I had ordered two things recently that came in the mail over the last two days. My daughter has been having the best time playing with Nora, the new next-door-neighbor's daughter. They're doing all sorts of outdoor social distanced things like putting tents up, dragging the Radio Flyer wagon around and bringing all their dolls outside.
Since they're both bringing things back inside and doing a lot of the cleaning up, I don't mind. The two ladies can be occupied for hours. Every now and then I peek out and they're chatting and having a grand time, so I leave them be.
I went to the garage last week to bring out some sidewalk chalk sticks for them as well as some egg-shaped chalk. They had the sidewalk and part of the driveway covered. We haven't had chalk in the bucket by the door in a while and even though they know where the chalk supply is, they hadn't gone to get any more. Sometimes prompting a thing helps, and in this case, it kicked off some collaborative play.
We were almost out of the huge bin of chalks my mother had gotten for the children. I think she was the last one in the line of people to get them chalk and it all has been used. Since we were down to two colors and four sticks, I ordered some more in a variety of colors which to them, is a big deal. Most of the colors are the light versus the lighter option of a pastel, but some of the choices are dense pigment. They like this, I hate it coming in the house on the soles of shoes and bare feet.
As we picked up the back yard over the weekend I saw the huge, round plastic tub I'd gotten for big bubble making. I had some long sticked bubble wands but at some point, they were borrowed for a birthday party and never came home. The tub had been used for sand with the luminary project and afterward had lapsed into disuse in the corner under the deck.
I thought my daughter and Nora might find them fun, and upon asking them they agreed that yes, making huge bubbles would be a fun thing, so I ordered a pack of the plastic wands as well as two rope-based bubble-making tools that handled right, could make even bigger bubbles.
The wands came in today, along with a bottle of Dawn dish soap, purportedly the best for the recipe I was using that also called for corn syrup. (It really does work well.) My daughter was more interested in the two boxes after last night's trauma when her father accidentally recycled her special, apparently best friend box in her room she'd named Robert. But when I showed her the bubble rope and sticks, she got excited.
She asked me to text Nora's father to see if she could come out to meet her in the front yard, and could I tell her she'd be in the driveway, please? I did, but Nora's family was busy today so we're trying tomorrow. My daughter had music thirty minutes later so it worked out for the best.
I have made the bubble mix, have the wand sticks affixed to the tops so they won't fall off like they commonly did last time, and the chalk is ready for when they want to draw on the sidewalk. My question is: why is my daughter excited about these activities? She can't see the size of the bubbles and the chalk becomes a mess when she hops around on top of what she's drawn in her bare feet. She cares though. And she's excited about both. I really am glad she can enjoy the activities in a different way than sighted people.
The Big Boy Update: I was cleaning out a bad advancer clog this morning in the 3D printer before taking my son to school. I was trying to get one last print in before taking a drop to my daughter's teachers where I'd be picking up materials for her. I came upstairs just as it was time to leave and my son said to me, "are you going to be able to step away from 3D printing to be able to take me to school?" He got me on that one and we both laughed.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter did not want to go to her next meeting today. She wanted a break, had just gotten to the swings when we reminded her there was an extra meeting today. She yelled up from the swings. "I am on my last thread!"
No comments:
Post a Comment