The boys participated in their second day care open house today! The last time they had an open house they were only 6 months old. They didn’t do much and we were the only family that showed up so it was a quiet affair. Tonight was quite different. The evening started with our standard 5 PM pickup and then we headed to the mall to have dinner and keep occupied until day care opened back up at 6:30. The boys had a delicious mall dinner with GiGi consisting of a McDonald’s yogurt parfait, apple sauce, and Roman Delight pizza. We forgot the stroller so we had to let the boys walk the mall for the first time ever! It wasn’t quite as crazy as I thought it would be though. They both did a pretty good job walking (or running) forward and didn’t duck into too many stores until the end. They really enjoyed looking through the store windows at the displays and Adam was particularly interested in going up and down the stairs in the hall.
As 6:30 approached we made our way back through the mall, into the car, and back to day care. We arrived a little before 6:30 and “snuck in early” (i.e. we didn’t wait until the doors opened and instead used the access code to open them – oops). We had a chance to visit the boys’ first room, the Joeys, and catch up with one of their prior teachers about what their old class is up to. Some of the children that were in their class when they left are about 1 year old now. How time flies!
As I said before, the turn out at the first open house was pretty low. Not tonight. There were at least eight children and their parents in the room. It was cool to see the children interacting with each other as well as their parents. Zach spent a lot of time pointing at all of the pictures on their family picture wall while Adam ran back and forth across the room. The point of the open house is to get an idea of the kinds of things that our children do each day while we are at work. As an example, we all sat around in a circle and sang the “Good Morning” song. They go through everybody’s name and say “Hello [name], we’re glad to have you here” (or something like that). Zach wanted to stand up and be the pointer so whenever the teachers said “Where’s [name]” he would look for them and then point. It was adorable. After the Good Morning song was over the teachers read the children a book, which Zach pointed and poked at the entire time.
Once circle time was over it was time for the art project and the sensory table. The sensory table was a rolling table with a recessed bucket full of the inside of a pumpkin, lovingly titled “Pumpkin Guts”. Oh boy, were those messy. Of course Adam ran right over and started picking up slimy chunks to squish through his hands and throw on the floor. He kept putting the seeds in his mouth too, which was quite a bit of work to monitor. Luckily they were large enough that I could get them out and tasted bad enough that he spit them out on his own on occasion.
While Adam was massacring the Pumpkin Guts, Zach was enjoying the art project titled “Apple Stamping”. Apples were cut in half and then put on a popsicle stick to be used as a stamp. Each child had a piece of paper and there were paper plates full of paint to dip the apples in. Zachary happily stamped a very nice yellow and orange masterpiece out onto his paper. Adam joined after he was pumpkined out but was more interested in eating the apple (and the paint) than making art. He eventually completed something with oranges, reds, and yellows. Abstract, you might say.
By the time both of the boys had hit the art project the Pumpkin Guts were a hot ticket again. They joined the other children who were squeezing, sliding, and throwing guts all over the place. We tried to keep up with them and put all of the guts back in but they were relentless. There was so much pumpkin on the floor that the boys started slipping and sliding all over the place. Having been covered in pumpkin and paint, the Taylor parents were ready to go, but not before we watched the boys “shake their sillys out”. The teachers put on a non-Raffi rendition of the song and the kids swayed, nodded their heads, and stretched to the music. GiGi caught it all on camera. It was the same dance that we posted on Facebook recently and it was just as cute. Just as the boys were returning to the guts we decided it was time to pack up and head home.
Our trip home was quiet, but the boys did not fall asleep as I expected. We got home at 7:30, had a quick evening routine, and the boys were off to bed at 8:00. They had a busy day and are sound asleep now. Let’s hope they stay that way:)
Relatively Ambitious 