A Flurry of Activities

We had a friend over for a playdate Wednesday and I decided to fill our water table with shaving cream (outdoors). The children had a blast. The modeling of a typically developing peer is so powerful. They had their hands in it and were covering the glass of the french doors with it. When our guest began painting her arms and legs with it we decided to strip them down to their underwear. Before all was done, our guest looked like a snowman front and back and Ava had covered her entire belly and most of her legs. It was wonderful. Two weeks ago we had to persuade her to touch the shaving cream with a fingertip. All the credit goes to the great modeling of her friend.

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They came back for a bonus visit yesterday and my bright idea this time was to redo the pudding activity, but this time in an empty bathtub for more exposure and easier cleanup. We put the two girls in the bathtub with a bowl full of pudding I had colored with green paint and told them to have fun painting. I gave them paintbrushes because I was hoping that there would be no way Ava could avoid getting covered in at least a little of the pudding even with the paintbrushes to help get her started. Well, they quickly ran out of pudding and I grabbed some washable fingerpaint and we just continued the fun. Every time the walls filled with paint I would simply shower them off and the girls would begin again. They were in there at least an hour. It was great.

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We had an old baby gate. It was the huge kind you can use to make a play yard. Or, in our case, to protect the little ones from a huge brick fireplace. We're no longer using the gate. I set the gate up in play yard formation and used some old blanket and baby wraps to make a tent, or cave. The kids loved it until they destroyed it. Here's a picture I managed to take before the destruction.

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One last fun activity we did this week was to take some bowls of water, paintbrushes, and ice out on the deck. The children had fun "painting" the wood with the water and just exploring pouring water and playing with ice cubes. We were out there for at least an hour two separate times this week. We went through three huge bowls of ice cubes each time, but it was completely worth it.