Play Lately

I haven't been very intentional lately in just sitting down and playing with Ella. But now that the third trimester is here I'm feeling the need to sit down and just be more with her. We kept the light box off pretty much all summer and spent most of our days outside. With more indoor time now the lights have come back on! We've had quite a lot of colored rice and salt play this week. Fun to see what she has mastered since last winter when we fist did the colored rice, like pouring from a spoon the "right" way. There's also more conversation that happens during play. While making circles in the rice using an upside down funnel she exclaimed "Circles, circles, more circles!" Also while playing with the rice, I asked if she liked how it felt and she rubbed her fingers together as though feeling the rice in her palm. If I'm not engaging with her though, stuff just gets thrown everywhere. So it's a fine line between letting her discover independently but also engaging (sometimes the latter is harder to be intentional about).

Left over rice from Ornaments that Ella helped make

Colored epsom salts

"Dirtles!" (circles)