Happiness to me #spreadalittlehappiness

What makes me happy? My little boy, growing up, makes me so happy and so proud.

We seem (fingers crossed, touch wood) to have turned a corner with food. He’s not eating pasta yet but he is being a bit more adventurous and is eating sweet potato and baked beans again, which he had been refusing. He also ate some yummy soup for the first time on Thursday. This makes me happy. He loves feeding himself with a spoon too, which makes both he and I happy! 🙂

He’s also been really brave and been trying new things. It may sound daft but for as long as I can remember he has hated being in a ball pool, but on Friday, he wanted to go in the ball pool and loved it! Made me so proud and happy.

In the same vein, he has never been a child to go in a ride-on car, or sit on/in anything you move with your feet, he always kicks his legs massively if you tried to put him in/on one, he just hates it. Not sure if he felt too confined or what. But this week, for the first time in a long time, he sat inside a car for ages and tried to figure out how to make it go. That made me really happy.

Being a parent is the hardest thing I’ve ever done but watching him grow up is the most rewarding thing I’ve ever experienced. People always say that, but I didn’t feel it when he was younger, now though I am truly starting to appreciate how rewarding being a mummy can be.

What else makes me happy? Toddler giggles! It is just the best sound in the world to me!

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Family Photo Friday – One of Monkey’s Uncles :)

Posted by Caroline Elliott

Family Photo Friday time again and this week we have one of Monkey’s Uncles. Never realised before now how funny that sounds!

Monkey loves his uncles very much and this is my little bro 🙂 Playing with some play-doh and the letter & number cutters my older brother and sister-in-law bought him for Christmas

Apologies for the poor quality was playing with my camera on my phone.

Family Photo Friday @ Thursday's Child, Friday's Thoughts

Baking with a toddler – messy but brilliant! – 19 months

Posted by Caroline Elliott

For quite a while now I have been thinking about doing some baking or cooking with Monkey but honestly have been too scared by the thought of him being in the kitchen around sharp knives, hot ovens, you get the idea. I may have mentioned once or twice that Monkey is a Fussy Eater, and in my extensive reading about ways to help with that I have read that getting them involved in the kitchen is a good way to go. For example, Supernanny’s Little Chef Technique, but, at risk of repeating myself, knives, hot ovens… aaaagh.

Then one day I was getting dinner ready and he was so unhappy at me being in the kitchen that I let him come in with me. He played on the floor to start with with some cake tins and spoons, then he got interested in the sweet potato I was peeling, so I sat him on the step stool so he could see the worktop and he helped me put the chopped sweet potato into the steamer and the peelings in the bin. Simple things of course but it gave me confidence to try baking or something.

One afternoon after a short nap, I decided to go for it, put his lovely pinny on, and we made a very simple Victoria sponge cake. Unfortunately I am a bit of a control freak and didn’t want him to ruin the cake – no matter how much I told myself it didn’t matter how it turned out, I just couldn’t do it! So he helped me grease the tins etc. then I set him up with a mini bowl and all the ingredients (apart from the raw eggs) and he absolutely loved it.

I let him stir the ingredients for the cake too and he loved licking the spoon and bowl once the cake was in the oven.

He had so much fun and then helped me with the washing up.

He’s been dying to do it again and keeps pulling the step stool up to the worktop. It went so well the first time that I thought we should do it again, this time with some yummy biscuits. I’d made them once before and you can see the recipe here.

Again I’m afraid I got a bit freaked when he was grabbing the ingredients as I measured them in so again he got a little bowl of his own, which he loved so I don’t feel too guilty about it! He helped me stir it all up though and again he loved eating the mixture off the spoon.

The greatest thing about this baking experience was how much he enjoyed it!

He carried on playing way after the cookies were in the oven. I love these pics as he looks like a proper little chef!

He was still playing at the worktop once the cookies were baked and I had washed everything up and even cleaned up around him!He had a brief play at the sink then wanted to get back to ‘his’ square of worktop where he was then happy playing with bowls and spoons… and then had a hilarious moment where he realised he could see his reflection in the food processor. So cute as he was pulling lots of funny faces! haha

It was so much fun and I think the first time ever that we have spent an hour and half on an activity! So I have now overcome my fear of having him in the kitchen (not completely of course, a healthy dose of fear for his safety is permanent I think) and am looking forward to making lots more things with him in the future. Whether it helps his fussy eating, only time will tell.

Oh and the baking resulted in this yummy cake

And these yummy biscuits

Do you like baking with your toddler? What do you like to bake with them?

Playing with Velcro Hair Rollers – 19 months old

Posted by Caroline Elliott

I found this idea via the Kid’s Activities Blog last week on LalyMom and thought it was genius!

