Hot and Cold

 Before I even get started--is this girl and her Daddy not the cutest pair you've ever seen?? I love how excited she gets to be with him. :) It's presh. And, an added benefit--she was standing up "all by herself", which always makes her so incredibly proud of herself. You have to kind of watch her when she does, though, because she gets so excited that she starts bouncing up and down and her balance goes straight in the toilet. Sweet baby.

Today has been an especially pregnant-feeling day for me; I've been tired and sick to my stomach and just wasn't feeling up to anything terribly elaborate. Thankfully, I saw on Pinterest that the simplest games entertain the babies, and so I figured a game of hot and cold might be just the trick. I got out our--admittedly Christmas--platter and threw a few ice cubes on it to start. Madelyn was immediately fascinated. They were cold and delightfully wet. She loved touching them, and, at first, even enjoyed how they scooted away from her questing fingers. After a moment, though, that got a little frustrating for her. She kept at it though, because I guess she just knew they'd be tasty if she could get them up to her little mouth. Notice the look of intense concentration on her face when she tried it!

Once that got a little old, we switched it up and put a bowl of warm water in front of her. Sidenote: we didn't put a towel down. Our oversight, I assure you. Thankfully, we have some kind of weird fake hardwood that's a cinch to wipe up.  I really think she preferred the warm over the cold; I'm not sure if that was because it was warm, though, or because it was splashable. Daddy did offer some ice cubes back to her at one point. Those were easier for her to grab, since they weren't trying to escape on a slippery platter. The cubes wound up in the warm water, where they, predictably, melted.  Madelyn really enjoyed trying to catch them in the water, and she looked for them for quite some time after they had melted away.

But, as all things must, game time had to come to an end. Partially because it was nap time. Partially because she was over it, and I try to wrap things up right before she gets bored, in case I need the game for a later date and time. I still loved her look of "Ok...now what do I do? I've touched it, splashed it, tasted it...hmmm." Funny girl!