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

@DayBath do you have reins for him? Might at least calm the nerves around roads and dog poo if he will wear them!

Yes I do use reigns sometimes but they don't work to steer him, in fact he rebels even more with them on. For example if he decides the puddle in the centre of the road is better than the one on the pavement he will just tug and dangle on the reigns screaming trying to get into the road. I think I'm just used to a very calm little girl with my first so parenting a boisterous (and surprisingly strong) boy is a steep learning curve!

I've booked a caravan holiday for the summer and now I'm questioning my sanity as we will be into the terrible twos by then!

@DayBath

Hi all Just popping in to ask for your collective wisdom. I have a 20 month old boy who just loves to walk...the problem is he won't walk where he's supposed to. Round in circles, tries to get onto the road, detects every dog poo going and tries to stomp in them for fun. If there's a lovely poo free wide path he will deliberately walk in the tiny grass verge to the side seeking out all the discarded poo bags....

I'm just at the end of my tether with it really. My daughter was never like this, you would point her in a direction and she would just toddle forwards happily. Every walk ends in me dragging him back on to the path and him just sitting on the floor in a mega strop. He's not even 2 yet, God knows how bad it will get after his birthday.

Tell me this gets better? Our only activity is walking at the moment! How do you all do it?

Just discovered this thread, is this my sanity saved?!

My top tip - go somewhere you can just release them into the wild and let them get on with it!

Haha, that made me think of those wildlife rescue documentaries where they take the animal in a crate to the wilderness, open the crate door and run back to safety while it finds its way out. That's quite fitting for my little monster!

Thanks so much for the new thread. I should maybe leave the thread seeing my son turned 4 last week but so many fab ideas in here.
Ds goes back to nursery next week ( in scotland) still have teenage son at home but he's fairly independent apart from eating everything in sight!
Ds was going in for 2 days as I'm a nurse and dh a keyworker. Was a crap mummy yesterday half term here and I'd been doing nightshift couldn't help falling asleep in sofa . Discovered ds knows how to put Netflix on ! Thankfully the kids selection
We're going to go to pick up a play doh dentist set i found on fb . The area I'm picking it up from is right next to a park with a gruffalo trail so will do that as well

@jobbyjg my 3.5yo loves the playdoh dentist set.
I found some letter writing practice sheets and cutting skills so going to do those this morning. Then a walk obviously because there's nothing else to do...

Morning all. Thank you for the new thread!

Still waiting for my test result. Well, it’s not been 24 hours yet so I can’t complain 😂 feel fine still so I’m hopeful.

Would anyone like a spare DP? He woke baby DD up yesterday evening and then she didn’t sleep properly all night. I could have murdered him. But I’ve had 4 hours sleep so I don’t have the energy.

I’ve set DS up at the table with the beloved kinetic sand. He’s happily making melting bricks and singing to himself while I contemplate rubbing coffee granules directly into my eyes.

I’m going to make some cutting sheets later, I’ll just draw the sun and he can cut down the lines, he’s got some kids scissors that do different cuts. I would do some gluing and sticking but he just wants to rub glue over everything and I can’t cope with that today!

Thank you for the new thread! so many lovely ideas on these I needed to mark my place

Thank you @PinkDaydreams for the tip about the pram wheels and mud combo.

Turns out that a plastic washing up bowl plus kinetic sand plus water and shells and plastic sea animals equals ocean fun! For a short time anyway until it spills!

Covid test negative! Woop.

Great news @MonkeyPuddle

Hello! Anyone got ideas to keep a 14 month old busy? Lots of the messy play ideas sound great in theory, but I suspect she'd just eat the mud/ rice/ kinetic sand.

Can you get kinetic sand wet?

@Zarinea I think that age is a really tricky age cos they’re just too young for ‘activities’ my DS used to like throwing at that age, how about scrunching up some waste paper into balls and putting them into a tub/small bin/wash basket? Move it around, up high, down low. Might kill 25 mins and it’s a bit of physical activity.

I am LOVING the shower cap pram wheels. Why has that never struck me before. DD is going to be swapping from the bassinet to the normal buggy part of her pram soon, she’s so bloody long she’s almost outgrown it at 3 months. Means I can get rid of the Moses basket in the front room and just pop the pram up for naps.

Have managed to get DD to sleep, but now DS is refusing to play by himself so I’ve stuck the telly on. Will put my phone away and chat about what we’re watching, feel a bit less bad about it then.

Jumping back on after disappearing into a black hole of teething, a cold and 2 weeks of snow (DS does not like snow!!)

Hello! Anyone got ideas to keep a 14 month old busy? Lots of the messy play ideas sound great in theory, but I suspect she'd just eat the mud/ rice/ kinetic sand.

