If you're hungry you'll eat a fruit!

Nemo and Pebble are permenantly going through various phases. One of Nemo's current 'things' is to say "I'm hungry" every two minutes throughout the day. I believe this came about from a film he is currently obsessed with; the old school Disney 101 Dalmatians film. Nemo requests this film every day. On it there is a puppy called Rolly who frequently states "I'm hungry Mother". The obsession with the film and the obsession with saying "I'm hungry" seemed to come hand in hand. 

Usually if Nemo requests food between meals I will offer him a selection of fruit or vegetable, if he doesn't want it I find myself saying "if you are hungry you would eat a fruit" or "you can't be that hungry if you don't want to eat ......" This is one of the many things I find myself saying from my own childhood. It's funny how you are saying something seemingly randomly and realise that you are just becoming your parents! 

Anyway me and hubby have been trying to find new ways of entertaining Nemo. He's desperate to go to nursery I think but his free place doesn't start until September. We go out every day but now that doesn't seem to be enough. In the late afternoon he will end up saying "go to soft play/ toddler group now?" Nemo seems to have endless energy and seems bored by his toys.

We decided to put into storage some toys which are unused and for younger children and to get Nemo and Pebble a play kitchen. Funnily enough on the same afternoon we decided to get a play kitchen one turned up on a local selling site. It's a nice posh one but being second hand (and a bit stingy with money!) we didn't pay a posh price for it! 

So then we needed some play food, naturally I decided to crochet it :) so off to Pinterest I went and found free patterns for all this food:

Cupcake

http://helloyellowyarn.com/2015/01/15/crocheted-cupcake-free-pattern/

Bacon

http://www.garnstudio.com/pattern.php?id=6182&cid=17

Pancake 

(Ever since my Mum made pancakes with Nemo whenever Nemo goes to the kitchen with my he says "make pancakes?")

http://amigurumifood.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/pancakes-amigurumi-free-pattern.html?crlt.pid=camp.jrXb7Y0VB4px&m=1

Egg

http://craftbits.com/project/egg-wrist-cuffs/

Apple

http://www.planetjune.com/blog/free-crochet-patterns/amigurumi-apples/

Lemon

http://amigurumifood.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/lemon-cute-amigurumi-free-pattern.html?m=1

Strawberry (excuse the blog name!) 

http://moistcrochetedvagina.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/strawberry.html?m=1

Pizza

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/pizza-2

Watermelon

http://kaylmnop.blogspot.co.uk/2008/08/watermelon-slice.html?m=1

Pear

http://www.garnstudio.com/pattern.php?id=5889&cid=19

Chicken drumstick

http://www.hookyarnandneedles.com/oldstuff/node/153

Bread 

Cheese 

Now I'm particularly proud of my bread and cheese as I couldn't find a free pattern but saw a couple of examples and worked out a pattern for myself! I'll write out the patterns in another blog. 

Here are all my crochet goods in crochet baskets! 

I'm always pleased to make use of leftover wool - I didn't need to spend any money to make the food! 

I'm currently making some grapes and hubby wants me to make a banana so I don't think I'm finished quite yet! 

Easter crafting

Easter ended up being a good excuse for making another attic24 wreath. I enjoyed doing the daffodils. (Her blog on it is here 
http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/2013/03/easter-wreath-ta-dah.html ) 

So that's my Easter/ spring wreath. And this is the summer one I made for my parents and my Christmas one for comparison... 

I guess the differences are huge subtle but I tried I use more springy (!?!) colours :) 

My other Easter craft was an Easter branch hanging thing! I've been crocheting some Easter eggs ( free pattern here:
http://www.petalstopicots.com/2012/03/crocheted-easter-eggs-pattern/)

2 cute bunnies

I adapted a free pattern for an egg cosy by adding and bottom to it and stuffing it :)
( http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/90230AD.html?iP=1&p=2&ss= ) 

4 little chicks for me, hubby and the kids, I added our first initials on their tummies! 
(Thanks again attic24 for the free pattern 
http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/mini-chicklet.html ) 

These two hanging birds 

( http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/birdie-decoration.html )

I got some willow from lidl for £2.50 and some eggs and wooden decorations and put it all together to make this

The weather appears to have miraculously turned sunny after what feels like 3 months of rain. I was so excited to hang my washing outside and it put me in the mood to finish my wreath and branch thing, I love an excuse to add more colour and personality to the house. 

I have some Easter baking and crafts for the kids to do this week as we will see how that goes! I figure proper parents do those type of things right? :) 

P.S having lost this blog once and having rewritten it I forgot to say that the idea for the branch thing from my mum! Sorry for the plagiarism!

Potty training fails..

Little Nemo is now just over 2 and a half. He's been aware about going to the toilet for some time but has said that he wants to use his nappy. Anyway I decided after worrying that Nemo may go to high school with nappies on and talking with some friends to just try and encourage Nemo to use the potty this weekend by taking off his nappy and putting on pants. 

