Tag Archives: play

All About Me

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I was tagged in this All About Me meme by the lovely Chantelle from Mamamummymum which originated on the wonderful Gina’s Cold Tea and Smelly Nappies blog

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First of tell us your name and what you do……

I am Angela, Mammy to Joss, wife to Alex, part time charity project manager, part time student, full time ‘tired busy but just keeps going’ person!

I live at home with…..

Alex, Joss and our dog Toby. I’m writing this from home on a wet and windy day, I look knackered, but on a good day we look like this:

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My favourite thing to do is…..

Heading along to the Farm at the end of our street for a walk, to feed the animals and a breakfast in the cafe is always a welcome treat on a day off

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My favourite thing to eat is……
Ooh, tough one, I just love to eat! If I really had to choose then homemade pizza, I love bread and cheese!

When I get cross I……

Stay really very quiet for a while, then I explode, I’m not proud of it but am learning slowly to get a handle on it!

Sometimes I worry because….

I worry, that’s right folks, I am an anxious sort of person generally so I get caught up easily in worries, and then worry about my worrying. Sometimes it feels like I carry my worries around in a suitcase and sometimes I get them out and unpack them to get some space, I am learning to leave things out of the suitcase and forget and move on about others.

My favourite book is……

Alice in Wonderland, young or old it’s pure magical escapism, and the fancy dress options are endless!

My favourite toy is…..

My tablet, as I use it all the time for uni work, but my favourite of Joss’ toys is her Lego, I very much get involved in playtime and am a big kid at heart!

 I dislike…..

Empty chocolate boxes, dark winter days and itchy scratch wool

When I grow up I want to be…..

A fun parent to this lovely lady with lots of creative ideas in all aspects of life!

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So now I am to tag 5 others to take part, if you’d like me to tag you please leave a comment!

My first tagee is Jen Palmer from http://www.smilesandtrials.net – hi Jen!

And finally, don’t forget my competition to win one of five Nursery Trader VIP passes is still running here!

Play ideas meme

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As you know I’m quite new to blogging but I have seen some brilliant linkies, including the weekly ones I take part in, from Podcast Dove and Ethan’s Escapades.

I love the sharing nature of blogging and wanted to get some ideas from other parents about toddler play ideas. We are short of space, on a budget and have a little girl who is very very active. I thought I’d start a toddler play Monday meme and seek my first tagee this week.

So here we go with our three questions:

What’s the activity?
How do we do it?
What did your little one enjoy about it?

What’s the activity?

We tried a spot of highchair cornflour gloop! We heard about this at our local Children’s Centre and thought the highchair could be a good place to contain the gloop til we source a cheap messy play tray!

How do we do it?

Mix two heaped tablespoons of cornflour with water until you have a gloop in a cup, or mix it straight onto the tray like we did for floury then wet fun! Then get your hands in, get little plastic toys in or a cheap paintbrush!

What did your little one enjoy about it?

Joss loved the gloop despite an uncertain start, look at her face! The gloop is so strange it looks wet but feels solid and you can move it around but if you try to scoop it it runs like water through your hands! Hard to describe, you’ll have to try it yourself!

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Its pretty easy to clean up but do be aware it could be drain clogging so try to scoop as much as you can into an empty milk carton!

If you’d like to get involved and don’t want to wait to be tagged then grab my blog meme button! The next blogger to post next Monday will be In The Playroom – I’m looking forward to seeing what they come up with!

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Small Steps…Amazing Achievements – roleplay

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I’m amazed by how early small people pick up on role play and get their own funny little games going!

 

Joss is showing herself to be a very sociable little girl, everything is a phone at the moment and she has some very sweet little chats into a lego brick, my calculator and an old hairbrush…”lo? ello? whoist? hee hee, ello?” She also has an empty giftbag that’s her little ‘handbag’ with an old bank card and keys, hours of fun!

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She’s also started showing real love and empathy with her little toys, including carrying her spider puppet in a dolly sling and cuddling her bears. This week she had a little game going of pretending dolly was crying, and shushing her and stroking her head, it made my heart melt!

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Some new words this week too, I like writing them down to look back on! This week or so we’ve had some rudeys, pump, bump and poo, some practical, keys, cu’umber, brush and card, and some fun, a sheep goes ‘maaaa’ and ‘donwantit’ which also serves to confuse mammy when she does want it, cue little tantrum! And my faves, joining in with the last word in songs, dingle dangle scarecrow with a flippy floppy….HAT! and twinkle twinkle little STAR!

Little feet one year on…Small Steps Amazing Achievements

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Looking at the fridge display of artwork today and I can’t believe it’s almost been a whole year since Joss created her first piece of artwork! She was just 5 months old when we did this at baby group together. At the time, the words ‘soon they will wear two little shoes’ seemed far far away in the distant future, but how time has flown since then!

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Glitter and mess

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Love a spot of messy play! Here are our top ideas for cheap rainy day entertainment!

