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

I love that first photo MonkeyPuddle she looks so awake

I'm sure mine will wake up soon so I need to make the most of tv watching and tea drinking time (9pm - 11pm)!

Not good for the waistline but I've recently discovered chocolate covered malted milk biscuits!! I hate malted milk biscuits but these are delicious, especially dipped in a cup of tea! Thought I'd let you other mums (and dad's?) know as they're a nice little boost of happiness!!

@PinkDaydreams I love a malted milk biscuit but never knew they had chocolate ones too!

@footprintsintheslow, thank you for the idea about the leaves and mindfulness, I've got some flowers so definitely going to give it a go.

@WeSearchedHereWeSearchedThere, listening activities; do they still do audio books? I've got The Snail and The Whale book and it has a CD too.

How about a shopping list activity? Read out a list of items you need out from the shops and see how many DS can name.

We sometimes tell stories about when we were young and DS1 listens quite intently, he thinks they are funny for some reason!

Hope everyone got some sleep and has a good day, the playground is calling...

Morning all! Hope there was sleep had overnight! Ds woke at some point in the night crying from a nightmare about... someone eating his snack. He kept shouting "that's mine, I want another grape, I want another carrot!" (Fabulous child because in that anecdote I sound like a fantastic mother whose child snacks only on fruit and veg and definitely didn't have white chocolate before bed as his Friday treat ).

This morning we've watched little baby bum a bit and played with some coins - stacking, lining from biggest to smallest and seeing what they sound like dropped on different surfaces. He's told me he would like waterbeads later so I'll pop some in to soak for when we get back from our walk.

How is everyone else's morning going?

Well both kids were awake at 6am in this house. DD may be cute as anything but my god she needs to sleep better!

We’ve got all the Thomas tracks out all over the floor. DP has a habit of just turning the telly on so we’re trying to break that habit as DS is always better behaved with less screen time. He’s currently been playing with it for over an hour with only minimal involvement from us so we can sit and drink coffee.

Think we’re going to go to the park over lunchtime, I need to bob to B&M as nursery want the kids to make Easter bonnets. I bloody hate crafting.

@WeSearchedHereWeSearchedThere for listening can you go for listening walks and just point out things you can hear instead of what we can see? Ok one of our walks there's a vantage point and we normally stop and say 5 things that we can see. I've started doing things we can hear now.

What about a listening game where you lay out a selection for g things that make noise... bell, scrunch paper, sticks to bash with etc and then toddler closer their eyes you make a noise with one item and they open their eyes and guess which item you used. Then the my do it and you close your eyes.

Lots of praise for when they listen at home. Point out to them that they've just listened as the concept is a bit abstract to them.

Someone mentioned audio books, nosy crow do qr codes in books that take you to the audio now...in my day it was tapes. There's a fantastic Michael Rosen book of nonsense rhymes which is all on audio. I'll try and find a picture now.

Lastly what about reading books in a totally different way...whisper the whole thing or or accents?

A few typos there... but it should've said 'lay out a selection of things that make noise'.

Lovely ideas @footprintsinthesnow, I'm going to try some of these with DS. He had a speech assessment yesterday and he scored 100% on his understanding so I can safely say he does know what I'm saying just doesn't listen (probably does and chooses to ignore me)

DD went back to her usual waking lots but going back in her cot so I can live with that. She will not be out of my arms this morning though, she's usually pretty independent so I'm finding it a tad annoying. Were off to an outdoor garden place later for a big run around, I'm looking forward to it.

@MonkeyPuddle. We are also doing train tracks this morning. The whole room is covered with them and it's a complete mess, but it's definitely the toy which keeps my DS engaged the longest without me having to play too .

I'm thinking of getting rid of the train sets as they are rarely played with at all. How old are your children who love them?

footprints DS1 loved them from 2 and still likes them at nearly 5, DS2 (14m) likes anything with wheels.

DH works for the tube and loves trains though so I think it'll be a lifelong thing where they be geeky about trains together.

I'm looking for cookie cutters to use with kinetic sand, can anyone recommend any please? All I've seen in real life shops are flowers and round ones, reslkim looking for shapes to encourage my son to learn square, triangle, circle etc etc. I've seen some on Amazon but they are packs with four different sizes of the shape, I just want a simple set with one of each shape!

