Like Sands Through An Hourglass...

Tonight's picture was taken in April of 2004. Mattie was two years old. Mattie went from not liking sand to loving sand. Mattie spent a lot of time in his sand box through all types of weather. It wouldn't be unusual to find sand toys, hotwheel cars, other plastic toys, and ramps made out of wood inside the sand box. Mattie could play for hours, creating all sorts of setups with his cars in the box. This sand box sits right outside our deck door now, available for all the kids in the commons area to play with it. When you lift the lid, there are still plenty of Mattie's things inside.

Quote of the day: A smile is the light in your window that tells others that there is a caring, sharing person inside. ~ Denis Waitley

Photo: March 2009, Mattie was home between treatments and wanted to play outside. So Peter brought out a heater! I am sitting at my desk, which is in Mattie's room. My desk looks out at our commons area. What am I seeing now? About three nannies caring for at least six children. The children and nannies are NOT walking around! They are all sitting right outside my deck door playing in Mattie's sandbox. I know when this first happened years ago, I was in SHOCK. Shock because part of me wanted to ask them..... do you know WHOSE SANDBOX THIS IS? When I initially put Mattie's sandbox in our commons area, I did it because I wanted more space on our deck, but I did not want to part with the frog sandbox. A box that brought Mattie so much joy. To me the sandbox, served as a reminder of Mattie, and as such it was meant to be preserved and NOT touched. So years ago, when I first saw a child playing in it, I had so many mixed emotions. Anger at the parent for not asking first before touching someone else's property, sadness that the box no longer had its rightful owner, and depressed at