Fun in a DIY Teepee

We have loads of toys in our garden (ok, lots of them are from the pound shop, but still loads!) But still they want more, more, more! Every time they look at the Early Learning centre catalogue they spot about 20 things they fancy. But apart from not having an endless money supply, I don't want them growing up spoilt and always needing 'things' to make them happy.

So this weekend, inspired by here come the girls, we made this teepee and it was pretty easy to make. Start with 4 beanpoles and push them into the ground in a sqare shape. How far apart you put them will depend on how big you want your teepee to be.

Then tie the tops together with some string or ribbon if you happen to have some (we didn't so garden twine it was).

Next comes the walls. We used a blanket, which gave the teepee a cozy private feel, but sheet would work well too, and that is what we will be trying next. Wrap the blanket or sheet around the poles and use pegs to hold it in place. Depending on how you peg it and the size of your sheet you could have flaps for a door or leave one side open, or what we have which is half a door leaving a crawl-in entrance.

And that is it, hours of teepee fun created in about 5 minutes and without buying anything new! Perfect for hiding in, curling up with a pile of books, peekaboo or just having some quiet time. And when the girls are not using it, the cat has taken to hiding in it too! 

A walk in the woods

The sun was shining and Grapie and I went for a little walk in the woods the other day. Well, not the woods exactly but a little copse close to our house. We were on our way back from dropping princess off at preschool, and Grapie was in a good mood (she's usually ready for her nap when we get back, thanks to getting up sooooooo early!)

We are very lucky to have a lovely green area so close to our house but it's been so boggy recently that it's been impossible to go in with the buggy. It's dried out a bit now so I took the opportunity to show Grapie some nature.

She loved being free to explore and touch things. We talked about how things felt and Grapie learnt lots of new words, like rough and hard, and it was lovely to have some quality one on one time with her, as often, even though she is with me all the time, we spend our time rushing from one thing to the next before it's time to pick Princess up again! 

It was short and sweet and simple but we had a really lovely time!

Fun in the sun

The rain has finally stopped and the sun made an appearance this weekend. It was the perfect time to get out in the garden and reclaim our outsise space after the winter. To be honest, we have hardly ventured out in the garden for months, our grass was so muddy and boggy and slippery that it was easier to go to the park for our outside time.

But this weekend the sun was shining, the birds were singing and we started getting the garden ready for play. We cleared the trampoline of leaves and puddles, so the girls could have a good jump. Princess had forgotten how much she loved the trampoline, she jumps on her bed every day but after going on the trampoline, she said to me later, "mummy, my bed isn't very bouncy, is it?"

We cut the grass so it can start to dry up quicker, and cleaned out the sandpit, ready for some fresh sand. This year, I would love to get a water table for the girls to play with out there. Also this summer I want to build some raised beds to plant vegetables in, so we can grass over our abandoned vegetable patch that has become one big raspberry bush! 

Its amazing what a difference a bit of bright weather makes, let's hope the rain holds off for a little bit longer so we can have some more fun! 

A bad night shows me how far we have come

Last night was a bad night for Grapie. She is getting 3 teeth and she tossed and turned all night, waking up and crying what felt like every 10 minutes. Not even Calpol gave her much relief. This took me back to a time when every night was like this for her, when she was suffering badly with reflux. And I realised this morning just how far we have come.

Don't get me wrong, its far from perfect. She still wakes several times a night and I still spend half the night in her bed with her. But she sleeps in her own little bed in her own room, she falls asleep without any help apart from me being in her room and she has stopped breastfeeding.

We still have a long way to go before she is sleeping all night but we have come a long way.

Christmas snow cloud dough

This week we had some cloud dough as an invitation to play (it was actually left by our christmas elf, Jingles). It was peppermint scented and glittery, and it was almost like it had snowed inside by the time it had been sprinkled all over the floor! And the best part was that Grapie could join in and play too!

What you need
7 parts flour
1 part vegetable oil
Peppermint food flavour
Glitter (optional)

Put the flour in a bowl and stir in the oil and a few drops of the peppermint. I found it was best to start off using a spoon to stir then use my fingers to break up any lumps. Then mix in the glitter if using. I took a batch out for Grapie first before adfing glitter so it was safe for her.

I laid it out on a Christmas tray along with some Christmas shaped cookie cutters and some Christmas craft shapes. Princess was amazed when she saw it (especially as Jingles the elf made it herself!) Grapie was very pleased to be allowed to play with it too! We put the tray on the floor and let them get on with it.

Princess scooped the cloud dough out onto the floor, squashed it down and made shapes with the cookie cutters and decorated them first, then she discovered thst the cloud dough can be moulded into shape and made snowballs. That's when things got very messy as she started throwing them in the kitchen!

This was the state of the kitchen when they had finished, which of course Princess insisted on trying to clean up herself!

Grapie did exactly what I thought she would do to start, which was to put it in her mouth! (That's why hers had no glitter!) But she soon got the hang of it and tried making shapes and decorating it just like her sister!

