{this moment}

(Goblin is 23 months)
Inspired by Soulemama's {this moment}  - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savour and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in Soulemama or my comments for all to find and see.

Bed Time Books

(Goblin is 23 months)

Goblin has recently started to really enjoy a book at bedtime. We started reading him 'Winnie the Pooh' when he was younger and just enjoyed being with us and hearing our voices, but now he prefers illustrated books. He loves pointing and naming stuff in the pictures as we read. So the more interesting the pictures the better. I had planned to do a post on Goblin's favourite bed time books but got distracted. Reading Mummy and More reminded me. So here is a list of Goblins top 7 bed time reads:

Penguin by Polly Dunbar

This is the book Goblin asks for the most. Its about a boy who gets a penguin as a present but gets frustrated because it can't talk. The pictures are nice and simple, and now Goblin can say "penguin". 

Up and Down by Oliver Jeffers

This is another book about a boy and a penguin. This time the penguin wants to fly. There is a little bit more story to this book and its another frequently asked for by Goblin. 

The Biggest Kiss by Joanna Walsh and Judi Abbot

You can see a theme here can't you - there is a penguin in every picture in this book. (We didn't buy them on purpose but Goblin seems to be attracted to the penguin books). The Biggest Kiss is a rhyme about kisses. Its very sweet and gives good opportunities to be tactile with your toddler (not that you need a book for that).

Good Little Wolf by Nadia Shireen

This is a lovely book about a good little wolf who meets a big bad wolf and is tempted to turn to the dark side. This is my favourite of Goblin's bed time books. Goblin likes saying "wolf". Lovely simple illustrations.

Mister Seahorse by Eric Carle

As you probably know Eric Carle is the author of the Hungry Caterpillar. The Hungry Caterpillar has many dimensions to it educationally, it teaches days of the week, counting, names of foods and the metamorphosis of a butterfly. Mister Seahorse is not quite there. It teaches the names of different fish and how they lay their eggs. And it has lovely illustrations including transparent pages hiding fish. But it really lacks a plot. That sounds daft in a kids book but it makes it a bit grating to read as an adult. And for the age it's aimed at the educational benefit of teaching different fish names is limited in my opinion. But Goblin still likes it. 

Biscuit Bear by Mini Grey

This is a really unusual book with an interesting lay out. The plot about a biscuit bear and the fate of biscuits is amusingly dark and will keep you entertained as a parent while you read to your child. Lots for your toddler to look out for in the pictures, and never fear it does have a happy ending - well for biscuit bear at least! (We've never used the CD). 

Aliens Love Underpants by Claire Freedman and Ben Cort

The illustrations are the best part of this book - really bright and cheerful. The story is a rhyme about how Aliens steal pants from humans. My problem is the rhymes are really unpolished which makes it hard to read out loud with a rhythm. Goblin doesn't seem to notice though. 

You may have spotted that The Gruffalo is not on the list. We do have a copy but it isn't one of Goblin's favourites. Its much longer than the books I have just mentioned, and its quite repetitive. For a repetitive book the pictures just aren't interesting enough, there isn't much in each picture other than the animal who is talking to the mouse. So Goblin gets bored. He does however like the flap books that are done by the same authors Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. Fox's socks is a particular favourite, and has lots to look out for in the pictures. But we tend to keep the interactive flap books as day time books. Maybe I'll do a post on them too. 

Button practice peacock

(Goblin is 23 months old)

I have been feeling crafty again recently. A while ago I stumbled on a very cute button turkey on one of my favourite blogs Counting Coconuts. I was going to make one for Goblin but turkeys don't really resonate with me. I think turkeys are much more common place for Americans because of Thanks giving.
The other day I bought some felt squares from the felt fairy. When they arrived the lovely colours inspired me -  instead of a turkey I made a peacock. 

All the felt squares I used are 4 inch squares with the exception of the big green circle. 

I drew a little sketch for the body of the peacock and cut it out in blue. I cut the green circle out using a cake tin lid as a template. 

I used the body shape minus the head to make the tail feathers. I cut out similar tail feathers in green for the backs. I sewed feather patterns onto the tail pieces using embroidery thread. I thought it would add some featheryness. I am not sure that I made the right choice in repeating this around the whole tail feather piece. It might have looked better if I'd just used regular thread and invisible stitches. 

I decided on the colours by throwing different felt squares together until i came to combinations that were pleasing to the eye and looked vaguely peacock feathery. 

The body of the peacock is stuffed with shredded cotton sheet. 

I sewed random buttons round the edges. They are slightly different sizes so Goblin may find some tail feather easier to attach than others. 

