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.

Yes! Your lovely big ginger has cheered me up no end.

Bags him if he wears out his welcome with you with the early morning wakings !

He's a lovely affectionate cat but he is also a menace. I've had many trips to the vets as he's been out fighting and he loves winding up our other cat.

Hi, can I join? Exhausted mother of two boys, a 3 year old and a 14 month old who are delightful but do not stop...all day...and night. Most of my days also start at 5 am and that's a lot of hours to fill.

I have been reading your thread for a few weeks and what strikes me is that no matter where we all might be we are going through completely the same thing day in day out just trying to survive and entertain our little people whilst trying to hold it together during this crazy time. I love all of your ideas for passing the time in lockdown with small children, but we also need time for ourselves somehow too, there's just not enough time in the day!

Today we have given the arctic weather in the playgrounds a miss as we all have wind burnt faces from earlier visits this week, did a chocolate heart hunt at 7am (as been up since 5.30), made Baker Ross valentine's hedgehogs, made a lemon drizzle cake, played doing dishes in the sink, tidied all the mess up again from said water play and baking and watched an awful lot of tele. Had lots of entertainment with balloons , seem to be just as good as kicking a football outside really, good for when the weather is bad.

Remember we are all doing a fantastic job, so when everyone is settled for the night, even if it's just for a few hours before a little person wakes for milk or a wee, or a cuddle, make some time for yourselves . We are all in it together and tomorrow is a new day (just hopefully not a 5am wake up call day!)xx

Welcome chocolatetrifle what a nice post.

We have had a nice day here, DS1 and I made valentines day cards then he got dropped off at his grandparents to make dens in the woods. I got some quality time with the baby blowing bubbles for him to try and pop, and DH and I even got to eat our M&S dine in for 2 meal by ourselves
(DS2 asleep, DS1 eating with grandparents and getting picked up now).

On the theme of making time for ourselves, DH and I have been watching 'wandavision' on disneyplus and really enjoying it. Is anyone else watching anything good atm?
(nothing too gritty please, I am a wimp).

Welcome @Chocolatetrifle...The more the merrier!

I would like to be a cat... you get to sleep whenever and wherever you like and you don't have to go to the playground or park in sleeting, artic rain.

Lovely post @Chocolatetrifle! I got a bath board for valentines, planning on it seeing plenty of use (though currently DS2 is going through a phase of only sleeping on me, so those precious evening hours don’t currently exist!)

@Camomila I’m enjoying The Serpent, but may be too gritty for you. Have you seen Heartland? DH and I binged it recently. Basically a feel good soap set on a Canadian horse rehabilitation ranch. I’ve also just rewatched Schitts Creek which only gets better with rewatching!

Welcome @chocolatetrifle.

I've made a lazy tray for them tomorrow, literally just masking taped some action figures on to it.

Thank you for the welcomes!

On the theme of time to ourselves, I have a small hernia (discovered post first pregnancy which is now worse post second pregnancy)repair operation scheduled over the next couple of months. Imagine, a whole few hours of lying down horizontal and uninterrupted during said procedure and recovery, pure bliss!

Only a couple of days until pancake day, that's got to provide some entertainment for a bit, although I don't think my Nutella will last until then, keep sneaking spoonfuls here and there during bad flash points in the day.

Let's hope for a good week.

Evening all!

Welcome to @Chocolatetrifle your house sounds lovely and fun, PM me you address and I’ll drop my DS off at yours 😂

@WeSearchedHereWeSearchedThere
I’ve got a bath board, it’s fab for holding my wine glass but I have to admit it gets more use as a bridge for DS’s bath toys, a slide for cars, we lined up dominos on it this morning. Much less sipping wine in bubbles than I imagined.

DS is at his dads tonight so just us and the baby at home. DP excelled himself with baked Camembert and steak and chips, I provided a massive choccy brownie. We ate so much that all thoughts of having a shag are off the cards. Which is a shame as I bought some cracking new undies. Ones that don’t have clips to whack a fit out to feed.

Tomorrow it’s just me and DD so I’ll be getting my walking boots on and heading up through the fields, I have zero sense of direction but an unwavering faith in google maps. It’s going to be a subtropical 8° here tomorrow! Me and DD get mondays to get each week and I love getting boots on, strapping her in the sling and listening to a podcast, finishing random benches or tree stumps to sit and feed and have a coffee from my flask. We’re very lucky that we live on the edge of a massive city but I can walk 20 mins and go through woods into complete silence apart from the sound of birds. Don’t even hear them or DD if I keep the volume up on my headphones!

@PinkDaydreams you sound like your doing well with all the lovely activities even if you are feeling down. Love the drawing activity which we will do today.

@Chocolatetrifle welcome along and that is for the encouragement. Sounds like you need a Gro clock. Those 5ams sound chilling to me.

@WeSearchedHereWeSearchedThere I'm watching the serpent too but I had to stop and get my husband to watch it then give me the gist last night. Too scary as I'm a wimp

Hi @chocolatetrifle that was a lovely post!!

