Family Friday: June 6

We live on the beach but we don't actually get in the water much ever.  There is a lot of coral along the beach that is exposed during low tide and high tide brings some pretty powerful waves.  I've never been a water person anyway and we still enjoy the beach as much as we can every day. Despite not playing in the ocean, CC loves playing in water elsewhere.

It rains a lot more here than where we used to live on the southern part of the island.  CC gets excited to see the rain, which is usually a torrential downpour that we stay out of.  A couple of weeks ago, we had a calm summer rain that she enjoyed playing in for the first time.  She loved every minute of it and got completely soaked!  Watching her was pure joy :)

I often give CC a bowl of water with some utensils.  She loves to "cook" like I do, stirring and scooping the water and whatever else she puts into the bowl.

On this particular day, it didn't take long for Barney to end up in the water.  She stirred him around for a while and then swapped him out for Baby.  I put a towel down since Barney was dripping water everywhere.  CC could have been making dinosaur and baby stew, or she could have been giving them a bath... we may never know.

She did eventually take them both out of the water and then spent time carefully cleaning them each off with a wet washcloth (which added even more water to them).  I rung them out and hung them up to dry when she moved onto her next activity.

I let CC take the lead with her playtime and never interrupt her thought process when she's involved with something (as long as she's safe and not hurting anything, of course).  If she wants to put her dolls in water, I let her because they'll be dry by morning.  If she wants to pour water on herself, I change her clothes when she's done.  It's all a learning experience.

In the two photos below, CC had dumped out the remaining water so she could sit on the upside-down bowl.  She wanted more water to give Elephante a bath and started pouting when I said no.  I'm actually glad that I caught one of her pouty faces on camera - they melt my heart as much as her smiles do :)

Another activity we did this week was painting with water.  I'm not sure that our neighbors would appreciate sidewalk chalk on the driveway we share so instead, I filled a beach bucket with water and got my two largest paintbrushes.

CC had a great time "painting" the cement and watching it change color with the water.  We walked with our bucket and brushes down the street and she stopped every few steps to paint something new... the sidewalk, rocks, metal manhole covers, flowers, plants, fences, and she even painted Dulce (who wasn't too happy about that).  It started off as a simple idea for clean fun but it turned out to be a great sensory experience that she really enjoyed!

My favorite activity with water is sitting in the sand and watching it.  I am on the beach every single day.  Our time here is limited (we're already discussing next assignment possibilities) so I'm trying to enjoy it, take as many photos, and make as many memories as possible.  I wish I could bottle it up!

*******

“Play is the highest form of research.”

~Albert Einstein