Travelling On

SuperSecretSquirrel

We had these excellent "drawing pads" for ours when they were little, a big sheet you place on the floor and a "pen" with a sponge tip that you fill with water. The children draw to their hearts content, then you just let the pad dry ready to go again later. I very much appreciated holding off on messy paints until they were older, as did our very light home decor... The magic painting books are still a thing too, and painting the paving stones is a great option on sunny days. Maybe mix some washing up liquid in the water to see if it helps clean off any dried soil or moss while she's at it 😁

Karmacat

Ooh, a sponge-tipped pen would be great 😁  she's already used to holding ordinary-diameter pieces of chalk at nursery, so she could do it, for sure.  The whole idea is to give her something to do outside, as well as playing with a ball .. any recommendations on games and outside activities?  I saw child-size croquet the other day 😃  Sleeping outside, as per modern Scandinavian research and the way things used to be here, is *so* not going to happen 😉

Slow day today, went a walk to the next door village, saw more goslings, that was nice.

Your drawing pads remind me - my dad was a printer, and when we were little, he used to bring home the ends of rolls of paper - yards and yards of it, that was absolutely drawn on on the floor 

Managed some time in the garden finally, I can't let the foxes have complete control of it 🦊🦊 and the Mad Cat came along, begging for some strokes 😺 I suppose he's been avoiding the foxes.  Poor thing!

SuperSecretSquirrel

The pad we had was called an aquadoodle if you're interested in passing it on 🙂

I think at that age simply chasing after a ball is a game in itself. A swing with a baby seat was priceless for us. Other than that a small sun shelter (like an open faced tent) and doing the usual indoor stuff (crayons, tea party, teddies, etc) in that, chasing bubbles, playing in a paddling pool and sandpit, and lunch in the garden were all winners!

Cheery_Daff

Love that the foxes are taking over your garden 🥰🥰 I was pegging the washing out earlier and disturbed the resident owl that lives in one of our trees 🙄 I wish it would learn that I can't even SEE it up there until it wakes up and flies off - it only needs to sit still until I go away again! I suppose an owl doesn't have much of a concept of laundry though 😂

Karmacat

SuperSecretSquirrel said:

The pad we had was called an aquadoodle if you're interested in passing it on 🙂
I'll pass it on to my sister, for sure, thank you  

I think at that age simply chasing after a ball is a game in itself. A swing with a baby seat was priceless for us. Other than that a small sun shelter (like an open faced tent) and doing the usual indoor stuff (crayons, tea party, teddies, etc) in that, chasing bubbles, playing in a paddling pool and sandpit, and lunch in the garden were all winners!

Yes, but my sister's trying to keep her outside as long as possible, and she can't chase a ball for an hour or whatever, not at 18 months.  A swing and paraphenalia ... I'm not sure the DiL is ready for that 👀 I'm staying out of that bit of conversation!  My sister is lobbying for a sandpit, which she had for *her* kids, so I don't know how that's going to go.

Cheery_Daff said:

Love that the foxes are taking over your garden 🥰🥰 I was pegging the washing out earlier and disturbed the resident owl that lives in one of our trees 🙄 I wish it would learn that I can't even SEE it up there until it wakes up and flies off - it only needs to sit still until I go away again! I suppose an owl doesn't have much of a concept of laundry though 😂

I think you're right 😁🦉 but how amazing to have an owl living there!  At the last house I lived at, there was one wonderful day when I was walking through a cul de sac to get to a green space, and a fox was in a garden I was passing.  I froze, completely froze, and the fox stopped running.  When I stayed frozen, he started nosing about the garden again, it was perfect.  

badmemory

Sandpits are great, with the proviso that you are not the one who has to get all the sand off.  Paddling pool but she is too young for more than half a cm of water or they won't be able to blink in case they miss something.  Paddling pool (ready for the future) with lots of that type of toy?

Karmacat

badmemory said:

Sandpits are great, with the proviso that you are not the one who has to get all the sand off.  Paddling pool but she is too young for more than half a cm of water or they won't be able to blink in case they miss something.  Paddling pool (ready for the future) with lots of that type of toy?

