rainbow

Our water beads arrived yesterday! These are my new favorite. Good thing I ordered the ocean mix and the rainbow, as we'll be making more in the coming days. I'd really like to just fill the tub with them, but I think we'll settle for quart bowls at a time. It was mesmerizing to watch them grow throughout the day. The kids had a blast just running their fingers through the slippery balls and sorting them into individual colors. Good, clean, tactile fun for the four-and-up crowd (though Opal also had some supervised fun with them-- she saw them when she woke from her nap, and I couldn't say no)... get thee some.

In other colorful news, our kids take their holiday crafting seriously and have been cutting and pasting "treats" and love for Valentine's Day, in between learning about the martyred physician, for days now. It's wonderful to have such independent kids who go to town creating all on their own. I just provide a drawer or two of the usual supplies.

And Tubbers has been LOVING the Jumperoo we were blessed to recently acquire. LOVING. We've never had one of these before, but it seriously does an A+ job of keeping the kid delighted and engaged while I'm doing school or whatever else with the other kids. He was jump jump jumping away in there for more than an hour this afternoon and was a super duper sleepy boy by the end of it, just staring off into space, sticking that lower lip waaaay out over his top lip as he does when he's tired. It's quite endearing.

For the record, yesterday and today have been "some of the best days ever," according to Jack. I'm so glad he still says things like this. It makes me feel like they're getting a happy childhood despite the times when I feel like I'm going in and out of days in what sometimes feels like a trance. We're slowly getting there. And what do you know? Spring is just next month! I'm not stoked for the slop that comes pouring into our mudroom with that, but I am starry-eyed thinking about more daylight and outdoor picnics and pretty blooms.

We are so blessed.