Once we were finished playing, I scooped up most of the cloud dough and put it in a box to play with again, the rest just swept up easily (as soon as I was back in control of the broom!)

Fun in a box

Today I went shopping for a new set of saucepans. Nothing exciting there. Except that the saucepans came in a box. A big box. Also known as the most fun ever!

It started with Grapie locating a crayon under the sofa and practicing her 'drawing' on the box. I thought this showed a lot of initiative for a 14 month old baby!

Then of course Princess saw what was going on and wanted to be part of it, so she joined her in the box. Then they found the cardboard pieces that had protected the saucepans were perfect crowns, so had fun ' crowning' each other.

Then the box ripped and this became the door, then it became a car. Then Princess fetched her fuzzy felt game and sat in it to play, then made it into a bad. All while I made dinner. I wonder what the box will become tomorrow?

Playing with Oobleck

Princess loves messy, sensory play, it really calms her and we have been trying to do more of it so today we made Oobleck for the first time. If you have never tried making it before like us, please please do give it a go, its great!

To make oobleck, you will need:
1-2 cups cornflour (also known as cornstarch)
1/2 cup water
Food colouring

Put the cornflour in a bowl and mix in the water, you can either add the food colouring to the water, or put it straight into the oobleck mixture (or a bit of both like we did as Princess kept asking for more pink!) Add more cornflour or water gradually until it feels ready.

You will know it is ready when it is liquid when you sink your hands in slowly but feels solid when you tap it quickly. Here comes the science bit...... Oobleck is known as a non-Newtonian fluids as changes  pressure can change the properties of it. It feels solid when tapped quickly because the pressure forces the cornflour particles together whereas when you put your hand in slowly the particles have time to move out of the way so the oobleck behaves like a liquid.

I gave Princess a pot with a lid to play with and she had a great time scooping up and grabbing the solid oobleck and letting it drip off her hands into her 'cake', then putting on the lid and shaking it.

Next she decided to make some 'tea' which involved grabbing the oobleck and transferring it to the cup. This entertained her for quite a while as she enjoyed feeling the oobleck drip through her fingers. Grapie and I also had a go, Grapie didn't like the feel of it and wanted her hands washed straightaway, but I loved it and actually once Princess had finished playing with it, I kept it for a few hours and couldn't resist poking it every time I passed!

This is what the floor looked like at the end, but it was so easy (and fun!) to clean up. I scooped most of it up an put it back into the bowl, where it 'melted' back into liquid after seeming to have dried up on the floor. The rest cleaned up with a couple of baby wipes. This is definitely something that we will be doing again, it was just so much fun!

Time to make a plan to get more sleep

So, I have been moaning a lot recently about Grapie's sleep issues and how tired I am. We saw a paediatricion last week and I had been pinning my hopes on an anwer to why she is so uncomfortable at night and a solution. But we didn't get one, we were told it's just something that she will have to grow out of. I have been feeling very down about the whole thing recently, but today I have decided that I need to try to come up with a solution to help our family get through this, rather than fall apart.

• Get rid of the cot

The first change we are going to make is a practical one, replacing her cot with a single matress on the floor with baby bumpers. Although it is pretty drastic, there are two potential benefits to this. Grapie currently starts the night in her cot but most nights has joined us in bed by 10. We fell into cosleeping a few months ago when I got so tired that I started falling asleep at night while breastfeeding. I realised that I was actually getting more sleep that way and for a while it was working better than staying awake to put her back in her cot only for her to wake up an hour later and go through the whole thing again. But she is a fidgety baby and likes to sleep sideways in the bed meaning that on top of her repeated wakings, we are often awake and uncomfortable even when she is asleep! This plan would give us a spare bed to move to for one of us to get a few hours uninterrupted sleep.

Also I'm hoping that it will be the start of getting her back to sleeping on her own, as I will be able to go to her bed to feed her back to sleep some times. But the main aim will be to get more sleep in the short term so I will have more energy to make more chanfes in the future.

• No cry sleep solution

I used this book by Elizabeth Pantely when Princess was younger, it was how I managed to fet her to start falling asleep by herself. I have read through it before, but the time has come to use it properly for Grapie. The first thing the book recommends is creating a nap and sleep log to get an acturate picture of her sleep patterns. Here is the one I did for G before we saw the paediatricion.

