Ivy has finally got her very own bedroom!  At just over a year old, we hadn't actually intended on keeping her in with us for so long, but then we hadn't intended on living in this house for so long, so everything hasn't quite gone to plan.  We've had some bad luck with the houses that we're trying to buy falling through, but we're in a lovely rental house for now, and hopefully we'll find the perfect house soon.  We decided that it was time to rearrange the rooms and give Ivy a little space of her own, even if it is just for a few months.  

He loved it and was so excited to eat his fruit salad when he was finished, and to share it with everyone he saw!  He's even talking about it a few days later, randomly telling people about it who don't even ask.  I highly recommend some fruit salad making next time you're having one of those days!

It's so funny how children develop at such different paces and in such different ways, they are completely unpredictable!  Ivy has been cruising along the furniture and finger walking since she was about 9 months old, so we really thought that she would walk early, but she only just took her first steps (yay!!!!) at just over a year old.  



Here's a list of all of the different things that we did to help Ivy to feel confident enough to take those first steps on her own.

1. We got her a walker to hold onto and support herself to walk around the house.  We actually ended up with a few different ones (gifts and ones that Ethan had) and as each one is different, they all helped her to develop in different ways.


For Christmas Ivy got this adorable stroller walker, which she loves!  It's great for her to push around now as it is a lot lighter, but now that she is more confident and doesn't need as much support she can manage it.  We even have a very lightweight stroller for her to try out, but she does need someone to hold it with her for now as it really does slip out from under her.

2. They say that the best way to learn to walk is with bare feet, so that they can really get a good grip and a good feel for the ground.  So we try to take Ivy's socks off as much as possible, and when she is in tights we have got her the ones with grips at the bottom to help a little bit.

3. We have encouraged Ivy to cruise along the furniture as much as she can.  We've done this by clearing off any low tables to make them accessible to her, as well as placing items along the furniture to encourage her to move along to reach it.




4. We started finger walking with her as soon as she had shown she was ready (taking those steps cruising and with the walker already).  To start out with we would hold both of her hands securely, then slowly we started holding on less tightly, then moving onto holding one hand only, then having her just hold onto one finger.  By this point she is basically walking by herself, but she has that security of knowing that someone is there holding onto her.



5. We make sure that Ivy has the chance to walk on different surfaces throughout the day.  We have wooden floors downstairs and carpet upstairs, and we definitely notice a difference in her confidence walking in the different areas.  We were also lucky enough to go on a warm holiday recently, so that gave Ivy the chance to walk on the grass and different surfaces outside as well.


6. Another way that we help Ivy with her walking in the house, is to set up a sort of furniture obstacle course to expand her range of cruising.  We found that if we moved a small table just a couple of steps away from the couch she was actually able to turn around and take one unaided step towards it.  So then we moved more furniture around and saw that her curiosity to explore was stronger than her reservations about taking steps on her own.



7. A great way to get Ivy standing and wanting to take steps is to have some desirable items  just a few steps away and distractions.  I've found that from a young age she was able to do a lot of things before she thought she could simply by seeing toys that she wanted!  One of the things that really works for Ivy is bubbles!  Whenever we're at a baby class and they do all the bubbles at the end I'm able to stand Ivy up and she's so mesmerised by the bubbles that she stands unaided for much longer that she ever has, and those steps towards the bubbles are not far off!




8. We love to go to baby classes, many of which go up to 18 month olds, so Ivy gets the chance to watch older babies walk.  I can see her watching them and I know that it encourages her to want to be able to walk around and get to the best toys first!

9. We have also been focusing on strengthening leg muscles for Ivy.  She loves to climb and we take her to a baby gym class where she gets to climb around on a variety of different surfaces.  We also did a lot of swimming with Ivy while we were on holiday and encourage her to crawl and finger walk wherever we go.




10. It's also very important to make it fun and give them lots of praise so that it's something that they really want to do to make themselves and everyone happy.  You should have seen Ivy's little face when she took those first steps, I don't think that she quite knew what she had done, but the three of us (Ethan included) were cheering and clapping for her, so she started clapping too!



Best of luck with your (soon to be) toddler, enjoy those first wobbly steps!

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Other posts you'll love:

• 10 Ways to Help a Frustrated Baby Learn to Crawl

• Simplifying Life With a Baby and a Toddler

• Preparing Ethan to be a Big Brother

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We recently went to Cape Town (from London) on a 12 Hour Flight, and I was searching beforehand for anything to make that flight a little bit easier.  The lovely people at Trunki offered to send us a Yondi to try on our travels.  The Yondi is a travel pillow with a difference!  It comes in several different cute designs, Ethan chose the monkey, which suits him perfectly!  It has magnets in the front, so that it comes together and doesn't slip off if he leans his head forward onto it.


Ethan really struggles to sleep anywhere but in his own bed, as he just can't get comfortable, so it's nice to have a travel pillow that makes it a bit easier for him.  It gives us different options of ways to help him to fall asleep, and helps him to stay asleep and supported. 


