Water Table Fun!

With the weather being a little warmer we are able to set up the water table outside - finally! I love the water table for me it is one of the easiest set ups to do and there are so many possibilities and it provides hours of fun. Who does not need a little time to sit back and watch their child submerge themselves in play whilst you can daydream! 


Here are some of the set ups we have done so far. 

I like letting Baby T be the one to mix the colour into the water it looks so beautiful the way it creates a cloud of colour! We use water colour opposed to food colouring, I find it washes out nicely and does not stain hands like food colouring does. The blue that Baby T is pouring is diluted with water yet is still very bright. I also have a piece of plexiglass that acts as a shelf to put the frogs, jewels, cups & containers on. 

 I put out different sized containers, some jewels and some animal figures. The option is open to decide to use the set up for a dramatic play with the frogs or could involve themselves in more of a scientific play by pouring and mixing or even dropping items into the water. Baby T usually goes for pouring still.... occasionally pouring on the balcony or on mommy.... on a hot day I don't mind!

We have also done it with two colours to make a new colour like yellow + Blue to make green... MAGIC! 

Isn't it beautiful the way the colours cloud and then mix together! I love watching it and it takes all my effort to sometimes sit back and let Baby T enjoy figuring it out on her own with out my interruption or intervention. Lucky for me she asks me to come play pretty quick and I can not resist playing with her and the water table. Yes sometimes I reluctantly leave my daydreaming....

We are so lucky that we have this great water table - thanks to baby daddy for making it! It may look basic and plain to many unlike the bright flashy ones you find in the store but plain has it's advantages. For one the table itself is not the focus of the play it is the background and therefore what we put in can be varied and attract the interest not the table itself. If the table took all the attention with it's flashy colours and neat gismos I think the 'table' could fall out of favour with a child's interest far sooner rather then the activity it holds (be is sand, popcorn, water). Not to mention a flashy table takes away from what is happening and the beauty that can be created!  I wish there were plain tables available to buy that were not stupidly expensive. 


More water table fun to come - I just need to take more pictures!! 

A Little Bit Of Everything

So I never get to write on the blog as much as I want to. I would love to document all the projects we do but there is never enough time. So I though it best to put a bunch of what we have done on one post then perhaps I can revisit some in detail. 


Well lets get to it! 


Stamping is huge in this house at the moment and Baby T will stop most anything if I suggest we do some stamping. We have a few stamps and we also use the ends of pencils. I have seen this  idea on how to make your own stamps which I hope to do if I find nice foam bits. Stamping is great for fine motor development and spacial awareness. 

Having tea has been a daily activity in our house as of late too. We played with a tea set at a local play group but I could not remember if Baby T had ever seen anyone have tea and how to use the tea pot etc. That night I decided we should have a tea party with my 'real' tea set. I filled the tea pot with water and we had a blast. She loved it so much I bought a tea set of her own the next day. She has great fun pretending to have tea with her friends real and imaginary. Since the tea play I have noticed a huge increase in her imaginative play. Before she would often act out and dramatize her animal figurines but now she includes herself in  the play become an animal etc. 

The eggs have been played with since easter in fact they are still used daily so I don't foresee them being packed away anytime soon! Children actually make more sense out of holiday decoration and associated play after the holiday itself. If you think about it it makes complete sense. There is a big built up to the event with all these 'things' and then the event finally happens and it must be like an 'ah ha' moment were children go 'oh thats is what that is for' and then most of the time things get packed right back up directly after the event and children never get the chance to play out what they experienced. Well in this house the eggs do get occationally stuffed with things but more often the not they are rolled down our clear tub, opened and closed, colours are matched (with tops and bottoms) and they get placed in and out of the egg carton. Very rarely but sometimes they get taken to the play kitchen. 

Sensory fun, of course the sensory table is always in the centre of activity too. With our occasional good weather we have been able to set up some water! I hope to share some of our set ups soon! 

So there you go some of the things that have been that have been going on in our house play-wise. I hope to get a few more posts done whilst Taya is sleeping! 

A Shout Out to Baby Daddy

Baby Daddy, aka Tom, Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being such an awesome dad! I can not put into words how wonderful and lucky Baby T and I are to have such an amazing man in our life. You bring such joy, humour and love to our life which makes us so happy. 

First time Baby T and Baby Dad get to stare at each other

out crab hunting on fathers day! 

I knew you would be a great father but you amaze me daily at your mad skills as a dad! I learn so much from you from how you interact with Baby T, your patience, your playing skills, your ability to take risks even when society frowns upon them. You are our rock and man oh man are we ever so lucky. We love you! 

And to my Pappi aka dad: Thank you for being a one of a kind dad who never let us have a dull moment, took me across the world and gave me passion for many things. 

Almost 2

So in one month exactly Baby T will really no longer be a baby she will be two!!  How the F* did that happen (excuse the language but I felt curing is required to stress the shock). Seriously were did the time go? 