Buttoning is quite a complex activity using both hands so I am not expecting Goblin to master it immediately but if he plays with the peacock as a toy for a while I can introduce the attachment of the tail feathers gradually. 

Nanny's Garden of Adventure

(Goblin is 23 months)

This weekend Goblin went to Nanny's house. Goblin always likes visiting Nanny. Not only does he get lots of cuddles, but she has the most fantastic garden. It goes on forever and ever and has brilliant places to hide as well as lots of things to do. 

Goblin got to feed the chickens. "Chicken" is one of his new words this fortnight. 

He played with the dog - well Ok he chased her until she took refuge in the vegetable patch. He really loves Nanny's dog, and we are lucky that she is a very calm and patient dog and will usually allow Goblin to drag her around. We do try and ensure that she has somewhere to escape to if Goblin gets a bit too much. 

Goblin has a wheel barrow and some plastic garden tools at Nanny's house. He loves raking the gravel and moving the big stones around in his wheel barrow. But today he was using his diggers instead. 

And he made a den in the wood shed - yes they have a wood shed, every small boys dream! But I had to coax him out after he showed a bit too much interest in the ladder. He is quite good at climbing ladders but this one wasn't attached to anything. 

I distracted him with a mini percussion session using an upturned bucket and the garden sieve which was hanging on the side of the shed. He soon came and joined me, and brought his own drum stick. 

Then Goblin and I went on a nature hunt. We started off looking for snails. He'd seen a picture of one earlier and its another new word of the fortnight so I wanted to reinforce it by showing him some. But Nanny's garden appears to be snail free. We looked under pots and near the two tub ponds, and under big leaved plants. Nada, nothing, no snails to be found! But we did find three ladybirds and a couple of woodlice. Goblin liked the ladybirds. I got one to walk onto a stick so he could have a really close look. 

The one thing Nanny's garden did have a lot of was spiders. This pot which we turned over contained four. "Spider" is another new word this fortnight (you may have guessed that Goblin has been on a bit of a word binge the last two weeks). So we walked all round the garden finding spiders and spider webs. We found an enormous one in the boat bench.

The web spanned the whole boat and the spider was right in the middle of the web so we got a great view. 

While looking for spiders Goblin found a pot of clothes pegs. I tried to show him the different colours of pegs but he wasn't interested. He did like trying to peg them onto a stick. I had to spend quite a lot of time showing him how the pegs work. Pegs are a great toy for toddlers because they encourage a pincer grip which is needed for holding a pen or pencil when writing. So I was really pleased that Goblin initiated this game. 

And after a long day of play Goblin needed a rest, and what better place than Nanny's wooden sun lounger. 

{this moment}

(Goblin is 23 months)

Joining Soulemama's {this moment} and insipred by one I found on Juise - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Fairy Garden

(Goblin is 23 months)

I was really excited when I found the blog The Magic Onions. I am interested in Steiner-Waldorf philosophies of education and this blog has some really great articles. But whats more it has the cutest crafts and this fab competition. However being my usual disorganised self (and because Goblin has been ill) I didn't get round to actually entering - Doh!

But I did make a fairy garden with Goblin and here it is.

As you can see its still a work in progress. I had a barrel that I had planted lavender in last winter. A couple of the plants have died so there was a space which was just perfect for a little garden. I wanted to let it mature into a really lovely garden so I have left room for the plants to spread. I also didn't want to use too much "fairy furniture" because Goblin is still quite keen on a) putting things in his mouth and b) destroying things. But if you want to see some really cute fairy furniture go and check out the people who were organised enough to enter the competition. All the photos are available at the link above. 

I did make a little pool nestled in the lavender forest. I am keeping my eye out for a nice deep finger bowl in charity shops but for the moment I am using a black saucer so it doesn't hold much water. I used some blue flattened marbles that I happened to have. I think they make nice sparkles.

The "grass" is a type of low spreading thyme. Goblin helped me plant it with his little trowel - he liked digging the hole. The thyme smells lovely. Mixed with the lavender it makes the whole fairy garden a really smelly sensory affair. 

I made a little fairy hut using air dry clay. This one took half a packet. You can wrap the rest in clingfilm and pop it in a bag and it will keep for ages. You would think I would realise that air dry means what it says - but no. As you can see the hut is made from a pinch pot on the bottom and a cone shape on the top. If I had been sensible I would have made them separately and let them dry then stuck them together with glue. But instead I stuck the roof on while it was all wet and then left it to dry. Needless to say within seconds of Goblin discovering the garden he tried to pick up the hut and the roof came off exposing still wet clay. And this stuff is dyed to look like terracota so it stains clothes, hands and toddlers! Lesson learned. 
My pièce de résistance' was going to be some cork screw grass. It is supposed to look like this - which I thought would add whimsey. 

