Bob the Builder Memory Game

Can we make it? yes we can!

Bob the builder has recently build a special place in my two year old's heart. This child talks about bob in sleep, and only wants to wear the socks with Bo'bilder as he calls it on them. We are currently going through a meal-time- boot-camp phase. I hope its just a passing phase, and his new plate with Bob the builder on it has already started to help.

When kids start accossociating so much with one charecter they just want to possess every thing out there with it on them. I was at the toy shop yesterday, and he saw a box of Bob the Builder memory game. I was seriously regretting my visit, he WANTED it there and then. i did gave up to the sobs and went ahead to pick it up. We have not yet introduced any memory or board games so it was a first for me and I was shocked to look at the 18 Euro price tag on a small box of cards! No way baby, you can buy a new car but not this. We made a deal and took the elevator out of the store.

I knew I would be able to find something online so I searched and found this lovely blog with the printable cards on it. I printed two sets on photo paper ( lamination would have been better)

So now we have a new favorite game, I started at beginner level and spread out one set on the floor (face up) and give the other set to my son to find and match similar cards.

Personalized Kid's Pillow

A quick upgrade to an old Ikea pillow. 

I wanted to try textile paint ; knowing well my not so super steady paint brush holding skills and the hand writing of a 6 y/o I still gave it a try:) 

I tried my best to paint as neat as possible but with someone telling you to cut a mango for them mid way you get a crooked looking 'y'.

I did use a font as my guide.

Now I know why I was dropped in school to take part in a calligraphy competition :p I always thought that the teacher hated me.

Also, would like to share these lines which I found to be true from Nate Berkus.

My Dishes Went Unwashed Today

Catharsis Following: You may skip the following paragragh.

I'm a stay at home mama and to be really honest leaving the sanctuary of my home  is at times overwhelming...I have a thousand spiders crawling in my mind even if I have to leave the home for just a small trip! Is the window closed, is it nap time, did he eat enough, are his clothes ok, are the nails cut, did I pack an emergency snack, will his milk stay warm that long, did I take the laundry off the rack, is that garbage stink or a diaper? i think this place needs  dusting..oh no I should vaccum first then the dusting..ahh but first I have to put the one million toys we have back into the boxes and then start cleaning..What time is it...ahh should fix a cup of tea before I leave..I'll just wash the mug I used for breakfast..oh now that Im at it I'll quickly do the rest of the plates too. We're getting late..yell out to the child to put his shoes on...knowing well that he can't. telling him off for not listening. I'm tired now..but I should take him out to not feel guilty later. He doesn't want to sit in his push chair..things heat up..and I pitty myself for a while..get over it. See all other kids are also there playing with their moms..who look like they just stepped out of a spa. The worry of getting back home , giving him a bath and putting dinner on table soon takes over. 

I wrote it down not to complain but to point out that we sometimes get into this spiral of 'Things to Do '.  For no one is going to give us a trophy for being the best house keeper and the best doer of all things motherly! We need to pause || and look at the larger picture and not just work towards getting our names into the golden books of people who don't even bother.Why should they?

 In my mother's words everything in the universe will not come into a perfect alignment with your plans, you have to adjust and work along. True it is. The weather will not always be perfect, the energy levels will not always be the same, the dishes in the sink are not what your child will remember when he grows up and tells everyone about his childhood. Having said all of that, I admire all the people who can do it all at the same time. Reading blogs has opened up my mind towards so
many things that other people out their are doing and doing them well. 

All this monolouge was actually triggered by this deeply honest poem that I came across on another blog. Word.

My dishes went unwashed today

I didn’t make my bed

I took his hand and followed

Where his eager footsteps led

Oh, yes, we went a little adventuring

My little child and I

Exploring all the great outdoors

Beneath the sun and sky

We watched a robin feed her young

We climbed a sunlit hill

Saw cloud-sheep scamper through the sky

We plucked a daffodil

That the house was so neglected

That I didn’t brush the stairs

In twenty years, no one on earth

Will know or even care

But that I’ve helped my little child

To noble adulthood grow

In twenty years the whole wide world

May look and see and know

Motivation for Creation: Toddler Crafts

Long afternoons spent at the play ground are going to be the modus operandi for the following months. Temperatures are good but the April showers keep us staying indoors and getting naughtier !

