It’s true….

Bugs has turned two!! There are days I wonder where all that time has gone and of course, days when I wish time would pass quicker. But for today, I did really wish that time would stand still for a moment!

We spent our special day at one of Bugs’s favourite playgrounds. The Dude took time off work and joined as well which made it extra special!

After an action packed morning, it was home to a little celebration with home made cake!

I’m still terrible at icing a cake but this turned out quite ok! But as they say, the proof in the pudding is in the taste and this cake got the two mini thumbs up from the little girl in the house!

The Dude and I did spend a bit of time reminiscing about the good old days. It does feel a bit nostalgic when you look back at pictures and realise how much Bugs has grown and change.

But it’s part of life I guess and I’m thankful that she’s developing well and I’ve been able to be a part of this amazing journey!

I’ll end off now with this picture of precious Bugs that was taken during Easter two years ago. It’s one of my favourites and I hope you enjoy it too!

A new lesson

Parenthood teaches you a lot of things…..

Like how the rules that you grew up thinking were important are actually not….

Like how sometimes just letting go and relishing in the moment can make life a lot more happier than it usually is…

Especially when there’s water play involved!

The old me would have pulled Bugs away from the water feature, fearing that she might catch a chill (something which I’d grown up listening to) or dreading the inconvenience of needing to change a feisty toddler out of wet and into dry clothes.

But hey, summer is officially over, there aren’t many hot beautiful days left so why not enjoy it while we still can!

I’m hoping that i can keep up my new live in the moment mantra as much as possible! There’s lots more of life to enjoy this way! We are off now to soak up more of the sun and snack on new season mandarins! See you soon!

Where the pig and the horse play

I’ve been on the lookout recently for possible items to add into a discovery box for Bugs recently ever since we had that first experience a week or so ago. A recent trip to the toy store and the craft shop yielded quite a few interesting items.

Here’s the latest discovery box that I put together : a little farm scene with Mollie the pig digging her snout in some mixed spice scented play dough and surrounded by an assortment of craft items! I was inspired by the pig that we saw at the animal farm who happened to be digging around the soil with, you guessed it, his snout!

Bugs was suitably impressed with this mini scene! Here she is admiring the feathers…

The hairy pompoms were a real hit…

The little fingers spent some time prodding the play dough and enjoying its squishy texture ….

All well and good but she missed Mollie the pig! Wasn’t keen in touching Mollie at all!

So today, I built another similar scene, this time featuring Harry the horse!

This time, success! The horse was the very first thing she spotted and picked up from the box!

I’m hooked on creating these mini discovery box scenes now, especially seeing how much Bugs enjoys poking and exploring the stuff, even if it’s only for a short while! Hmmmm I wonder what I can create next? Watch this space!

The best kind of toy

Sometimes the best fun can be found in the simplest things. Like a bowl of uncooked rice for example!

See how much fun Bugs had playing with the rice grains this evening! There was lots of throwing in the air….

And lots of pauses to take a closer look at a special grain or two!

Whatever the case, this simple toy kept her occupied for a good fifteen minutes, which is really no mean feat these days!

If only the cleaning up could be half as fun!

It’s a short and sweet one today, have a nice day everyone!

Discovery time

Perhaps the title of today’s post should be renamed as “How I managed to occupy Bugs for five minutes or so”. But that’s kind of a mouthful for a title, don’t you think ?

We had a bit of time this morning before heading out for the day. Bugs was clearly in the need for some entertaining and it was too early/ convenient to just flick on the telly. So I decided to build her a discovery box.

“What’s that?” you say. Well in a nutshell it’s a box (or in our case plastic container) where you fill it with a variety of objects for the little one to explore with you interfering as little as possible. I’d picked up the idea from reading a post from one of our playgroup moms whose also a keen blogger herself (Check out her fabulous blog here)!

So back to my discovery box, I scrambled this one in five minutes – some crinkled aluminium foil and an assortment of objects laying around the house. It occupied Bugs for two minutes. Yes you read it right – two minutes.

So I decided to try again -build a more interesting box, maybe this time it will have more staying power? My second discovery box included some pasta shapes, Pom Poms, foam shapes and of course, yarn.

This time, Bugs seemed a bit more interested in exploring the contents of the box…

She took her time to study the objects, including picking up the little pasta shapes that were right at the bottom…

And handing a few shapes to me to have a closer look too.

This second box kept her occupied for a good ten minutes before something else caught her eye.

Hmmmm I think I’m getting the hang of this discovery box thing , just need to brainstorm some more items that might interest Bugs. Maybe a trip to the craft store might be needed in the near future?

Better late than never

“You’ll never guess what just happened!” I whispered into the phone on a call to The Dude as Bugs and I made our way home from playgroup.

“What? Tell me, don’t keep me in suspense!” The Dude replied.

“Bugs fell asleep all by herself in the pram on the way back!” I shrieked as calmly as I could.

There was a pause on the other end and then the reply “No way! You’re kidding right?”.

“Way! She’s fast asleep in the pram now! Pop down from work for a moment and take a look!”

“Woah! She is faaaaast asleep! Amazing!” The Dude muttered once he took a look at Bugs in the pram.

“Remember when she was a little baby and how she used to wail the house down whenever we put her in the pram and pushed her around to get her to sleep?” I gently nudged him, “And how she never ever fell asleep in the pram despite what we did?”

“Yeap you don’t forget something like that.”The Dude replied.

“19 months it took us, to reach this stage.” I mused.

“Well better late than never, yeah? I think this warrants a celebratory lunch! Let’s do takeaway!”