We keep the Yondi in the car now, and if we go on a long car ride we've got it there for Ethan to use whenever he needs it.  It also helps to get him into the sleeping mode, we've got all of our routines at home for naps and bedtime, which can be difficult to replicate on the go, so now it is part of our travel sleep routine.  He can wear the Yondi, and I can tell him a story, say goodnight and then he feels ready to sleep.  It helps that it's so cute and cosy, so even if he doesn't have it around his neck he can hold it and give it a big cuddle!


* This is a review post, we were sent a Trunki Yondi to try out on our travels and to write an honest review. *

Happy Chinese New Year!  We may not be Chinese, but we do have a special connection to Chinese New Year because in 2011 it's the day that we found out that I was pregnant with Ethan (so he was born in the year of the rabbit), and in 2014 it was the day before Ivy was born (meaning that she was almost a snake, but was born in the year of the horse instead).  



So we have to make a little bit of effort to celebrate every year, and this year has been a bit hectic, but we're finding 10 fun and simple ways to play and mark this special day:

1. Playing with animal toys to represent each year of the Chinese calendar.  This one is more for Ivy, as she's just starting to learn new words and sounds it is really fun to play with little toys, telling her what each animal is called and what sound it makes and hearing her try to imitate the words that I'm using.


2. Playing with chopsticks like I did with Ethan a couple of years ago, and as we will be doing today.  We've got these lovely learning chopsticks that are great for Ethan to use, we've also been using some big tweezers to get the chopstick technique and to pick up small toys.


3. Make an animal craft to represent the animal of the year, a sheep craft like this cute Q-Tip Painted Sheep from Dabbling Momma, so easy for little ones to make but absolutely adorable!  Or a monkey craft like this cute Monkey Shaker from Make and Takes.


4. Bake some fortune cookies using this recipe from Martha Stewart.


5. Make a Chinese lantern like I did every year with my class as a teacher, as it's quick to prepare loads of them in advance and have the children decorate them at school and bring home.  Or try making mini Chinese lanterns like we did this year.


6. Make a dragon mask and do a dragon dance!  Just go over to Itsy Bitsy Fun and download their Printable Dragon Masks to colour in, then find a big sheet to cover yourselves in and dance around the house!



7. Make red envelopes like we did a few years ago and put all sorts of fun treasures inside!  I found some other cute printable ones from Activity Village that we might use this year.


8. Make a Chinese New Year sensory bin using rice as a base and chopsticks as well as little Chinese bowls and spoons.  You could even put some little toy animals, or maybe some dragons if you have them.  Or you could try this sensory play idea with play dough that I saw on Nurture Store, it's simple and looks really fun.  I think we'll be getting the red play dough out today!


9. Look up which year each member of the family was born in and draw pictures of those animals.  Ethan has already memorised that he is a rabbit, Ivy is a horse, Daddy is a dragon and Mommy is a monkey (which he thinks is hilarious!) so I may get him and Ivy to draw a family picture of the four of us as our animals today!

10. Eat Chinese food!  We'll take any excuse really, but I think that we'll definitely end our day with some spring rolls and some noodles and another chance to use our chopsticks!

Happy Chinese New Year!


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We recently got back from a trip to Cape Town, taking Ivy on her very first flight (and Ethan on his eleventh!) and it's definitely a different experience when you've got 2 little ones in tow!  The flight from London to Cape Town takes 12 hours and we managed to book both ways overnight, so that the children would sleep (in theory!)   Ivy was not yet 1, and as she was under 2 we were able to get seats in the front room with room for a sky cot for her.  As Ethan is now 3 he did need his own seat, so that meant that we could get 3 seats together and have our own little area by the window to set ourselves up.  I would definitely recommend booking your seats as early as possible to make sure that you can get the best seats for children.

• soft toys and teething toys for Ivy
• board books / touch and feel books for Ivy
• small story books for Ethan
• sticker books and activity books for Ethan (we also bought him a couple of magazines from the airport)
• cuddly toy for Ethan at bedtime
• blanket and cuddly toy for Ivy at bedtime
• pillow / head support for Ethan (we have the Trunki Yondi which I will tell you about in an upcoming review)
• children's headphones for Ethan
• snacks and water for both children (especially for take off and landing) 
• breakfast for Ivy (meals were provided for Ethan, but do make sure that you book a childrens' meal as they may not automatically be given one with a children's ticket)
• pyjamas for both children, and outfit for the next day (and and extra change of clothes just in case)
• iPad, Kindle and any other device that you may need just in case!

Happy Pancake Day!  We had some lovely proper pancakes for breakfast this morning, which both children really loved, but I decided that it would be fun to do something a bit different for dinner.  It's quite difficult to make anything in a pan that needs my attention at the moment with Ivy in her current 'getting into everything' phase, so I thought that I better come up with some way of baking pancakes in the over...maybe that means that they're technically not pancakes, but they're still just as yummy!


