Playing Doctors with Teddy

Had a lovely morning with Arthur playing doctors with his teddies, he dressed up in his doctors outfit, which is basically an old white shirt of mine, and used his doctors set he got for Christmas, along with a few extras like a cheap bandage and some plasters.  He had great fun listening with the stethoscope and  giving injections and medicine.  I then added some mark making practice by making a quick prescription pad for him, and an assesment chart/ patient record with an old clip board, I drew a picture of a person on and got him to mark where the patients pain was.  As head nurse obviously it was my job to then take notes for the Dr, asking him how much medicine is needed etc added some numbers in to the role play also. 

I then had a quick look on You Tube for the Skeleton dance to show and sing with Arthur to help him learn a bit about bones, Alyssa particularly enjoyed laughing at my dancing! She also by the end of the day managed to clap for the first time, it's so amazing to think something so simple to us now takes ages for them to master as babies.  I can't believe how fast she is growing and how interactive she is becoming.

After this Arthur started his new daily habit of asking to watch television, so as a diversion tactic I decided we should all go for a walk by the river, I decided to carry Alyssa in the baby carrier so we had more flexibility were to go and could go right down to the river Tamer, a good idea until I had to carry Arthur home up hill, luckily he is light!  I was lovely and refreshing to get out for a walk, getting Arthur to tell me what he sees, hears, including sharks and a pirate ship in the river, and hearing the birds singing.

Taking teddies temperature

Bandaging

Administering medicine

Listening to teddies belly

Taking notes

Prescription pad

Assessment form

Time for a walk

Storming ahead just like daddy!

Mini maracas and cup shakers part 2

Very short post today, today we painted the instruments,  Arthur painted himself as well of course.  We just used normal ready mixed paint, and once dry I will paint with PVA glue to varnish.  Arthur was in a very strange mood today, very volatile and prone to tantrums at the slightest thing, the joys of the terrible twos.  It took me quite a while to convince Arthur to join me in painting which is unusual for him, all he wanted to do all day was watch television, which I wouldn't let him do, causing another tantrum.  I tend to try and limit his television viewing as I don't like how zombified he becomes, he zones out and is totally un-responsive unless you block his view, of course then he just leans to try and look around you!  It was quite fitting then, that he only seemed interested in using the colour black whilst painting, even though I put all the colours out on the pallette.   Hopefully he will be tantrum free tomorrow. 

Painting the shakers

Black, black black!

Alyssa playing with the paper

On to painting the hands!

More black!

Finished maracas

Finished shakers

 

Mini maracas and cup shakers part 1!

Even us creative mummies get it wrong sometimes!!

After spending a lovely morning with Alyssa at the local library singing songs and playing with other babies, I thought Arthur would enjoy getting messy when he got home from nursery and help me Papier Mache!  I am liberating some plastic cups and spoons that have been abandoned in the cupboard since we last had a party, and giving them new life! I took two cups, put some rice in them, then sellotaped them together, and did the same with the spoons, using macaroni instead.  My intention was for Arthur to help me use up the wallpaper paste from daddy's recent decorating spree and cover them so we had a paintable surface for tomorrow, so we could decorate our new musical toys, I also thought we could make some bowls for possible Christmas wrapping/present ideas (early I know but sometimes you have to plan ahead!!)

Well, Arthur arrived home, took one look at what I was doing, bravely touched the paste.  Arthur then decided that watching daddy have a bath, then cook a curry for tea was much more interesting!! So a solitary afternoon for me whilst Alyssa slept! Hopefully he will be interested in painting them tomorrow, if not more fun for me.

Cups and rice

Stick together

Spoon maracas

Alyssa testing the shakability!

Quick touch of the paste

Balloon bowl

Drying shakers

Drying maracas

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Elastic band painting

Phew! What a day we have had today, first off we settled down for a little painting activity I wanted to try have seen a picture recently.  Place elastic bands over a baking tray, cover them with paint and ping them to splatter the paint on paper underneath.  It's a great activity for the two of them as Alyssa was able to make some splats as well, and interestingly the pings varied in pitch according to where on the tray the band is placed, so the activity becomes a strange mixture of music and painting, which certainly made Alyssa giggle!  Be warned though, you have no control as to the direction of the paint, It splattered all over us, so a quick wash up  was needed, which Arthur enjoyed a bit too much and got soaked.

Next we went down to the kitchen and made some biscuits as Arthur wanted to mix mix, and Daddy, who is on holiday right now, hinted that some biscuits would be nice.  Arthur had the extra job of cutting out the biscuits for the first time today which he enjoyed, once he'd finished licking the spoon he used to mix it all.  We had a teeny bit of mixture left, with which Arthur wanted a snowman made, I have no idea where that came from in the middle of summer, the joy of children!

After lunches and naps we headed out to Grandad's field to pick some blackberries and veg whilst they are away, whilst there we saw another family member who gave Arthur fresh peas from the pod, before Arthur helped daddy pick redcurrants,  blackcurrants and blackberries, a lot of which he ate before they reached the bowl;  He also ate an apple straight from the tree.  On the way to the second field we stopped off to talk to some cows, which Arthur wanted to cuddle bless him.

In the second field Arthur and daddy played with a football and we all trekked through 'the jungle' (toddler height grass!) to hunt for a hidden ball and daddy, which was great fun watching the surprise on Arthur's face when daddy suddenly appeared.  A lovely day finished off by a lovely dinner when we returned home!

Pinging

Smooshing

Dunking

washing mummy

Chefs outfit

Alyssa joining in

Cutting the biscuits

Biscuits and a snowman!

Helping to hoe!

Picking redcurrants

Talking to cows

Playing with daddy

Stealing blackberries

Apple fresh from the tree

Walking through the 'jungle'

Home made music??

This morning we experimented in making noise, I mean music! Using a range of items found in the home.  I wrapped tissue paper around a comb, made a kazoo using a kitchen paper roll and tissue paper, and the trusty spoon and saucepan combo.  Alyssa loves this, I swear she is going to become a drummer when she is older,  Whilst they were happily playing with these bits, I searched around in the drawers for an elastic band to put around a baking tray to make another instrument, and some bead necklaces to rub together. 

Our poor neighbors had to put up with at least half and hour of noise whilst they happily played and explored, Arthur's favourite was shouting into the kazoo, we then experimented with using the comb and spoon on the fire guard and scraping the comb on the edge of the saucepan.  Alyssa also created a new noise by flicking the necklace up and down against the baking tray, which amused her greatly; and we also used a chocolate tray and bottle of beads from Alyssa's treasure basket. 

Comb Kazoo

Bottle of beads rattle

Kitchen roll kazoo

SHAKE!!!!

Bang bang

Sharing nicely

Chocolate tray crinkle

Rubbing the comb

Not quite how you do it!

"blow Alyssa"

Using the fire guard

Pretty beads

Being inventive

Twanging away!