Wednesday, I brought the kids out and let them work with clay on the table on the deck. Holland seemed a little timid to use his whole body with the clay and seemed a little hesitant to play with the large chunk. When I sat with him with a much smaller slab, he was busy for over an hour! Same with Sofia, but I've seen her stay engaged with the clay for a long time before. Holland's main thing was picking off pieces from the side of his slab with his fingers, and smushing it down with one finger - a slightly challenging fine-motor task for him since the clay wasn't super moist and pliable. Sofia had noticed that the clay was kind of dry and tough to work with, and since it seemed like she had had experience with clay before, she wanted to get water to soften it. I suggested she use the sponge to control how much water we added. Holland of course wanted to do what Sofia did, and used the sponge also. When Sofia gave him a piece of her more wet clay, he again tried to smush it down with the same strength needed with his other pieces, but seemed surprised by the ease of it and the change in the consistency of the clay from the water.
I had brought out a little bit of wire (of different gauges) for Sofia to use with the clay. I wanted to let her experiment with the interplay of what you could and couldn't do with the different strengths of the wires. She started off making a "bracelet," poking the wire down through a small ball she had made. She also used the thicker wire to cut out pieces of clay, making a "waterslide." She made people to go down the waterslide, and even used the wire to make "eyes" for them.
** I told Cindy already, but Holland looked like he could climb out of his crib when I got him on Wednesday after his nap. He could get his knee over the side. Also, he patted his diaper and said poop after waking up, and a few minutes later, he had poop. Uncanny.
Thursday, Holland woke up when Cindy was getting ready to leave for San Antonio, so he was up for a while and I ended up having to wake him up to get him ready for school. Sofia slept right through it apparently. When we got there, he was excited to play with the materials, but came back up to me a couple times seeming to "check in." When we said goodbye, he was a little sad, but by the time we walked out and walked by the playground to go to the car, he had stopped crying and was being comforted by Natalie. When we picked him up, he happily ran over to greet us. Rosalinda said he had a great day. He cried for just 10 seconds when we left and they played outside for 50 minutes. They had a snack of pears and graham crackers and Holland ate a lot : ) He enjoyed sliding down the slide, and she said he was working on coloring a heart before we went in to get him. I'm guessing that's what I brought home.
Sofia and I had gone to the Central Market playground while Holland was at Lab School, and she seemed to have her crazy/silly energy going that morning. As I watch her play at the park with strangers, I notice that she's quick to make friends. Children generally like playing with her. Although in general, she takes the lead and tells younger children what they're going to play (like she does with Holland), that's not uncommon, especially because of the difference in their respective amounts of productive language. She's happy to play with them and younger children seem to be happy to follow an older child's lead. With peers though, I've noticed that she is able to both lead and follow - a nice balance. She is able to be assertive when she needs to be, but she is okay to follow someone else's idea for the most part.
I couldn't keep Holland awake on the ride home from Lab School, but who could blame him. He did wake up when we were going back into the house though and didn't go back to sleep, so we had some lunch, played a little, and he went to sleep around 1ish. Even though he seemed fairly excited and energetic when I put him down, it only took about 10 minutes for him to settle down and go to sleep. It looks like he's grown better at calming himself and self-soothing without his pacifier.
When we were at Pottery Barn Kids, Tim observed Sofia's assertion too. Another child took something from Holland's hands, and Sofia stood up for Holland, saying that he couldn't take things from Holland's hands. Funny. Those are the words I use with her : ) He loved her sense of justice and her advocacy on his behalf. She really does care for him and look out for him. They have a good time together, even though sometimes Holland is too rough with her (especially hitting her on the head with hard things).
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