Bountiful Balloons

Toddlers love balloons! Its this amazing thing, worth hours and hours of play! (A few precautions-obviously a popped balloon or a balloon with a string are dangerous for small children-so keep on eye on kiddos while playing with balloons.) We recently blew up a whole bag of dollar store balloons and have had the around the house for fun. Joe has loved tackling and rolling around on them, almost chewing on them. Surprisingly, they have withstood the abuse. Emily really enjoys them as well. Much to my surprise (I was prepared for toddler trauma) they enjoyed throwing them away even more! They brought me the balloons in the bathroom, where I would snip the top, near the tie, and return them to the child to have the air squished out of them. Then I made sure the deflated balloons went right into the trash. (That's why we were in the bathroom-convenient trash location ;) My two toddlers would then go running/waddling quickly from the bathroom in search of more balloons! No trauma. No tears. No why? Just more fun.
I think the best part about this for me was how Emily's big sisterness really shone through. She was amazingly considerate to Joe for part of this, making sure that he got a balloon too, even before she had hers. !! If only it worked like that all day. Its so wonderful to get those encouraging "something is getting through" moments. :)