Water Beads

Had a fun day! Started out pretty slow. Dawson's therapist was here from 9am until noon. He did great with his work and as a reward we did this on his break times. He works for a bit and then gets a break for 5 minutes or so. I bought these Water Beads at Walmart last night. They were only $2 for a packet, so we got orange and blue. They're by the vases and fake flowers.  

 He had fun putting the tiny beads in water

 Dawson's next break, 20 minutes later! They over doubled in size. I told him they were going to get bigger, so he grinned when he saw them, got all excited and said "bigger!". He swooshed them around in the water for a bit and was excited to check again on his next break.

 In the meantime, I had this container on the floor waiting to put them all in when they were big. Gabriel took advantage, crawled up there and discovered he can reach the countertop! I'm so not ready for that yet.

 While Dawson was working I got some pics. Gabriel is looking so much older these days! I don't know when he went from baby to toddler, but he's sure looking less like a baby these days.

 I had flipped the viewing screen around so he could see as I took the pics. He was admiring his tongue.

 Then he was making funny faces at himself.

 Back to playing with his house. He loves that thing! It's gotten so much use. Dawson still plays with it too!

 On his 3rd break we poured them all into the big container. He was so excited.

 They're hard to describe. Kinda squishy, smooth, slippery and bouncy. It's crazy to think they started out small enough to be a speck under my fingernail. I actually did get one under there too when I was taking them out!

 Lots of fun! He played with these for at least 6 hours today. He kept going back to them!

I had different things for him to do. I brought this toy out at first, but as they expanded more, they didn't quite fit through the hole and they were getting squished and broken. The blue ones we found out can't handle as much as the orange. They break when they hit the floor or get squeezed too hard. The orange ones seemed to have a firmer feel.

 So instead we used the shovel and a container. I think the shovel broke some too, it has a really sharp edge. Tomorrow I'm going to give him a big plastic spoon instead. Will be easier on the beads.

 We had planned on babysitting tonight, so I brought the balls out and fenced off the end of the hallway. I eventually made the corner smaller so the balls would fill it up better. The kids ended up not coming today though, which ended up being ok since Dawson just wanted to play in the bathtub for some water time. He was having issues with me not allowing him to play with that water toy with the beads since they got too big for it. So he played in the tub with it for about 30 minutes instead. We got some company, which was great for me. I haven't had anyone over for a while and I don't often get to chat with other adults, unless you count Dawson's therapists. ;)

 After they went to bed I cleaned up the water beads and sorted out the squished ones. They end up like this. I had just under half the sherbet container of squished beads. Only 2 were orange though, so I'm going to get some more orange next time, or maybe try another color. I also heard of other beads like this, only more durable. I already forgot what they're called, but I'm hoping to try them, especially since they're a bit smaller and should work with that toy.

 There are still plenty left! I think it was definitely worth the $4, for about 6 hours of play and I know he'll be right back at it again tomorrow. :)

Another awesome person is my friend Katie, who visited today. She visited me while we were in the ICU a few times and it was so nice being able to chat with a friend and help the minutes and even hours go by faster. She drove the 90 minutes to RMH and helped us haul our stuff back home after Tyler died. Then she watched the boys sometimes for half the day so we could go make arrangements with the funeral home over the next week. After that she watched the boys every week while we went skating or out on a date. It was such a relief to have some free babysitting and be able to get out and do something by ourselves. I love that her girls get to play with Gabriel and Dawson. They were pretty attached to Tyler and he always loved all the attention. When we were in class, they were never very far behind him. ;)