There’s no doubt about it, life changes a whole lot the second you become a mother. Your days are suddenly split into four hourly chunks of changing dirty nappies, feeding the baby and tiptoeing around the house in the hope that they’ll nap for just […]
I am sitting here in a little bit of disbelief that eight days have already passed by since our little Florence made her entrance in to the world. In the same breath, it really does feel like she’s been a part of our family forever. […]
As a busy Mum I am always so thankful when I discover a product that makes the every day tasks we face as easy as possible so that I can make the most of my time with my baby. Our Shnuggle baby bath is one […]
We have reached that stage, with Florence about to turn one, when the conversation has started to include ‘the next baby’ and we’ve had a few questions lately as to whether or not we will be having another little one any time soon. I know […]
If there’s one thing that comes with babies it’s mess. Especially once weaning begins! Over the last few months we have been testing out a number of products designed to make messy meal times (and messy play times) a little easier to clean up! Two […]
With so many lovely responses to my recent Simple Baby Play posts, I thought I would finally get around to sharing with you a list of items I class as baby play essentials. These are all things that I have built up over time and most of them are things you will more than likely have in your house already, and the rest I either picked up at Wilko, Tiger, The Works or Poundland. They are my four go to store for picking up little bits for play which don’t cost a bomb. When it comes to storing everything, we have a little plastic drawer unit in our conservatory where most of it lives, but you could use a large plastic box, a spare cupboard or drawer. One thing to bare in mind is, as some of the items are quite small, I keep the contents out of reach of Florence so for safety reasons, she can’t just help herself to these things.
Kitchen Utensils (wooden spoons, spatulas, whisk, measuring spoons etc)
Collander
Cookie Cutters
Plastic Cups – Stacking or otherwise
Brushes (Hair, nail, pastry, make up)
Rubber ducks
Miniature Vehicles
Miniature Figures
Sponges
PomPoms
Waterbeads
Feathers
Googly Eyes
Pipecleaners
Straws – Plastic or paper
Silk Scarves
Balls of all sizes & types
Shower Gels
Baby Oil
Empty plastic bottles
Tuff Spot
Plastic Storage Tubs
Marshmallows
Cereals
Popcorn
Zip Lock Bags
Musical Instruments (You could of course use Pots, Pans & home made shakers too!)
Textured Sticky Back Plastic
Fabric & Ribbon Scraps
Pegs
Foil Blanket
Ice Cube Trays
Baby Safe Mirrors
Bubbles
Kitchen Roll Tubes
Board Books (See our favourite baby board books here.)
I hope you’ve found this little list of baby play essentials useful. If you’re looking for some ways you could use them within your play, you can check out my baby play posts here.
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So here we are in May. Where on earth has the last year gone? I remember this time last year so clearly – I had just begun maternity leave and we were making the final preparations for Florence’s arrival. Now, in just 3 weeks, our […]
I’ve had so many lovely messages about my last baby play post that I thought I’d share another five simple baby play ideas with you guys. What’s in the bag? Whenever my Mum comes to visit, the first thing Florence does is empty her handbag […]
Since having Florence, I have become passionate about play. I have loved seeing how, even from an early age, Florence has learned new skills and understandings through playing and today I wanted to share with you 5 simple baby play activities that you can do with your little one without needing anything you don’t probably already have at home.
Florence loves balls! We have a basket of balls of all different types and sizes and it’s the first thing I grab when we need a quick play activity. We practice rolling them, throwing them, bouncing them, putting them in and out of the basket and sometimes even the dog joins in for a little game of fetch! Ball games are a brilliant introduction to physical play and a great way to develop hand eye coordination and gross motor skills.
Babies love making noise and this super simple baby play is always a winner in our house. Plus it’s free as everyone has at least one saucepan and a wooden spoon in their kitchen and honestly, that is all you need! You can add a few more pots or pans or musical instruments in to the mix if you want to. 
This is hands down one of the best buyers of time for when you just need to get stuff done – ie laundry! I actually happened upon it by accident, I popped Florence down in the laundry basket for a quick second and she busied herself with the pegs for ages! Taking them in and out of the beg basket, clipping them on to the side, putting them all back in.
All you need for this is a colander and a pack of pipe cleaners or straws. Poke the pipe cleaners through the holes of the upside down colander and encourage your baby to pull them out and poke them back in again. Simple as that and it keeps Florrie’s little fingers busy for a while. I often name the colors of the pipe cleaners as she picks one up.
Now that the weather is showing signs of improving we are getting out into the garden a lot more. Florence loves being outside and we are currently in the middle of making our garden a lovely little toddler friendly play space. Simply having free roam to explore and take in everything the great outdoors has to offer is perhaps the simplest sensory play a little one could need. Florence likes tickling the flowers and picking up the stones & sticks to examine.
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Today, Florence turned 11 months and I am finding it quite hard to believe just how close we are to Florence turning one! We are busy making plans to celebrate a year of Florence Ivy in style and today has been all about searching out […]
If there’s one thing I’ve learned about meal times with a little one it’s that there is no chance any of you are getting out clean! I cannot tell you how many of her outfits now don a lovely orange stain so we now often […]
