Kate wrote:

We had a patio laid last summer so there is now somewhere good and safe
for them to play and I can see it from the kitchen. The new sandpit plus
watering cans and plastic bowls of water worked very well at the weekend
so that's definitely the way to go. DD really didn't/doesn't do messy so
it didn't occur to me before. Duh! I think I'm also still adjusting to
suddenly having a small *boy* rather than a baby. I'm one of 3 girls
(farming family but still) and all this needing to run around and shout
a lot is a bit of a shock.

Yeah, I'm kind of glad I had the two boys first.
I grew up with only a sister, and neither of us were
particularly rough-and-tumble. Boy energy was quite a
shock, but I can only imagine it would have been more
of a shock after a more sedate girl ;-) Of course, having
a girl after a long gap after two boys means that our
girl *is* pretty rough and tumble, so guess it's not in
the stars for us to have any kids who are quieter/lower
energy/whatever. I guess our first wasn't as crazy busy
as the next two, so he did break us in a bit easier,
but he still had plenty of the boy energy to force us
into a more active schedule ;-) Lots and lots of
outdoor time really helps, at least for us.

Best wishes,
Ericka