I too have wavy/curly hair and have tried in the past to tame it with velcro rollers and well, failed miserably! haha So in a drawer under my bed my velcro rollers have been gathering dust…. until now!

It turns out there is a lot you can do with them and we have barely touched the surface.

They are great for sorting by size, stacking, posting things through, sticking to each other and other things.

Monkey liked putting them on his fingers and wiggling them around,

You can use them to build, as they stick together, though Monkey just wanted to knock said buildings down so I didn’t manage a photo haha.

We spent ages playing with straws with them too, posting them through was great fun!

Just another reminder that you don’t have to spend loads of money on toys to entertain the kiddies and they are great for those fine motor controls!

Monkey’s found his pockets, and learned blinking is fun! 20mths

Posted by Caroline Elliott

It’s the simple things isn’t it… We always fixate on little ones learning the big things, walking, talking etc. But there is so many little things they learn too.

This week, Monkey has discovered his coat pockets, which is just the cutest thing.

He’s also discovered that he can control his blinking, and he can squint his eyes, which he thinks his hilarious. As evidenced at breakfast this morning.

Don’t you just love seeing the world through a toddler’s eyes? Where even the smallest things, that we take for granted, are just amazing to them!

7 Ways to play with Water – The Theme Game!

Posted by Caroline Elliott

I am joining in with The Theme Game, run by The Reading Residence and Redpeffer. I never got round to entering last week but better late then never I am entering this week.

The theme this week is water and seeing as my life revolves around my little boy these days it has got me thinking about all of the watery fun we have had with monkey so far. So here it is, 7 ways to have a lot of fun with water:

1. – Swimming

Took him a while to enjoy swimming, and he hated it the first time, but he soon loved it, even if not for very long at a time. We have been bad parents since the summer and haven’t taken him swimming in ages, but hopefully he will still very much enjoy it when we get round to going again!

2. – Paddling

Similar to swimming of course but lots of fun be it in a paddling pool or in the sea!

3. Bathy Time

So much you can do in the bath – play with bubbles, stir the water, pour water, and just generally splash about!

4. Washing up

Who cares if things get clean, just have fun with the bubbles and water!

5. General Splashing about

I know there is splashing with all of these watery activities, but splashing for splashing’s sake is just so much fun!

6. Blowing bubbles with a straw

I don’t have any pictures of this one but very fun to do, even if Monkey doesn’t quite get blowing yet and just wants to bite the straw, me blowing the bubbles made him giggle

7. Puddle Splashing

Just because the weather isn’t as warm doesn’t mean you can’t still enjoy the water, you just need to add some water proof clothing… in case this happens!

This was meant to be a picture of him happily splashing in a puddle, but then he tripped and it turned into a photo of him falling face first into a very muddy puddle! haha, bless him 🙂 It hasn’t put him off splashing in every puddle he sees!

There are many ways to play with water, and I’m sure we will have more fun as monkey gets older, with the hose, water pistols, etc. What fun do you have with water?

Sensory play with spaghetti – 19 months old

Posted by Caroline Elliott

As you may have read, we are having problems at the moment with Monkey’s fussy eating, and one of the things he refuses to even touch, let alone eat, is pasta. He loved it when he was younger but now won’t go near it and I think he doesn’t like the texture. It doesn’t matter if it’s plain or in a sauce, we’ve tried adult pasta, baby pasta, spaghetti, star and moon shaped pasta but nothing tempts him. I’ve seen people using spaghetti as sensory play and it got me thinking. We play with dry spaghetti but have never tried cooked and I wonder if I can get him happy playing with spaghetti, maybe he will be more tempted by it at the dinner table?

After hearing about a Tuff Spot from mumturnedmom, I bought one, as I am hoping it helps me be braver with messy play in the hopes it will contain the mess! Anyway I was eager to try it out so one day when Nanny was here I decided to give it a go. My Mum thought I was bonkers, you could see it on her face from the moment I suggested it! Ha ha she really thought it was a daft idea!

But nonetheless we had a go and I think judging by Monkey’s face here that he thought I was bonkers too at first!! hehe But he soon got into it.

He is such a little scientist and he really studies things, the spaghetti being no different. He had lots of fun with it, moving it around, treading on it, pulling it, all sorts so I am really pleased.

Whether it will help him want to eat it I have no idea but it was a good playtime anyway. He like hiding it in the tuff spot box too!

Family photo Friday – the giggles

Posted by Caroline Elliott

Mama H at Thursdays Child, Friday’s Thoughts has started a lovely linky called Family photo Friday which I think is a really lovely idea. The idea is to share a family photo from the week just gone so that by the end of the year you can chart the growth and changes. I think that is a fab idea as we take so many photos and it’s lovely to see how much they change.

So here is my photo from this week!