But mine looks like this:

After my trip to the garden centre and I popped it down in the garden in its pot while I took Goblin upstairs for his nap. When I came back down my 5 free range guineapigs had feasted upon it and razed it to the ground. I'm hoping as it is a grass it will regrow with a bit of TLC.
Goblin doesn't seem too upset by the lack of corkscrew grass. He has decided that while the fairies are away during the day the garden is an excellent playground for his schleich animals.

DIY Teepee

(Goblin is 23 months)

I am so excited. I just finished making a teepee for Goblin. 
I am not a natural craft type and this is by no means the best teepee in the world - But I made it and Goblin can play in it, so I am very excited. 

Here is how I made it - along with some tips on how not to make the same mistakes I did. 
I used 3 old double bed sheets that I had lying around (we upgraded to a super king sized bed and I still have the old bed linen but it no longer fits). They were navy blue which is a bit boring so I bleach tie dyed them. 

If you have never done this before, tie dying is very easy and can produce some great results. There is a handy PDF explaining how to do different types of tie dying here 
http://www.heart-educational.co.uk/pdfs/info_tips/Traditional_Tie_Dyeing.pdf
lesson learned: I used plastic string this time but I have got much better results when I have used fabric string which absorbs the liquid and swells. 
I wanted to remove colour rather than add it so I popped the sheets into the bath with a bottle of thin bleach over night. 
Now being an exceptionally lazy person I didn't iron the sheets before I started to cut out the pattern. 
lesson learned: Iron the sheets before you cut so the creases don't impact the straight lines. 
I folded the sheets in half and cut triangles that were 44 inches across the bottom and 5 foot high. I know they are bizarre measurements but that was what fit once the sheets were folded in two. In terms of the finished article I think it works quite well. 

This is probably stating the obvious but these are isosceles triangles so you measure 22 inches in and then measure the five foot height from that middle point. This will give you two triangles, one on the bottom of the folded sheet and one on the top. If like me you are using 3 double sheets you also need to use the folded side of the sheet to get another triangle. As the middle of your triangle is 22 inches in from the edge you simply cut a straight line across to your fold, unfold the bit you have just cut off and you should have another 44 inch by 5 foot triangle. Do this on two of your three sheets and you will create the two triangles that will make the fourth wall of your teepee. 

I felt the sheets needed a bit more pizzaz so I appliqued some stars onto the triangles that would form the top layers. This was not as tricky as it sounds. I used a star from one of Goblin's puzzles as a template and some odd bits of cloth. I cut out about 5 stars per wall and used the zigzag function on the sewing machine to sew round the edges. The bright red thread helped. (The photo above was taken out of sequence, I'm just using it to show the stars)

Next I cut some rectangular strips about 8 inches high and the length of the sheet (or what was left of it). I folded these over so they were 4 inches high and sewed up the edge so they were long tubes. I turned them inside out so the stitching wasn't showing. I cut the tubes into 4 inch wide sections and folded the sections over so they were two inches deep. These form the tabs that the bean poles will go through. If you are doing this you will need 40 tabs.

It's a bad photo above but what I am doing is placing the tabs in between the two triangles. The fold of the tab should face inwards (towards the middle of the triangle) and the two edges of the tab should be lined up with the edges of the top and bottom triangles to form a sandwich with the tab as the filling. 

You need about 5 tabs per triangle edge. There is probably a very professional way of working out where to put your tabs, but I did it my "unique" way. On the first triangle I placed the tabs about 7 inches apart along the left hand side. Then I laid the second panel of two triangles next to the first and added tabs to the right hand side of panel 2, etc. I lined up the tabs so they were in between the ones on the first panel. So if panel 1 had a tab right at the top, panel 2 would have one about 5 inches down from the top, and then panel 1 would have one, and then panel 2. 
Then I placed tabs on the left side of panel 2, about 7 inches apart, and repeated the exercise with panel 3. etc etc. As you can see from the photo I marked the panels with chalk so I could tell which ones were which. 
When you get back to the right hand side of panel one, leave the three tabs closest to the bottom unfolded. That is to say the whole 4 inch strip to be sandwiched between the two triangles. This will create the door flap. You can put stick-on velcro on these tabs so that they can be wrapped round the pole and done up, or left hanging when the door is open.

