Toddler Group Tuesday - Teddy Bears

At the birthday boy's request, we made teddy bears at toddler group today.

You will need:
- a piece of card (cereal box will do)
- glue
- textured brown collage pieces (felt, fabric, wool. fake fur. scrunched tissue paper)
- white card/paper
- black felt tip
- brown paper/foam
- red/pink felt
- pink paper/foam

First draw a teddy bear shape on your card. You can either do this yourself (large oval for body, smaller circle on top for head, smaller circles for arms and legs, then add half circles for ears) or find one of many templates on the internet.
Cut this out as your base.
Glue you brown textured collage pieces all over your bear.
Cut an oval/circle just the size to fit your bear's head as his muzzle.
Glue the muzzle in place.
Cut two cirlcles from white paper/card and draw a black dot in each for eyes. Glue in place.
Cut a small circle from the pink paper/foam and glue in place for the nose.
Cut a heart from the red/pink felt and glue to your bears chest to how the love :)

You could try different coloured bears, especially if you wanted the children to make a new baby card for someone. You could also add other bear accessories: flowers on their head, ribbon bows at their necks or on their heads, patterned fabric paw pads, jar or honey, a hat.... what else might a bear need?

Two Years Ago Today...

...I was struggling and determined to get my baby boy to make his appearance without the assistance of the over-zealous doctors in attendance. I call it determined, I think the doctors called it 'stubborn'.

But, after 2.5 hours pushing, he arrived, perfectly healthy, weighing in at 9lbs 5.5ozs. He was three days late, and just the most adorable chunky, soft skinned, scrunched faced little person I'd met since his big sister :)

He was never very babyish for very long, but then he did have a bit of a head start with that birth size. He's always been very alert and focused on his surroundings and the people and things in it. He wants to know everything.

1 Week old

1 month old

Now he's two, he's had plenty of time to reveal and develop his wonderful little character. He's a cheeky chappy, pulling smirky little smiles when he knows he's into something he shouldn't be, or if he's trying to wind you around his little finger because he wants something. It's that big cheesy, toothy smile that wrinkles up the corners of his eyes, and the sideways tilt of the head, that sets you off laughing, and then he laughs.

8 weeks old

Fancy Dress Christmas Outing - 9 weeks old

He's still really ticklish, but enjoys being tickled. He'll wriggle and squirm and laugh, and then when you stop he smiles and says 'Agen!'. He likes to be an aeroplane (with adult assistance) and he also likes being tipped upside down. He's a climber and very physical. Jumping, running, scooting, lifting, kicking, throwing. He's also very independent. He does not like help or interference, but just lately, he has learnt some things he does need help with, and he knows to ask for 'help plees', and we know to wait to be asked. Even if he's struggling.

3 Months old

He loves his breakfast. As soon as he's up in the morning, he shouts 'get up, dressed. fecfast.' And he expects you to do just that, in that order. Right now, Mama! So once he's dressed and downstairs all ready, he sits himself at the table ready with a big smile on his face. He loves Weetabix, Rice Crispies, Bran Flakes (!) and Porridge. He also loves toast, fruit and yoghurts. He is not great at eating past breakfast time. We continue to try him with all different foods, and always sit him down for lunch and dinner, and always give him the same as we are having. Lunch is hit or miss, dinner is normally a complete failure. I think by that point in the day, he just feels he has better things to be doing. I don't think it's that he doesn't like any of the foods we put in front of him - he's not really tried them. I'm not too worried though because he does eat some snacks through the day, as well as a good breakfast and some lunch. He also has a vitamin drop supplement once a day and we still give him some toddler follow on milk once a day. He's a healthy weight, has plenty of energy, so I'm sure he'll get there in the end. There'll probably be a day when dinnertime just clicks.

Christening Day - 7 Months old

He still loves dinosaurs (Raaaaaaarrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!), but he also loves Thomas the Tank and other trains (and has recently started playing with his big sisters old wooden train set), he loves animals, especially ones he knows the noises for, and he also likes robots. He's worked out this little arm action that he uses when he's talking about robots - I think he got it from the TV show 'rhyme rocket'. Two other current favourites are 'Scooby Doo' and 'Tom and Jerry'.



8 Months old

 

He really seems keen on his routine. He knows what is supposed to happen and when. Like when he wakes up, he knows that his big sister has to go to school. He knows what happens when we go to toddler group, and he really enjoys it there, and he knows that I call in at the shop on the walk home, so he has a habit of asking for chocolate buttons! He knows what happens once Alexandra gets back from school, and that that must mean Daddy is due home in the next hour or so, so then he likes to keep a look out. Because he seems so focused all the time, he seems to pick associations up well. He can tell when we're on our way to certain places because of the roads we take, he knows his favourite shows should be on at the time I take Alexandra to the school bus and collect her from there in the afternoon, he recognises family and friends cars and tells us. He knows when I get a phonecall at a certain time of day, that it will be his Daddy. I think I'm going to have to watch what I say around this one. He may already be stockpiling ammunition for his angsty teen years...!

