Bubbles Academy

Yesterday, Adam, Zooey and I went on a play adventure to Bubbles Academy. Bubbles is a place in Lincoln Park that offers baby and kid music, movement and swim lessons as well as open play groups. We went to the open playgroup that is offered every Saturday (as well as M-F) from 1-5pm. The play is for babies and toddlers and takes place in a big, fun, colorful carpeted room called the Meadow Room. There are all kinds of toys, tunnels and foam blocks to climb on and through, sit atop toys, sleds, grocery carts to push, tents to play in, scarves and clothes to try on and, of course, bubbles!

Meadow Room

As soon as we got there we placed Zooey on the floor and she was off to the races. She showed not an ounce of apprehension or shyness as she scooted around the room from toy to toy. She immediately got involved with some bubbles and spent the first 1/2 hour with a bubble on her head. This is the view we had of her most of the day as she scooted in front of us in her attempt to get to the next great thing:

Constant movement= blurry pics. But see the bubble on her head??

Sometimes the authorities forced toys on her that she wasn't necessarily interested in. But she resourcefully found an escape route!

Watching the big(ger) kids

Zooey really enjoyed watching some of the bigger kids. We spent a good 5 minutes watching an 18 month old having her snack and not listening (or not understanding?) her mom's request for her to "sit over here". Hopefully Zooey wasn't learning lessons in not listening to your mom! All of the parents we ran into were super conscientious about enforcing sharing and making sure the bigger kids didn't get too close to Zooey. So I felt kinda bad when Zooey would scoot right up to bigger "walkers" and try to take their toys. I guess she's learned from being in a daycare room with a bunch of older, bigger boys that you have to take what you want from them! I think she's too young to understand "sharing" but I'll admit, other kids were disproportionately "sharing" with her and she didn't give much back in return!

"I know what to do with this!!"

Her favorites were the tunnels (no surprise there, she loves tunnels), the play ketchup bottle, the foam balls and the sled. She zoomed around the room on the sled two separate times, holding on for dear life. She didn't even seem to notice when other kids hopped on for a ride as well.

More, Daddy, More!

Doesn't she look like a frog?

Totally non-plussed when this guy joined the ride!

We weren't able to capture a whole lot of smiles- when Zooey is in the zone trying new things or exploring she is stingy with the smiles, but she certainly was entertained. She probably could have gone another 1/2 hour but her parents were ready for a change of scenery!

Play time well spent!