Then you simply sew the panels together making sure you don't sew too far in from the edge - because that will make your tabs less deep and your poles may not fit through. Sew all the way round but leave about half a foot at the bottom of each panel. Turn the whole thing right side out (so the tabs are now visible on the edges) and then sew up the last foot. Mark the corner of each panel so you know which one lines up with the tabs on the next panel. 

Place panel 1 and 2 next to each other and thread the bean poles through the tabs. 

When all four beanpoles are through. Stand the teepee up. Tie a ribbon around the top to hold the poles together and spread the legs at the bottom. 
And there you have your DIY teepee and here it is with the door shut for some privacy. 

Can't wait for Goblin to wake up and discover it tomorrow. 

A minimal stress morning

(Goblin is 23 months)

Over the last three days Goblin has had croup. He has been really miserable and hasn't wanted to do anything except snuggle and watch TV. 

Today he seems to be on the mend and is wanting to play. But he's still really tired and grizzly which means he's getting easily frustrated. Unfortunately he tends to show frustration by lashing out, hitting me or Hublet with toys. Its not his fault, he doesn't know how else to express that he's feeling awful. But as I don't want to be bruised, or have to tell him off, I set out to find activities he could play that would be the least frustrating for him. 

We started with a tea party. Goblin likes pretending to pour cups of tea and I make the noise of dolly slurping which he thinks is really funny. He has trouble distinguishing between reality and play so I have to make sure we only play with empty cups or dolly ends up covered in juice. The tea set we use is from Agros and was really cheap. I like it because it packs away into the giant tea pot. Unfortunately it only comes in bright pink but Goblin doesn't seem to mind. 

When Goblin started to show signs that he'd had enough of the tea party I quickly packed it up before he got frustrated and threw things around. Instead I produced a toy he has had since he was quite young. Its a farmyard pop up toy. The switches, button and dial are quite stiff so take a bit of work to manipulate, but Goblin gets a lot of satisfaction from being able to work them and get the animals to pop up. When I first bought it I thought he'd grow out of it quite fast but he shows no sign of doing so. Its good for fine motor skills and animal naming. And most importantly today I know he can do it without too much effort so he didn't get too stressed. 

After about ten minutes Goblin decided to play with his train set. I wasn't sure this was a great idea because he can get quite annoyed when the trains fall off the rails. I helped him put the track together because that is definitely a source of frustration when he can't manipulate the sections to slot together. And then I just kept a close eye, popping the train quickly back onto the track when it fell off. This kept him busy for ages. 

The train track which is from Tesco comes with some wooden trees, people and animals. Goblin likes the trees. He went rummaging in the box and pulled the trees out one at a time. I pointed out that they were Green trees, and counted them. We found twelve. Goblin doesn't recognise numbers as a sequence but he knows the names of some of them. He really makes me chuckle because if I start counting he will try to join in but says the numbers in a random order. He quite likes the number four. I have never heard him say one. 
He played at arranging the trees. This is a great activity because he needs to make them balance and not knock them over (he didn't do the line in the photo). 

When he'd done with the trees, Goblin pulled the pingpong balls and tongs off the shelf, but I knew that he wasn't in the right frame of mind to play. If he gets frustrated when trying to tong the balls he ends up throwing them all over the room. So I distracted him with another old favourite - sticks in a parmesan cheese shaker. I made this ages ago. I think Goblin mastered getting the sticks through the holes when he was about 14 months old. This is interesting given that he isn't great at puzzles which is a similar skill.  To make the toy you just trim the spikes off some kebab sticks and dye them with food colouring (although you don't need to dye them). The parmesan cheese shaker came from the pound shop but you can just buy a full one from the super market and empty the cheese into a jar. I knew he could do this activity without too much stress but I was interested to see that he still enjoyed it as we haven't played with it in some time.

But after a while he did start getting a bit throwy. So I took out a tub of foam letters. I figured if he needed to throw something around these would be the least dangerous. I was quite excited because he seemed to recognise the foam letter B from the internet cartoon we watched yesterday. We spent some time looking at  'Starfall' yesterday. 
I am impressed how well it holds Goblin's attention, and he can do some of the easier puzzles like separating upper and lower case letters. I think its a great way of introducing small children to letters in a fun way.

Hublet and Goblin had fun stuffing all the foam letters into Goblin's baby grow. When they ran out of letters Goblin moved on to his cars. They stuffed so many in that he looked like a sumo wrestler.

And by then it was time for Goblin's nap. A successful morning of activities with an ill little boy without too much stress and frustration.  Hurrah!