I bought some new art supplies for my son, the existing crayons had broken into a million pieces.

He likes putting them in a case and not letting anyone touch them but his attention span is too small to let him sit and actually make something with them. Keeping that in mind I make him do one tiny project every other day to keep him motivated. Little man loves being praised and when daddy comes home he likes to show off what he made.

His favorite poem is the itsy bitsy spider these days so we made a spider. With green legs made with straw.

Another day we made a crab..using a paper plate, drinking straw and water colors.

An octopus, made from a toilet paper roll.

Introducing Play Dough : Although the box said Ages 3+ but I still bought it for my son who is 2 years and 4mnths. I made sure I didn't leave him unattended.

It was a funny first time with Play dough..I made a ball and he threw it on the floor..just like any other ball..he wanted to mix two Colors together...and too much stopping and telling wasn't fun. I guess the manufacturers knew this! Lets see how long it takes before the beautiful Colors turn into a Brown mass of Play dough.

Favorite Pyjama Upcycled !

Here I am again not wanting to throw away my little man's out grown pyjamas! He LOVES them!

We did the same thing to our favorite cookie monster shirt..which you can find HERE..and till now its our favorite bag to carry whenever we leave the home!

I have bins from Ikea for toys but I made this to kind of motivate him to put his cars in one box and not in his boots, inside pillow cases, under the sofa cushions or the carpet !

Its not the neatest i could do...infact I did it 'while' I was tidying the toys up..that kinda quick whip project.

A box, a pyjama and hot glue are all you need.

I even used the elasticated waist band to make the handles on both sides!

Call me frugal..I'll take that as a compliment !

The Boogie-Wipe Sleeve

I know its an icky topic, but it needs a post!

My son has been going through a very bad viral flu. Its getting better but during the past whole week I was on stand-alert with a tissue paper in my hand to wipe off the antimatter as soon as possible...but a lot of times the nose was swiped with the sleeve before I could rush to the scene.

I had to change his pullovers thrice in an hour! Finally I thought of a way out..

I pulled out some of his clothes that were packed for donation and cut off the sleeves .

Made him wear these, and the situation came under controll. He is too young to understand that he needs to blow his nose and not wipe it off with his sleeve, although I did tell him everytime not to do that but he couldn't help:)

Decorative Intial Alphabet

Another quickie! I had some leftover paint mixed from my last project... I decided to funk up the plain plywood initial for my son.

Some paint and some thumb pins..to fake a pinhead trim!

Done!

Last Minute Road Trip Activity Plan

We are a notorious 'Last Minute' Family. We do the groceries till the last announcements to vacate are being made. We bought a child seat for our baby on the last day of my hospital stay. We caught our honeymoon flight half a minute before boarding closed! People tell us the time, an hour earlier than other guests for a dinner. Nearly all our trips are last minute plans! This last holiday was no different. We started thinking over it the night before..deciding a destination, checking the weather..changing minds..and leaving the final decision for the next morning. We placed a booking at 2 in the afternoon the next day and left the house at 4.

 I used the word 'We' because I don't want to hurt my better half's feelings :p

I knew it would be a long drive to wherever we go, so with the little time on hand I gathered some things to keep my toddler entertained during the road trip. Its been long since we last did a long route plan with him so I was short on ideas. However here's what I came up with.

IGNORE the burnt roasting pan. I had an oven disaster.
I decided to keep it for him in the car to serve as a seat 'tray'...like the ones you have on the airplane! Just a little less fancier :p

• It had raised edges..to keep things from falling off.
• Its metallic...to hold the alphabet magnets.
• It served as a snack tray...wiped clean with a wet wipe after use.
• It made a very nice car track. My son got super excited when the cars would slide from one end to the other on their own at road bends.
• Perfect drawing board, with edges to hold colors.
• To read a book.
• To bang the sippy cup on when nothing else entertained.

 I had these foam stickers which I gave him on the way back. Oh the magic of cars and trucks. He loves them!

I must tell you that this toddler's attention span is as much as a gold fish's. He snaps out of one activity in sometimes even less than 5 minutes..But I moved 'one step ahead' of him and kept pulling out more ideas out of my hat to engage him.

A car seat organizer is very handy on such trips.

