Wretched and pathetic mum needs your help: what to do with 2 year old on cold days

[alLIOluia]

What did you do this w/end? I need to steal your ideas and avoid the Bob-the-Builder-thon we just had.

And since we're about it, if your child won't wear gloves, is it dangerous for their hands to get colder and colder?

swimming
pet shop/garden centre to look at EVERYTHING but esp the animals and especially the fish
trip to the shops to buy stuff to make cakes, then back home to make cakes
wrap up warm and go to the swings
walk along the beach/seafront then in the arcades (refuse to about that...)
library to choose books, muight also have story time/activities

don't worry about the gloves, can you get him/her to put her hands in her pockets?

Don't worry about the glove thing - none of mine would wear them when they were little. A hat is far more important.

As for what to do, the Bob-the-Builder-thon sounds good unless you have to watch it too!

Making Christmas decorations out of salt dough, they can help with mixing, rolling out, cutting out with shapes and after you have baked them, cover with glue and glitter. Takes hours!

Wrap up warm and go outside - we went to the forest to get a Christmas tree on Sat and my DS (18 mo) loved just running around. He tends to take gloves and hat off but don't think it does them too much harm.

Also bought some finfer paints at the weekend and that entertained him for a bit

3mum, how do you make salt dough?

Ds is 4 and dd nearly one
Ds saturday morning French class (last class of term so had a party). Imperial War Museum to see a little playlet of The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe, plus looking at buses, planes, tanks etc

Usual shops, cafe, to visit a friend's house (they hired a puppeteer to entertain the childen!).

Sunday. Mum came round to see grandchildren in am. Lunch with friends with kids. Trip to sweetshop in pm.
Videos, playing, bath & bed.

I don't like being in the park in the cold!

local museum or art gallery? we do this a lot, its free, very baby-friendly and empty this time of year.

this week we are going to see "march of the penguins" at the cinema.

this weekend we also went to a farm shop to order a turkey and to see the geese and cows

and made marzipan for the xmas cake

Soft Play, visiting friends, shopping trips (local and in Norwich), we get out the craft box (occasionally!), meeting Daddy for lunch, library, local zoo, wrapped up and to the park, having tea at the pub so dd can see the xmas lights in the dark and when we're feeling lazy, Cbeebies!

Oh, and I can second the fish in the pet shop idea, dd loves it.

I think I love you all, these are great. More welcome...

I was interested to see a few posters said the Library. Our Library is shut on a Saturday although I would have thought it would be a good day to have it open.

I also would like the recipe for salt dough! My ds spends lots of time at the sink playing with different toys. I sit close to him (in case he falls off the chair) with a newspaper and a coffee.

If you google salt dough recipe it gives you loads of versions.

Also shows different ideas on what to do with the stuff.

hello Lio, this weekend was a bit different as we went to CBeebies live but normally it's things like

Swimming,
Walk in woods or at local lake with big park
Library (rarely)
Lunch or Dinner with a friend who has children
Dance class (or any class)
Making something - cheesey biscuits or something
A Collage
A drink or two in the local pub (dd loves it)
A friend over to play (with the mum also)
Visit to Grandparents for a while

Then cuddles in front of a dvd towards the end of the day

In fact my weekends sound a lot like Harpsi's but I don't have the Seafront (unfortunately)

Mascara

oh mascara it's you! was wondering...
we don't have the sea front either - but sometiems we drive there (it's about an hour and a qaurter away). dd1 is often disappointed though because I think still she believes it is going to be the Summer when we get there... and she is going to be able to make sandcastles and paddle etc.

lol Harpsi - just dusted my 'real' self off for Christmas.

We wrap up too - we never ever spend the whole day indoors unless tipping down with rain. If it's grim we try and go out 11 -1 ish when it's the warmest part of the day.

Mistymoo - our tiny one is open Saturday mornings but the big one in Norwich is even open on sundays which I think is fab.

Despite it being absolutely freezing, we walked to the river (15 minute walk) and fed the ducks and got chased by the geese. Had to carry ds3 back though as he was so cold and tired, but when we got back it was lovely walking into a snug warm house.

After New Year I intend to take my lot roller skating on a Saturday morning and go swimming with them too, as well as plenty of cycling and walking. Can you see the get fit trend here?

Sat: craft activity at local museum (plus look around the museum) - free
shopping for child's b/day prezzie
Carols in the local shopping centre - free
Party for the 2yo
Sun: Meant to go swimming but 4yo dd fell and bashed her teeth so we had to go to A&E
Children's Christmas production at local uni theatre
DVD while I prepared tea
Also they helped with cooking
(mazzystar very impressed with making marzipan!)
Re the gloves: DS2 has refused mittens but agrees to gloves like DS1.
How about getting him to choose some specially?

Tricycle on the cycle path (pedalling while I push keeps her warm)
Ride on local steam train (colder than outside tho!)
Playing at B&Q (they have playhouses set up and their cafe has a childrens table where they can do drawing
A walk around half past four to look at the amazing charity christmas lights on some of the houses round our way.
Love making bisucits, jam tarts etc too, tho the mess is really not worth the limited amount of time it entertains her for (but you can then have fun doing wwashing up together with lots of bubbles while they cook and then eat them for snack)
Dd1 doesn't tend to notice her hands getting cold until they are frozen and then they get really painful, saying that since that happened she has discovered the benfits of her pockets and her mittens.

This is giving me a warm glow, especially as none of you lovely laydeez has pointed out what an uncreative dolt I am.

Thank you very much everybody.

and look - double figures!

Cold is a relative thing though--you need a lot more creative indoor ideas in Canada, when it's so cold your snots freeze (sorry, rude...) and the maximum time outside with a 2 year old is about five minutes! I know he's watching too much TV and I feel bad but honestly how many Christmas cookies can you make?! We've already done four batches!

Lol!!

How about doing some Papier-mâché, my friend gave me this idea the other day and it was something I'd never thought to do with dd but am def. going to try