Chalk Play

With 15 minutes to kill the other day while we waited for our play date to arrive and finally some sunny weather - I whipped out the chalk, spray bottle and paint brush for some quick chalk play. I originally got the idea from Play Create Explore. Too easy and super easy to clean up as well.

Chalk + spray bottle + paint brush

Ollie was here

And then of course we had to spray the house. Why? Because he is a boy and that's what they do.

Just a small fan of Toy Story

To say my son is a fan of Toy Story is an understatment. To say we have had to watch the movies at least 50 times would be an understatement, more like 500 times (at least there are 3 Toy Story's we can rotate). So he was in seventh heaven when we went to a friends for a play date last week and he had both a big Woody and a big Buzz he could play with.

Following the play date, his nanny (grandmother) bought him a little Woody to match his little Buzz, but within 10 minutes Woody's leg had fallen off and tears ensured. So off Nanny went to Toys R Us for a replacement, only to return with the mother load of Woody's - one just like his friends. The joy this spontaneous present brought to my son was beautiful.

On the homemade front - I previously made him some Toy Story Magnets (which I know he still plays with because they keep turning up in random places) and I also made some other Toy Story toys earlier this week (pre big Woody) but i am yet to show them too him, and I am a bit worried they will now pale in comparison to big Woody. Will keep you posted.

On a side note here is a quick shot of my son sharing his toys with his baby sister!

Does your child have a favourite movie they are obsessed with? Have you made any homemade toys with characters from the movie? I would love to hear about them.

World in a Box Update - Construction Land

A quick round up of the dinosaurs from Dino World in a Box and a quick drop in of some trucks has created Construction World in a Box. Too easy - and more minutes of fun!
Anyone else tried this one yet?

Times they are a changing.... I am baking

 
I used to be the friend who made the cakes from the Woman's Weekly Cook Book for all my friends birthdays, but eventually I got sick of baking cakes which were mediocre at best due to a dodgy oven (or at least I blame the oven). So when the grill finally died on our oven (it was the only part I was still using) - it was time to bring in a new one. And it appears my baking mojo also got delivered with the oven because I have caught the baking itch. In the last 2 1/2 weeks I have baked 2 cakes and one batch of cookies. The cookies are Chewy Chocolate Cream Cheese Cookies (part brownie, part cheesecake, part cookie) from the latest Real Living Magazine. Normally i don't even look at the receipes, but times they are a changing apparently!

Next up is a baked chicken. Would you believe i have never cooked one before.... off to call my mum for some advice on what the hell I am meant to do with it.

Sleeping babies - when is it boasting?

Photo of Emily by Hayley Grace Photography

Is it just me or are there other mums out there who have been afraid to talk about how well their kids are sleeping for fear of it being taken as boasting or for fear of making others feel bad? Here's the thing - my darling baby girl, who turned six weeks last Sunday, slept through the night 5 out of 7 nights over the past week. When I say slept through the night, she has finally gone down just before 9pm (she refuses to sleep between 6pm and 9/10pm for some reason), had a dream feed at 10.30 and then she has slept through til 6 or 7 am. Now personally I think this is bloody brilliant of her and has nothing to do with anything i have done, but when people ask me how she is sleeping i simply say, "she is pretty good" as i don't want to be seen as bragging. It was the same with labour - I was lucky, small baby and all, and it wasn't too horrendous, yet I feel almost guilty when I tell people this.

Are there others out there who have felt this way? If someone told you there kid was sleeping through would you see it as bragging? Or is it just me? Should we not be celebrating each others luck even if it does make us a little jealous?

PS - little miss conveniently woke up for a 3.30am feed last night so I won't have the dilema at mothers group today as to whether or not to say she is sleeping through the night. Very thoughtful of her, and it did give me an excuse to watch Housewives of Beverly Hills.

Dino World in a Box

Now that I am a full time SAHM, I am trying to make more of an effort to organise some activities for my son for the 2 days during the week he is not at little school. As much as I try and get him out of the house as much as possible (at the moment we are going to the park twice a day) - there are of course times when you just can't leave the house and the toddler needs entertaining (particularly when breastfeeding!). So of course i turned to the multitude of ideas I have pinned on Pinterest for inspiration. The idea of a sensory bin is in no ways new - but it was the dinosaurs which caught my eye (not least because we have exactly the same dino's) in this one created by Play Create Explore

Image via Play Create Explore

So a quick scan of the house had me come up with an old fruit box, some old fish tank stones, landscaping stones and toilet rolls and here is the end result. I probably could do with some more stones but it was the best I could come up with at 10pm the night before.

Come the 3.00pm feed, I pulled it from it's hiding place in the laundry and set it down on the living room floor - and the smile (which of course i didn't catch on camera) went from ear to ear on my son, and best of all kept him entertained during the feed.
The next morning he pulled it out again, removed all the dino's and made it an undersea world with all his fish and sea creatures. I have visions of creating a whole bunch of worlds including farms, towns, under the sea, and train world for future feeding times. Will let you all know how i go. In the meantime i have a huge assortment of ideas pinned on my Pinterst board DIY - Kids Stuff and Activities to keep me going for the next 50 years. Feel free to check it out and try some out yourself. Be sure to come back and let me know how you went.

Introducing Miss Emily Harriet

So here are the promised photos of our beautiful baby girl. The details - she was born on the 8th January 2012, 2.75kg (I make small babies apparently), 48.5 cm long.

Baby fresh in hospital

Sleeping like a baby in hospital

Hanging out at Nanny's

Camoflage baby

Big brother shares his most prescious toys

Pretty in Pink this week

So there you have it. We have had some professional shots done as well when she was only about 10 days old which I will blog about soon. In the meantime - I hope you enjoy these happy snaps (culled from 100's!)

A New Approach to 2012

Calendar print by Handz on Etsy

Firstly - a very belated Happy 2012!!!

Confession time - I have been avoiding blogging. Not that i have had a lot of time to blog with welcoming a new baby girl to our family in early January, but time issues aside, i have been reluctant to blog. Why? It is not for lack of things to write about - but more a fear that if i write about the things that are currently interesting me I might disappoint my readers. Being well and truly in baby / toddler land at present, my days consist of why won't my baby sleep to looking for activities to try and entertain my very energetic two year old son, and cute kids products I find on line (what else am i meant to do during the 3am feeding except shop on my phone!). I still love looking at pretty stationery and design things on line - but it is not my only focus at the moment. So hence my lack of blogging.

After I realised on the weekend why i hadn't been blogging - i soon came to the decision - bugger it! I am going to blog about what I want to, and hopefully my readers will like the new direction - if not, I won't be offended if you decide to leave me, but i do hope you stay and that i find some new readers along the way.

Ok - moving on. Earlier this week I had another "ahah" moment. i was reading some blogs looking for inspiration to entertain my 2 year old and i read somewhere (sorry can't remember the exact blog) about how important it is to let your kids get dirty. I am not a germaphobic parent by any means (my son rarely looks clean!) but i have been reluctant to do dirty / messy activities in order to avoid the inevitable cleaning up. But in an attempt to be less of a rigid parent (that's a whole other blog post!) I didn't stop my son at the park when he wanted to play in the dirt and mud puddles. And do you know what - we had a great time and the only implication was we had a bath before dinner when we got home and not after - not exactly earth shattering! He got to play unrestricted and I got to enjoy watching him do it.

So - the moral of the story - let them eat mud pie - you will both enjoy it! and let them test their climbing skills even if it gives you heart palpitations

And yes - I will be posting some pics of my beautiful new baby girl soon!