Who Needs Expensive Toys?

A while ago I took this picture of Alyce playing with her laundry hamper.  She was crawling inside of it, closing the top, and jumping out of it like a birthday cake.  Some of the time instead of jumping out she'd just fall over into pile of giggling little girl.  Who needs to buy expensive toys when a laundry basket is tons of fun.

Shopping on a Rocket Ship

This afternoon I needed to go shopping for a few things and Alyce wanted to come along.  Now that Alyce is potty trained and in a big girl car seat traveling with her is easy.  No more diaper bags, backup outfits, or juice boxes to tow along.

Because I was also picking up a pizza I went to a different store than normal.  Walking into the store there was a special shopping cart for kids in the form of a space ship.  Alyce immediately took a shine to the cart and rode it the entire time in the store.  Obviously we played up the whole rocket ship theme where we were flying around the store.  She would turn the wheel as we changed aisles and dodged obstacles.

After taking Alyce out of the cart and exiting the store she asked if she could come back to ride in the cart again.  It was very nice to go on a trip without any stress or drama.

Dance Class

Here is a picture of Alyce on her first day of class at the Dance Academy. She is now going where Mommy used to go and she has the same teacher. I'm so excited for her.

Things Kids Say

At least once a week Alyce astonishes us with some comment or new word that we have no clue where it came from.  It happens so often you don't think to write them down but you do remember some of the gems and here are a few of them.

This past weekend we asked Alyce what month her birthday was in.  She promptly responded with "October".  Of course we were dumbstruck because we had never taught her any of the months.  We should probably do that at some point, but I don't think we have to.  We asked her where she learned that her birthday was in October and her answer was "school".  Look at that, they actually do teach kids things in school.

A while ago when we got back home from a trip the sky was dark and the moon was up.  Alyce asked if she could go look at the moon.  We take her and Luke out of the car, walk down to the end of the driveway, and look at the moon.  Mom asks Alyce what shape the moon was and Alyce responded with "a crescent".  I was dumbstruck but Mom explained that they talked about crescents in one of her TV shows.  You can learn something from TV.  Later on Alyce said that the moon looked like a banana which seemed a bit more in line with what I'd expect from a 3 year old.

Sometimes Alyce says what she sees and even though it is truthful it may not be tactful.  Today while taking her to school she was sitting in her car seat in the back of my car.  My car isn't the cleanest place in the world as I have the remnants of lots of projects on the floor.  Alyce pipes up and says "Dad, you've got lots of stuff in your car".  I respond back with "yes my car is kind of messy isn't it".  Her reply "yeah, it is really messy".  This coming from the kid with toys scattered all across her room.

Bubble Picnic

Last weekend we attended the annual Bubble Picnic at the Early Childhood Development Center for our local school district.  Alyce has attended it on previous occasions but this year Luke also got to enjoy it.

The Bubble Picnic is an open house at the center where they have sensory stations setup for the kids to use.  A lot of them focus on bubbles because bubbles are fun, cheap, and easy to clean.  On top of bubbles they have lots of other stations inside and out focusing on some developmental or sensory concept.

We got a late start on the day and didn’t get to the picnic until 12:00; one hour before closing.  One hour was just enough time to get it all done.  The first thing we did was to play with the bubble wands and making some big bubbles.  Alyce would chase after and pop them while Luke would reach out for them as we held them on the bubble wands.  After the bubbles Alyce and I took some egg beaters to a big tub of soapy water churning up even more bubbles.

Next we went inside for some crafts and to play on the kids play equipment.  While Alyce was busy making a sun catcher with our Parent Educator Ms. Cathy Luke was focused on running beads along wire paths.  After both of those Alyce and Luke played on the kids playground.  The indoor squishy blocks are a perfect environment for Luke.  They provide just enough obstacle to keep his attention on climbing but with everything being squishy there is no penalty for failure if the falls off something.  Alyce and Luke both seemed to enjoy the tunnel and slide the most.

After a few more crafts it was time to leave but before we left Alyce wanted to go down the big twisty slide a few times so we headed back outside for a few turns on the slide.  About that time both kids were running empty on food and were starting to show.

 

The Bubble Picnic is always a blast and when the weather cooperates it is even more fun.