Piano Movers.

The piano has been living in the attic and so gets little use so today we decided on a move. I'm not sure we've really got room for it in the dining room which is already the play room and general living space for our day to day needs but at least it'll get used down here. 

Wubba!

Take one of these, add one bear and let play for hours... 

The wubba is dead but the bear is very very happy!

Chilling

He's a dude with his sunglasses on!

The bear obviously found something tasty.

I'm a dudette, obviously... 

The flowers are looking great at the moment.

And I might actually be here while the peony is in flower...

Park Life & Duplo Fun

We've not been doing a lot as the weather's been so nice it's just been chilling in the garden or in the house or in and out between the two. 

Today we ventured into town though which meant a bit of hanging out in the park en route and as usual Isaac wanted to push the trolley.

He had to have a stick.

And watch the big boys with their big sticks.

He's realised that trees are for climbing...

We had to say hello to the elephants that are outside the Thai restaurant.

He's been playing with amazing technicolour dreamcoat (aka his sleep bag)

been wearing a bit of bling...

And been building and destroying in near equal measure...

Enjoying the Sun & a Cake.

The weather's been great for most of the last couple of weeks so we've been spending a lot of time outside. We had a picnic in the park on Thursday and Isaac was well cared for by a couple of 5 year olds. 

We've been in the garden a lot and the baby tent has made its first appearance of the year. I want to get a wigwam or maybe make a living one as we're lacking in shade in the garden and whilst that's lovely it does make it hard to be out there all the time. 

He takes his comfort where he can!

He would happily play in water all day. Flowing water is much more fun but a paddling pool will do.

We brought a bit of the beach home...

Today is our friend Jonah's second birthday. Happy Birthday Jonah! I made him a tractor cake. 

Homemade Bricks and Yellow

I've been reading lots of stuff on Steiner/Waldorf and one of the suggestions in it is that instead of regular shapes found in mass produced wooden bricks that you use real wood complete with bark and cut it to different sizes so that it can be whatever your child wants it to be and not just a brick. Now Isaac will make practically anything into a phone so I thought it was a bit pointless as I figured he'd use his imagination anyway but as we were having to deal with our dead olive trees I figured they could live a new life. 

Isaac really likes them and loves filling his bucket with them. He's not got the control to build with bricks yet anyway so there definitely score points at the moment as they're animals (the r shaped one is a horse and the knobbly ones are chickens with the straight ones currently dogs). He's also gone and got out his regular bricks and played with them more since having his olive blocks. 

We've not had chance to paint really recently but today Isaac handed me his apron so we got the yellow out for the first time. He still asked for blue but seemed happy to stick with a single colour and had a splashing time (there's yellow paint on the underside of the wall cabinets). He's very firm about when he's finished a 'picture' and today pointed to a shape and said it was a monkey. As with the olive bricks I'm wary of recording the label and fixing the meaning into a picture as it then limits his freedom to change his mind and make things into something else (the ability to make a picture in the image of something else doesn't come until children are much older) but I think it's good to make a record of when he's using his imagination and starting to express himself. 

Lessons from a toddler

So the lessons I learnt from my 21 month old today are, amongst others:

1) Lie back and look at the sky. 

This was done by pushing me over and gently guiding my head to the floor so that I was lying flat and looking up, he then went and lay down next to me and looked at the sky. 

2) No no seriously, lie back.

Every time I tried to get up I was reminded to take my time and rest a while.

3) roll around a little. OK so you get a bit dusty but it's fun!

4) lie back some more

5) oh and take your shoes off to do all the lying back, it's much better!

And finally.

6) put the camera down!

He took this picture, looked at the screen and said 'mummy', turned the camera off and put it in my bag.

We also did lots of running, playing with a ball and swinging and Isaac did some sliding too (I can't fit on the slide....).