Kidney Beans

Ah yes, the magnificent kidney bean. Packed full of nutritious vitamins, minerals and what have you. But, did you know they aren't just to eat anymore?

That's right. They are also great fun to play in!

Well, at least 24 pounds of red kidney beans in a rather large rubbermaid container, anyway!

One of the fun things Ethan looks forward to doing at his therapy is of course play in the ball pit...really who wouldn't?...but his second favorite is the bucket o' kidney beans. So, we went and bought said bucket and said amount of kidney beans. Throw in a few toys and wahla, we have an instant bucket o' fun!

He is allowed to play in it only once a day right now, because otherwise he would spend all day in there. So, we usually give him about 20-30 min. a day to have at it in his "kitty beans" as he calls them. (That's pretty good considering he was calling them coffee beans.) From morning until night it is the question of the day..."Mommy can Ethan play in my kitty beans?" My answer, "okay honey how about after breakfast?" His response while eating his breakfast, "Mommy can Ethan play in the kitty beans?" My answer, "what did Mommy say just a few minutes ago?" His response while refusing to take his vitamins, "after breakfast".

A few precious minutes of silence...and then..."Mommy when can Ethan go in the kitty beans?"

So, this is my day. The good news though is it has added one more item in my list of toys and/or activities Ethan can lose when his behavior is unacceptable. It is one of the more effective ones for now.

Even better is the fact that Joshua gets a kick out of just watching his brother play in there. As you can see we gave Josh a few minutes of play time in the bucket and he absolutely loved it. Unfortunately, he is still in the "gotta put it in my mouth" phase and can't be trusted with the beans. So, for the most part he spends his time growling and screeching at his brother to make more noise with the toys and the beans from the sidelines. He's so supportive! :) He doesn't mind so far, and until he stops trying to eat the beans, he won't be allowed to play in them for a little while.

What is the point of this bucket full of beans? Well, it helps Ethan with his tactile sense mostly. Right now, Ethan is very particular about where the beans are. For instance, he doesn't mind his hands touching them, or even his feet, but he doesn't like his legs buried, or his clothes covered. He stands up every few minutes to dust them off of him. He loves to pour them from container to container, but doesn't do much else. We try to encourage him to look for buried animals, dinosaurs etc. We have cars and things to try pushing through the beans with. It's a developmental thing that we have to work on, that's also fun for him. So, he has no idea that we are trying to teach him, which is nice.

There are many more activities that we can do with Ethan and as his therapy continues we'll be able to adjust his play time to what he's enjoying and learning the best from. Unfortunately we don't' see Jessica until the 15th due to vacations and schedules. However, we've already seen improvement in the way he plays in the beans, he now lets us pour them over his head...occasionally. :) Hey, it's a start!