Trapped toddler parents: puddlesuits splashing towards spring

[WeSearchedHereWeSearchedThere]

All guardians of toddlers welcome, we offer ideas, activities, and a shoulder to lean on when it all gets too much. We’ve conquered winter, next stop spring!

Continuing from www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/4105179-trapped-toddler-parents-of-the-fabled-winter-2020-2021-puddle-suits-at-the-ready-hello-christmas?pg=1

DH had a really loooong and important meeting this morning so I had to keep DS2 entertained in other rooms before I'd even finished my coffee

We did basketball throwing into a laundry basket - this was fun until he realised it was even more fun when he got it wrong so that carried on for a while, including me pulling the basket out of the way at the last minute which was hilarious apparently!

Gave him some cereal and raisins to transport and eat out of his toy dump truck. It's probably not a clean eating utensil, but whatever. That occupied him for a little while.

Built a train track. Built another train track. Played with a pull back car.

More basketball (less funny this time)

Then he got hungry so luckily that was the end of the meeting!

Footprints I like how your routine starts complicated and gets simpler and simpler all day! Seems like a great way to do things.

I tried this activity this morning, very simple and went down well! Just put the post it’s around the room/house for them to find and match. We’re getting started on letter recognition here (part of speech therapy too). It’s from Montessori Dad’s Way on Instagram - he has a lot of nice simple ideas.

Hope all those with vaccinations go well. DS1’s preschool boosters are due soon, I’m not looking forward to them!

If you’re feeling spendy, 100 Toys has a good sale on, I bought some number/letter games, they have quite a few for slightly older ones - feelings etc - and many cute dolls house type bits!

@wesearched the alphabet hunt looks really good. I'm trying to get DS into phonics but he's more of a number guy.

We've been making the garden play ready, had to dump some garden toys that haven't survived the winter. They had a water table with a fountain and loads of tubes but it's totally gunged up so its gone. I think I'll just take the tuff tray out for water play.

I’m a practice nurse by trade so am well used to giving kids injections, when I took DS we’d been role playing injections using a colostrum syringe (you could use a calpol one) with him giving them to me and me to him. Lots of small chats about how medicines are good for us, help us fight off the bugs and keep us and our loved ones healthy and how awesome/cool/kind that is. Told him it can be a bit ouchy and it’s ok to cry cos then mummy will know to give him a super special mega hug. He strutted in on injection day, showed the nurse his syringe and gave her and me an injection, took his like a trooper, cried for half a nanosecond and then was totally distracted by stickers. He also got a packet of chocolate buttons in the car, I’d hidden them in the pocket of the seat.

When I’m giving jabs at work I don’t mind if parents have told the kids something or if they’ve told them nothing, but I do explain it to them, similar to above. And I get the stickers out first so they know there’s something lovely coming up afterwards.

Sometimes I’ll tell the kid they might get super powers like being able to do super star jumps or giving super snuggle cuddles. Sometimes I get them to roar like various animals when I’m injecting, depends on the kid and parent. I always check that the medicine is working by getting high fives.

Popped into work for my first covid jab today after DD’s baby jabs, feel totally fine (so far!) but have used it as an excuse to nap on and off with her in my bed for the afternoon 😂

Next doors kids are playing out in the garden, they’re shouting and screaming and having a lovely time, it’s so nice to hear.

@WeSearchedHereWeSearchedThere that letters hunt is fab abs you could do it with all sorts. I think I'll start a list on my fridge for the following weeks activity afternoons.

@MonkeyPuddle you sound like a wonderful nurse and I think you gave the super powers.

Good three hours out of the house today walking to a NEW park. It was further away than our normal longest walk but well worth the extra. Greggs on the way home and stories and jigsaw thing by orchard games.

Does anyone feel remotely better this week because the weather seems to be getting a bit better and we've had some dry days? Hopefully where you all are too. It makes it so much easier just being outside and out of 'the house' and out of the 'living room' I find.

