Ribbon wheel

Simple sensory fun - you just need a hula hoop (we used one left over from our DIY giant bubbles) and some ribbon.

I then left the kids to play with it how they wanted, occasionally lifting it up around them to change their sensory experience, or holding it up so D could crawl through it (he *loved* this and kept asking to do it!).

 

I used a variety of ribbon colours, widths and textures to make it more interesting but you could use one colour (eg pale blue if you wanted to have a winter-themed hoop) or another one I think would look really pretty would be a rainbow one - with multiple ribbons of each colour all grouped together. Well, that's my next project sorted!

 

   

Simple fun (and easy to store without taking much space) - all that appeals to me! :)
 

You know you're a paeds doctor when...

1.  You could recite the names of all Peppa's family and friends, long before you ever had kids of your own


2.  Half your patients are healthier than the child you packed off to nursery this morning


3.  Your photo on your ID badge has a sticker of a minion obliterating your face

4.  Your bathroom cupboard resembles the pharmacy aisle in Sainsburys

 

5.  But your other half is thoroughly confused why you never follow any generic dosing instructions


6.  You've seen more babies being born in one neonatal job than anyone needs to in a lifetime (why are resuscitaires *always* at the business end?!)



 

7.  You think tongue tie is mostly a figment of over-tired over-stressed over-anxious first time mums and over-zealous midwives. Until you have your own child with it. And then you become a complete convert.

 

8.  You are a swaddling pro




9.  You dread people at baby group finding out what you do


10.  Your kid has to have at least biphasic stridor with their croup before you'd think about going to A&E

 

 

11.  But when you end up going you know it's not going to be a short stay...




12.  You can happily call your own child "baby" for weeks because you're so used to using that as a generic name. (I still don't think the grandparents have got over the fact it took us 6 weeks to name D...)

But you wouldn't change your job for the world :)

Cooking with two: Pizza

Awesomely simple yet great fun and the kids enjoyed it. I've done something similar with D before but this time Iz joined in.

[NB we actually did this just before Iz turned 1 - I think she'd make more and eat less now... Actually who am I kidding?! Lol]

Ingredients:

Pitta breads

Tomato passata

Cheddar cheese (could use other types, that was just what we had in the house)

Sweetcorn
Red onion
Green pepper

You could add anything you have around on top (spinach, cooked meat etc) - our fridge was just pretty empty at the time!

Advance prep:

- cut the pitta breads in half (ie so you have 2 flat pieces)

- open sweetcorn can
- chop up green pepper and onion

What the kids did:

D poured the passata into a bowl and grated the cheese (with my help). Then both kids assembled their own pizzas by spooning on tomato first and then sprinkling on however much of each topping they wanted. 

Then I put them in the oven for 6-8 minutes until the cheese had all melted and the pitta bases were slightly crispy. Mmmmm yummy homemade pizza :)

Edible muddy worms

If you (or the kids) are in the mood for some (edible) messy play then you can't go far wrong with these muddy messy worms...

What do you need:

- cooked spaghetti (D coloured ours pink with some food gel colouring)
- edible "mud" (recipe below)
- water

Put the "worms" and "mud" in a large tray, add water to some squeezy bottles and step back away from the soon-to-be mess!

D especially loved squeezing the bottles of water into the mud whilst Iz stirred everything together to make totally gloopy sloopy soupy mess...

When I first set this up I was thinking more about how D would play with it, envisioning him digging the worms out of the mud, fine motor practice with tweezers, counting worms etc. What I hadn't banked on was that Iz just fully embraced the mud, quickly climbed into the tub, got mess everywhere and completely took over the whole activity!

The mud was surprisingly tasty too, and although I wouldn't encourage them to eat lots, it was perfectly safe for them to try. Even my husband commented on how nice it was! This is definitely one activity I would recommend running the bath for *before* you start - look how dirty Iz turned her water!

Cocoa cloud dough (aka "edible mud")

Mix 6 cups of flour and 2 cups of cocoa together in a large bowl. Then add 1 cup of vegetable oil and mix well. You can add more or less oil depending on the consistency you want. That's it - edible mud which you can either play with like cloud dough (it will hold together if moulded) or you can add extra water to make sloppy mud (like we did above).

