100 (Attempted) Ways to Entertain a Young Toddler, Day 94: Water Hand Prints and Footprints

Oliver helped me come up with today's toddler activity for Jo. We've been getting some afternoon thunderstorms recently (yay, rain!). A few days ago, he tracked wet footprints all over the back patio. We ended up having a lot of fun making hand prints and footprints on the cement. He loved it when my in-laws' dogs tracked paw prints to look at, too!

I decided to recreate that fun with Jo. I got a bucket of water, but I bet this would work even better with a baking pan full of water. I showed Jo how to make hand prints with the water.

Jo had a lot of fun in the water! She wasn't able to quite "get it" yet, though. She would put hand prints on places that were already wet. She had fun and mimicked what Oliver and I were doing, but I don't think she was fully grasping that the point was to leave prints behind. I mean, that's totally OK. She had fun! I just wanted to point out that she was still a little too young to fully understand the cause-and-effect of using water to make hand prints. So, this activity was fun but might be best for kids who are a little older.

I give this activity a B grade. It was so easy to do! It's nice playing with water when it's hot outside, and the kids had fun. Jo didn't really understand the point of the whole thing, though, so I might as well have just plopped her into a toddler pool with a bucket. Actually, that probably would have even been more fun...

If You're Happy and You Know It

Oliver learned to clap his hands yesterday! He was sitting up on the Thorne's table (which is probably as expensive as our townhome. John said Oliver's the only one allowed to sit on it) and started smacking his hands together. I did it back to him, and he did it back to me. Before long, he was clapping and laughing, much to the delight of all his relatives.

Oliver and the Bouncy Chair

Oliver is just over a month old, and he's able to use sweeping motions with his hands to hit his dangling animal toys.

From Bogey to Eagle and Back

Bath & Body Works hosted a free Spa Event today. It's the third or fourth year in a row I've gone. I just can't pass up free giveaways. Sad, but true.

Aminta and I got up early and met at Starbucks for a quick breakfast. After I polished off my blueberry scone and double soy latte, we headed off for our freebies. Our first station was the makeover station. An older woman was already seated, and the makeup artist was painting away. We stood in line for two, five, ten, fifteen, twenty minutes for our turn. The line next to us was moving at about 4 times the speed. I figured, it's OK, it's free! And I'm going to get quite the free makeover!

Nope. After the woman ahead of us was finally made up right, a boss lady came by and lectured our makeup artist for taking too long. "Vanessa" turned to me and said, "Sorry, but I'm going to have to rush through yours." I got a coat of mascara, some blue eyeshadow, and I was off to the next station.

Aminta met the same fate. She, too, was told, "Sorry, but I have a line. I'm going to have to rush through your makeover." Aminta got some brown eyeshadow and a coat of mascara and was told she was done, too.

OK, so the makeover station was not so fun. The hand station more than made up for it! I have hand problems because I do dishes all day long. When I'm not doing dishes, I'm working with the customers and making drinks and dipping my hands in sanitized water to grab sanitized towels to wipe up from said drink making. As a result, my hands are chapped, and they crack and bleed. Cuts take weeks to heal. It's a bit painful. Hand station lady made my day. She gave me all sorts of lotions and waxes to rub on my hands. In minutes, they felt pain free and felt like butter. Hurray for paraffin lotion! She sent me away with a handful of samples, too. It rocked. As a matter of fact, I was so stoked, I went back and decided to take her up on her "two for $10" deal and got the paraffin lotion and a hand scrub. I'm so excited for my hands!

After we finished our morning of beauty, Aminta, me and our eyeshadows went to Sushi Basho to visit Phuong for lunch. Her brothers were there, so we sat with them and colored a bit with Barbie markers. It was more fun than I care to admit. We filled ourselves with cucumber sushi and sweet potato rolls and polished it all off with some chocolate tempura ice cream. Aminta embarressed herself in front of the customers by accidently shouting out something inappropriate about vibrations, and then, thoroughly humiliated, we left.

Back in the car and in fits of hysteria, I realized I was late for meeting my parents. There house is 20 minutes away from Sushi Basho, and I was already 30 minutes late. I quick called them, and they told me Andrew was already there with Bailey. Ooops.

I said goodbye to Aminta and got to my parents' house an hour late. They were talking and watching Tiger Woods play in the Master's, so I figured it hadn't been too bad of an hour for any of them. Andrew later informed me that "he had so little sleep, he was practically delirious, and that the golf show was the most entertaining thing ever." Good for him...

I sat and watched Tiger work his way up to number 5 in the tournament (tomorrow we'll see if he can widdle away the rest of the leaders). My mom made me some decaf, and we talked and laughed and learned about golf. Good stuff. When Andrew had to leave to see his parents, Tiger finished for the day, and my parents and I decided to play some Wii Golf.

Wii Golf is quite the event at Mom and Dad's. We're ranked by our "pro points" which we earn by finishing under par or landing on the green within a certain amount of strokes. My parents are getting so good, that unless they finish 5-under on a 9-hole course, they lose their precious pro points.

My dad has tried to master the art of the pro-points by keeping tally on how often we land on the green in one shot or two shots, and how often it takes one putt or two putts to sink the ball. I think he's got the general idea of the formula down, and so they get frustrated when they land on "edge of green" as opposed to "on the green." It's really cute.

I played the 9 hole game with my parents. I was winning until the 7th hole, when my mom passed me by a stroke. To pass her for the win, I decided to take a risk on the last hole, but instead, I ended up with a +5 on the hole. My mom was victorious with my dad a stroke behind. I lost by a landslide.

No matter. After all, I was able to get to the store afterwards and buy the toilet paper we were running out of at the apartment. So, see, things are going my way.

I think I'll be back to their house later this week, though, to claim my victory at Wii Golf.

The match is on!