Messy Play - Making Marks!

I can't believe how up and down the weather has been lately; how can this be possible as we are entering into June tomorrow! This week has gone by so incredibly fast, I think because hubbie has been away I have been so busy doing everything on my own; I can't wait for the weekend so I can catch up on some rest!

We haven't had the paint and tuff tray out for a couple of days so decided today was the day to use it and get messy. Ruby and I spent some time over lunch trying to decide what to do; then I remembered that the lovely Jennie from edspire had set a theme for this weeks Messy Play for Matilda Mae. The theme is 'making marks'. There were several things that we could have done to suit this theme, but Ruby decided to go with making marks with her hands and feet!

As a family we owe Jennie a massive thank you, as without her inspiration, this blog would have never have been created, and Ruby and Lottie would not be having as much fun as they are now. On a personal note, I feel I have become a better mother to the girls as I now research and plan our days to make them more fun rather than just putting on a DVD or Cbeebies.

Every time I mention the tuff tray to Ruby, she gets very excited, and today was no exception! She jumped up and down and couldn't wait to get her socks off! Lottie seemed very excited too as she kept crawling into the tray!

Lottie wanted to join in!

Ruby chose which colour paints and paper she wanted; initially I started to paint her feet which she found very amusing, she couldn't stop laughing as she said it was tickling her!

After a while Ruby felt confident painting her own hands and feet and now I don't worry too much about the mess, but not too long ago I would be panicking straight away!

Gaining in confidence and painting her own hand

After Ruby had finished painting, we let the paint dry before we cut around the hand and foot prints and arranged them into the shape of a flower before glueing them onto the card to create a lovely picture.

All cut out!

I think it's safe to say Ruby thoroughly enjoyed painting her feet and hands and the end result was a lot better than I had imagined; Ruby has definitely left foot and hand print marks to form this picture that now has pride of place on the wall.

 

The finished master piece! 

Motherly Instinct and Bath Time with a Twist!

When I became a mother for the first time to Ruby everything came as a bit of shock, it all felt very alien and new. Ruby would cry for something and I would have no idea why; I used to ring my mum and get her advice and wisdom, without her I don't know what I would have done. However I can now say that I am in tune to my mummy instinct and generally know what the girls want or if not I can make a very good guess!

There have been numerous times where I have had to trust my mummy instinct, today was an example of this; for the last few nights Lottie been really struggling to settle and something just didn't seem right; I'd try everything to help her sleep but nothing was working, so off to the doctors we went and my baby girl has been diagnosed as having tonsillitis. It's absolutely heart wrenching when little ones are poorly and as a mother I just want to make her better but sometimes there is not a lot that can be done other than lots of comfort cuddles.

Poorly Lottie

With Lottie feeling poorly and me feeling still a little off, we have had a day of no real structure; we had a quiet day playing with the Duplo and reading some books.

As bedtime drew in I started to feel a bit better and decided to have a go at doing something new for bath time - shaving foam paint! (Inspired by another blogger)

All I did was place some shaving foam into a big bowl, added a drop of food colouring, mixed it all together and that's it!

At first Ruby was a bit shocked that we were doing painting in the bath and wasn't sure if I was being serious. She started off with a paint brush and I wrote her name on the tiles; she told me that was her name and then she managed to spell it out aloud.

Ruby was happy to draw on the tiles and then I suggested that she might like to finger paint, she wasn't very sure but after some encouragement and mummy showing her it was OK, she loved it!

I think Ruby could have stayed in the bath for hours if I had let her!

We will definitely be doing this again, Ruby enjoyed herself and it was so easy to clean up too! Lottie also enjoyed her bath and was able to give me a huge smile!