Throwback Thursday… Peek-a-boo…

I’ve been going through old posts and I just loved this when I came across it. These photos of H are so much fun and so innocent. He was so little…

“H loves playing Peek-a-boo…

He turns nearly everything into a game of peek-a-boo…behing the couch, the ottoman, the kitchen island, the dining room table, a jumper, his bath towel, his washer, his teddy, a book and the list goes on…

I love seeing him so pleased with himself. I have tried to capture it…”

Wasn’t he the cutest? I love the sweet innocence. So playful and happy… such great and special memories…

Jx

All images copyright Jessica Flett

Meeting a sibling for the first time…

Lovely friends of mine have just welcomed their second child and their first born has coped really well with meeting her little brother.

This got me thinking about when H met E and the advice we received going into it.  Their first meeting went really well… we couldn’t have hoped for anything better.

He walked in and we had huge cuddles and kisses… it was the first time I had been away from him and I hadn’t seen him for two nights. I had E wrapped on the bed and I was standing waiting for my little man to walk in. We had big cuddles and then I just let him go and explore. He went straight to the phone and then E squeaked… all of a sudden H looked and saw her and exclaimed… look Sis, it’s Sis and he was so interested so we had a look and they got to meet. he was fascinated with her facial features. After a minute he was done and we went on to check out the rest of the room and open some presents.

From then on he was and still is a wonderful brother. He is very patient and on the whole very loving and protective.

Here are my top 5 tips for introducing your older children to their new sibling…

1. Have a present from the baby for the older sibling/s

2. Don’t be holding the baby when your child/children walk into the room. Have your arms free for cuddles and kisses

3. Let them find the baby of their own accord

4. Allow the older child/ren pay as much or as little attention to the baby as they want. Don’t push the issue

5. Lots of cuddles and kisses and make yourself available as much as possible

Any tips to add to it? Would love to hear your meeting story…

Jx

Easy kids craft – treasure chest…

We made this a few weeks ago and H is still into it. It is a treasure chest. Harry found the shoe box as I was preparing to throw it out and was calling it a treasure chest (they did an under the sea project at kindy earlier this year and as a class made a treasure chest)

I decided to help him decorate it and turn it into his own design treasure chest…

I thought I would blog it in case any other parent out there is looking for a easy and cheap craft project. Especially with the wet weather we’ve had it’s a great project for those days…

What you’ll need….

• A shoe box – preferably one that has the lid attached
• A4 paper
• Scissors
• Sticky tape
• Markers
• Stickers
• Any other decorating items you can think of. For example… ribbon, buttons, paint, felt, glitter, glue

In this instance I just covered every surface I could with plain white paper. Using sticky tape to attach it and cutting it down where needed. 

Once that was done I gave Harry his markers and he went to town colouring and decorating.

Later that day I was at a shop and saw the pirate and toy story stickers… two things he is particularly into at the moment and brought them home. He loved them and with some help took great pleasure in decorating his treasure chest.

As you can see it’s still getting lots of use and he is still very interested in it to store all his ‘treasures’

The next thing we will be doing is a pirate’s spy glass… I just have to finish the paper towel roll!!…

I know it’s very simple and to some of you probably very obvious but it’s a fun, cheap and easy project to do with your little one and something they can make their own.

Ever made a treasure chest?…

I would love to hear about other craft ideas…

Jx

Time flying by…

Tiny Toes Copyright Jessica Flett

Sorry I have been so absent in recent times… we have a new addition to the family. I know this is not news to many of you. We had a little girl in June and she is wonderful. It’s hard to believe she is already 6 months old!

I was really sick throughout my pregnancy with her and since her arrival I have been up to my arm pits in all things children… nappies, feeding, sharing my time, setting routines and generally trying to get out of the house.

To be honest I found it a little easier when she was a newborn as far as getting out and about. Now she is on much more of a set rhythm and getting established on solids your windows of time to get out and about a few…especially with a Toddler in tow. It’s takes sooooo much longer with two!! Those of you with more….I salut you!! Like anything that is new I know we will adapt and evolve over time and current frustrations will give way to new frustrations.

I am loving getting to know a new little person and having a little lady. Our little man has welcomed his Sister with open arms and I count my lucky stars. I am not so naive to think it will always be this smooth sailing but I’m just so thrilled we’re off to a promising start. She absolutely adores him and he was the first one to make her giggle which just made me burst into a thousand pieces.

As I hopefully claw back some more time in my day going forward I hope to be able to get on here and post more frequently.

I hope you’re all enjoying the beginning of the festive season and I hope you have wonderful Christmas’s planned. I know I’m looking forward to our first Christmas as a family of four.

Jx

Eyelashes…

These eyelashes make my heart melt… Every time!!…

He is one lucky little man and he has his Daddy to thank!!

Jx

Bath Time…

Bath time here is lots of fun. H loves his bath, especially when Daddy is home for it (Mummy is a huge fan of that too)…

Some of our essentials for bath time are…

Gaia body wash…visit their website here. We were given this in a gift pack and have used it from day one. I love the smell of it and it’s so gentle on H’s skin.

Johnson & Johnson No Tears Shampoo – the smell reminds us of when we were kids. We started using this when H was about 6 months old. My Mother gave me a gift pack to use when we went home to the farm (saving me from carting our supplies home). Once we smelt the shampoo that reminded us all of being children we continued to use it. When he was a newborn we used the Mustela foam shampoo for newborns and it was terrific. It is a foam so is really easy to use and is gentle on their skin… he never had a day of flaky scalp.

