Perfect Gift for 1, 2, 3 Year Olds: Sand and Water Table

Note: I think this could be a perfect gift for a four or five year old, too.  I don't have experience with kids that age using this exact table.  However, tables like this are found in preschools and kindergartens, and I can imagine that my son will still be interested in digging, pouring, scooping, and smoothing at age five!  We prefer this sensory table far above the sensory bins we've been using, which are just plastic under the bed sized storage containers.

My mom bought the kids a sand and water table from Kohl's using Kohl's cash, a sale, and a stackable % off coupon.  It was quite a good deal.  She brought it up here as an early birthday gift for DHH, and since them we've used it a few times each week.  Its a really great gift if you are getting something two or more young children will play at the same time.  

We have used the table for gravel (too coarse... had to get rid of that) and for water play.  I think it will be a good sand and water table because the water may slop over into the sand and make for good castle construction.  Sometimes we add ping pong balls, bowls, and boats.  Sometimes DHH adds a little bubbles to the water using a hand pump we have for an air mattress.  He really gets a kick out of shooting water into the table and blowing objects across the "pond". EK prefers to throw objects into the water table, so I have a collection of little people play figures for her to throw in, fish out, and throw in again.

The water does get very hot in the summer if we leave it out through the afternoon.  Sometimes we add ice cubes, which solves the temperature problem and adds a nice sensory experience.  Sometimes we drain it and add more water with the garden hose... but you can guess that it ends up being a hose-play day instead of water table play day. 

I wanted to add something solid to the table that would be cool to the touch.  However, we didn't have any play sand.  We did have a ten pound tote of colored rice, and since the rice is over a year old, I didn't mind that it could get messed up or ruined by being in the table outside.  I thought that the cover that is provided with the table would leak and therefore ruin the rice.  However, when I added rice to the table it didn't rain for three weeks.  We had two pop up showers, and I am surprised to report that the rice stayed dry and the cover sealed properly.

Here are some photos of the kids playing with the table full of rice.   You'll notice that DHH was thrilled to use this angel food cake pan (that I was planning to declutter and put into storage, but its since become a favorite TOY at my house). You'll also notice that EK was thrilled to use a short, dull knife (I think its for spreading jam or soft cheese? I found it at a yard sale and bought for the kids to use for practical life activities).  She had never noticed this knife before, and was using it to pry ping pong balls from the center umbrella hole.  She also used it to make lines in the rice.

We stayed outside and played in the rice for as long as the shade permitted.  This table keeps the kids attention for a very long period of time, and if I have some music playing through my iPhone and external speaker AND its less than 90 degrees outside, we can stay out there for a full morning's worth of play.

DHH's First Realistic Painting.

He's taken to using paintbrushes to apply paint, rather than scrub holes in the paper.

He's taken to asking for colors that make sense for the picture provided.

He's taken to using great care and skill to cover all the white.

I am glad that materials are being used more responsibly around here.  

And that there is time for me to do some painting if I'd like.

He's growing up!

We can do paint projects together.

This is one of the best perks of having an older child, or a child that I consider to be older compared to when he was a baby and his one year old sister.  

He specifically painted this picture for my dad of a Funk-tion site.  He thought my dad would recognize it from being at construction sites so often for his job. 

Photos From Exactly Three Years Ago...

A fairly high intervention birth. 

 With a failed epidural and a baby born not breathing.  

It started off WAY STRESSFUL.

 But twenty minutes later, he was brought back to me.

I think I held my breath and avoided thinking about the resuscitation that was happening and finally cried when I saw him and realized what we might have lost.

Blue hands and red fingernails, lightly fuzzed head with a deep ridge.

A crowd of family watching his first bath.

First time aunties.

Three Dan Haids.

 Dan's family.

Grandma Becky, his eager grandmother.

All three of them have the same sentimental side.

I feel really out of it in this photo.  I'd only seen my son for five minutes, though he was born an hour earlier.

Dan only missed the first five minutes of DHH's life and was by his side the rest of the while they were working on him and then cleaning him up.

I had no idea he would be that tiny.

He was tiny, but his head was too big for the newborn knit cap and he had to get a non-homemade one.

I love this photo.

My sister.

My sister, too.  She was probably as enthusiastic about the pregnancy and the baby as anyone I've ever met.

So much beauty.

My dad giving him the once over and talking to him.

Seven pounds is pretty small! These days, his head is almost as large as mine, not the size of my palm!

 And now here we are, forever different people.

Just About Three.

My blog used to have tons of pictures of Baby Daniel on it.  

These days he says, "No pictures, no pictures!".

I want to share these photos of a still-two DHH, hoping that there will be a time when these photos will be glimpses of babyhood and not views of adulthood. 