1) edible glitter and squirty baby soap, a lethal combination so do this on bath night! Joss loved the sparkles and thought the squirty soap was hilarious! If they’re passed the stage of eating it shaving foam is a cheap alternative!

2) a 25p bottle of blowing bubbles, even tiny babies enjoy bubbles, Joss now says pop when they come back down!

3) have you checked out pinterest? Wow what a goldmine of ideas, this edible paint was great fun for me to make and play with too! http://pinterest.com/kristi_cck/edible-art/

4) an oldie but goodie, cornflour feels lovely and silky, add water and it turns solid and gloopy but when you scoop it in your hand it turns to liquid, who knew?! Joss loves the mess with this one!

5) and finally water play, Joss is enjoying her baths so much that we bought a big plastic sheet for in the kitchen, sat on the floor with her old baby bath and some random items (bath toys are boring, sieves, spoons, an empty bottle and little pots and measuring cups are waaaay more fun!

If like me you love to be out and about don’t feel trapped indoors get creative!

First shoes, little feet, ever so sweet!

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They really do and I am loving recording Joss’ moments! Today we had a big ‘first’ the first pair of shoes! A little late at 16m as she’s not quite walking confidently they’re a whopping 4F! She was fab in the shoe shop giggling and allowed her feet to be measured, we chose these soft cruisers, I was against shoes before confident walking at first but she’s such an aversion to socks etc I wanted her to get used to short periods of shoe wearing, and my little show off took 6 steps independently tonight, the most yet!

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Tonight I caught her learning about how socks work in her cot, we’d been playing happily and she took off both socks. First she stretched them, then she opened them, then draped them over her feet looking triumphant til they fell off, eventually she decided they maybe were for on her head and popped one on there saying ‘hat’ – then dolly tried them on, and Tramp but they still didn’t work, after ten minutes she got bored and moved onto practicing words, cheese, ‘nana and meow!

Cuddledry Giraffe Poncho

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Joss has been standing in the bathroom asking for ‘bapf’ lately, she loves bathtime and I’m so pleased she enjoys it as its a lovely time to spend together especially if I’ve been out to work for the day. This week the Cuddledry Poncho I ordered arrived, two sweet little giraffes appliquéd on a soft white bath poncho.

The cotton bamboo blend makes it super soft and absorbent and as you can see Joss likes to extend playtime post-bath so its a good way for her to get some nappy free time and keep warm too! I like the flowered edging, it is a lovely quality towel and the perfect step up from the Cuddledry apron for an exploring toddler!

If you’d like one for your little explorers check out Cuddledry by following my Cuddledry Super Bloggers button on the right side of my blog!

Crafting time – canvas quad for less than £10

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Crafting time - canvas quad for less than £10

I finished Joss’ 4 canvases today, all with a seaside theme and incorporating photos from her first trip to the coast at South Shields and her first dip in the sea.

Bargain canvases at £4 for 4 and a craft magazine with all the trimmings made this a really cheap and easy activity, kept me busy for a few nights and will make a pretty display in Joss’ room!

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Munchkin Booster Feeding Seat Review

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When I heard we’d been chosen by Munchkin to test their products I crossed everything that the booster seat would be in the product bundle as I’d been feeding Joss on my knee out at other people’s houses for way too long and she’d learned loads of tricks for wriggling away to play!

I was really pleased to see it in the mega box of products and knew we’d test that first! The practical things first – it has two seat heights and two positions for the feeding tray, can be attached to any dining chair but also used on the floor. The seat strapped easily to a large dining chair, the three point harness clipped easily and the first tray setting was a good fit even though Joss is skinny and usually too small for most seats! I was surprised how steady she was without straps over the shoulder but the seat was really robust. Even though we kept the seat on the lower position Joss quickly found she was boosted to a prime view of the TV and can be seen stretching to see here!

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I love the vibrant green and sturdy chair back, Joss seemed really comfy and happily tucked into her cheese and courgette muffin, I think she liked eating with us as she could see our lunch and beg for bits and bobs from our plates!

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You can see here that although she’s a littley she was sat upright and comfortable. I was really impressed with this product, particularly as its priced at under £20 online and if we had dining chairs at home I’d have preferred this to our standard high chair, top marks from us!

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We gathered items for our treasure basket

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We gathered items for our treasure basket

I just heard about heuristic play last week, and treasure boxes too. We’ve just been around the house this morning, snow coming down fast, so I took a few minutes to search for some ideas online. Niff loved the basket, and its contents were so ordinary looking to me, but so interesting to her. She especially liked the rubber icecube mould, the silk scarf and had a good chew on the bristles of the toothbrush! The metal spoon was clearly preferred over the plastic and the weird bath sponge was just thrown! It was a really nice way to spend a morning, I had a cuppa and just observed. Heuristic play is about sitting back and letting them explore objects, work out for themselves what they do, or don’t do, and it kept her happy for a good hour!

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