Trapped Toddler Parents of Winter 2020/21 Support Thread - Puddlesuits at the ready!

[ReallySpicyCurry]

Are you the parent of a small child who doesn't yet sit still for more than five minutes? Do local lockdowns mean there are no baby and toddler groups for miles? Are you sick of walking the same three routes every day since March? Then come and join our support thread! I have started this after some of us had a good moan on a thread in AIBU ("To be worried about staying sane stuck inside all winter with a 2 year old?") because I thought it might be nice to share ideas/activities/general moans and concerns, over what is probably going to be a tricky winter for those of us with babies and toddlers.

Don't forget the answer to all your prayers though... The ever reliable puddlesuit. Puddlesuits are absolutely mandatory this year, and you are expected to wrestle your child into one and make them jump in puddles daily. If your child goes blue with cold, administer a swift dose of hot chocolate and hope your local Amazon delivery driver gets move on with your latest order of kinetic sand/playdough/ball pit/stickers. Failing all else, Peppa Pig is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent, in October as in March.

Hi ladies. Will have to catch up with the thread. Had a bit of an eventful week, DD born CIA emergency section and then we’ve both needed treating for sepsis and I’ve got cellulitis in my section wound.
Home today at some point. I am desperate to go home, to the point where I will leave shortly regardless.
DD has been cleared as medically fit for discharge, waiting on doctor review of my wound. But as it’s the weekend it could (probably will be) several hours before they can come. I’m a nurse, I deal with wound care every day I am more than happy that the wound is responding to antibiotics and how to access further help. I just want to go home. I want to see my son. My partner.

Oh @MonkeyPuddle you poor thing, I hope you get out soon, that sounds like a nightmare. I got to that point post section where I would have crawled home if they hadn't let me out. for you

@ReallySpicyCurry that's fantastic news about the sleep. Long may that last.
I haven't got a fire engine but will definitely look out for a second hand bargain.

@Postmanbear love your tuff spot and the red is gorgeous. I wish I'd bought a different colour now. I love the blue but then I found two blue ones in a skip so with hindsight it wouldn't been nice to choose another colour.

@MonkeyPuddle congratulations on the birth and I hope you both feel recovered soon. Do you have family support?

I've read a few posts of people finding tuff trays in a skip, very jealous!

@MonkeyPuddle. Sounds like you've had a rough time of it . Hope you and LO get home safely today.

Been tied up with work the past couple of days so need to catch up with this thread. Enjoying seeing photos of everyone's tuff trays - thanks for posting! I've made a note of some ideas to steal for next week .

We've been having our 'Bonfire Day' today. Started with reading all our Halloween and night-time books - 'Zoom Rocket Zoom' was a favourite! Then we watched the Peppa pig and Paw Patrol fireworks episodes - in theme and I enjoyed a quiet cup of tea and my book! Then we did some fireworks paintings on the tuff tray with mixed success. DS enjoyed it but we didn't produce any fantastic firework "art" like some posters have! We did make a fair amount of mess (pic attached).

This afternoon, DH has just taken DS to the playground (an hour's peace, yay!) and then we're going to roast marshmallows and do some indoor sparklers.

Congratulations @MonkeyPuddle!
I hope you’ve been able to go home. It’s horrible waiting in hospital to be discharged. Sorry to hear about the section and the sepsis, that must have been really horrible. I had a cat1 section with my second son and I found it really traumatising so I hope you’re both doing ok 💐

@MessAllOver looks fab and I like the whole day theme going on I'm dragging it out for a few days so I don't have to think too much.

Today was fab and bloody exhausting. We did the fire tuff spot thing which was a BIG hit. Then we started our plaster bandage volcano and I thought it would be a nightmare but it was great. She loved dunking the strips of bandage and putting them on.
But most of all she loved scrunching the news paper up into balls. That is a good activity in itself.

The a very long bath for the two of us!

It occurred to me that painting directly on the tuff spot can be done for any occasion so it could be a Xmas tree or birthday cake or Easter egg etc etc. I'll be doing this again for sure.

A big hit today was making play dough vegetables and letting her cut them up with one of her knives. Kept her going for an hour!

I hope you and DD get home soon @MonkeyPuddle

DH and DS1 spent all morning at the park. DS1 (accidentally!) saw lots of friends there.
DS2 spent most of the afternoon grumpy though as he only had a short nap, so none of my housework plans got done.

One good thing though was yesterday I moved all our living room furniture around so there's 2 different 'zones' (I put the sofa in the middle not against the wall) - means DS2 can't crawl out to the corridor and the lego/tiny things can be kept in the other bit where the table is.
Might make a quiche tomorrow and get DS1 to help me.

The @Camomila have you been inspired by Bake Off?

Oooh was it quiche week? I'm a few weeks behind.
My thought process was actually that I fancied some spinach instead of brocolli with the shopping this week. I made some spinach and ricotta crespelle the other week which everyone liked so thought I'd branch out to spinach and ricotta quiche.

@MonkeyPuddle I hope you’re home by now, I remember just being utterly desperate to leave by day 3 with my first. I’m sure I’m preaching to the converted, but do take the time to take care of yourself. I got a (mild) infection purely because I was too focused on DS and didn’t look after my c sec wound properly.

