Trapped toddler parents of the fabled Winter 2020/2021. Puddle suits at the ready..hello Christmas!

[footprintsintheslow]

New thread as the other one is running out.

A place to find find and share ideas of how to get through these crazy times with lockdowns and babies and toddlers.

New members welcome.

Sorry to hear some of you have been having similar struggles. Is it a full moon?

Goodness knows but it's been an utter trial of a day here. I hope you enjoyed your cuppa.

@ReallySpicyCurry you definitely deserve a cuppa! Some cake too perhaps?!

Can i ask how is everyone celebrating birthdays during lockdown please?
Little one is turning 3 soon but I have no clue what to do to make the day a little different to all the other days with the usual walks, reading, kinetic sand, cars, food shop etc. He won't eat cake or chocolate. I've got loads of balloons to blow up and play with (for all of five minutes), tried to buy sparklers but can't find any in real life shops. Obviously new toys will be nice for him to play with but to be honest he hasn't really been interested with anything he got for Xmas

Can i ask how is everyone celebrating birthdays during lockdown please?

Probably not much use as we've only done a first birthday but we did balloons and cake but he wasn't very fussed.

What about a piñata? It will at least be a novelty and make the day a little more unusual?

@PinkDaydreams. Slightly random but we took our bubble machine to the woods and had a birthday picnic with bubbles, cake and balloons outside. DS loved it even though it was freezing .

Not sure that would be allowed under the 'exercise' rule now .

@PinkDaydreams we just did presents, cake, some baking, and a walk out. My DD was only 2 so really didnt know. Maybe you could do a disco? So music, dancing, sweets, turn the lights off?

Thank you for the ideas! I think I'm going to do all of them as we have a bubble machine, I can pick up a pinata as I'm sure I've seen them in Asda or home bargains and I'll get some party music on the speaker. Might even get some glow sticks too!

@PinkDaydreams def a rave 🤣🤣you can have "special juice" & everything 🥳

@PinkDaydreams what about a hot chocolate buffet? If he doesn't like hot choc you can just do milk.

Make up hot chocolate in the slow cooker or on the hob
Put out a selection of toppings in little dishes - squooshy cream, honeycomb, smarties, chocolate flakes, sprinkles, cinnamon, edible glitter.

Then you just go to town and let him make up his own

If there's two of you or more you can still do pass the parcel and pin the tail on the donkey.

Definitely a balloon disco. A friend of mine used to go to town with birthdays for her three kids, but even now as giant teens all they remember are the living room balloon discos

I'd also take him a walk with a birthday boy badge on, possibly clutching a balloon, because round here you'd be guaranteed to have people stopping and wishing him happy birthday, even in these desolate times. And it doubles up as positive social interaction, plus little kids bloody love telling every man and his dog that it's their birthday

Oooh, @ReallySpicyCurry has just reminded me of another idea! DH gave DS and me a little donut machine for Christmas (also makes waffles and cake pops). I don't think it was very pricy but, if you have room in your kitchen, might be fun to make some little donuts and ice them and add sprinkles. We're trying ours out this weekend... going to try some savoury, healthy donuts as well to see if I can trick DS into eating them .

Helium balloon is also a great hit...DS still has his giant 3 on the ceiling above his bed and says hello to it every morning.

Have you got time to order a disco light from amazon? Because a curtains closed balloon disco rave is always fun. Glow sticks in the bath with ice cream on there as well. MEGA TREAT.
DS loves a pizza picnic as well, it’s just eating pizza on a blanket on the living room floor but he gets so excited. You could do pizza making, chop up a selection of toppings.

I love the badge/balloon walk idea!

The main thing I did was decorate. My boy is paw patrol mad, so I got balloons, some banners, spiral things which hang off the ceiling. He couldn’t believe his eyes when we went downstairs in the morning! We basically did presents (I’d wrapped each individual thing, so this took ages), lunch (party food from Tesco), cake (which we had to go and look at every five mins. We cut it early because I couldn’t deal with keeping him from it any longer). Pass the parcel was not overly successful (to be fair, quite the mental switch from “all the presents are mine” to “this present is everyone’s”).

I spy Duns! I need to ease off on my Babipur/Yes Bebe/Puzzle Bug addiction so I have to admire and step away from the computer!

