After dropping Laura off at the airport early Sunday morning, we packed the kids up for a playdate with Grayson's family at the Jordan Lake beach. It was a gorgeous day--sunny, mid-80's. There had been a security breach while packing up, though. I had gotten out some bubbles to take in case Simon got fussy. I was going to bury them in the bottom of the bag and only bring them out in an emergency, but I set them on the table and got interrupted before I had a chance to stash them in the bag. Simon saw them, and did not let go of them. He held on to them in the van, and when, falling asleep, he accidentally dropped them, he immediately became fully alert and called out for his dropped bubbles.
So when we got to the beach, Alice went right in the water and played with Grayson while Simon played with his bubbles.
He did eventually let me carry him in to the water though, which was a big improvement over last summer when he would scream the whole time if I tried to carry him out into the water. After a while, to my surprise, he even spontaneously stuck his face in the water and started blowing bubbles!
We got out for lunch, and then Simon stayed in the tent blowing bubbles for a long time.
He also demands participation in the bubble blowing ritual by those present (me). I had to blow bubbles with him, and whenever I took a break, he would squeal, "Blow bubbles, mommy!" Also, he has a tedious ritual where he places the wand inside and the lid back on the bottle after each blow, and insisted I do the same. He would sit on the cooler to blow, then get up, take my bubbles and show me the right procedure, then go back to the cooler, sit down, blow a bit, see that I wasn't following his protocol, get up, take my bubbles and show me again how to do it right, go back, sit down, blow, put wand in bottle, put lid on bottle, remove lid, remove wand, blow, replace wand, replace lid, tell me to blow bubbles...
