Tiny is nearly 15 months and she finally went through a playground tunnel. She had seen these before and played on the edge of one but never crawled through.
We have a pop up tunnel at home that she happily goes through but has always turned away from these metal ones. I suspect it's to do with sound as like other toddlers she is very sensitive to it. So I was happy to see the little legs disappear down the hole!
This V Tech lamb has been a life saver when it comes to car journeys. While putting Tiny into her carseat I turn this on to music and it distracts her. Without it, she'd cry.
I've stopped travelling as far with her in the car. I feel it's a challenging place for little ones to be. When we do have to travel to get to granma's (a two and a half hour car journey) I pack a little basket of toys and books to hand out to her.
This series of books are her favourite at the moment and especially good in the car. She really engages with the pictures and spends a lot of time looking at each one.
This keeps Tiny happy and sensing her mood I find I can anticipate frustration and distract her with these.
When Tiny does cry, I sing her favourite song '5 Little Monkeys Jumping On The Bed' and she settles.
If she doesn't I find somewhere to pull in and feed her.
How do you keep your little one happy during a car journey? What do you find works?
Today I put out the following for Tiny in the garden:
• the ladder
• a rocking toy
• a baking tray with water and paper towel
• different herbs on cork boards
• a big blue feather
She flung the herbs and broke a cork board in half. We looked at piecing the two bits together and talked about it. I brought out a big blue feather which she chased for a while. She enjoyed watching the wind carry it along.
She climbed along the ladder and had to problem solve along the way as I'd raised one end against some steps.
After that we played her favourite game which is playing pass the stones. She no longer puts these near her mouth as I believe she has learned they are not food however I would never leave her with them. Not for a second.
I introduced the baking tray as the stones made lovely 'clunk' sounds as they dropped in.
What was enjoyable for Tiny was the freedom to engage with the various objects in what felt like a state of flow. I joined in with her using words to describe what we were doing. Then at times she would babble sometimes copying sounds I'd made. And of course I would copy sounds she'd made.
Great fun on a zipwire today. Tiny looked very serious for the first few goes and then began to smile as she felt the breeze blow through her hair! I tried it out on my own first of all, to check momentum and if it was safe at the other end. Once I'd done that, we were ready to rock!
Tiny's appreciation of plants and flowers is growing (pun intended)! Being at an age where she tranfers objects, today she enjoyed moving cut grass from one place to another. She then took flower heads and leaves and studied them intensely. I do wonder about what forms in their minds being so language free. Does she listen to the sounds around her or does her mind babble to the object in her hands?
This activity was initiated by Tiny who began to notice, while playing outside, the little weeds sticking up between the block paving. She then went on to weed many out.
Out on a country walk today with Tiny in the backpack meant she got to be off the beaten track and experience new sights and sounds. We entered an ancient wood abundant with flowers such as the Early Purple Orchid, Viola, Bluebells, Primula, Cowslips, Harts-Tongue Fern and Lesser Meadow rue. We heard Curlews piping, jackdaws cawing, cascades of goldfinch song and the bleating of lambs. Letting Tiny down and out of the backpack meant she could explore new things such as some wee sticks that she found. She looked like a little hunter gatherer trying to start a fire with them. We then walked in our barefeet holding hands for quite a while over stone, moss and grass.
I can completely understand Fern Fever and none had it more than The Victorians. The baroque design on Custard Cream biscuits originating during the Victorian era had the stamp of the fern on them.
Among the bluebells in the woods today ferns were unfurling under the canopy of trees. And it reminded me so much of Tiny's little tight fists when she was born and how too it took time for those little hands to unfurl just like the ferns.
Being a violin player I love that fiddleheads is the name given to the furled fronds of a young fern!
All her senses were being stimulated. Her sense of sight by the dappled light falling though the trees and the magical purpley-blue of the flowers; her sense of smell with the scent of bluebell and wild garlic permeating the air; the breeze, bark and woodland floor stimulating her sense of touch; I was filling her ears with song about the magic of the woods accompanied by birdsong and the call of lambs to their mums and I fed her as I walked.
With the warm weather scent is released from the plants and so I gathered fresh herbs and beeswax for Tiny to explore. I also placed other natural objects among the scented items. I'm not sure if she noticed the beautiful smell of the mint as she pulled the leaves apart from the stem!
What a beautiful time of the year and bluebell woods are a great place for little ones. Purpley - blue so rare a colour to find in nature springs abundantly for a short time in bluebell woods. They are a sign that the wood is ancient.
The scent and colour filled Tiny's senses and she looked in awe at the flowers.
Beauty full.
Dusk is a magical time of the day and often features in Indian and Irish folklore as a time when deities walk or the faery folk get up to mischief. And at dusk the toddler park was empty when all good children should be asleep. But not Tiny! She was enjoying practicing her balancing skills in a metal roundabout!
With Tiny loving climbing I'm always trying to find different structures for her to climb. When descending her little toes reach down to feel and then she spreads her toes and grips with her feet. I do hover in a way that doesn't prevent her independence but I'm ready to catch her, should she fall.
With the warmer weather Tiny has been enjoying walking barefooted in the garden. She walked over the grass, climbed the steps and walked without hesitation across the pebbles. I get the feeling she would enjoy stepping over various textures and will set something up for her over the coming days.
I took Tiny to stay with my friend who is a puppeteer and enjoys making little beasties from scrap materials. Tiny loved getting to know these two little fellas and kept going back to them. The more I observe Tiny in her play the more I am convinced that she isn't as interested in toys as she is in 'everyday' objects. This is why she engaged with these two as they were created from everyday objects. Either that or they were feeding her enticing and mischievous ideas!
We came across this enchanted xylophone outside the youth hostel we were staying at. As a musician I am naturally drawn to sounds and since Tiny has been born I have noticed as e.e cummings the poet expressed it, that 'the ears of my ears awake'. I am more sensitive to sound as I am aware of Tiny's little ears picking up all the various sounds of the day: bird song, pages turning, feet stamping, breathing - and I hear them anew. She enjoyed playing this as the breeze blew around us, sunlight dappled on our skin and the yew tree sheltered us.
i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday; this is the birth
day of life and love and wings and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any-lifted from the no
of all nothing-human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
e e cummings
Tiny is nearly 14 months and is finding her feet. She will walk a few steps before plonking onto her bottom. Coming across this little wheelbarrow in a museum we visited, she was delighted. Holding on it offered her some support so she could walk for much longer!
At 20 months old Tiny is ready to thread these wooden farm pieces onto the thread. She stayed focused and appeared to enjoy threading most o...