I went off to h+m to try and find some star war pants to find that they didn't have any in his size. Instead went home with pants with police cars and fire engines and some dinosaur pants. 

These are his amazing pants 

So we started on Friday

Nemo was very happy to remove his nappy in favour of the new exciting pants. 

He enthusiastically decorated his potty with stickers.

He was able to answer that wees and poos go in the potty or toilet not the pants.

He also knew that a wee or poo in the toilet or potty would be rewarded with a sticker and chocolate!

(He will do anything around the house for a sticker on his chart!)

After I his pants were on he chose to sit on the toilet and read some books.... Looking promising

Then he got off the look after 10 minutes or so and shortly after wet himself... 

Oh dear! 

I had nagging feeling that the weekend is going to consist of Nemo wetting himself several times and day and giving up at the end having achieved no progress!

I was right....

It was actually quite the achievement that Nemo didn't do a wee or poo on the potty given how much time he spent on there. After more accidents than I can remember and after 48 hours without a poo we decided to call it a day! 

Nemo is clearly not ready and I'm going to clock this up to a parenting learning experience!

Anyway in other news Pebble is gaining lots of confidence standing independently and always looks super impressed with herself when she does it! 

Nemo is becoming quite the talker and keeps telling me "don't worry Mummy!" 

Our aquarium yearly pass ran out so this year we got an @Bristol one (interactive science museum). The kids particularly enjoy this section where they have made it into a builders yard with rubber bricks, wheelbarrows, high vis jackets helmets and even scaffolding! 

We've already been twice in a week -partly due to my insistence that we get value for money (we went to the aquarium a ridiculous amount of times last year!)

Anyway baby crying-bye!

The force has descended on our household

Sorry it's been a little while. The children do a really good job at keeping my busy. 

For a while now Nemo has been getting into Star Wars. It started with a cheep tescos t shirt which had cartoon Storm Troopers and Darth Vader on. (You can see it here.) 

One day me and Hubby were watching the old Star Wars films on our ipad and Nemo comes over and looks- and goes "Darth Vader!" Nemo loves the space ships and loved imitating the Darth Vader noise. So since that point he likes me to show YouTube clips of Darth Vader. (I've found a clip of him talking to Luke with no violence in!) 

Realising that Darth Vader is a baddy I've tried showing him yoda hoping he might prefer him but no definately a Vader boy! With the new star war films there is a plethora of star war children's clothing of which Nemo loves (especially his star war pyjamas!)

(Here is Nemo with a storm trooper t-shirt and his rocket leggings!)

So the other day I was walking past build-a-bear and saw this Star Wars teddy bears including a storm trooper, Star Wars, and Chewbacca. Me and hubby out of complete softness decided to get Nemo a Darth Vader teddy. 

We initially thought we might get it for his birthday but it not being until the summer me and Hubby couldn't wait! I remember as a child going to a toy shop with my little brother and my Dad and my Dad out of the blue buying us a toy each. I got a teddy rabbit which went in a hammock. It was so unexpected and I know I really treasured it! As a parent giving my child a treat every now and then is probably at least just as exciting for me as it is for my child! 

I have to say the designers of this teddy did an impressively good job at somehow making Darth Vader look cute. It even has a button on his hand which makes the classic Darth Vader noise! 

Nemo loves his Vader teddy. He hasn't let it out of his sight since getting it. What I hadn't anticipated is the interesting phrases I heard us saying whilst were walking around. For example:

-Me: "Do you want to hold Darth Vader or put him in the pram?"

-Nemo: "Oh no! Darth Vader fell over" 

-Hubby: "Be nice to Darth Vader please" and also "Be nice to Darth Vader otherwise he will use the force" 

-Me: "Why don't you take Darth Vader a walk in the pram?" 

-Nemo: "Darth Vader is riding on Poppy!" 

-Nemo: "Darth Vader tired!"

-Nemo: "Darth Vader loves the tea!"

Getting the teddy seems to have been good timing in helping cheer Nemo up as we suddenly realised today that he had developed had a massive rash across the entirety of his back, torso and a bit on his arms and legs. We took him to the pharmasist who thought It may be an alergic reaction. As a result we have now discovered the joys of piriton. This was Nemo a little while after the pririton...

He went on to have a lovely nap in his bed. Thankfully the piriton seems to be helping and fingers crossed I'm hoping there will be no need to take him to the out of hours! (Why oh why is it that you usually end up having to take your children to the doctors on an evening on a weekend!?!)

Thankfully we are at an age where we can get something for Nemo without having to worry about getting something for Pebble too but I know these times will be short lived! Pebble for now seems pretty content with constant cuddles and nursing! 

Anyway I've been up to quite a lot recently so will probably write another blog about all that! 

Here is a adorable photo of Nemo and Pebble (and very in theme Nemo is of course wearing a Star Wars t-shirt!)