"You Made My Day!"

I had read online about an activity that I wanted to try with Eliot. I had never heard of water beads before this and I set out to find them. I found some at Michaels (called water gems). They were teeny tiny little balls in a small package. I bought 4 packages in different colors. I brought them home and the next day Eliot and I (& Ted) had some fun.



We dumped all the water beads in a big Rubbermaid container. Instructions told us to add one liter of water for every 10 grams of beads. We had about 20 grams of beads. Eliot even had fun pouring the water in. Over the next four hours, we watched the beads grow bigger and bigger, and the water level sink lower and lower. I told him that after his nap, the beads would be ready and he could dig in with his trucks-- he was so excited. As soon as he woke up, he RAN upstairs to see the beads and sure enough-- they were all ready for digging..and dumping...and spooning... and playing. I undressed him down to his underwear and set him free!

Waiting...

Daddy wanted to see what happened if you put a few in the microwave. For the record, nothing happened:


After a while of playing he told me "You made my day!" It was the BEST thing to hear. Those water beads sure made me feel like Mom of The Year and he got a great afternoon of sensory play with his Mama and Daddy. Perfect!

If we ever do the activity again, I won't use red. Everything was red/pink. It was easy enough to get off for the most part, but parts of Eliot's toenails still look like he tried to take red nail polish off and failed.

When he sat down to go to the bathroom, he grabbed onto the toilet paper to keep himself steady (as usual)

(turned the bath water pink)

And on more photo for this post of Eliot and his new ride-on excavator. He had a gift certificate from Auntie Frances from Christmas that he had not yet had the chance to use so that, paired with a little bit of his Christmas money bought him a(nother) new truck. Yipee!