Monday
Naps - morning, fell asleep in car for 5 minutes, woke up crying
Afternoon, fell asleep in car, then carseat put on pram, asleep for 45minutes

Nightime
Breastfed to sleep, woke up when moved to cot so repeated breastfeed to sleep, put in cot by 8pm
10.15- woke up crying, came into bed, fed to sleep
12.45- woke up, tried to settle without milk but woke up fully, attempted to feed to sleep 3 times, awake until 2.30
5.00- woke up, fed back to sleep
7.15 up for day

Tuesday
Naps fell asleep in pram, asleep for approx 1  hour

Nightime
Breastfed to sleep woke up when moved to cot so fed to sleep again, in cot bu 8pm
9pm woke up crying, fed to sleep, put back in cot
11.20 woke up crying came in bed and fed to sleep
1.00 woke up screaming, gave calpol and walked her around to sleep, back in cot at 1.30
4.20 woke up crying, came in bed for milk
5.30 writhing round in pain, daddy cuddled back to sleep
6.15 woke up crying, had milk but then up for day

Wednesday
Naps, morning fell asleep on bed after milk, asleep for 1hour 20minutes
Afternoon, fell asleep in pram, asleep for 30minutes

Nightime
Breastfed to sleep, in cot by 7.44
9.50awake, came to bed for milk
12.30 woke up crying, fed to sleep in bed
1.50 writhing round in pain every 10-30 minutes for the rest of the night
6.00 up for day

So as you can see, we do not get a good night's sleep at all and bear in mind that G is now 13 and a half months.

Grapie is teething at the moment so we will have to wait for that to pass before we implement any changes. But the next stage is to come up with a plan. So watch this space for the next stage and to see how we get on.

Any helpful comments are welcomed

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Fun Halloween Paper Plate Ghost

Halloween is coming, and princess is getting excited!  She was off preschool today because she has a cold so it was the perfect day for some Halloween crafts. This paper plate ghost looks very cool but was so easy to make that Princess did it (almost) all by herself.

You will need:
White paper plate
Black paper
White toilet paper
Glue and scissors

Cut out two circles for eyes and a bigger circle for the mouth out of the black paper. Alternatively you can draw these on with black marker, but glueing is more fun when you're 3! Have your assistant stick these on (making sure they spill the glue in the process, of course!)

Then take two strips of toilet paper, cut them up the middle almost to the top, and have your assistant stick these on too. Underneath the plate would be great but ontop of the plate like we have done us also good. My assistant also insisted that ghosts have teeth so we stuck on a big white tooth, this is optional, depending on your lovely assistant's views on the matter.

Allow to dry, hang up and enjoy!

Yummy oaty biscuits (and sugar free too!)

Today we made some yummy oaty biscuits for the girls, which are packed full of energy boosting ingredients, are sugar free and suitable for baby led weaning. The recipe is loosely based on one I saw in a BLW book I borrowed from the library, but I couldn't remember it properly, so I made it up.

Ingredients
50g butter
75g porridge oats
25g raisins
5 dried apricots (chopped)
Orange juice

Method
Put the dried fruit in a saucepan and put enough orange juice in to just cover the fruit. Cook on a low heat for about 5 minutes, until the fruit goes all squishy and has absorbed most of the orange juice.

Give the fruit a bit of a mash with a fork then add the butter and stir until melted. Remove from the heat and stir in the oats.

Allow the mixture to cool slightly before forming into balls. Flatten the balls of mixture down and place on a baking tray. Pop them into the oven (preheated to 180) for 15 minutes or until they turn golden.

Allow to cool and enjoy! 

Mr Potato Head- Felt travel game

We are huge Toy Story fans in our house. We love the films, and we also have lots of the toys. And as much as we love Woody, Buzz and Jessie, the toy that is the most fun to play with has to be Mr Potato head!  So as we are going on holiday in a few weeks, I thought I would have a go at making a game we could bring with us for the plane, and Mr Potato head (and Mrs of course) was the perfect choice.

I started with the potato shapes out of brown felt, and once they were cut out ,I started drawing the features on paper before cutting them out of the felt. The picture above shows the features I started with from copying the actual toys. Then I had some fun by giving them different accessories, moustaches, and expressions.

These are my favourites, I was going for Mr Angry Eyes, like in the film as Princess find this hilarious in the outtakes, but he just looks a bit melancholy. And I love this moustache!

Here is the complete set, I put some bright green felt in for a background, and used a baby wipes container to keep them in (a dvd case would also work well).  It's a lot of fun to play (I quite like having a turn too) and a big hit with Princess! The felt pieces stick to each other really well, and I think it will easily and quietly pass a bit of time on the plane and beyond!

Grapie's first steps

It's been an exciting few days in the P and G household- Grapie has just taken her first steps! I wouldn't quite describe her as a walker yet, but she may well be there by the time she has her birthday in 2 weeks time!

Grapie has always been an active little mite, she rolled over at 8 weeks, crawled at 6 months and has been standing up and cruising for about 3 months now so I was worried that she would be a very early walker, but luckily for me, she hasn't had much interest in walking, until this weekend, that is.

It started with some standing with intent while she was looking at her books, then she just did 3 little steps towards me. And she's had a few more attempts today.

So at this rate we may be taking a post birthday trip to the shoeshop, although, as she's only a titch she will have to grow a bit first! But she has started along the road to toddlerdom, and its a bit soon for my liking. She is growing up so fast and I wish I could keep her babyness for a bit longer.