Some ideas for this weekend I'm going to try:

Goldilocks breakfast: 3 year old can 'help' make 3 bowls of porridge then we sit down and read through the Goldilocks story, drawing of 3 bears and Goldilocks optional. Perhaps watch a story of it on YouTube too. Thought could do this with the Gingerbread man story too, with shop bought gingerbread man I've got from Co-op today.

Retro dressing up: sort a box out with random items of clothing for the little ones to have a root through, so not so much as putting on a costume that's ready made but a mix up of clothes, see what they come up with. May be too young though.

Have bought Melissa and Doug 'Jolly helpers' hand puppets so going to give them a go. See if it inspires anything. Found on Amazon.

Also to get out of the house as much as possible.

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

@Chocolatetrifle. Yes, the warmer, dryer weather has made a huge difference to our mood here! It's been lovely the last few days just being able to potter in the garden without full rain gear. We've uncovered the sandpit and DS is really enjoying burying toys in it and making sandcastles.

@footprintsintheslow thank you ☺️ I absolutely love my job, except when I bloody hate it! Pre covid I did enjoy the cuddles with squishy babies and squeezing a chubby thigh! Also showing off about the new park! Jealous of new park!

@Chocolatetrifle yes absolutely! I am always happier in spring time, less happy when it’s hot and and just middling happy in winter.

Tomorrow we’ve got pissing about in the garden pulling up weeds in the planner. Our garden isn’t secure (it’s rented) so if DS is out there we have to be out there too. We’ve a patch of mud to the back of the house which needs weeding, cardboard or bin bags laying and then gravel or bark on top. A patch that needs to be cleared for sunflowers and general weeding and trimming.
Going to put some new sand in the sand pit and let DS crack on with that and I’ve bought him a child sized spade and fork which he’s excited to use. I fully envisage him randomly stabbing mud while getting filthy.

DD has hit the post vaccination screams, won’t settle on the boob but is happy being bounced by DP while he stands. For now.

@MonkeyPuddle, good luck for tonight with DD, it was always the night of the jabs I found to be the worst. With DS2's 12 month jabs in December he was up literally all night and only went asleep at 4am on the couch so I had to 'sleep ' on the floor next to him, then DD1 got up at 5.30.

Fingers crossed you all get some sleep tonight.

Roaring while having the jab is genius. I wish I could get away with that as an adult :o I hate injections! I've had some luck with singing and counting down from 30 in French or German. Just because it's something a bit challenging for my brain to focus on, and because you know by the time you get to 0 or the end of the song it will be over.

@BertieBotts I may do competitions to see who is loudest, me, the kiddie or the parent. Funnily enough the child always wins 😂

I’m shit with injections, I have to breathe out and drop my shoulders, I tell them when to inject!

Thank you @Chocolatetrifle I have the feeling we’re in for a tough night, I don’t remember the last sets being this tricky. But tomorrow is a new day and it promises good things.

@Chocolatetrifle those dressing up boxes are the best. As a school we sometimes ask for dressing up clothes and then cringe at all the giant princess outfits that get offered. What we want is random hats and scarves really for proper made up creative play. That sounds ungrateful but we aren't at all.

We love the sun and it's making everything nicer. Tuff tray is outside so more room in our little house too.

@MonkeyPuddle it's only new to us. Not actually new. We live in a (rented small) house in a very affluent county. The parks are dreadful as there is no funding for them. So to find a park with fun things that hasn't had half the stuff taken away was very exciting. It's 45 minute trek but worth it if it's sunny. How are the parks by you?

We've got sunshine again, I can't believe the difference it makes, at the beginning of the week DS was in thermals and today he is shorts.

DH is working this morning and then this afternoon we are doing a walk I've never done before! I'm very excited about a change of scenery

Hello all...I keep losing this thread! Haven’t managed to catch up all 11 pages but seems like @footprintsintheslow you’ve had some push back from toddler with new baby?

I had exactly the same - partly why I’ve struggled to keep with the thread as they just zap all my energy! But now 16 weeks in and everything SO much easier. Baby in more of routine, toddler more accepting, weather getting nicer...