10 Months old

He really enjoys dancing but is very specific about his songs. He LOVES the Muppets songs, his favourite being 'Bohemian Rhapsody' because of Animal (who is his favourite Muppet. Actually, Zack reminds me of a more in control Animal :D) and he also likes 'Popcorn' with the chef. He still likes Gummi Bear, and his other new favourite is 'Dominic the Donkey' thanks to Mr Bogert deciding September is the time to start with the Christmas CDs in the car. Zack has also taken up the Small Person's hobby of dancing to the end credits of TV shows and movies, so now we have two nutty children breaking out some weirdy dance moves in the living room every time a program finishes! They totally try to out-do one another.

11 Months Old

His sister is still very protective of him, and tries to help him with things, and show him how things are done. Now he's that little bit older and, as I said before, likes to be independent, he doesn't always recieve this assistance in the most friendly of ways. He is going through a bit of a hitting phase. He doesn't hit hard, but obviously, it's unacceptable. The only problem is, we don't seem to be getting very far with putting an end to it. Nothing thus far has done the trick. So, he can on occasion have a little bit of a temper. His frowny face is quite adorable though. I'm less fond of the 'NO! I wont!' or 'NO! I don't!' or his other favourite 'Can't hearyu!'.

1st Birthday

Christmas 2011

He gets far more attached to his toys and belongings than the Small Person ever did, and he seems to sit quietly playing out little scenes with some of them (like his animals) which is something we also can't recall the Small Person really doing much of. It's so interesting how they differ. He was not very interested in sitting down with a storybook or sitting down to draw or carft (again, unlike the Small Person who loved both from a very early age), but just recently, he seems to be taking a bit more of an interest. Just the other day, I left him playing trains in the living room while I went to collect something from upstairs (our house is tiny and the stairs are in the living room, so I could hear everything). It went very quiet. "Zack? What are you doing?" his reply: "I sitting. Reading." and I came down the stairs to see he'd found two of his books out, sat himself on the sofa and was intently looking through the pages with a little concentration frown on his face. Very sweet, he looked like a tiny grown up :) He also often gets his crayons out on his own and takes them to the little table and sits down to work up a couple of fridge worthy masterpieces.

15 Months old - smoosh face!

16 Months old

17 Months old

I just can't believe how quickly two years seems to have passed, and how much he's grown in size and personality. The time really has passed quicker with the Smaller Person than it did with the Small Person, I think mostly due to us all being so much busier.

19 Months old

I love this little guy - he makes me smile every day :)

20 Months old

21 Months old

Off to the Theatre

Just popping in to let you all know, Mr Bogert and I are off to see the Agatha Christie play showing at the Belgrade. I LOVE Agatha Christie, and this will be the 4th year Mr Bogert has taken me to see the Agatha Christie touring production at the Belgrade. This year I am even more excited: it's Murder on the Nile! Yay!

 

So, we're going to have a fantastic night, Mr Bogert is going to buy me an ice cream, there may even be an alcoholic drink in there somewhere, and I hope you're all suitably jealous ;D

Heads up - tomorrow is the Smaller Person's 2nd birthday! Eeek! How did two years fly by that quickly?

Harvest Festival

This evening was harvest festival at our village church. I always enjoy evening services more than daytime, I think it's the atmosphere. It's the same when they hold the carol service, but then what's not to love about anything festive and Christmas feeling? (and we all chat with mince pies and mulled wine afterwards!) Unfortunately, I couldn't go because I have this awful EMA (end of module assessment) to write for my linguistics course on 'attitudes and values to English language'. Yay.

The Sunday school children were asked to create an animal/creature/person out of vegetables for their display. It's a similar idea to what the Small Person did for her school fair, back before the summer holiday, when she created a likeness of the Queen, for the Jubilee. This time it's a bunny. I pushed (hammered in some places!) sticks in for her, and she positioned her bits and pieces.

What do you think? Is it a vegetable masterpiece? The body is a squash, The ears are baby corn, the cheeks are button mushrooms, the nose and eyes are raisins,

the feet are made of a halved shallot (which I chopped for her),

the arms are satsuma segments, and his tail is a flower of broccoli.

The whole thing is put together with cocktail sticks (Did you know it's really tough to push cocktail sticks into squash without them snapping?!) and he's holding a baby carrot in case he gets hungry.

