Pumpkin Bath

Friday afternoon we tried out a new Fall activity I'd see on one of the instagram pages I follow, Busy Toddler.  We spent the day at my mom's and Cooper would not nap, so he fell asleep on the way home around 4:00 and then was a mess when he woke up.  He just wanted to be held and even when I was holding him he was not happy.  So I knew we needed something to turn it around and allow me to cook dinner since our dinner plan for the night involved lots of time at the stove.  So I pulled out this activity that I've had tucked away for the last month: Pumpkin Bath.

I've had this in the back of my head for a while and Friday was the perfect time for it-- 1. because we needed something to turn our afternoon around and 2. because our pumpkin patch pumpkins are about at the end of their life.

I set him up in his tower with 2 sinks full of water and some bubble bath, 3 mini pumpkins, one plastic pumpkin, a measuring cup, and a dish brush.  At first he was unsure about it all, but then he settled in.  He loved pouring water from one sink into the other.

His very favorite part was pushing the pumpkins into the water.  

I realized pretty quickly that he was struggling with reaching the pumpkins down in the sink even though I had them pretty full.  So then I got out a tub and filled it with water and put the pumpkins in it on the counter.  He had a much easier time reaching them.  So then he took them all out and put them in the sink to make them splash.

And then he quickly figured out how to reach them in the sink with a little more effort (I was right by him the whole time)

Throwing pumpkins into the water.

This activity was definitely a big hit, but also a big mess.  Cooper liked pouring water from the measuring cup and a few times he poured it directly onto the floor.  But it allowed me to cook dinner on the stove and kept him happy, so the mess was worth it for this evening.

And then he helped clean up.  Once he was done with the pumpkin bath, he immediately wanted his shirt off since it was wet.  Then we used some towels to clean up all the water.  Cooper actually really enjoys wiping up messes with towels, so this part was fun for him too!  After we were done, we put our pumpkins back on the porch to dry.

Overall, this was a pretty fun and different activity for him.    It's probably something I'll save for infrequent occasions since it does leave a mess-- although I have also seen the idea of doing the pumpkin bath in the bath to contain the water a little better.  We might try that the next time we need a good distraction!