa.  Emily loves to dance to the songs, but if I play some quiet ones, she will often fall right to sleep on my shoulder. (Sometimes, if we're lucky.)  Later in the afternoon, we will go out and do our backyard routine all over again.  
​      A little sun for vitamin D, a little exercise, a bit of gardening, some exploring and creativity.  What could be better than that?