I’ve tried to set up fun activities for DS recently but he lost interest quickly which was frustrating. Then I realised he actually just wants to do role play/pretend play/small world stuff with me which, while demanding, means I don’t need to plan or set up elaborate stuff in advance. Plus he’s happier and sticks with it longer! We’ve been using duplo to construct scaffolding on his dolls house and then the builders have had terrible injuries needing hospital treatment - hospital made from grimms rainbow 🤣

Oo I'm going to steal your Duplo scaffolding, that's exactly what DS loves. DS really like imaginative play, if I set something up he turns it into.his own game

Dd also loves role play/ imaginative play most of all and will carry on for hours but I do somewhat struggle after about 20 mins - that is why I try to encourage the creative play, as a break from pretending to be Princess Pearl!

@footprintsintheslow it’s just having somewhere new to go isn’t it, after a year of not going anywhere! Our local park in walking distance is a bit shit, it’s too old for DS, it’s got a climbing wall rather than a frame he can manage so we tend to jump in the car 10 mins down the road to one of the big city parks, we can kill 3-4 hours there rather than 30 mins at the local one.

We’ve been in the garden for hours this morning, DS had reacquainted himself with the sand pit and the mud kitchen while DP and me fought with the brambles. DD has napped all day in the pram in the fresh air, figure it’s the vaccines yesterday that’s wiped her out.

We have found the following activities a hit:

-Masking tape on the floor to make animal enclosures or car tracks

• putting the pillows under the table and having lunch under there

-scrunching up pieces of tin foil and playing builders

• playing duplo in the bath
• getting teddies and playing vets. -We used plasters and toilet roll as bandages
• i got a spray bottle off amazon and my ds uses it to clean my cupboards
• we got a big bag of wooden matchsticks that are fun to use when playing builders
• cleaning plastic toys in the sink
• cleaning teddies and drying them with a hair dryer
• making a washing line in the front room and pegging socks onto it (this was a massive hit 🤣)
• getting all our books and setting up a library. Ds likes it when i come into the library and ask for books that have monsters in them. He also loved it when I came into the library pretending to be a monster to get all the books

Oh that library idea is genius @spaceghetto! Doing that tomorrow - thanks!

spaceghetto what a fab list!

motherofmonsters I completely agree. I was commenting to DH this morning how last week we needed wooly hats and today we need to find our Ds's sun hat, it's mental how much warmer its suddenly got. I hope you enjoyed your new walk.

footprintsintheslow so glad it's not just us who is valuing thr newly rediscovered space now we've moved the tuff tray. It's so useful but I sometimes forget just how big the room feels without it.

We've had a lovely day in theory. We've been on a picnic, played with cardboard boxes and had a lovely long walk around the duck pond however I'm feeling completely done in as the small person has not had a nap all day!!! He's never been great with naps but this is the first time we've ever had a whole day with none at all. Please all tell me it's a blip because he is cutting his molars and not the first sign that he's given them up for good...

@same4walls - how strang my DD also didn't nap today and is cutting molars! I hope it's just a blip.

DS is currently having the biggest meltdown I've ever heard, he let the water out the bath himself and is now crying as there's no more water and he wants to play. I'm in with DD while DH is trying fruitlessly to calm him down.

My 21 month old is in the throwing stage and grins as he throws objects off the sofa!!
On a positive note, we did with OH have a good walk/run around and DSD rode her bike.

I love the library idea too. When a little younger, my 3 year old loved to find random items in the house and make an 'indoor museum'. Might try that again actually as he will probably still like it.

Had a decent day, lovely early park visit and garden play this afternoon. Sun out all day, helps so much.

Got 3 year old to help 'clean' inside my car with wipes. He absolutely loved it and my car looks better! Honestly it passed about 30 minutes.

14 month also at throwing stage, mainly food, everywhere...

Gee’d on by the sunshine I may have ordered a water play table for the garden. Despite the temperature predicted to be in single figures next week. But fuck it, I just got pain and we’re going nowhere and doing nothing. It’ll also (hopefully) keep DS occupied while I garden. I will report back on its success.

I love the library idea, we used to go regularly before lockdown. DS loves books. We’ve got some small stamps so could make some library cards.