I am finding myself more exhausted than ever with this stage of parenting. To me Baby T as a baby was way easier compared to this stage which is such a mental mind F* (sorry this might be a sweary post). When I was teaching preschool pre baby I had parents all the time come up and say 'I don't know how you do this for a living!' as if what we did was so much harder then parenting... um well in my book looking after 30 kids for 2 1/2 hours is super easy compared to one little attention needing monkey who tries to pull chairs into the kitchen so she can 'cook' when I turn my back. I blame those parents for giving me the false sense that having my own children would be easy (haha, I knew better but I think I let myself dream!). 

Of course baby T wants to help with everything! 

Baby T wants to get in on everything, she wants to be so independent one minute and then wants to hang onto me the next. She hangs onto me for dear life freaking out if I try to leave the room (yes we are going through stages of separation anxiety again, fleeting moments but they happen). I guess you could say we are both going through the same struggle of acknowledging the fact she is growing up and becoming her own person yet realizing she still needs to be close. Some days I just wish she could give me more then ten uninterrupted minutes to complete something and some days she won't let me to anything to help her (putting on shoes or socks etc). 

all grown up or trying to be it least

I always knew she would grow up and become a little person but the rate at which she is changing at the moment is seriously astonishing! Her vocabulary is increasing at a fast pace and the new words that come out of her mouth - where/ how does she remember! Just last night right before falling asleep she sang 'happy birthday', like the whole thing! We sang it once last weekend at a friends birthday and before that it has been months since we sung that song. We also need to be soooo careful with what we say, I know obvious right, but the other day I had the need to say 'Sh*t' but luckily stopped myself in time to say 'Shhhhhhah' little miss then looks at me and says 'Shhhhah!' phew glad I caught myself or she would be walking around saying 'Sh*t' on a daily bases and 'Shhhhah' is much better in my book. 






Although she can talk more these days I feel like this age is like having to live and work with a person who can only half speak our language and half another unknown language that you are forever figuring out - oh and you better figure it out fast sometimes or wooowee you might have a tantrum on your hands because you did not get what they are saying! For the record we do signing but sometimes Baby T would rather 'speak' and expects you to know her language. Last night at dinner Baby Daddy and I were taking guesses as to what she was saying and Baby T was laughing saying 'noooo'. Maybe Baby T was  laughing at what idiots we were that we could not understand her or maybe she was making stuff up on purpose?  

a video with us figuring out what she is saying and 'noooo'

Did you know that at 20 something months these littles can get very opinionated? I understand that they know what they like and don't like but what gets me is what Baby T is opinionated about. The first thing she was very vocal about was what music she liked and would let us know if she was not a fan of the music selection. Another one is what clothes, I get it if there is a fabric or texture she might prefer over another but no it's the colour or the style - really?? These days I give her two options on clothes so she can choose one of the options or it becomes a gong show, however if we are listening to music in the car or house we usually say that this is not a choice but we can put her choice on in her room (and if you want to go play by yourself and listen to music by all means!). Lucky for us she is pretty happy with most foods that cross her plate to for us that is a non issue (score!). 


Baby daddy and I still marvel at the fact that we made this little being. As crazy as she is and as frustrating as it can sometimes get she is amazing to us and we would not have her any other way. Being a parent is crazy, it is full of contradictions, it is tough but oh my the rewards of kisses, cuddles and love priceless! 


So now that Baby T really and truly has been slipping away from babyhood I think perhaps I should stop calling her Baby T on the blog, well it least not as of next month. Do I use her name or use the her pet name? Hmm questions.

Toddler Art with Tape

Notice how I did not say 'craft'. To me this is art, there is no direction just me laying out materials and letting the children explore and create with them. I think more is gained in exploring the process rather then me directing what should happen, how to use the material (unless of course it is necessary for safety or my sanity!) and what the final product should look like. To me creativity and learning should be about the process not the product but in this case I have to say the product is very pretty! 

Set up is nice and easy - paper and cut pieces of tape. I used some plastic tub-like things to stick the tape to but one could use plastic glasses or something instead. For older children I would offer scissors and the roll of tape to they can cut it themselves, it makes for good practice and trust me kids can do this. The tape I used is coloured masking tape which I bought at a local daycare supply store however there are lots of sources on the internet. 

I let them loose at the table and they quickly got to it. Great fine motor skills at work with use of their pincher grasp to get the tape and them placing it in the spot they want and taping it down. The process of choosing where to place the tape is also using their spacial awareness and early math skills!  

Taping can get tricky when it sticks to itself but it is a great experience for how the material works and how one can still use it even so. Baby T did get a little annoyed at first saying 'oh no!' but a little explanation on how you can still use it seemed to make her happy. 

Baby T attempting to get herself a pice from the big roll. She was fascinated by how it stuck and then you could pull it apart and eventually stick it again. 

After taping was well underway I brought out the crayons to extend the project further. There was interest in how you could colour on the tape and how it was different then on paper by the texture and how the colour was different.  

All in all it is a very easy and fun activity which has been out every second day by request. The finished products are stuck on the wall at the moment and Baby T has been walking by says 'WOW'.... 'WOW!' I think she likes her art work and so do I.