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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!

Regrets, I've had a few

Last night I did something I regret. I knew as I was doing it that I would regret it. But I didn't stop myself, I did it anyway. It was something I had promised myself I would never do and I was so upset I did it anyway........

I put Grapie in her cot crying and walked out of the room. This is something that may not seem like a big deal to some mums, but it's I feel quite strongly about not doing. when Princess was a baby, I let myself feel pressured into trying controlled crying, just the once, and it's my biggest regret from her childhood. I understand that it works for some children, but I firmly believe that there are some children, the more strong willed children, that it is not suitable for and my girls fall into that category. It did so much damage to Princess and her sleep problems, it made her afraid of her cot, and she is still afraid of being on her own in bed.

So I promised myself that I would never put a child of mine through that again. And now I have. Now I know I wasn't attempting to try controlled crying again, and she was actually only in her cot for a minute as my partner knows how I feel about leaving her to cry, so went straight in to her, while I sobbed on the sofa, already regretting it. But I still feel terrible, like I've let her down. But she just doesn't sleep and wants to be held all the time, and I just reached breaking point and just needd to put her down. She won't be held by anyone but me, she screams the place down if daddy even tries to take her off me, and only ever sleeps for 2 hours at a time. Which usually I just dig deep and cope with, but not last night.

And today I feel terrible, like a monster mummy. But I'm probably feeling more guilt than necessary really, she still slept in my bed cufdled up withe last night in the end so she probably doesn't blame me too much.

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! 

when will I get some sleep?

Regular readers of my blog may have noticed that there is a sleep deprived theme to some of my posts, mainly as Grapie is the worlds worst sleeper! She was diagnosed with silent reflux when she was around 4 months old, and at 13 months has never even come close to what anyone in their right mind would consider a good nights sleep.

She writhes around in her sleep in discomfort, wakes up screaming and never stays asleep for more than a 2 hour stretch. To say we are sleep deprived is an understatement.

So yesterday, after many visits to my gp, we finally went for an appointment with a paediatrician and part of me went with high hopes of a miracle solution.

But after a good examination the doctor told us that she couldn't find anything wrong with her. Now obviously this is great news that my baby doesn't have a serious illness and doesn't need to have tests, which I was really quite worried about. But where does it leave us?

She is clearly uncomfortable at night time but with the doctor saying that its just something she will have to grow out of where do we go from here and how will we get through many more months with such little sleep?

If anyone can help in any way or has been through this and survived please let me know, thanks

I'm leaving on a jet plane

Ok, so any excuse to sing that song as it reminds me of special times, but tomorrow we will be setting off for the airport to go on our holidays! We will be spending the night at the airport before jetting off to sunny Spain on Saturday.

We are going with another couple and their baby which is a first for us as my partner and I are both introverts and like our own space. But this time we have hired a villa big enough for all 7 of us and will be having a sociable time with friends.

I am currently at the 'aaaahhh nothings dry so can't finish packing, quick we must put the heating on, it's an emergency' stage of packing, but I'm sure that calm will be restored tomorrow as my mum has very kindly offered to do the school run and take Grapie out for a walk so I can finish up packing without a tiny person unpacking faster than I can pack!

Then there is the small matter of getting myself ready to appear in a swimsuit, after a month of snuggly autumn clothes where no flesh had to appear in public. The least said about that the better I think.

Getting to the airport by train will be an experience with two children, two suitcases and a trunki (which child number 1 will want to ride on the whole time!), too much handluggage, two carseats and a buggy (which child number 2 will refuse to sit in and try to escape out of at every opportunity!)

But once we are there, splashing in the pool, making sandcastles, eating ice cream and best of all making memories, we will have a fantastic week of family fun. Then we will have to travel home..........!

Sensory ways to explore letters

We have been playing lots of games recently involving letters and alphabet, to help princess learn without even knowing it. This post focuses on sensory ways we used to explore the letters in Princess' name.

We made some no cook playdough and while Princess was playing with it, I drew the outlines of her letters. She then made some playdough worms and shaped them to fit in the letters. Lots of wiggly playdoughy fun.

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We used different coloured chalks to practice how the letters in her name are formed by writing her name on the stepping stones in the lawn. Princess then traced over each letter several times, using a different colour each time. This really helped her with learning to write the letters, but also forming the letters herself has helped her recognition too.

Incidentally, you might notice in the picture that Princess has shaving foam all over her arm. This is because we had just tried drawing letters in a tray of shaving foam. This did not work for us at all, as Princess was in sensory overload I think! All she wannted to do was spread it all over her arms! Bur at least she had fun!

I made Princess some letter cards with glitter to help her practice how the letters should be correctly written. Who doesn't love seeing their name in sparkly glitter! I drew each letter then painted over it with glue before tipping on the glitter. I added a star to show princess where to start on each letter. To stop the glitter from getting everywhere, I painted another layer on glue over the top when it was dry and it has sealed it nicely.

I showed princess how to draw each letter starting at the star. The feel of the glitter as she traces the letter evokes more senses and enables her to remember it on another level. We now have these stuck to the kitchen door so she can trace them regularly. As Princess is left handed, she seems to have a tendency to write the letters backwards, so this is good practice for her to remember how the letters should look.

Her letter recognition has come on so much since doing these activities, the can now type her name on a computer without any help, and is starting to be able to write her name. It's not quite obvious what she has written yet but if you know it's her name, you can definitely make out that she has made the letter shapes. And the main thing is that she enjoyed herself!