Eeni, Meeni, Miini, Moh hooded towel – H looks so cute in it. He has nearly grown out of it sadly but I’m thrilled he got as much use out of it as he did. You can find one here.

Bath toys. H loves his ducks and fish…for similar visit here

All images copyright Jessica Flett

Jx

P.S The dummy doesn’t always accompany H to the bath but just happened to this night…whatever works right!!??…

Our Little Picasso…

I caught up with a close girlfriend and her little girl (she is H’s girlfriend – they are only 3 weeks apart and their Dad’s are best friends…so…no pressure kids!!!) the other day and we were talking about art and craft with the kids. My friend also has a little one about to turn 3 so she has been my sounding board many times on all things kids…

My takeaway from the conversation was…crayon’s are fine but not the best there is…they do not wipe off completely and can be a little hard for the kids to manage. Her advice was Pip-Squeaks markers by Crayola…they are easy for the kids to handle, come in great colours, non toxic and they really do wipe/wash off. There are, apparently, many products out there that claim to wash/wipe off that really don’t.

You don’t know how grateful I am that I have her to discuss all these things and get great tips like this…

Later that same day I was at a local news agency and they happened to have the Pip-Squeaks there so I bought some…

I was sitting at the dining room table the other day and H wandered over and wanted up…he was sitting on my lap and picked up a pen and found one of my notebooks and was trying to use the pen…so I thought I would give the Pip-Squeaks a go… here is the result…

He had such a ball…there was a little trying to eat the markers (the yellow for some reason) so I am pleased they are non toxic…

He got the markers all over his hands…and true to my girlfriends advice they really did wipe off…I was so thrilled!!!

I emailed her that afternoon to let her know it was a success and at the end of her email response back she wrote this…

Here’s to the start of toddler craft fun (and mess!!) 

Thank you S for all your advice and your ability to tell it how it is…I appreciate it so much!!!

What do you think of our budding Picasso’s work…Cute huh!? These are headed straight to the pool room!!…

Jx

P.S..If interested I have found them on line here and here…

Fun with a cardboard box…

Of all the toys at his disposal he was having the best time the other morning with a cardboard box. I sat him in it and dragged him around on the mat in the living room…his squeals of delight had me in fits of laughter.

I couldn’t resist getting the camera out and capturing his fun with it…

All images by Jessica Flett

Jx

The Airport…Happy Homecomings…

Yesterday morning H and I went out to the airport to meet N off the plane…I was very excited to have him home.

I love the airport…whether you’re coming or going it is a hive of activity with such a sense of anticipation and excitement.

It was a zoo out there yesterday…I am told Sunday is their busiest day and in the early morning there are many flights coming in at the same time…this all added to the excitement…and frustration..imagine trying to contain a busy toddler who if you allowed to walk around would surely get squashed. There was lots of dancing on the spot, waving to strangers, chirping and singing.

I loved watching all the happy welcomes and the many tearful homecomings…I couldn’t help but well up a little myself at seeing these happy reunions. There were lots balloons and flowers and lots and lots of hugging, kissing and tears. The whole scene reminded me very much of the ending of Love Actually (This is one of my favourite movies of all times)…

I finally spotted N walking out and when he was close enough I was able to point him out to H…and well…to see both their faces light up brought tears to my eyes…it was so gorgeous. When he reached us H fairly leapt out of my arms into his Daddy’s arm…SO MUCH EXCITEMENT!!!

There were lots of cuddles and chats on the way home…and when H woke from his morning sleep and heard his Dad’s voice…the excitement all over again was so funny and LOUD!

Welcome home honey…we missed you!!

Jx

First Birthday Party…

Hello, hello,

Last Saturday we had a party to celebrate H’s first Birthday. It was so lovely to catch up with friends we hadn’t seen for ages and to see lots of H’s little friends. He is a very lucky boy to have so many lovely friends.

I went for a very classic pale blue and white theme with a little dark blue thrown in.

In all the craziness that was the 2 hours of the party I didn’t take any photos of the hot food. I’m disappointed about it because it was great thanks to all my family and I would have loved to have shown you.

Here are some photos. I will put in some links of where I found them in case you’re interested.

The fairy bread was the biggest hit with the kids…they loved it. I loved that they were little stars…the star cookie cutter is available here.

I found the party hats on line at The Party Parlour. I wasn’t sure how big a hit the hats would be with a bunch of one year olds but you need party hats at a party!!…don’t you think?…and many of the kids were ok to wear them for a moment. The party boy included…

The party bags and ribbon are from Pink Frosting. They come in lots of different colours. I loved using the ribbon. We went to a birthday party a little while ago that used similar bags and on top to hold them together they used a helium balloon which I thought was a terrific idea.

 I sourced the napkins, plates and cups from Pink Frosting too. It really was a great one stop shop for me. There are lots of on line places so please have a look around. A close girlfriend recommended Pink Frosting to me and they had what I needed so I went with them. Their prices were also on par with others that I had a look at.

A local bakery made these cupcakes which were yummy and we used these cupcake toppers for a little something extra.

I love tissue pom poms so was very excited to have an excuse to use them. I bought them from here. A HUGE thank you so my Sister who put them together.

These great little tables are from Ikea…on loan from lovely friends of ours. Needless to say we are off to get one for H. They were so handy and the kids loved them. One table had colouring in and the other had play doh set up on them.

My parents gave H the sand and water play table you can see here. Given it’s winter we just put sand in it. It was such a hit at the party, but be warned…we are still finding sand everywhere!!

A huge thank you to our families for all their help preparing food, setting up and helping on the day with the party. It was a big effort and it’s very much appreciated. H is a very lucky little man.

Jx