'Vrooomm Vrooom. Peep Peep.'

His favorite thing these days is to ask me to draw buses and cars.

I gave him these activities in day light. When it started getting darker, particularly on our way back I had to hand over the iPad.

Overall it was a less fussy trip. I must admit there were small cranky parts but he's a child isn't he?

He had his naps and rest station breaks in between too.

Its always better to be prepared for such spontan plans. 

To make the trip more enjoyable for ourselves I packed some mince chicken and rice for dinner because I knew that with our son tired and sleepy by the time we reach we would not be able to dine at the restaurant. (only options out there would have been vegetarian..so halal CHICKEN is always a bonus on a trip!)

Another Tip: If you happen to have a tod who stays on red bull energy levels, I recommend buying THIS. there's no shame in using it in public. Let them laugh..and tell them that its not called a 'leash'

Depending on the nature of the trip..keep extra pairs of socks in your handbag if you must. My son's newly found love to jump in puddles, thanks to elmo, is getting splishier and splashier! I had to buy him rain boots while we were in the middle of our trip to the lake garda. He never needed them before, but instant plans call for instant shopping!

Despite the chaos and the rush of the moment looking back, the most cherished memories I/ WE have are the ones that were created at the LAST-MINUTE!

Eid -ul- Azha: Kids Eidi Favors

Eid and HajjMu-baaaaaaa-rak to everyone celeberating.
The most facinating part of this eid is buying animals before the Eid day. Children love to take their sheep and goats out for a walk. They decorate their animals with the most fancy paraphernalia out there  and take pride in it!

Who wants be my Valentine?

The next best thing about Eid is Eidi money! The ONLY day in the whole year where children get their own money from all the elders in the family. They are allowed to buy their own ice cream and parents are a bit lineant about kids spending money themselves on sweet treats.

Keeping those two favorite eid memories in mind I decided to make eid favors for one of our family friends.

I bought chocolotate money instead of real money and made individual packets for each child.

Then I cut out some fluffy little sheep to add to the eid theme.

Now I know my ABCs

I like Fall. The trees lining my road look beautiful during the day. Its getting colder every passing day and I have to push myself to leave the house for any outdoor chores. Our playground has already started to look deserted..I wonder where have all the kids gone! On a rainy day, its hard to contain my son's energy levels. I have to engage him in some sort of activity.

Warm and toasty feet

 He has started recognizing the alphabets and the tune of the abc song. So we did a small activity.

I had some felt alphabets, a baby towel and some glue.

 I asked him to sort out the letters. For him J is Juice and C is Cat. So we went on finding the right ones.

Uh hooo who did that? Sitting still for a while is tough for little boys. So some of them went on the floor too:)

But we picked them up!

...and put them back in the box.

A treat for all the hard work of sorting, scattering and tidying up!

We had a good time doing it and then when granny called he showed her what he made sending her into a full swing proud and happy granny mode! :)

Fox in the Pocket

'A hunting we will go,

 a hunting we will go Heigh ho, the dairy-o,

 a hunting we will go  

A hunting we will go, a hunting we will go  

We'll catch a fox and put him in a box 

And then we'll let him go'

My almost 2 years old son giggles every time I sing this to him. I found this idea at an etsy shop and thought that I had to make it myself. So we caught a fox and put him in a pocket instead!

I got a hoodie with pockets at the front. (Got it from a discount store)

I made a free hand template for the fox.

Then traced it on thin orange felt.

Pinned it in place and so far it looked as planned...BUT after this things started going foxy turvy.
I made the mistake of trusting my stitching prowess. I started off with the tail and soon after a few stitches the machine sucked in the fleece ( I don't know how that happened ! ) I tried everything to remove it without damaging. Nothing worked and I had to use my scissors to detach it from the base. It frustrated me, I went on to finishing the rest with a needle and thread.

Its actually funny to look at it now..as if the fox had been attacked by hunters. Poor thing.
On a scale of 10 I would give myself 4. Its just a hoodie I got to be worn at home and my son likes it anyway.

Kids Hangers

Now that I was into dressing up my hangers I could'nt stop myself from making these cute little hangers too. I love them!

I used a neutral fabric to cover them, so that if I decide to give them away as a gift I could simply either use blue ribbon for a boy or a pink ribbon for a girl.