Our Sunshade Den

Although today has been a welcome cooler day, the last couple of days have been scorching hot so we have been camped out in the garden enjoying the rays. We have a parasol and a little tent to help protect the girls from the sun so decided to combine them both with some sheets to create a giant-sunshade-turkish-den-tent type thing. The sheets were just clothes-pegged onto the parasol and then the den kitted out with blankets and pillows.

It was a lot easier to keep the girls confined to the tent when they needed a break from the sun, and we regularly dipped in and out throughout the day. We brought some books with us and it was lovely to escape the sun and sit somewhere cool(er) reading stories together. Poppet displayed some impressive vertical reading skills.

Lots of fun was also had going round and round the pole until it got a bit vigorous and our den was in danger of collapsing.

Poppet was so reluctant to leave the den for her nap time I caved and let her *try* to have her nap outside. Of course this was a complete disaster and I ended up with a teary toddler by teatime. She definitely still needs her naps!

I finally managed to pump up the proper paddling pool too (giving myself blisters in the process, that's love!) and the girls loved splashing about in it, then coming back to our den to dry off and apply more suncream.

Our little shady spot was so handy and so easy and quick to put together, I was pretty proud of myself for having thought of it! I think Little was very appreciative too, even though she kept trying to escape and I had to barricade the doorway with my body.

Notes From A Smaller Island

Grandma and Papa's House

One toddler terrorising a cat,

One teething baby keeping mummy up at night,

Playing 'shops' where everything costs "three pounds fifty",

Welly walks on the beach, collecting shells and stamping in puddles.

Playdates with island friends,

Wide open spaces to crawl around on,

A reunion with old friends of the equine and ovine variety,

Lots of Aunties and Uncles to play with, bake with, hide from, and fall asleep on.

A perfect 'summer' holiday despite the weather!

Poppet: 2yrs 5mos

Little: 9 mos

Green Day (not the band)

Following on from the success of our yellow day I thought a day of green things would be easy but it was a bit of a wash out..........

We started off shopping at the greengrocers and I gave Poppet a free reign of the shopping basket as long as the things she chose were green - she excelled at this task and chose apples, cucumber, mangetout and a green packet of crisps. At home she helped make lunch and was astounded to find the big green watermelon we had was red inside. 

After lunch I set up a small world underwater play scene in a plastic under-bed storage box using green glass beads, green milk carton lids, shells and a couple of boats. To this I added green ice-cubes in the shape of fish. Unfortunately I completely over-estimated how long these would take to melt and they were gone in a couple of minutes before I had a chance to take a photo. Poppet spent the rest of the afternoon asking "where fish gone?" over and over and over. So at least she learnt an important lesson in the properties of ice and it's tendency to melt.

Once she got over the sudden unexplainable disappearance of the fish she spent a while filling the boat up with beads (she loves these glass beads) and emptying it and filling it again. This was the first time she had played with a play scene like this and it really captured her attention.

To round our green day off, we sat down to watch Shrek (what?, that totally counts as a green activity).

Poppet: 2yrs 5mos

Little: 9mos

Tea and Coffee Sensory Tray

Whenever I am queueing for a coffee (which admittedly is not often at all at the moment), I cannot resist running my fingers through the coffee bean displays that those big chains have. They feel and smell and even sound amazing. They are so deliciously tactile (I'm getting all Nigella) so I decided to use them for some sensory play for Poppet, combining them with other ingredients to create a sensory tray.

On the tray I had an empty hot chocolate tin (still smelled chocolately), a variety of fruit and herbal tea bags (taken from hotels over the years and never used!), a china tea set, a scoop and the coffee beans.

The coffee beans gave off a lovely aroma and Poppet made a beeline for them straightaway, scooping and pouring and touching, she really enjoyed playing with them. The teabags were completely ignored, she was all about the coffee!

She was so engrossed in this activity it was lovely to watch her happily explore it all while I got on with dinner. A lot of the time she helps me with making tea but sometimes I just need to get on with things and need something to occupy her.

In hindsight, this is an activity that would have been better placed on the TuffSpot as the coffee beans got everywhere. You live and learn!

A few days after this, Poppet was having breakfast in a cafe with her daddy and impressed him by correctly identifying 'toffee!' when she found a pot of coffee beans on their table.

Poppet: 2yrs 5mos

Little: 8mos

My top breastfeeding tips

Yesterday marked the start of the National Breastfeeding Awareness Week. Despite a difficult start I breastfed Poppet for a year and am still breastfeeding Little. I am aware that breastfeeding can often be a emotive subject and something that doesn't come easily to many, but I wanted to share some tips that I have gathered from my breastfeeding journey in the hope they might help someone just starting out.

So here are my top tips!

• Watch your baby not the clock. Feeding on demand is best for breastfeeding, so feed your baby at the first sign of hunger. Even if this was just an hour ago.  It does not mean you are not producing enough milk.

• From my experience, it really hurt for the first 6 weeks. Really hurt. So be prepared that you may experience pain and this does not necessarily mean that your latch is wrong. Your nipples have to get used to a lot (my second baby didn't cause me any pain at all).

• Try sipping iced water through a straw to distract yourself from that initial latching on pain. I also had a big bag of sweeties and as a special treat had one during each feed. This stopped me dreading those early feeds so much.

• Fashion a boob tube out of a muslin cloth for wearing at night, comfier than a bra and stops you leaking milk everywhere!

• Buy a tube of Lansinoh nipple cream for the early days. It is really hard to get out of the tube, so keep it under your pillow or in your pocket so your body heat melts it and it squeezes out a lot easier.

• On days two and three post-birth your baby will cluster feed to bring your milk in - this means non-stop feeding. It does not mean your baby is hungry and you are not satisfying them, it is your baby stimulating your milk supply, just keep feeding.