@footprintsintheslow. My DS is 3.2 and adores his train set. He got it for Christmas just before he turned 2 and he's just beginning to get to the point of building tracks for himself (before, I'd have to build it for him). It's mostly second-hand and we've bought his favourite Thomas characters (Thomas, Percy, Gordon, Henry etc.) secondhand for it. He watches a lot of Thomas the Tank Engine and likes reenacting the stories a bit which I think adds to the interest. Lots of "fusion and delay" and derailments! But it does depend on the child as we have a lot of friends the same age who aren't really interested in trains.

@pinkdaydreams have you tried searching for a playdough cutter set instead?

[quote meow1989]@pinkdaydreams have you tried searching for a playdough cutter set instead?[/quote]
You genius! Thank you! I hadn't thought of that.
Asda have a good cookie cutter set of different shapes in their site but my two closest stores neither of them have them
Off to search for play doh cutters instead now thank you!

We use a lot of playdoh toys with kinetic sand...rolling-pin, ice-cream cones, moulds.

What about shape sorter shapes, they might work to make a shape in the kinetic sand?

You can buy individual cookie cutters from eBay.

DS is 4 in June and loves the trains, we’ve got the wooden ones that he’s builds himself and then a Thomas trackmaster set that I have to build.

Have been attempting to glue small foam Easter eggs and carrots to a straw hat for nursery’s Easter bonnet competition. They will not stick. There is PVA glue everywhere. Bloody everywhere. I’m going to have to bloody superglue the shit to it once he’s in bed. Joy.

Had to make a dash to Asda to get teething powders. Left both kids at home with DP. Played my fave music too loud and had a sing song in the car. We usually listen to the Thomas the Tank engine podcast in the car...

@Chocolatetrifle thank you for recommending the Galt stickers, I ordered the galt first stickers pack and they're great! Lovely vinyl stickers so they're reusable and not too big so will be handy for when (if) we go away this year, thanks again!

Speaking of holidays, has anyone got any planned? We are booked to go to Wales for a few nights early may and I'm hoping it still goes ahead. Booked it last year thinking that covid restrictions would have been eased by now!

@pinkdaydreams we've booked 3 nights in an air b n b near ish Blackpool- its a farm stay so hoping ds will enjoy it (he's excited about the hot tub too). I'd like to book another couple of nights somewhere in UK but we are dictated by school holidays with dh so we will see!

@PinkDaydreams, glad you like the Galt stickers!

We haven't got any holidays booked as yet but really hoping to make the most of some days out once things open again. We have Chester zoo close by and a Knowsley Safari Park ticket to use at some point.

Hope everyone is having a good day.

We've had a garden morning as it's not been too bad a day.

We tried some flower mindfulness, DS2 pulled all the petals off the flowers. We also made 'perfume', which was water with the petals mixed up and 'potions' which consisted of flower petals with some handcream! A change from the mud mound anyway!

@Chocolatetrifle I'm originally from Chester so spent many a sunny summer's day at the zoo during my childhood! I haven't been for a few years but will probably visit this summer. Knowsley isn't too far and I've taken the little one a few times. I'm thinking of buying a yearly pass for there once lockdown is lifted.

We've had a quiet day here, DH has taken DS out for the afternoon so it's just me and DD. I've done a few jobs, packed away the highchair as she doesn't like it anymore so she'll have a booster seat now. Definitely feel like I'm saying goodbye to baby DD and on to the next stage.

We've started to do some colouring which she seems to like. Read a million books and had lots of cuddles. I bought her a plastic egg box with chicks in eggs that squeak, she's literally been going back to it all day.

Hi all just checking in. Some of these holidays sound blooming lovely and I'm very envious, especially of the hot tub .

We've spent the day going on about 2 million walks as everytime we got home DS seemed to turn into the grumpiest child alive so I'd have a quick wee and then head straight back out. He's been fine whilst outside but a monster indoors.

I've now put him to bed early as he was falling asleep eating his dinner and am hoping he was just tired and tomorrow he will wake up a much happier child. Although I do realise by putting him to bed early I've doomed myself to being up at 4am with a wide awake small human.

Ps A quick reminder, has everyone completed their census?

Thanks for all the listening ideas, we do a few but will get working on some more!

We’ve booked a caravan in Norfolk for a week in June and I so looking forward to it! I’ll be devastated if it doesn’t happen...

Anyone else finding things are booking up? I wanted to try a baby class before DS2 is too old, but they were fully booked within an hour of opening up (I’ve found an alternative). Apparently good restaurants are getting booked up for summer (not that fancy restaurants are on my list at the moment!).