Isaac's room sign

I wanted to do some craft with Isaac, he is still quite little to know what's going on but I sat him up to look at the magazines I was using to make the collage from. I also spelled out the letters for his name and said 'Isaac' several times. He smiled, I think he knows that's his name now.

I gave Isaac a piece of the magazine which he tore into pieces. I didn't use them for the collage but he thought he was joining in!

We wrote the letters of his name and stuck bits of paper to make each letter. This would work so much better with a toddler who can do their own sticking.

I outlined each letter in black marker pen , cut them out and mounted them on gold paper. We suck some Iggle Piggle stickers onto it too. It'll make a great room sign for his new bedroom. Children feel safe when they know they belong.

Sensory Play

I really love playing with Isaac at the moment he's so much fun! He is so interested in the world around him, always looking at what is going on.

I've started to do different sensory activities with him. He loves bubbles, I've got ordinary ones and also the ones that stay bubbles for you to catch (magic bubbles). He loves watching the colours, it's best to do on a sunny day. I've also got different textures for him to feel. He really likes splashing in water and playing in flour. Messy, but so much fun! This week I'm going to try jelly and rice - separately not at the same time!
Both smell and taste are happening mostly at meal times. Isaac sits with us at the table and I'm taking the baby- led approach to weaning with a few purees thrown in. I give him 'sticks' of fruit or vegetables on his tray and I encourage him to explore the way each food feels and smells as well as how it tastes. So far I haven't discovered anything he doesn't like.
I find hearing the hardest because it's tricky to get a small baby to listen when you want them to. I simply subject him to different kinds of music throughout the day and let him shake instruments or toys to the rhythm.
I'm looking forward to the day we can buy a sand and water tray for the garden!

Craft with Babies - hand prints

Isaac has just turned 5mths. It's amazing how much he is learning. He can sit up in his own and is trying so hard to crawl! So I've decided that in these last few weeks before I go back to work I'm going to do at least one craft a week.
Inspired by the painted hand prints we did for Nana on Mothers Day, I decided to make salt dough. It's really easy! One cup of flour, half a cup of salt and roughly half of water or until it all comes together.
I mixed it into two balls and made them flat. They were the perfect size for little hands. I let Isaac touch it, he seemed to like it. But he is starting to put everything in his mouth at the moment so I didn't leave him alone. After he'd explored it i pressed his hand into the dough to make his hand print. I then baked it on low for about 2 hours and once it was cool we painted it red! I wrote his name on the front and the date on the back. Perfect gift for fathers day ;)

Visiting the farm

I love doing things with Isaac. Even though he's still only little we go to swimming lessons, toddler groups etc. Today we went to the farm. I wasn't sure how much he'd take in but I helped him to see all the animals and although he seemed a bit confused at first I got lots of smiles when I was telling him about the animals. He especially liked the pigs, so as a treat I bought him a pig toy to play with at home. I hope to take him back again soon :)

1-0 to cloth!

Hubby is great at doing the night time routine. When he gets home from work he often gets handed the baby! He wants to be involved as he's missed us all day but as most parents know the evening can be a real fussy stage of a babies day. So to make sure DH has something to look forward to he usually does the bath. Isaac used to hate the bath he often cried and we didn't really know why. Anyway I started taking him to swimming lessons as we were concerned he would be scared of the water but it's really helped and now he loves the bath. So most nights hubby does the bath and gets Isaac ready for bed. Recently at night he's been quite unsettled and we've been trying a few different ways to help him sleep better. One idea was that the cloth nappies were wet against his skin after 12 hours so we decided to try disposable nappies just at night. The first night we used them I changed at 2ish. The second night we used them we had wee leaks in the morning, last night nasty red bottom in the morning?! Not good so we have returned to cloth. I'm currently using little lamb size 2 bamboo nappies with a motherease wrap. I bought all these preloved and have been working well. The little lamb nappies come with a fab fleece liner with keeps baby's bottom really dry. I'm very impressed. You can really rely on this nappy to keep baby dry all night! Cloth wins 1 disposables 0