Kids have one of those arch/rocker things with a slide so set it up this morning to burn off some steam. I store it out of sight every few days and then they play on it for hours when it comes out. Also got some mileage out of turning it into a fort. Then popped it on it's side and attempted to play shop - kids loved it but I realised that even my 3 year old had no clue what it means to go shopping given they've not been in one for the best part of a year. That would explain why he kept paying me for my purchases!

@ReallySpicyCurry my one year old has been like that every morning and post nap for the last week. She does it when she's teething and she has the slowest teeth to come through so it's quite the event. My head is shot to shit before breakfast even starts, there's nothing quite like it!

Loving the idea of hot chocolate bar (for me too I might add!) that sounds fab @ReallySpicyCurry I'm adding that to my list thank you!

@onetwothreeadventure look away I'm sorry! We've got a big rocker it's well loved, haven't really used it as a shop, might try that now 🥰

@PinkDaydreams you can do teddy bears picnic /pass the parcel with toys included too, it can make it last much longer 😄😋& get them involved in imaginative play too which my DS is just getting involved in. To add to the balloon walk, if there's anyone you know of in the area or if DH/OH can drive around earlier & put a few small things out for you to find walking round? Treasure hunt style? We did this for a couple of our toddlers/small kids in the village for their birthdays in the first lockdown. Like a party bag on my doorstep I did for a girl with a bag of sweets in it, someone else put a toy out they no longer used wrapped up. @WeSearchedHereWeSearchedThere

Baby girl arrived here 8lb 12oz and everyone exhausted.

She's been feeding constantly for two hours now and I have blisters on both nipples. Happy days!

As for birthday ideas I like a theme and for dds 2nd birthday I made sure she knew the story of the tiger who came to tea story inside out. Then at lunch time after her nap, the doorbell rang and it was a big IKEA tiger! We brought him in and he sat at the table eating a tea party lunch with cups and saucers etc.

It was right at the beginning of lockdown one so I'd already bought tiger plates and napkins and head dresses for a party that never happened. So we used them any way. We then went for a scooter walk.
At bedtime we found that the bloody tiger had drunk all the water from the tap so she couldn't have a bath. She loved it a lot.

Her first birthday was the hungry caterpillar theme and her next will likely be bear hunt.

Congratulations @footprintsintheslow! Enjoy these first days - they are so special and just fly by - I cannot believe I’m 9 weeks in already!

These birthday ideas are all fantastic. DS turned 2 in April and he really enjoyed choosing and making his own birthday cake with me. If he doesn’t like cake is there something else he would enjoy making - maybe pizzas and you can get lots of toppings? I think a theme is a great idea. My DS loves dressing up atm and would find it hilarious if DH and I dressed up as his favourite characters.

Congratulations @footprintsintheslow! Lovely news . I love your theme ideas.

@onetwothreeadventure I know the addiction well... I buy most of the kids clothes second hand, but even then it’s easy to spend rather a lot! I like the look of the rockers, but we have a triclimb and a rocker board and neither get quite enough love for me to justify another purchase!

Congratulations @footprintsintheslow on your beautiful little girl! We love Tiger who came to tea here too, so good choice .

Congratulations @footprintsintheslow! Massive well done to you. I empathise with the hungry newborn. My DD fed from 2 til 7am the first night after she was born, and screamed any time she wasnt feeding. I was in toe curling agony. Even now, she is on bottles and guzzles way more than her sister ever did. Hungry babies are hard going on the nipples.

@FolkSongSweet you have a 9 week told too! Ditto.

Congrats Footprints!! I hope your DD enjoys meeting her tiny sister, if she hasn’t already!

Congratulations Footprints! Lovely to have a squishy newborn 😊

@footprintsintheslow massive congratulations!!! Also I love your tiger who came to tea! He's really into the gruffalo so I've bought him a toy gruffalo to open Nd he's already got the books. I think I'll try printing off some pictures and do some sort of gruffalo theme.

Special party juice for the adults sounds good (only me and DH), I'm thinking baileys hot chocolate!!

Thank you so much for all of the ideas, I'm so glad i asked! I'm going to raid the party aisle in home bargains and I love the balloon walk! Already have banners, candles and birthday boy badge :)

Congratulations @footprintsintheslow! We are adding to our ranks!

@PinkDaydreams get yourself on Pinterest for a gruffalo board of ideas and let us know what you do. I do love a theme!!! Do you have a gruffalo woods walk near you that might be open?