“I agree! Lemongrass fried noodles with fried veggie spring rolls for me please!”

“How many spring rolls would you like?” The Dude queried.

I pondered for a brief moment and replied “Two big ones please! I think the occasion calls for a bit of indulgence!”

“Do you want a soft drink or dessert with that?”

“No, let’s save that for when she falls asleep by herself in the car! You never know, it could happen in the very near future!”

Sunday cheekiness

OhboyOhboy it’s Sunday! My most favourite day of the week! We decided to take the little one somewhere special this morning …….

To the one of a kind, very kid friendly Cheeky Chinos cafe!

I’d heard lots of great reviews about the place from some of the moms at playgroup and did recall Godmom recommending this place recently too. Since Bugs was up extra early this morning, visiting the cafe seemed like a real good idea to burn off the extra energy that she had.

What’s so special about this cafe is that they have an awesome facilitated play area that’s been specially designed by a child psychologist. The concept is simple – you pay a fee and kiddo goes into the play area for a bit of a play for half an hour (or more if you’re planning to have a big meal) while you sit in the cafe area and sip your latte/ eat some cake/ munch on a baguette.

The Dude and I weren’t too confident leaving Bugs all by herself in the play area (even though the cafe tables were less than ten steps away and she could see us and there was someone supervising the kids). So I hung around the play area while The Dude had some “Me” time with a coffee and a piece of cake.

I was half expecting Bugs to want to hang around me when we entered the play area, given it was a new unfamiliar place. But no, Bugs had other plans. She struggled to break free from my arms the moment she laid eyes on the space and spent her time……

Crawling into tunnels…

Crawling out of tunnels….

Checking out the Velcro shapes in the wall…

Exploring the sensory tubes filled with various objects….

And basically taking a closer look at everything in sight!

Bugs was having so much fun in the play area, The Dude even managed to finish his coffee and cake and catch up on the news of the day!

It goes without saying that all that play meant that we had to stop for a morning snack before heading off.

Another place to add to my to visit list! We’ll definitely be back for more cheeky adventures!

Bottoms up!

I’ve been having a bit of a blogging break recently as you might have noticed – three whole days since the last post. That may seem like an eternity in some contexts, like when you are in labour (a minute feels like forever in that scenario) or away on a much needed respite from the daily madness. Whatever the case or reason, those three days have given me some time to recharge those little grey cells which are feeling a lot more buzzy than they did before!

Today’s post is kind of a celebratory post. One that concerns this object….

Yeap it’s a plastic cup! One of those that you see selling in the stores at this time of the year (See how the dogs are wearing appropriate headwear for the event). This little cup is really special to us because it’s the very first cup that Bugs picked up and drank from all by herself!

Now if you know us, you probably know about the unique way in which Bugs takes her water – with the help of a spoon. To be more specific, with the help of me or The Dude feeding her water using a spoon.

Like most, we tried to get Bugs onto using a sippy cup but she would have none of that. “Perhaps it’s not the right sippy cup.” we thought so we went on a mini shopping spree and came back with four different types of cups, each with a different pattern or spout. Not one of them worked. Bugs was not keen on using them at all.

“But she needs to have her water!” We cried out. In desperation, the idea is feeding her the water with a spoon was born. We tried it on Bugs and it worked! Finally we had a way to give her some water to drink, albeit it was a unusual and much more physically challenging way (you basically follow the little one around the room with a spoon and mug, very good exercise for the glutes if you are keen to try).

Which was why when Bugs grab the brand new Christmas cup during lunch today and started to put it to her mouth to take a sip, The Dude and I spent the rest of the day with smiles plastered across our faces! Finally the end of the water feeding sessions were in sight! Oh there was of course a lot of fist punching in the air, together with shouts of hooray that took place too when we saw it happen!

Bugs is still in the transition phase now of getting used to drinking water by herself. It will take a little while more but I’m pretty sure she’ll pick it up very soon, like most new skills.

Funny how the simplest things can make your day these days!

Have an awesome day folks!

A hidden secret

Tucked away in a side street off busy Chapel Street…..

Lies a little green space….

With not one, but two playgrounds on site!

We were absolutely thrilled to discover this mini Kid’s utopia on our evening walk today! It’s a pretty popular spot, this huge playground, lots of kids and parents visit this place it seems.

There’s lots to explore, from the usual swings and slides….

To colourful plastic panels, drawbridges and plastic tic tac toe blocks….

A kid could seriously spend a good hour or two playing in this space! You know it’s a hit with the little one when it’s a bit more difficult than usual to convince her to head home for the day!

Another spot to add to our list of places to visit , we’ll be back for sure!

Breakfast all day

Ok so our horse didn’t win the Melbourne Cup this year. But that didn’t mean that we were going to let it drag our spirits down and not enjoy the precious holiday!

It’s been a while since we tried a new recipe. Now that Bugs is a lot older, food choices are more interesting especially since we can feed her what the family is having.

So we got out our beloved baby cookbook and chose a family recipe to cook for dinner today – corn and bacon fritters!

The fritters did look like pancakes as they were cooking in the pan. Not surprising considering they were made out of almost the same stuff as what goes into pancakes.

Served with a side of salad and fruit (for Bugs) makes the meal a little more healthy!

The taste verdict? A winner hands down! Just like a pancake, only savoury and very moreish! This is what Bugs’s plate looked like after dinner….

That’s right! Empty! For the first time in a very long while! Wow I’m seriously impressed with this recipe! Looks like it’ll be a regular feature in the house from now on!

Have a grand day folks!