• For the first few days post-birth, breastfeeding brings on after pains (contractions of the uterus as it shrinks back to it's pre-pregnancy size).  These can be VERY painful, reminiscent of contractions! Make sure you have painkillers on hand and take regularly.

• There are many lactogenic foods (foods that can help with milk production). Oats are one. I ate lots of porridge, ReadyBrek, flapjacks, Hobnobs, oaty raisin cookies - you get the idea.  Contented Calf is a great cookbook full of nourishing recipes using lactogenic ingrediants for breastfeeding mums.

• Make sure you continue your vitamin regime post-birth. I drank a lot of fortified drinks like Ovaltine as well.

• Buy lots of cereal bars! I went through boxes of them. Keep a box by your bed for night feeds, a few in your handbag. Breastfeeding makes you hungry.

• Avoid strong scented products on the chest area for the first wee while.

• You don't really need breastfeeding bras, you can just use normal non-wired ones and pull them down. But if you want some anyway, the best ones are Hot Milk.

For more breastfeeding help or support contact your GP, health visitor or midwife or the National Breastfeeding Helpline on 0300 100 0212.

Indoor Playhouse

I'm a bit of a compulsive furniture re-shuffler, every now and then I get an itch to rearrange a room and it must be done that very minute. This particular minute was after breakfast on Friday (anything to avoid doing the breakfast dishes). I had the idea to make a little playhouse for the girls using the ikea storage shelves and the play kitchen to make a cubby corner just for them.

This kind of project is quite good because it means I have to clean my floors, rescue all the stray jigsaw pieces and rice cakes from beneath the sofa, and tidy up the play kitchen. So it's win win.

I put a thick rug down as a carpet for the house and then boxed it in using the kitchen and shelves, leaving a gap for a door. Next came my favourite part - turning the little corner into a house! I put Poppet's two plastic chairs in there but was lacking a table so blu-takked a tray to a stool, and it is transformed into a bistro table! I stuck up a couple of pieces of Poppet's artwork to finish it off.

I took one of the plastic tubs out of the Trofast storage and turned the space left into a postbox as Poppet is a big fan of posting. I just blu-takked a sheet of paper decorated to look like a postbox onto the sides. This post is beginning to look like it is sponsored by Blu-Tak! (its not).

She has her own collection of letters and postcards for playing (they are getting pretty dog-eared now)....for some reason she insisted on posting the letters from behind the postbox. We had to salvage the postbox on more than one occasion with the sellotape due to some over-vigourous posting

I cleared all the toys from the top of the Trofast and substituted them for various kitchen toys like her wooden vegetables and eggs and also lots of food boxes and pots from the recycling tub to encourage some imaginary cooking. I've been getting lots of cups of tea and pizza made for me. 

I found an old telephone and put that in the playhouse too, it has been so popular! Poppet spends ages phoning people and having the funniest imaginary conversations ("Papa? Don't poo in pants"). I recorded one but can't figure out how to get the video from my camera to the computer.

Poppet eventually insisted on a door so we used her play tent for a little while and the girls had lots of fun crawling in and out.

The girls have spent lots of time exploring their new corner, and as a result the kitchen is being used more than it ever has. Where the kitchen was before it was a bit boxed in by the sofa and meant that both girls couldn't really play with it at the same time. Now it's a lot more open and Little has been exploring it for the first time. It's perfect for her practicing her standing up skills (and her pulling everything out the cupboards skills). In the future I hope I can transform the corner into other things like a shop, a cafe, a doctors, the list is endless! It has been so good for encouraging imaginative play and also the girls playing together. 

Poppet washing her hands

Pesto Pasta with Mini Meatballs - #hungry2happy

Pesto Pasta with Mini Meatballs

I was recently sent some vouchers to try Richmond's new mini meatballs and incorporate them into an easy-to-create meal for kids.The meatballs only take 10 minutes in the oven from frozen and this whole meal can be made in 12 minutes, so perfect for those nights when you need something on the table quick! 

Pesto Pasta with Mini Meatballs                                                                     

Serves 4  

Preparation and cooking time - 12 minutes

Ingredients

Richmond's mini meatballs (40 pack)

Bag of fresh fusilli pasta

1 red pepper

1 red onion

1 handful of green beans 

Pack of button mushrooms

Pesto (I used 6 tbsps but depends how much you like)

Rapeseed oil/olive oil for frying

To serve: 

Pack of cherry tomatoes

Parmesan cheese

Garlic bread (chilled not frozen)

Balsamic Vinegar & Rapeseed/Extra-Virgin Olive oil

Method

1. Place the meatballs and garlic bread on a baking tray and put in preheated oven at 180ºC. Both will take 10 minutes.

2. Boil the kettle. Slice the onion and pepper into strips and cut the mushrooms in half. Heat some oil in a pan and fry the vegetables, stirring occasionally.

3. Fill a pan with boiling water, add the pasta and the trimmed green beans (these will both cook in 5 minutes).

4. Make the tomato salad - half the tomatoes and dress with oil & balsamic vinegar.

5.When the meatballs and pasta are nearly cooked, add 6 tbsps (or however much you prefer) of pesto to the frying pan of vegetables and stir to coat.

6. Add the cooked meatballs and drained pasta and beans to the vegetables and mix everything together.

7. Serve!

The meatballs were really popular with both of the girls, they taste just like Richmond sausages and sausages have always gone down well in this house! They also got mum and dad's approval for a quick, tasty meal.

This post is an entry for Britmums' Hungry to Happy Challenge sponsored by Richmond Mini Meatballs. We were sent the meatball vouchers for free for the purposes of this post.