Water Beads are any sensory bin must have!

So, I've been meaning to pick up water beads from Amazon. We are in-between houses, living with my mom so I just haven't. I was cursing the Dollar Tree store looking for corn starch and there it was-floral water beads! I was so excited! I do think overall it cost more to buy them at the dollar store, but for my purposes it was fine.

Verdict? They are everything they are cracked up to be. I literally played with them myself for at least 10 minutes! So soft, squishy, even a little iridescent. I frantically searched for my color dye and realized I must have misplaced them. So we would have to play with them in their original state.

Since they shimmer on their own, I added stainless steal cups to the bin.

Tegan loved the water beads as much as I did, now Tegan is only 10 months old and is orally exploitative so it goes with note there was diligent supervision to make sure she didn't eat one of these! But they were so slippery I didn't have any real problem.

Dad also had a lot of fun playing with Tegan with the beads!

Thank you for reading guys!

Getting messy with your child

One of the saddest things I hear or see about messy/sensory play is:

"Messy play without the mess"
"How to control the mess"
"Clean messy play"

Why are we as parents so afraid of getting dirty?! Would it be that tragic if you got into the mud with your child? Would it be horrible if you looked at your kitchen and saw oobleck sticking to your counter? I get it- most of us already are behind on our cleaning schedule and making slime that somehow got stuck to the ceiling isn't always appealing. But I am going to go sappy here:

It is what makes memories. The mess. The fun. The play. I think I ruined my TOMS today at the park. The sprinklers where on and between that, the dog, and the amazing sand castle we made I am not sure they will ever be the same. And that's ok. Because it doesn't matter. The time I had with Tegan does.

One of the most IMPORTANT things about sensory play is to PLAY WITH THEM. Don't sit back and watch. Get in there girl. I will admit, I love sensory play too. I freaking love oobleck. Water beads are my new favorite thing. As adults, we can still explore our senses too. Talk about the textures, the feelings, the smells. Smile. Laugh.

Your baby with enjoy the world much more if you enjoy it with them.

Park Days

Today before it got too hot we went to the park with our dog, Patton. I've been feeling real bad for him lately. We have been staying at my mother's since we sold our house and waiting for our second house to close which as taken almost 4 times as long as we thought. It is hard for him to be out with my special needs brother and its so hot outside I feel he has been cooped up. I can't wait to move into our new place where there are literally green belts everywhere for us to play.

Patton has a excellent recall and is one of the best off leash dogs!

We played in the sand and grass. Great way to get natural sensory experiences in. I often tell people that we do sensory play often to make up for city living. Children used to play alone in the woods at 3, 4 years of age. They helped cook, hunt, clean. And in reality it was all sensory experiences. Today's environment and city living doesn't allow those kinds of things safely. So park and outdoor time is always welcomed natural activity.

Other ideas would include hiking which I love but its so hot outside and we just had our monsoon out and air quality is poor. I can't wait till September when hiking season starts again!

I really loved our Frogg Togg towel today too, it was already 85 when we went out at 8:30am and it as 92 when we left-I wrapped Tegan in the towel to help keep her cool and it worked. Love that thing!!

Thanks for reading!!!