Weekend Playtime

Never underestimate the power of child's play.  According to http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/, play helps a child do the following amazing things:

• Develop physical skills. Gross motor skills are developed as a child learns to reach, grasp, crawl, run, climb and balance. Fine motor skills are developed as children handle small toys. 
• Develop cognitive concepts. Children learn to solve problems (What does this do? Does this puzzle piece fit here?) through play. Children also learn colors, numbers, size, and shapes. They have the ability to enhance their memory skills as well as their attention span. Children move on to higher levels of thought as they play in a more stimulating environment. 
• Develop language skills. Language develops as a child plays and interacts with others. This begins with parents playing cooing games with their children and advances to practical levels such as telling make-believe stories and jokes. 
• Develop social skills. Learning to cooperate, negotiate, take turns and play by the rules are all important skills learned in early games. These skills grow as the child plays. As a result, children learn the roles and rules of society. 

And because Rolly and I realize that, and we, too, would love to have some out-of-home playtime with our baby despite the bed weather, we went out yesterday and found ourselves at Tom's World in SM Southmall where there's a large play area for kiddos.

We knew she loves colorful balls so this was our first stop!

She didn't want to leave! =D

Of course, mommy joined the fun too! :)

Her next stop was where these soft spikes were. :) I think this was her favorite!

with her favorite person in the world - dada! :)

Lia still can't navigate this yellow bridge (left) so we just took a photo of dad before we headed down. :)

Lia rode the little car and she fell. :( Guess it's safer to play with balls.

This time, she's in a bigger 'car' with mommy, so it's all safe. :)

Our last stop! Lia's frustrated because she couldn't ride these hanging bulbs yet. When you're older, baby. :)

Happy baby! :)

And that sums up our weekend playtime! :) It was only for an hour at Tom's World, so we just continued at home. There are no giant play items in the house, but Lia enjoyed daddy's dancing and mommy's singing, hehe. :)

Cheers,