Someone Else's Garden

Always looks better than your own.

After not a lot of sleep we've come to Danna's for a few days while Matthew's away and whilst the forecast was for heavy showers all day we managed to get here without any rain only to then have a huge thunderstorm once we'd got inside.

It meant the garden looked great after the rain though.

And when you've done with the garden there's always the Snail and the Whale.

A Bed of Roses.

Take the petals off some old roses...

And sprinkle liberally on the dog.

Give him a good brush so that he's shiny and glossy.

Check that the camera is working to record it all.

It's thirsty work all this dog pampering.

Make sure you clean up after yourself.

Then do a bit of clearing up in the garden.

Before a Duplo face-off with Daddy.

It's a busy day for a toddler!

Lazy Sunny Saturday.

We currently don't have a buggy as Isaac either walks or is in the sling (our great buggy is on loan to a friend). I think he might be feeling deprived....

This is his usual mode of transport (although not one of my usual slings as this is passing through on its way back to Kirsty).

There's always a bike opportunity outside the library. The boy is obsessed with anything with moving parts so bikes score highly on his interest scale.

He loves the slopes and steps on the library and the building next door. He's beginning to pick up his pace when running though so he'll have to stay closer in future.

And then in the evening we went to see friends and had a lovely home cooked curry and then the kids had home grown strawberries.

And we had a little live entertainment.

The Music Box

Well the bear was happy as we were all in the living room together in the early evening.

And then the music box came out! It's been hiding behind the beanbag for a while so it was a novelty to have it out again.

There was much drumming.

A bit of very loud banging with the charity shop bells that are louder than Concorde.

Some harmonica. I highly recommend these for children as they can get a nice sounding noise very easily and it's easy on the parental ear too.

A bit of Triola - most of the time Isaac has it turned round the 'wrong' way so that he uses his thumb on the keys but every now and then he turns it round.

The old favourites of the sandpaper blocks, although there wasn't much swishing it was mostly just loud clapping.

The battle of the castanets.

If the dog could have put his paws over his ears he would have done!

Take One Sheet

Throw it over a table and voila you have a den!

I don't know who liked it most the dog or Isaac (although only Isaac banged his head).

The ball from the Wubba is still going strong and still squeaking. I've never known a dog toy last this long with destruct-a-bear. 

Isaac spent a lot of time just giggling in the den!

And some more rolling around. 

Then we took the den apart and Finn buried his ball in the sheet. Isaac thought it was the funniest thing in the world ever (well at least since the last funny thing). 

I tried to take the sheet off but dog and child both ganged up on me so the game continued. 

Well at least until Danna phoned.

Yellow, White & Black

It's funny isn't it how you always second guess yourself as a parent. I really like the idea of one colour at a time so that the child can really get a sense of what yellow or blue or red is before introducing the secondary colours or other tones of the primary colours. There's something in me though that feels that it's just a bit boring. I guess I'm so conditioned by the riot of colours in all things designed for children that on some levels I think it's what they want and what's best for them. But then I watch him painting and he spends so much time just playing with the pots and swapping brushes that he gets bored before he's really started putting paint to paper. He would be just as happy with one colour, it's me who is trying to push him to do something else.  

Easy Like Sunday Morning