We had a nice weekend doing lots of arts and crafts and water play. DH was thrilled with his first valentine's card from DD so that was a hit!

One of our childcare bubble is waiting for covid test results though so we're having to isolate at least until they are back. Hopefully not longer!! So no long walks for us for a few days. Any ideas for decent garden play in Arctic weather?...

@WesearchedHereWeSearchedThere Heartland sounds perfect thanks for the recommendation, DH will probably like it too...he loved Gilmore Girls.

So glad I'm on annual leave, both DC were awake between 2.30-3.30, DS1 woke up crying because of his knee (growing pains/too much fun den building)...this woke up DS2 who thought it was breakfast/play/walk around the house time.

DH is taking the car to the garage today so if it has stopped raining we will get dropped off at the playground by the garage for some variety and then walk home.

Camembert steak and brownie sounds amazing. After an initial 5lb loss during vegetatianuary some.lbs have snuck back on, but I'm kidding myself it's because I'm due on and it's all water... currently tucking in to beans on toast with loads of butter.

Ds at pil today as I'm working. Thibk tomorrow I'm going to make a little pancake then ds can play flipping that in his frying pan whilst I make the rest. Bloody love a pancake! Sending dh out today for lemons, Nutella and sour cream (I have a cheddar and sour cream main then sweet desert... see paragraph on weight 🤣😇).

Dh and I binge watched The Stranger last week, that was pretty good.

How long does the masking tape toys last? Might give it a go tomorrow but envisage 5 mins of destruction and done!

@meow1989 - depends if they are a picker or if they just wrench the toys off! DS is a wrencher so they didn't stay down long, he stretched it out a bit by then sticking them down for me to have a go and then we just played with the masking tape - sticking it on the floor, making boxes and crosses to hop between. It took about 30 seconds to do so the input to use ratio worked out okay

Nice 3 hour trek through local fields for us today. Then spent time looking for childcare for DD when I go back in July, I know a childminder who’s fab so hoping she has space, she’s also £160 a month cheaper than the nursery I currently send DS to.
We’re registering DD tomorrow, making her proper official 😍

@MonkeyPuddle 3 hour trek sounds fab! Wish my toddler would walk but as I've posted on here many times before, you'll all know that he just won't walk on reins or hold my hand.
Anyway, miserable morning, but then cheered up when we went food shopping, liked helping post letters into the post box, played trains later on, then lovely evening reading many books and then playing with a new sticker book. I ordered the Melissa and Doug reusable sticker scenes which arrived today and provided a good half an hour of play sounds silly but it was lovely to watch and join in with him playing with the pig in the mud!

We are lucky, houses in Germany are so much more roomy than the UK! DS2 will be sharing eventually but it's all his space for now. DS1 has moved into the smaller single bedroom.

My friend is stuck in quarantine hotel in NZ (they had to move back there suddenly) with two kids under 5 and she sent me a hilarious video today of them playing volleyball with a balloon and two hairdryers :o genius! They have to stay in the hotel room for 2 weeks and are only allowed outside for 30 minutes a day they are total troopers.

@drumst1ck lovely lovely card.
@BertieBotts wow that sounds tough on your friends. It'll be worth it though after two weeks as they get to live in NZ!

We are off for a walk (shock horror) and we will try out a new park so that a pretty exciting. I'll take a flask and a snacks then home to sort the shopping delivery.

Yesterday we made a counting hands thing. See picture.

Also we went on a ten minute hunt round the house looking for things beginning with F (daughter chose the letter). In our basket we had a toy Fox, fork, flannel etc. Think I'll try that again today with a new letter as it went down well and was achievable in a baby's nap time.

I also found this threading thing on Pinterest which could be adapted to a younger age and looks fun and easy to prep.

Lockdown has to end.... DH I are having a text conversation about our favourite spoons

@Motherofmonsters. .

DH and I had a perfectly friendly and civil conversation the other day for how each of us would go about murdering the other if we were so inclined and how best to dispose of the body.

@MessAllOver we’ve had that convo. I have access to torso sized clinical sharps bins at work so I’d do it that way.

Going to steal the counting hands @footprintsintheslow DS had just started trying to use his fingers to count

First mild day in a while here so we’re off to the park with DS’s scooter.

Can anyone help with a toy idea please for DS. He's 3, loves books, he's got a leapfrog story box thing which he really enjoys playing with, I'm after something story related i think, he likes numbers, buttons and flashing lights, loves buses and trains.

Pressed post too soon! I should have added that I was looking at the leapstart 3d but after a post on Mumsnet I haven't as alot of others didn't recommend them.

@pinkdaydreams not really a toy but DS has my old tablet and plays games on it. Cbeebies have a storytime app , it has stories that are either read to them or you can read them and then they have little activities they can do in the story.

Hi @PinkDaydreams. No idea whether it's what you're looking for but have you had a look at the me readers and books (there's the Eric Carle one, and Thomas and Peppa ones as well).

DS was given a toniebox by DH's parents for Christmas. He loves it but it doesn't sound like what you're looking for and it and the tonies are very pricey! The other one that some people have is the Yoto player.