This is just plain cute.
We have some old planter boxes on our screened in porch. Once upon a time they contained living things, like flowers and basil. Now they simply serve as another sad reminder that my husband is not home, and that I absolutely do not have any sort of green thumb. I have the opposite of green-thumb in fact, and I think I shall call it "the thumb that brings death and decay to all green things that dare bloom in its presence." By which of course I mean to say, I have a knack for killing plants.
So now the boxes are just full of dirt. Expensive dirt at that. The fancy potting soil kind you have to buy in big bags at Lowe's. This is the perfect kind of dirt for an 18 month old to play in, at least according to Hannah. She stands by the back sliding glass door and insists "Aa-yide! Aa-yide!"(that means outside, in case you don't speak "Hannah") over and over. When I open the door she heads straight for the boxes and plops herself down in front of one. She digs her tiny hands in to the dirt, bringing fistfuls out to toss on the porch and then swish around as she says "wash wash! wash wash!" She hasn't quite got the concept that "wash" means "to make clean", she simply thinks it goes with the hand motion of rubbing your hands around, whether it be with soap or dirt its all the same to her. She continues wash-washing the porch, or occasionally taking a tiny handful and throwing it up in the air with a celebratory "ah-ah-AIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEE!" I'm not sure what that means, but she seems to know. Then she moved on to "wash-wash"-ing her feet and legs, her belly, her hands and her arms. This went on for a good thirty minutes until she had dirt in her hair, in her ears, and all over the rest of her body. At one point she found a tiny rock, which was very exciting since she also knows how to say "rock" She stood up and said "rock rock rock rock" as she walked across the porch until she found a suitable sized hole to drop the rock in where it disappeared beneath the porch forever. Then she immediately cried out "UH OH! OH NOOOOO!Where? Where?" to the vanished rock. I told her the rock went "bye bye" and she said "Awww! awww! Rock..." as she had apparently decided she had an emotional attachment to it. Then I told her to go find another rock and she quickly moved on.
By the time she was done playing in the planter boxes she had even managed to get dirt in her diaper, so she took a nice long bubble bath and then an even nicer, longer nap. Now I should probably find some where else to put the planter boxes, or I have a feeling she will want this to become a daily activity.