I'm not sticking my nose into that conversation, no way no how 😁😎🙃  I always aspired to be cool auntie, and that hasn't changed since I had to "great" to the title 🤣  Seriously, no one is going to take play advice from me.  The most notice taken has been from one of my brother's sons, I told him about how important "peep-oh" was as a game because it aided babies in object constancy - ie even if I can't see you, you're still there, which is genuinely a basic, crucial psychological step.  That's it 🤣

Karmacat

So, this morning!  Hello, prospect of June!  I'm still torn, every other day, by the prospect of moving/not moving, I was so certain yesterday while talking with my sister when we had a day out together.  This morning, I've read a thread on NextDoor, about a barking dog locally, and literally half a dozen people chipped in about different barking dogs.  It's far from certain that a move will solve it.  

Nor the issue of threats, though they were probably the overblown "but I didn't mean it" type thing, I can't be certain.  But who knows who I'd move to?  Moving because of neighbours always seems so dodgy - but anything I'm doing now will help my own standard of living, so I'll stick with it for now.  

So, today:
- washing machine just finished, so I'll peg it out.  Since that will frighten the foxes, I'll also take some time to cut some of the grass.
- glasses are ready, so I want to pick them up tomorrow, which means finding something useful to do in town, if at all possible.  Checking what else I can take to the charity shop, including rags, M&S for leather sliders as seen on their website: the mule-type shoes I wear around the house are literally falling to pieces, and their soles are worn so much they're dangerous.  I'm prepared to go for leather as much as possible, even as a vegetarian, to avoid plastics as much as I can.
- clean the emptyish alcove in the living room: been done once since I've been here, and it could start to be a health hazard quite soon 🙄 also means I'm able to shift the tv console etc to clean behind there when my sister's here next.  

There's a million other things I could do, that would also improve my standard of living, but those are a good start.  When I win the million pound premium bond, of course, all bets are off.

starnac

So I have come in half way through this conversation so please tell me to mind my own business. 

Activities outside for an 18 month old? We had the aquadoodle mentioned above for my kids. It's great fun. As mentioned above they "paint" with water and then you let it dry for them to do it again. If she can hold chalk then letting her loose with some chalk on the patio is a good one. Bit of water to wash it off so barely any cleaning up. 

A mud kitchen is also a good one. If you/your sister doesn't want to build/buy a proper one then just give her some old (plastic) bowls & cups and some old saucepans, a bowl of water and let her create whatever her imagination wants to. She'll get wet but at the end of the day it's just water and she will have a whale of a time. 

I'm not a fan of a sand pit for the reason mentioned above. It gets everywhere and you are forever cleaning it. You have to watch to make sure no cats do their business in it too. 

A paddling pool filled with either water or those ball pool balls is another good one. You can usually find the balls on FB mark3t pl4ce for free or at least cheap. We bought our massive paddling pools in October when the shops are selling them super cheap to make room for Christmas stuff. 

Please feel free to ignore this if I am overstepping. 

Karmacat

Hi starnac, good to see you here and not overstepping at all!  

The sandpit my sister had had a lid that went on tightly, which is probably why rain/ cat pee and cat poo have never been an issue.  She was a stay at home mum when her kids were pre-school, so things weren't as tightly scheduled as they have to be for people with jobs.  Though it may explain why my niece had a fixation with cleaning toes back in the day 🤣 seriously!

A paddling pool might end up being  a good idea, but I doubt it will be this year.  Toddler absolutely loves bathtime, so it might be a case of "duck to water" 🦆 (that doesn't look like a duck!  but they say it is).  

If I manage to get a car and drive it safely ... I could drive over there and visit during my sister's day there.  That would be something!  

Anyway, of my stuff, I pinned the washing out and chopped some grass quickly (about 15 minutes, I'm afraid).  Foxes are both lying out in the sun again 🦊🦊  I needed to sit down after that, tbh, so I just kept on sorting email attachments, I need to reduce the number right down so I can still have options with One Drive (long story, too boring to recount).  Might do a quick walk before I do the charity shop sorting.  Juggling is good!