It was taken after tea on Saturday night and we were playing cars across the dining table. Monkey was loving it so much and really had the giggles and I just think this is such a gorgeous piccy of him and his daddy having fun together. Don’t you just love the sound of toddler giggles? Best sound ever in my opinion!

Thanks Mama H for starting this lovely linky and thanks to Jocelyn at The Reading Residence for introducing me to it! I look forward to watching the little ones grow in these photos.

Painting with a paintbrush! 19 months old

Posted by Caroline Elliott

Over the Christmas break, whilst out having some lunch with some friends, Monkey picked up a chip and dipped it in some ketchup (not to eat of course, don’t be silly ;)) and had great fun using it to ‘paint’ with. We haven’t done finger painting for a while because he’s generally not a fan of having things on his hands (nothing to do with the mess it makes hehe ;)) and I didn’t think he was anywhere near ready for a paintbrush, but seeing him with the ketchup and chip gave me other ideas.

So I found some non toxic paints that are supposedly washable. I could have made the home-made paints again but to be honest I was feeling lazy and I’m not 100% keen on the consistency. It’s quite jelly like and well who am I kidding, I’ve just been feeling lazy! So I bought some non-toxic paints.

Anyway so we got monkey to wear one of his old coverall bibs, which he was ok with once it was on. We gave up the fight over bibs at mealtimes a loooong time ago so it is a teeny bit snug on him! The paints say they are washable but I don’t really trust them! He sat at his little table in the conservatory (definitely my preferred place for messy play) and he loved it.

We didn’t get him any water to rinse off the brush between colours, which maybe we should have done, but then I have a feeling it may just have ended up being a very very watery painting! The result of not doing it though is that all the paints are now a bit of a mix of colours, but hey ho, it’s only him that’s using them and so who cares.

I tried to get him to do some hand prints when he inevitably got it on his hands, but he mainly just wiped it down his front – so thank goodness for the bib!

Daddy was around too to help with the clean up, which definitely helped! Will need to see how I manage the clean up on my own haha. The only problem with messiness in the conservatory is that we are a long way from a tap or basin, so I will need to be organised with a bowl of soapy water next time, to avoid any paint escaping into the rest of the house!

MumturnedMom introduced me to the idea of a ‘tuff spot‘ which looks genius to me and so one is on order! I am looking forward to trying out messy play in that when it arrived!

How do you contain the mess?

First attempt at Fancy Dress – 18 months old

Posted by Caroline Elliott

I’ve been thinking for a while that it may be a good idea to start a fancy dress box with Monkey. Another way to have some fun when we are stuck in the house more over the winter, and I hope it will also help with teaching him how to get dressed, maybe! haha But I hadn’t got round to doing anything and I wasn’t 100% sure how keen he would be.

A week or two ago, daddy had a meeting and came home from work a bit early (yay), he kicked his smart shoes off in the lounge and sat on his laptop to do some work (boo). To make Monkey laugh I put Daddy’s shoes on, which are huge. He is a size 12, whereas I am a size 5 1/2. Monkey giggled but then to my surprise he came and tried to put them on him! So we did and he was loving walking around the living room in them, and he really started to get the hang of stepping in and out of them, it was so cute.

Then a couple of days later, round at Uncle Simon’s house with daddy, Monkey was having great fun putting Uncle Simon’s gloves on and off!

So I thought that maybe it was time to start a fancy dress box for him. I had a box of stuff in the loft from the parties I had in my wilder, pre children days so went to have a nosey and see what was in there. I found a couple of wigs, some glasses from a harry potter costume, and then got a random selection of old scarves, gloves and other big t-shirts from the bag destined for the charity shop.

We got the box out one afternoon and had a bit of a giggle with it, but it wasn’t hugely successful. He had the most fun with glasses and wigs, and a scarf stayed on for a few seconds, but I didn’t even attempt Tshirts or bigger items, not on the first try. It was fun but I think it’s something he’ll enjoy more as he gets older.

He still likes shoes though, and tried putting mine on when we went for a walk this afternoon! I’m sure I will get the box out again over the winter months and hopefully he will get more adventurous the more we do it.

Do your little ones like fancy dress?

Becoming a Stay at Home Mum

Can I really do this?

Playtime

Happiness to me #spreadalittlehappiness

Family Photo Friday – One of Monkey’s Uncles :)

Baking with a toddler – messy but brilliant! – 19 months

Playing with Velcro Hair Rollers – 19 months old

Monkey’s found his pockets, and learned blinking is fun! 20mths

7 Ways to play with Water – The Theme Game!

Sensory play with spaghetti – 19 months old

Family photo Friday – the giggles

Painting with a paintbrush! 19 months old

First attempt at Fancy Dress – 18 months old