Sophie woke up almost an hour early yesterday morning. With still an hour to go before naptime, I had pretty much used up all my tricks. (She's been sick and had to take steroids for a croupy cough...she's had a little bit of 'roid rage going on. Fortunately, it's on the decline now that we took our last dose!)
She kept wanting to go "bye bye," so I decided to take her outside (despite 90+ degree weather and 100% humidity already) for some simple water play.
I grabbed a bowl, filled it with water, got the orange basting brush from her Tot School shelf - it's orange week - and headed out to the back porch.
I showed her how to dip the brush and paint the cement with water and she caught on really quick! If you don't have a basting brush you are willing to let be used for outdoor play, you could use a paintbrush, or even a cleaning rag.
She probably "painted" for ten minutes before she started to discover the other things she could do with the water.
She washed her hands - this is her saying "rub, rub, rub".
Then she figured out the really fun part - dumping out the water. I was amazed that it took that long for her to try it! She started by dumping just a little bit out and splashing in it. Then the whole bowl was dumped and she splashed around a bit more.
Honestly, this play couldn't have been any simpler. It occupied her for a good 20 minutes and totally turned her mood around. I'll definitely be adding this to my go-to distraction list!
Playing with water is a mood-changer around here, too!
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