For the last couple of the months Teddy has slowly been eating more and more solid food. As part of his meals Teddy gets water in his weaning cup. While spills are super common (and I think a necessary part of the learning process) I've noticed that Teddy gets a significant amount of joy from splashing in the water that spills all over the table. Almost more joy than he gets from eating food.
In general, Teddy is also just a water baby. He loves the bath and getting wet. But, without solidly sitting the bath isn't a super easy place for him to just play with water. He can kick and splash, but just without a lot of freedom.
So thinking about those two things, I wanted to create a sensory experience where Teddy could explore water in a safe way that allowed for a little more freedom. My ultimate hope is that he gets this exploration out in this way, and maybe feels slightly less compelled to splash all over the dinner table!
To fill this need I simply put out a towel on our kitchen floor with a sheet pan filled with just a couple ounces of water. I was careful that it wouldn't be so much that if he was to try and lay down that his face was covered. Basically, it felt very similar to spilling a glass of water on the tray.
Then, I let him explore. He LOVED it. Splashing, crawling over the pan, licking his fingers - so much joyful exploration. See Teddy in action on Instagram. It was a great way for me to fulfill the interest I've noticed in him in a safe way, plus it gave me a few minutes to hang out and make dinner without also holding a baby!
*I hope it goes without saying that you shouldn't leave your baby alone with any amount of water, so supervise this activity*
Do you have a water baby?