Because of the shape of the squash, he has a lovely little sideways tilt, almost like he's tilting his head on to the side to look at you. I think it gives him character. My nan thinks it makes him look like he's had one too many! :D

The Small Person was given a chocolate bar for her efforts, so was very pleased. Less pleased was Mr Bogert who said that both of the Small People had not been on their best behaviour. So she hasn't been allowed to eat her chocolate bar.

Absent from the service was the Sunday school teacher, Jeanne, who is unwell and in hospital. We're really wishing her a speedy recovery. The Small Person made her a card which one of our neighbours is going to pass along.

Crochet WIP

I started this just because I wanted to work with the chunky yarn I had left over from the mini monsters I made for the Smaller Person. Now, I know I've said before that I'm not a fan of working rib in crochet, I didn't say I wasn't a fan of the effect it creates though, so rib it is.

It didn't begin in rib though. First it began life as a chunky fan pattern, then that was undone because I was not loving it. It's next incarnation was rib, but on a much larger scale, which I decided would swallow up and eat the intended victim recipient, so that was all undone too.

Now I'm happy, it sits here waiting for me to buy it another ball of yarn to complete it. I might be happy, but its not. It doesn't like sitting here in uncertainty, incomplete. I think it fears I may unravel it again...

Another Completed Baby Blanket

This one is all ready, waaaaaaaay ahead of the sweet baby girl who it is destined for. That means there is no embroidered label to show off yet because the name, date and weight have yet to reveal themselves :)

It's made from the same Cygnet Silkaress as the other two recently completed blankets. I absolutely love this yarn! So nice to work with.

The main body of the blanket is simple treble worked with a 3.5mm hook. The edging is one row of double crochet in the main colour, two rows of double crochet in the pink accent, then another row of double crochet in the main colour again. If I were to use this particular edging again, I would do another row or two of double crochet before moving onto the little triangular peaks.

These peaks (I'm sure there is a very proper name, but as I have no idea what that is, peaks suits me just fine) are formed by working *three treble crochet into one stitch, chain three, three more treble crochet into the same stitch, miss the next stitch, slip stitch the next two stitches, miss the next stitch, then start again from*.

I'll post once the label is added and the finished result is off to its new home.

Toddler Group Tuesday - Tube Owls

I remember making a version of this owl when I was just a Small Person, and I've seen a few other variations floating around the web. Here's our version we made with the toddlers at today's session.

 

To make your own tube owl you will need:

- a cardboard tube (we have used cut down kitchen roll middles)
- glue
- white paper or card
- at least 2 different shades of brown paper or card (you could even use fabric, felt or other flexible materials)
- orange craft foam (you could also use paper/card/felt)
- some yellow craft foam (again, paper card or felt would also work)
- a black felt tip pen or marker

First of all you need to make your owl shape. To do this you fold one half of the top down and ease into the curve shape you see here, then you fold the second top half over the top. This is similar to a pillow box opening. We did this for the children so that they were ready to go (don't forget we're working in a short time span with children aged 0-5).

Next we glued a strip of brown paper over the bottom half of the tube (opposite end to the shaped fold). This seperates the body and the head into two different colours.

Back view with paper strip and 'feathers' on show.

We cut feather shapes with flat ends (you can see clearly in the photograph) from the different brown papers. We glued them at different levels all over the body section.

We cut two curved edged pieces (similar to the feather pieces, but rounder and smaller) from the yellow craft foam and glued them to the underside of the bottom of the owl. These are the owls feet.

Next we cut two circles from the white card/paper, roughly around the size of a 10p. We used the black marker to make a big round pupil in the centre of each circle to form the big eyes. We glued these in place close to the top of the head section.

We cut a small triangle from orange craft foam and glue this in place under the eyes to form the beak.

All finished!

We could have attached string or ribbon at the point where we were creating the folds at the beginning, and then you would be able to hang them up. Mr Bogert has already requested that we make some for the christmas tree this year, so I'll be sure to post a Christmas version closer to the festive season.

You could create different variations with different colour papers. If you have time, look up some different varieties of owl and look at the colours of their feathers. A snowy owl for example could be made with different shades of white paper, and mabe even some feathers cut from old printed letters. You could even add a dusting of glitter for a bit of snow or frost. Winter isn't that far away.

A couple of suggestions for halloween craft along similar lines and using the same folded tube shape: to create a vampire bat, use black papers, cut bat shaped wings and glue to the back. You could use googly eyes or the same eyes as the owl, and instead of a triangle for an orange beak, cut two white triangles for fangs! Alternatively, use all red, orange and yellows. Use yellow for the eyes, and white triangles for fangs. Cut the same bat shaped wings, but from red or orange and glue them to the back of your tube. Use foam or card to cut a long spear headed tail shape, and finish with a sprinkling of gold or red glitter - you've just created a fire imp!

Happy crafting :)