Ds is also 14 months and I've had success with dyed Spaghetti which he enjoyed eating and moving into different containers and the knock off version of rice crispy cereal (54p from Aldi) which he enjoyed eating and happily running wooden trucks through for 15 minutes. He's a nightmare for trying to eat stuff and as 20 minutes is the longest an activity has ever lasted I'm loathed to set up something elaborate.

Does anyone have a good "recipe" for rainbow rice? I'm sure it's like food colouring and vinegar or something?

Ooh DS used to like putting things in and taking things out as well.

So a cardboard box, cereal box will do, stab holes in with a sharp knife (fun for mummy!) and then give to DS with some wooden lolly sticks or teaspoons, sat with him and poked them in the holes.

Put random shit from the house and small toys in said cardboard box and present to child for extraction, shaking, throwing around.

@EspressoExpresso I just used the cheapest ride in Asda with their own brand food colouring, popped into a sandwich bag to mix the rice and colouring and then on an oven tray to dry out, I popped mine above the radiator. Worked really well.

@EspressoExpresso

Does anyone have a good "recipe" for rainbow rice? I'm sure it's like food colouring and vinegar or something?

Put uncooked rice into a ziplock bag add a few drops of colouring and use a few squirts of hand sanitiser. It does the same job as the vinegar but smells much better. Mix it all together in the bag until all the rice is covered and then tip the rice onto a tray (preferably with tin foil on it) spread it out and leave it to dry.

Good morning everyone. Never knew this thread existed. I've had a poorly 2 yo who has kept us on our feet for 3 days. It's so depressing, it's raining right now. At the moment we are playing with play doh with his favourite nursery rhymes on tv. I popped him on his high chair to avoid mess otherwise he sticks them on walls and carpets. I hate taking him outside as he doesn't sit in his pushchair and he just runs around in every possible direction that leads to dangerous situations where I end up picking him up dragging him too but still take him out a lot as long as it's not raining too much.

@Zarinea DD is a few months older and I've found it a really tough age for activities. Some we found quite good were playing with craft pom poms and pipe cleaners. She would spend ages filling up random containers with pom poms and sticking all the pipe cleaners into a colander for her to pull out was a good time waster as well!

There's also one where you can stick used toilet rolls to the wall and make 'pipes' for them to put pom poms/small balls down. Bonus parenting points if you make it into a marble run of sorts, I loved those as a kid!

I'm 14 weeks, it was reassuringly boring and routine :)

Just had a lovely call from DS2's nursery. They are opening on Monday for all the kids but they want him to start on Wednesday so they will have the space to focus on him. I'm going to go in and sit in the corner Wed-Thu and then leave (hopefully!) on Friday. We're going to try 1.5 hours initially.

We just managed to fill 3 days with a small pack of orbiezz (£2 of ebay). We started off pushing plastic anamals in them in a big mixing bowl, then tipped them in an empty bath and the kids though and kicked them around (there light but bounce), then we put some water in and splash (just made the water have bright coloured bits).

If you also have older kids, my 4yo enjoyed splitting them into colours, which we put in a jar in strips. We have put some bean seeds in at the side, so (hopefully) we can watch them germinate.

In total we managed about 8 separate play sessions, spaced out over a few days. Unfortunately I think a lot of that was novelty value, so will probably leave it a few months before getting more, but it filled some time. Would definitely recommend, I was amazed how much play my 18 month and 4yo both got out of them.

@Same4Walls. I'm trying to remember what I did with DS at 14 months.

I think we used to go out most mornings and meet friends at the park/playground. He was toddling by then so would use the toddler equipment with help. We used to do some ball games as well - roll balls to him and he'd roll them back. He used to love chasing balls (still does).

Ball tubes were great - my DF tacked an old piece of pipe onto our garden wall at a slant and DS would endlessly roll large ping pong balls through it.

Sand pit and water table when the weather improves if you have a garden. Also lots of pots of water to play with. We have a folding paddling pool that you don't have to blow up and DS loved floating things in it at that age or just dipping his hands in the water from the side. Edushape floating bath blocks were an (expensive hit for the paddling-pool...played with for hours.

The old pipe cleaners into a colander activity. Or putting balls into a muffin tray. DS still enjoys this one at 3 .

Hi! I'd like to join in please. Currently at home with 2.5 year old DS and 3 month old DS. No childcare for us so slowly going mad! Interested to see your ideas. 2.5 yo loves:

Sitting in high chair and playing with water, pasta, rice etc.
'Hoovering' the house with his toy vacuum.
Sticker books.
Paints.
Pouring the contents of one container to another ( anything really! Oats, cereal, pasta, water etc)
Having a long bath with his toys
Making a smoothie

3 mo loves:
The boob.