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Unfortunately for us, Ethan and Ivy both have eczema and very dry skin.  It flares up at different times of the year, and is caused by different triggers.  At the moment, as it's winter and very dry in our house, they have both been having skin flare ups.  Both of them have been prescribed different lotions to help alleviate the symptoms, but I don't find that they always work and I don't particularly like to use such harsh creams on them if I don't have to as their eczema is not too severe.  I tried a few different non-prescription lotions before without great results, so I was happily surprised when I tried Aveeno and found that it was gentle on both kids skin and helped clear up their dry skin.


Aveeno have now come up with a series of books called The Dry-ventures of Ellie and Eddie, a little girl and her gecko who both have dry skin.  The books are written by children's author Penelope Harper, and the first in the series is called Bye Bye Dry Skin which you can download from Aveeno's website.


It describes why it's so important to apply your lotion everyday and about having a bath using the different Aveeno products to help your skin to feel better.  I read it to Ethan whenever he's having a flare up as he can be quite resistant to using his lotion and staying still while I apply it, and it really helps him to understand.  Even when we were away on holiday and I needed to put his lotion on and we didn't have the book, I just reminded him of Ellie and Eddie and that was enough to get him to sit still to put his cream on, result!


* This is a review post, we were sent a selection of Aveeno products and a copy of the book Bye Bye Dry Skin to read and try out, to then write an honest review about. *

Happy Valentine's Day!  We made a special Valentine's Day card for Ethan and Ivy's Daddy.  After our recent trip to Cape Town and seeing the African penguins on Boulders Beach, there was a particular pair that were very snuggly, and we thought that penguins definitely love each other very much, so they are the perfect animals to put on a Valentine's Day card.



We used one piece of red card, folded over to be our card.  We then used black paint and painted one of each of the children's feet to make a footprint on the card.  Ethan very helpfully took photos with my phone while I did Ivy's footprint!























Then we left the paint to dry, and came back to it later with two white heart shapes that I cut to fit on each footprint.  Ethan then used coloured pencils to draw the penguins eyes, beaks and a heart on their tummies.  He also drew their flippers to look like they're holding hands. Then he put some glue on the back of the heart shape and stuck it to each footprint.  









































On the inside of the card I wrote a message, and Ethan wrote his name (which he is getting very good at!)  I am sure that their Daddy is going to love it!























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Ethan goes to quite a large nursery school, and we've all been a bit under the weather this week, so we really needed a simple idea for Valentine's Day cards to give to his friends at nursery.  We started by making some little cards on the computer, with Ethan helping every step of the way.  He's getting better at identifying letters, so I tell him which letters to type and he presses them (with some help pointing them out) and helped me to insert the heart shapes.


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Finding a heart shaped washing up tub is the perfect excuse for some Valentine's Day games and sensory play!  (This one is from Tiger if anyone's interested.)  I brought this home full of ideas of how Ethan and Ivy could play with it, a sensory tub for Ivy or a matching game for Ethan, or maybe a combination of both so they could play together?



I started by collecting a variety of different objects (in Valentine's Day colours!) to put in our tub.  Lots of different materials, different shapes and sizes to explore for Ivy.  Then I decided to put 2 of each of the items in, so that Ethan could play a matching game at the same time.  Ivy was very happy to sit and take the items out one by one, examining each one (often by putting it in her mouth, as she is still in that phase) and happily handing Ethan whichever ones he needed.



With Ethan I started just by asking him to find things that were the same.  He easily took out pairs of objects and placed them beside the tub.  Then I started to ask him more specific questions, could you find a matching pair of red items?  Could you find 2 small pink things?  Finally I would ask him to find me specific objects, like 2 large pink blocks.



It really is nice to see the two of them playing together with the same activity, but at their own levels, so that they are both getting a lot out of it.  (Not that it ever lasts for very long, I certainly won't pretend that it didn't end with them both wanting the same thing and getting upset about it...but they'll grow out of that eventually, right?)



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My sweet little Ivy has turned one, and of course we had to have a little get together to celebrate.  We went for a pink teddy bear theme, as it just seemed the perfect way to represent our little cutie.


Venue and decorations

We had the party at a nice big church hall with lots of space for the kiddies to run around.  I found lots pink teddy bear and first birthday banners and decorations at an online party shop and used photos of Ivy for the rest of the decorations.  I made a photo collage of Ivy's cake smash and another collage of all of Ivy's weekly photos.  I also had teddy bear cut outs and put a photo of Ivy from each month on one.

Activities and Crafts

I set up three different craft tables, all of things that the children could make and then wear and take funny photos in front of our photo frame set up.



The first craft table was to make teddy bear ears.  I found these teddy bear ear cut outs on Free Crafts Kids and printed out a set for each of the children, and set out some crayons, glue and a pipe cleaner to stick them onto.



We also brought some toys to play with like our play tent, tunnel and letter and number mats.  Of course we also brought our bubble machine, Ivy loves bubbles!!!

We had a lovely day celebrating Ivy, and now we're ready to start the second year of her life with lots of fantastic memories of all the fun that we had at her birthday and for the past year.  My darling baby girl is growing up far too fast, but we have to move on and look forward to the next milestones that life brings us!


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