Splash

Today, we did mostly the usual stuff with the babies. There were only four of them. This morning, Crawling Baby was the only one awake so we brought him outside to the sand box. He liked tipping a bucket over and moving a shovel around in the sand. I took another shovel and showed him how to put sand in the bucket, but he was more interested in tipping it over. That’s okay though, he’s just getting used to the sand. As he was crawling around the playground, he found a puddle which he enjoyed playing in. His clothes were soaked afterward and he got cold, but he really likes playing in the water. On the infant playground, there’s a hill and on one side, there’s a slide that goes from the top to the bottom. Crawling Baby had fun sliding down, but he wanted to crawl up the slide instead of crawling back up the hill. I watched him try and try for at least ten minutes. Eventually, he did it on his own! I was surprised that he didn’t get frustrated and give up. He fussed a few times and I’d walk down the hill to where he was on the slide. He’d look over at me and then get back to what he was doing. He was happy to reach the top.

This morning, Crawling Baby started hiding in a tunnel. This tunnel is underneath this wooden play pen type thing. It’s a wide tunnel that has two sections. It has four entrances, but two of them are blocked off by walls, but it’s easy for them to crawl in and out. I was sitting in the middle of the room and he started babbling from the tunnel to get my attention. I peaked in the tunnel and he’d laugh. Then I’d hide and he’d peak out at me. This went on for a few minutes until he found a rubber duck inside the tunnel. He threw it out at me and I threw it back in. It’d bounce around a little and he’d laugh. To make it more of a challenge, I started throwing the duck to the back part of the tunnel. Crawling Baby would go back there to get it, but he’d still throw it the same distance. Instead of it landing near me like he wanted, it’d only land in the front part of the tunnel so he’d have to throw it two or three times. That didn’t last long. It was kind of frustrating for him so he went back to only sitting in the front part of the tunnel. After that, he wanted to sit on my lap and we looked at books. He misses his morning nap that he doesn’t get anymore.
In the afternoon, Baby L and Baby C loved catching bubbles. The other teacher would blow the bubbles and Baby C would role after them. Baby L kept reaching up with his hands. Baby C would babble and Baby L would giggle if there was a big bubble. I knew the toddlers went nuts for them, but I had never seen how the babies reacted to them. It was too bad Crawling Baby was napping because it would’ve been funny to see him chase and pop them.
The other teacher also brought out this mat that when you crawl or walk on it, it makes different sounds. There are bell and honking sounds, but at the end, there’s a splash sound. Baby C liked rolling over the mat and wasn’t quite sure where the sounds were coming from, but she enjoyed it the most out of everyone. Crawling Baby figured out that the sounds come out from this plastic box. He’d hit the footprints and realized that’s how it makes the sound, but surprisingly he didn’t crawl on it. Baby L just sat next to it and hit the footprints that were closest to him. I’d hit the other ones so he could hear the other sounds. I think their favorite was the splash, but they liked the other sounds too and kept dragging the mat all over the place. The babies had a fun day!