Thaaaank you, so many of you, for kind words about this post. Friday, the day after I posted, I was at the doctor’s office for a checkup and talking about what else I could do to get through the nausea. Just one day later, Saturday– at exactly 15 weeks and 3 days– I woke up hungry. I ate carefully all day and by dinner time I was waaaay hungry and didn’t feel like I had to be in bed at 8 pm. Well, 9 still sounded good. But my husband and I went out for a celebratory dinner and while I still ate carefully for a few days, I feel so so so much better. After a week and a half without nausea, I feel almost like my old self. I’ve gotten a million things on my to-do list done, which makes me feel happy and productive and like maybe I’ll find the energy I need to get this family moved on to our next home! Hooray!
So as I ramp back up to my usual-ish activity level, I thought I’d quickly share something fun that’s been entertaining our whoooole family and anyone that steps through the front door. Have you seen water marbles? It seems there are a hundred names for them and all of them sound silly. Orbeez is a brand name. Others include water crystals, rainbow mud, gel soil, magic marbles, water pearls and my favorite: “Colorful Magic Crystal Water Jelly Mud Soil Beads Balls”. Mmm hmm, sure. Whatever. I’m going with water marbles.
I ordered ours here (affiliate link). There are a lot of options– colors, quantities, who’s selling them and what they’re choosing to call them, but I thought that for $3.49 at the time with free shipping, it was worth trying. We got a bundle of six of these little packets.
Inside each packet there’s a bunch of the tiny spheres. Plop ’em in water and a few hours (maybe 4?) later they’re marble-ish in size with a bit of variety, at least in our set. Lots of color variety too in this assortment, but these turn pastel when they absorb water.
They’re more or less marble weight, too. They don’t float. You can almost not squish them into pieces, and both girls were delighted to find that you can indeed squish them into pieces if you try hard enough. They’re reported to be non-toxic, but as that’s not the same thing as “edible” I’d not leave ’em around the three-and-under crowd. We were all fascinated by this one little guy that wasn’t like the others. Not sure how he’s escaped getting squished. A sacred marble, apparently.
Our family is a sensory loving bunch, as previously discussed here. We keep these in a big clear plastic container and the girls and friends take turns spinning, squishing, stirring, swirling and squeezing. And admittedly, all the grownups have been fascinated too.
Jessica at Me Sew Crazy says
those are such fun and pretty photos – love them! I might need to check those out, my kids would flip!
lovemyabbie@gmail.com says
I was at a wedding when they used these as a vase filler, but they didnt’ fill them until JUST before the reception. We had so much fun playing with them as they spilled out of the vases all night. I will never forget when the first one popped out and rolled across the table!
crafterhours says
Hahahaha!
Ellen says
We had them at our wedding too, with battery string lights inside so they’d glow blue in the evening! So much fun to fill up a whole bath tub with theb in preparation :D
crafterhours says
Bathtub sounds like a better plan than *just before*. (see above) But lacks the SURPRISE! Ha!
Jennifer Lachman says
My kids love them. In the summer we fill a little baby pool up with them and let them grow while the kids a wading around in it.
Corinnea says
These look like such fun!
Kathy says
I’m sure you’ve read by now the danger in these…children have ingested them and caused intestinal blockages requiring surgery. Just be super careful.
crafterhours says
Yep. Eyes are on it!