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Cooking with two: broccoli pasta bake

Really easy pasta bake recipe to make - you can see the original recipe here on A Mummy Too's blog - I just reduced it massively as didn't want us to be eating the same thing for 7 days in a row!!

Ingredients:

60g cream cheese

75ml milk

40ml double cream

65g grated cheddar

90g cooked pasta shapes (don't overlook as they're going to go in the oven again!)

50g (ish) broccoli florets

Breadcrumbs as garnish

Tip - easy way to make breadcrumbs: toast a slice of bread, then (whilst over a chopping board) scrape up and down the surface with a regular knife. Turn over and repeat the other side. Then pop it back in the toaster and repeat the process. Hey presto loads of fine breadcrumbs on your chopping board :)

Steps:

1. Mix the cream cheese, milk and double cream in a bowl (D smooshed the cream cheese with a wooden spoon first to make it easier to mix with the liquids)

2. Add the grated cheese and pasta and mix well

3. Roughly cut the "flowery" bits of the uncooked broccoli and mix with everything else

4. Pour into a greased ovenproof dish and sprinkle with the breadcrumbs (plus any leftover grated cheese - we didn't have any as Iz diligently kept adding all the cheese she found to the mixing bowl!)

5. Cook at 180 degrees for 15 minutes... And enjoy :)

 

 

Frozen treasures

If you're looking for something easy to set up (but you do need to plan at least 24 hours in advance) that will occupy your toddler for an hour plus then keep reading...

Digging items out of ice - is there anything more exciting to a toddler than liberating "treasures"?! I usually pick either small cheap objects that are "new treasures" (first activity below) or recycle old things he hasn't seen (or been allowed to play with!) before (second activity). You can get as simple or as fancy as you like - lob  everything in a big Tupperware with water and freeze it in one solid block, or freeze in individual mini portions. The choice is yours :) you could even used coloured water to make the ice.

Frozen treasure block

This was the first big block we tried. D was 2 and a half. When the ice was rock solid he wasn't sure about it but as soon as it started melting a bit and he liberated his first "treasure" he was hooked!

I froze the ice block in layers so that the objects were evenly scattered throughout. Retrospectively I think he might've enjoyed it more if the block had been less high, making it easier for him to get to the buried objects. If you have a group of kids doing it then a bigger block will be better - one of D's friends was here but wasn't really interested in playing with it so it ended up being a lot of ice for one little person! His excitement levels definitely rose as the ice melted and this was the first time we talked about water melting ice and using salt to help melt ice faster.

Frozen lego

We did this one recently (D is 34 months) and it's very interesting what a difference a few months make! This time I froze a few lego men and some 5p pieces in their own domed ice cube (using one of Iz's weaning pots).  I only half filled each well first and then put in the items and let it freeze before filling up the rest of the hole. This meant the objects were not all at the bottom (they float) when I flipped the cubes over, but halfway up. Once they were frozen I put them into a large baking tray, added a little bit of water and froze once more.

The set-up:

- frozen tray

- small dish with salt

- spoon, fork, knife (I used baby ones so they weren't too sharp and/or big)

- squeezy bottle with warm water (coloured pink)

- squeezy bottle with cold water (coloured blue)

As soon as D saw the lego men he was hooked. Interestingly he only targeted one ice mound at a time and carefully worked on it until that man or 5p was free. Then onto the next one. I reminded him how the salt would help melt the ice and so he put little piles on the top and then watched as the ice started to crack. I love hearing how his language and understanding is progressing, saying things like "listen mummy, it's cracking like an egg" and "look at that new hole".

It was also a great way to introduce hot and cold. I used pink and blue food colouring to emphasise which bottle was which but D could already easily identify just by feeling. When he'd used all the original water I re-filled the bottles from the icey water in the tray and he quickly realised how much colder the ice made the water.

And for me? I felt like we were freeing Han Solo trapped in the ice - a young Harrison Ford needing my help? I'm down with that ;)