Today was an absolute write off. Baby is teething, DH decided he needed to take out a door and plasterboard the hole. DS1 has spent some of the day getting under DH’s feet but most of it in front of paw patrol. But we did sit and talk about what kind of cake he wants for his birthday, and joining the words “paw patrol” and “cake” in a sentence bought such a look of utter joy on his face! He’s never seen a paw patrol toy before, I scored two black bin liners of the stuff off marketplace and can’t wait to see his little face!

We’re home! DP is popping into the hospital tomorrow to pick up my discharge medication, I took ward stock home to cover me for today.
We’ve had a million cups of tea, takeaway and I’ve got a glass of wine.
DS is utterly besotted with her, wants to hold her all the time, he cried when he realised she couldn’t go to bed with him

@MonkeyPuddle. Aww! So pleased you're home.

@WeSearchedHereWeSearchedThere. We have a hard-core Paw Patrol fan here too... Usually spend a good chunk of the week in front of it.

@WeSearchedHereWeSearchedThere the joining up of paw patrol and cake made me laugh my head off. Such simple pleasures.

@MonkeyPuddle thank goodness you are home and all together again. Sound like everyone is smitten. Enjoy your time in bed having snuggles.

Made a car out of a cardboard box - huge hit!

Bloody raining here and look like it's in for the day. So I think we'll make some glitter playdough.

I'm torn about using glitter (I love it but know that glitter is litter) but I already own loads and I mean LOADS and I ensure none gets wiped up and goes in the sink. I wipe and put in bin. What's other people's thoughts on this?

I'm also going to bring the tuff spot in the house and a chair so toddler can sit and use the playdough in a new and exciting environment rather than the normal kitchen table. I MUST NOT MENTION IT WILL BE EXCITING. This is where I went wrong with pompom web thing I think.

Having had a Pinterest session I'm adding some items to my shopping list:
Baby oil: cloud dough
Cheap rice: to dye for coloured rice
Shaving foam: for general messy play.

I'm also saving jars to keep all the previously used lentils and beans etc in so they can be used without the bother and waste of getting new ones out. Some lentils have seemingly forever welded themselves to the patio though.

In lockdown news we in Wales are out tomorrow and are allowed to see people in parks but no garden meet ups.

I'm absolutely gutted about this as was thinking having a toddler friend over for a play date would get us through winter rather than dragging a newborn and toddler out to a freezing park.

I know my garden won't be warmer of course I just mean the hassle and having to go out in the car and pack all the 'just in case' things.

We were at our local national trust place on Friday morning. We went there as it's usually relatively quiet. We bumped into no fewer than four of DS's little friends with their mummies and one daddy. Cue five two and three year olds greeting each other like old friends and running round in the woods having a great time and four adults looking awkwardly at each other wondering if we were breaking the rules and whether we should be making the tinies socially distance more effectively.

Hello all! Just caught up with the thread
DH working this weekend so I'm solo with DD3 and baby DS. DD wants to make a cat costume so we have half made one out of amazon packing paper, thanks to previous PP suggestion I hadn't thought to reuse that. She's currently in front of Frozen whilst I sort out the nap refusing baby.
Yesterday we went for a lovely long walk and fed the swans. Definitely doing some direct tuff tray painting this week

She also wants to go the park so might be dusting off the puddlesuit. On another note does anyone know of good waterproof children's coats that can take a lot of washing? DD's nursery has a very muddy garden and they're out there every day

@footprintsintheslow on the MUST NOT MENTION IT WILL BE EXCITING point, I can’t recall whether you have the five minute mum book but this is basically her golden rule! (Which I have hopefully uploaded a photo of).

@MessAllOver I met up with a mum and toddler, we ended up letting the toddlers do what they wanted but we stayed 2m from one another. Obviously that was an allowed meeting though! It’s difficult isn’t it.

Does anyone have any advice on teaching dads how to play with toddlers... DH is great for wrestling, racing, football, DIY, but give him play dough, or frankly the entire contents of the play room and he is at a loss. I think it’s partly that DS(almost 3) doesn’t do things “properly” and he can’t handle that.

@kwaziseyepatch my DS’ waterproof coat is from muddy puddles and is very hardy. We got it slightly too big initially so it has lasted aaages. Admittedly I probably don’t wash it as often as I could though!
I’ve just attached a photo as I’m not sure I can do links properly.

@WeSearchedHereWeSearchedThere. DH is bad at playing with DS too. Drives me mad. He'll take him out to the playground or park but when they stay home, the TV tends to creep on.

What I've told him is to play by himself and wait for DS to join him. Do silly voices for play figures or trains, start making icecreams from playdoh, read DS's books aloud to himself or start painting and colouring in. Then, if DS shows interest, invite DS to join him and start having a conversation about what they are doing.

Maybe send your DH to play by himself for ten minutes or so with DS's toys when DS is asleep ? Being serious, that might help him to understand a bit better why your DS likes to play in the way that he does.

Can I ask where you are getting the pom poms from please? Shops are closed so I'm going to have to look online but there are so many sizes I don't now what to get! I was thinking of a mixed pack but could do with some recommendations n where to purchase from please. Thank you!