Taking a Walk

Today was a slow day. There were only three babies there for most of it. There’s Baby K who’s new and Baby M who isn’t usually there on Wednesdays. They are both fussy babies. Baby K is because she’s new and has become only attached to one person. Baby M is difficult to feed, put to sleep and he gets fussy over little things that wouldn’t bother the other babies. I saw his happy side a couple of times today. The first was when he was in the swing outside. He kept laughing and babbling. The second time was when he was sitting on the couch with one of the teachers and he kept laughing at her. Baby L wasn’t there today, but I spent some time with Crawling Baby. I helped him walk and he actually stood on his own for a few seconds before falling down. They brought this circle that he likes to sit in. It’s made of squishy material and has a squeaker, a bell and other things attached to it. He wasn’t interested in those things, but they had some balls like you’d find in a ball bath and he liked throwing them out of the circle. He thought it was so funny when I’d throw them back in. He’d hand me a ball just so I could throw it. He thought it was extra funny if the ball would hit the bell or bounce really high. He was occupied by this for a long time. Of course, he’d laugh if I had to go crawling around after the ball. Another thing about him is that he loves to eat. After his lunch, we brought him outside to play in the sand box. Since there wasn’t much going on, I brought my lunch outside. He shouldn’t have been hungry, but he kept trying to take my food. I had to hold the bowl up in the air so he wouldn’t grab it. He goes nuts for food and babbles non stop while he eats. When it was time for Crawling Baby’s nap, one of the teachers was amazed that I could get him to sleep. He usually doesn’t go to sleep fast, but all I did was put him in his crib, cover him and after rocking the crib for a couple of minutes, he was sleeping. Other times I’ve gotten him to sleep by giving him his bottle while sitting with him. When he’d fall asleep, I’d take the bottle away. He was so tired that he didn’t even wake up before I left.

This morning, we decided to take the babies for a walk before it got too hot. We walk down streets that have very little traffic. We stopped at the water front to show the babies the water, but the only one who was awake was Crawling Baby and he was barely awake by then. It was a nice walk. If the babies were awake, they would’ve seen lots of birds and different plants along the way. It’s nice that we can spend most of the day outside with them now. For most of them, these are their first experiences playing outside. A few of the parents have commented that it’s so cool that they get to play in the sand box because they don’t have things like that at home. I’m sure we’ll go on lots of walks and the babies will have plenty of play time outdoors this summer.