There's this silly commercial....

The one with the Rubber Duckie posed in various points throughout the house. Following the toddler around - anxiously waiting for some tub time with Junior. Every time the toddler gets dirty (pan to the duck all smiley faced), the Mom pulls a Huggie's Wipe and cleans the kid up (pan to rubber duckie all frowny faced).

So why is this so silly to me? Because, 3 weeks ago I bought a "Costco Sized" box of these very same wipes. Today, I just put it on my Costco List again. And I've only got 3 children in care right now!!!!

They are awesome wipes, all cucumber and green tea scented. Thick and perfectly moistened for any chore required at either end of your baby or toddler. They work great after a meal: Clean the little face, hands, then swipe up pieces of food off the floor. No extra wipe necessary.
Unless it's one of those messes requiring a Disinfecting Wipe - that's another post.

So why in the world - if I'm using so many of these blasted darned wipes - am I apologizing to someone's parent at least a couple of times a week, for how dirty their baby is? Reminding them, "A a bath tonight is definitely in order". Pleeez... Like they don't know that by The Banana & Cheesy Egg Mousse in their babie's hair? And I'm not even talking about OUTSIDE DIRT - I rarely apologize for that kind of dirt.

I like to say that "A dirty kid is a happy kid" and "If you pick your kid up from daycare and they are dirty, it is a sign they had a good day" or "Clean kids are only ready to be jammied, ready to be un-jammied, or just not feeling well".

Hang in there Rubber Duckie, you will be needed before bedtime tonight.

Especially if your "Junior" is one of my "Juniors".

Words for the Day: Safari & Habitat

I knew going into today that we would need to play hookie from Circle today. This week our theme was "It's a Jungle at Marty's" and we have had a blast. There are so many books, crafts, songs, poems and toys to play with about The Jungle. Colors are even more fun.

So this morning, we talked about going on a SAFARI to find some wild animals. We definitely needed some SAFARI Vests. So off we start, crafting some vests from brown paper bags. This took some extra time, because:

• Girl4 (3 years old) is getting very confident in her scissoring abilities and wanted to help cut out the neck hole on her vest. It took a little more time too because it's not so easy cutting-to-size the head holes required for such genius-sized noggins as these kids have around here.
• The Prince figured out that markers are much cooler than crayons. Today he really "got into his art" for the first time. Give the boy some extra time, he's getting it!
• And Little figured out that marker does not brush off like sidewalk chalk, we needed a little extra time for her to figure that out.

There's always plenty of learning to go around.

Next we gathered up all the Little People Zoo Animals (most of them anyway) and headed outside with the required equipment necessary for our play involving various HABITATS.

First comes the Animal SAFARI. Usually we never throw a toys - especially not a Little People toy - because that could hurt your friend, even put out an eye if you have a good arm. Throwing is for OUTSIDE, and you can even throw Little People toys if I say you can for this activity. Then we went on SAFARI collecting our animals from the tall GRASS LAND HABITAT of the African Plains.

Normally, we do not pull up Mike's precious grass. But I explained to everyone that this was for educational purposes (I hope that flies with Mike tonight) so off to ripping up grass without worry of scolding they set.

Can this day get more fun? Yes, it can.

Then it was off to dig up some dirt from the garden. More Fun? You bet your sweet bippy. Let's add some sand to that bowl to make our DESERT HABITAT.

And then let's sort out the animals into each of their HABITATS:

The Grasslands

ater (Rivers and Oceans)

Antartica

The Desert

Or, just "experience" the HABITAT.

The Prince found the Antartic refreshing.

And the Grasslands?

Who needs a salad bar.

In fact, Management (and I) has just approved an extension of this week's theme into next week. We just didn't get through enough of all the neat ideas for this week - and those paper plate/finger painting/scissoring things sound like a blast. And some of the books I reserved at the Library were not there when we went to pick up books last Friday. And some of the books we got were just not that great.

You learn to let yourself linger while you are having fun, and not to try to rush a toddler through fun - it just brings them down, man. I can't disappoint them (or myself).

"Halloween" was going to be the theme the next two weeks. We will just combine "The Jungle" and "Halloween" together for next week. This thought sends my mind rushing to even more fun things to do next week - the possibilities and fun are endless in our world.

Breathe, woman. It's no wonder I'm so exhausted at the end of a day...

"I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly"

Tell me that I don't have the best job in the world.

Go ahead, but I won't believe you.

Who gets to sing such silliness
in the middle of the morning
then again in the afternoon
to a happy audience of bright smiling faces?

Here are our 3 Old Ladies
fresh from the salon (Arts & Crafts Table)
enjoying some sunshine
this afternoon.