Bubbles!

Today, after the heat of the day had passed we ventured outside for a bit of fun. We got out all of our bubble supplies and let the kids go wild. Luke was out of it for a while and just kind of hung out in his chair. Alyce on the other hand was going crazy chasing the bubbles. There was leaping, skipping, bounding, and running all of the moves one needs to smash those bubbles into oblivion.


We pulled out Luke's new toy, the bubble machine that automatically blows hundreds if not thousands of bubbles a minute.  The kids were interested in the machine but weren't fascinated with the bubbles. It was as if they were more interested in how the bubbles were being made than the bubbles themselves. Mom and I thought the machine was pretty cool and enjoyed the constant stream of bubbles. Alyce and Luke both liked the big bubbles that Mom and I were blowing for them with the wands Alyce won at Gideon's birthday party.

Later on I'm guessing Luke's dinner finally kicked in and he noticed the bubbles and squealed "bubbles, bubbles!" while running in place. Even though he was late to the party Luke still managed to have a good time with Alyce running from the driveway to the front porch and back again.

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.

Bubbles

Last Monday, when it wasn't raining, we had some fun time outside in front of the house. Mom and I sat and relaxed while Alyce enjoyed some time with her bubbles. I'm sure Alyce has gotten the bubbles out before now but this is the first time in a long time I've been around to witness her joy with them.


We have all type of different bubble making devices. We have little single bubble makers, bubble guns that stream out tons of bubbles, a wand that makes one really big bubble, and Alyce's favorite is a big wand with lots of bubble holes in it. Alyce likes this wand because it provides the most instant gratification. She can dip it in a big plate full of bubbles, swing her arm around, and bubbles go everywhere. At times her wand positioning can be a bit off which means little to no bubbles comes out. Also she can get a little over excited and swing the wand around like a baseball bat. My favorite thing about Alyce blowing her own bubbles is that every time she makes some she says "Big Bubbles!". It could be one teeny bubble or a hundred large bubbles and she would say "Big Bubbles" every time.


When Alyce played on Monday the wind was gently blowing in all directions which gave Alyce a lot of opportunities to chase down some bubbles. Her chasing them is a new development since last fall she hadn't mastered running. Now that running is old hat she zoomed into both neighbor's yard in pursuit of her soapy quarry. Alyce chased the bubbles we made for her for so long she got red cheeked and overheated.

Bubble Wrap

Today Alyce had her first experience with a child's favorite toy, bubble wrap. Yesterday I got a package in the mail and the contents were wrapped in bubble wrap. I thought it would be interesting to see what Alyce did with it. To be honest it wasn't her first experience. Mom has a game on her iPhone that makes the screen look and behave like bubble wrap.

Mom gave the packing material to Alyce this morning and as expected she had a ball. At first she tried to pop the real bubble wrap like the virtual wrap on the phone with little success. Once Mom showed Alyce how to do it she was on a roll. Alyce did manage to save some of the bubbles for when I got home. The first thing she says to me when I come in the door is "bubble" while pointing to the makeshift toy.

Bubble Picnic

Last Saturday the family went to the Bubble Picnic. The Bubble Picnic is an event held annually by our local school district's early childhood development center. We first got in touch with the development center via the Parent's As Teachers program. We get regular visits from our Parent's As Teacher educator (Ms. Cathy) and Mom takes Alyce to weekly classes at the development center.

The picnic is held as kick off event for the new school year and to acquaint families with the services the center provides. We like to go because they have a lot of neat projects to do and equipment to play on.

One of the first stations we used was the water table. It is simply a big table with lots of bins and separations for soapy water. Alyce, always a big fan of bath time and water in general was a big fan of the table. She would pour the contents of one cup of water into another and also cleaned a toy cow with a scrub brush.

After the bubble table we tried the shaving cream table. The shaving cream table has little walls setup with shaving cream smeared all over them. The kids are encouraged to use instructions such as squeegees, combs, or their hands to interact with the shaving cream and make a mess. I thought this was particularly interesting because Alyce is kind of a girlie girl and doesn't like things sticking to her hands. This really wasn't an exception as Alyce wanted her hands cleaned off once they got all creamy, but she did manage to play around with the combs and other implements. She stayed relatively clean except some other kid accidentally got some in her hair.

After a hot dog and some fruit snacks for lunch we went downstairs for our last activity, the indoor gymnasium. The indoor gym has slides, a ball pit, and a lot of room to run. Alyce had a lot of fun on the slides and for most of them didn't need any of my help getting into position or going down.

New Words

Yesterday Alyce had two new words. Bubble and Apple. We aren't really sure where she got apple from. We said apple the day before, but didn't really reinforce the word. Bubble on the other hand we did reinforce by saying bubble and playing with bubbles. Her bubble gun specifically. She is quite the fan of bubble gun. It is now broken as she dropped it and broke the bottle of bubbles.

Also yesterday Alyce was hit by another toddler on purpose. She is in daycare for a little over an hour on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday while mom is in her Jazzercise class. I don't think it bothered her all that much, but she did have a mark on her face. The mother of the toddler apologized, but what are you supposed to say? That's alright? You can't say that, because it isn't alright.

She has also been under the weather lately. Over the weekend she had a fever of 102 degrees. We weren't that worried because her attitude and appetite were still really good. Since then her fever has gone down and she now has a runny nose and occasional cough.