Sometimes, I think this boy is an adult based on the way he looks, the opinions he has, and the way he does things.

Here he is wearing his "Amazing" shirt.  Now that he's seen Cars two times and half of Cars 2, he calls him Lightening McQueen instead of Amazing most of the time.

Mater and Amazing and DHH with his Amazing Shirt.  He was really into these toys for awhile, carrying them in his pockets, until he lost them temporarily and became more interested in playing with blocks and scoop trucks and a tractor and wagon.  I give it two weeks and he's back playing with Mater and McQeen though.  He just has a great time making them talk to each other and tow around the house.

My dad gave him hair product in hopes he gets a hair cut/crew cut.  DHH finds the product around the house and applies it to his hair.  Liberally.  He really likes his "Pikey, crazy pikes."

 See? More spikes and more Amazing t shirt.  He was admiring his hair in the bathroom mirror.

A new hat from an asphalt company.  DHH and Dan went stopped by a road overlay project one afternoon, and DHH asked hundreds of questions about the asphalt and the tractors.  The next day, the contractor brought over a hat for DHH.

Its been a hot summer lately, and so we've had a lot of blue gatorade when we go to the parks/ball park.  DHH calls it Boo Gator Egg.  Here's his Boo Gator Egg tongue. 

Fakes-fears Pizza (AKA Shakespeare's Pizza)

It seems like once every other week this summer, my son has said in his nicest, most manipulative voice, "Mommy? Can we go to Fakes-fears for lunch today? Please? Let's go get some Fakes-fears pizza."

Two pieces of pizza and two kids drinks are $5.34, and if we've spent the morning doing a free activity like the library's story time, its easy for me to find the cash in my wallet for a lunch outing like this.

For those of you who didn't go to MU, you might not understand the coolness of my kids liking a place that is classic MU.  Its like DHH is basically declaring he wants to go to MU and live in Hudson Hall or something.

And EK doesn't even seem to mind that going to Shakespeares means she has to wait the longest to eat. I have to cut her food and remove the cheese.  Plus she has to wait for us to drag her over a high chair and wipe the grime off.

Its not easy to dine downtown with two small children. I really have to plan it.  I have to arrive early enough to make sure there is parking in their lot, then go in, wash hands and have DHH preemptively enter his bladder, then pre pay for the pizza, then get the drinks, then set up the table and put our stuff on it, then get the pizza, then the plates and utensils, then cut the food, and then... eat.

I am not truly complaining - its pizza I like, after all.  But its more work than it was ten years ago when I was a freshman.  Then my only worry was if I would get carded.  Haha. Kidding, mom!

 Oh, and look up at the photo of DHH with a drink.  You'll see that its full of a dark beverage.  I did the dumbest thing. I  let him have a cup of Diet Doctor Pepper.  "DDP, PLEASE MOM????" It turns out that DDP has too much caffeiene for DHH.  Way to much. He bounced off the walls - literally running into walls - and went to bed at 6 PM after no nap that day and a loud, loud day of play.

Lesson learned!! He will drink a mixture of iced tea and water when we are out for lunch from now on, unless we try Diet Sprite or something.

I like doing mornings like this with my kids.
Doing story time and singing with them and laughing at the puppets.
Saying yes when an easy request for lunch is made.
Enjoying something really tasty.
I know that they won't always be so friendly about spending time with their mom, or they might choose activities that I would dislike doing.
I also know that if we have additional children, it will be harder to do this.
And if I ever start working during the days, it will be different.
And if we move to a different town, it wil be different.
So I am not taking mornings like this for granted.

Splash Park Water Park and At Home Water Park

Our city has a few splash parks with little fountains and sprayers.  We typically visit them once per week, usually around 9 AM before its too too hot. 

Here are a few photos from that park from early July,

Lest you think I didn't bring my little girl, since she didn't appear in the splash park photos... she was on my hip! She isn't to crazy about being splashed in her face, which is what happens when her brother is playing around there.  

To make sure she has a good time on our splash park morning, we go over to a playground across from the park and she does her favorite activity - swinging.

 We have a small pol set up on the patio, too.  DHH loves to fill it up, and usually he gets in and relaxes inside.  EK likes to sit in it if its warm, but she loves to throw toys in it from the edge more.

DHH has started to make his own water park features.  

In these photos, he was making a "Fix It Achine". This machine was supposed to move water to fix the wood chips. (How? Who knows.  There were no wood chips nearby to his water machine,)

He used a pool noodle, a pink teapot, a hose, some pipe, many nesting cups and small bowls, and some chairs to make this machine.

It was so fun watching his brain work on this, and it was probably just as fun for him to play in the water this way than at the water park.