Tag Archives: imaginative play

Birthday presents for a three year old

08 Monday Jul 2013

Posted by in Baby and toddler products

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Birthday presents

My baby girl turned three years old a couple of weeks ago. While she ripped the wrapping off a multitude of presents, I sat watching in a dewy-eyed haze of “I can’t believe my tiny newborn is so big” disbelief.

I’m always really aware that kids’ birthdays can become a bit hectic with presents, like at Christmas. So while I wanted her to have stuff to open, I also wanted her to really enjoy each gift, rather than scrambling from one present to the next, to the next, in a frenzy of crazed unwrapping. Continue reading »

The world of a toddler – strictly VIP

06 Wednesday Mar 2013

Posted by in Play

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She travels to places I can’t see, whispering hushed words of reassurance to her dolls and teddies, her “friends” who she believes speak back to her.

At night, I hear her conversing with John Jelly Moo, the other friend I can’t hear. He lives by her side, although sometimes he’s not there. He’s real in her mind. She can see him.

Outside, she talks to the birds. Shouting or laughing, stretching her arms wide as she tries to reach up to the sky. Frustrated, she bends down to the earth, searching for worms she can whisper to. Whispering is her new favourite thing.

When the rain whips at the windows like angry tentacles, she retreats into an indoor world of supermarkets and baking, houses and boats. It’s a world I’m sometimes given restricted access to, but only when she needs a customer to visit the shop. Continue reading »

Fancy a cuppa?

17 Wednesday Oct 2012

Posted by in Play

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Review

For all her tantrums and diva strops, my daughter is at a lovely age right now.

Every day I can see new cogs in her brain whirring into action, as she shows me she’s remembering stuff – like numbers, shapes, colours and letters – and going through ideas in her own little head.

My favourite part of this phase is watching her imagination develop and unfurl in front of me.

She talks to everything – dolls, teddies, a pebble on the ground – as if it’s her best friend. I find the responses she gives for these inanimate objects fascinating. After asking her toy tiger if he’d like some “bing bangs” (bangles, to those in the know), she makes him reply, “Yes please. Like bing bangs. Pretty on me. ROAR!” Continue reading »

How to bake without baking

28 Monday May 2012

Posted by in Play

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I won’t lie to you. I’m not a particularly “bakey mum”. I only trundle out the flour and mixing bowls once every few weeks, when my 23 month old daughter is particularly grumpy and it takes the promise of baking some cakes to calm her.

So the cute kids bakeware items sent to me by Dunelm Mill have remained untouched until today.

And, the thing is, it’s too hot to use them for what they are designed for. At least, it was today. Who wants to be stuck in a boiling kitchen when it’s shady and cool in the garden? Continue reading »