Finger Painted Easter Cards

I decided a while ago that I wanted to send Emily's Grandparents personalised Easter cards. I searched high and low for ideas (ok, not really, I searched Pinterest) and finally settled on something simple. I mean, let's face it - she's 14 months old, and while I haven't discarded the possibility of her being the next Picasso, I'm not putting my hopes up.

So finger painting it was. Now bear in mind, she'd never encountered paint before. A voice in my head told me I may be being overly optimistic but I was determined to try. I took her out into the garden on a beautiful day, armed with paper, watercolours, a long-sleeved bib, a packet of handwipes and some snacks.





I didn't dilute the paint to keep the colour bright.



The artist contemplates her art and munches on some snacks.

I explained what we were going to do and asked her which colour she wanted to use first. She poked the red. Red it is, then. We used all four colours (the blue somewhat reluctantly) and made some beautiful 14-month old art.



She quickly lost interest (she wanted to eat the paint and when I didn't let her, that was pretty much it) but I had enough for all the egg cut-outs we needed.

The artist seemed very proud of herself...





The paintings were proudly displayed on the fridge to dry.

Later that night, I set to work. I'd dropped by the craft shop the day before and picked up some scrapbooking stickers along with blank cards, and along with a silver pen I'd entirely forgotten I had, I had all the tools I needed for the project.

Many failed egg-shape attempts later, I found a good one online and literally traced it off the screen. I then traced it onto the best bits of finger painting.

Then came the tough part. I had to cut out the eggs. These were my daughter's first ever works of art we're talking about. Cutting into that paper felt like cutting into my heart just a teeny bit (Note to grandparents: you're not to EVER throw these out!!)



As simplistic as they may seem, I was quite pleased with these cards. Here is the finished product!



And the back:


Happy Easter!

New Rules: How Did We Do?

Back in October, I set myself four rules that I felt were important. A winter later, here's how I did:


No laptop use while Emily is awake.
This was going really well. Enter the ipad, and things fell apart for a while until I gave myself a little metaphorical shaking and put it away. It doesn't mean I don't stop to check my mail a few times or tweet a few more times but I'm not sat there glued to it all day (as I may have been before). I get down on the floor and play with Emily, we build towers, we read, we tickle and get tickled. Sometimes we just cuddle in front of TV. It's all good.


Read more.
Safe to say I failed this one. Miserably. I've still not yet read another book, but I have picked up a few magazines over the last few weeks and have made myself sit down for a few minutes to relax every now and then. I need to learn the meaning of that word "relax" all over again, or so it would seem. I have also added a few books to my Kindle that sound promising (and have even read the first two chapters of one of them), so there is actually some hope.


Establish storytime.
For a while, we read every day after Emily's bath. Until I realised she had no patience for it at that time as all she wanted was to get to sleep. So we moved storytime to before her bath. And that worked nicely. But we read so many books throughout the day, there are always books around somewhere (there are even two little ones that live in my handbag for when we're out), and we read bathbooks too, so in the end "storytime" per se faded away and we still read lots. We just do it whenever.


(She even has a magazine of her own which she loves leafing through)


Get out every day.
We've been good with this. However I've also been good about realising that just because we don't go out one day, just because we stay in and just enjoy Emily's toys and I catch up on some things around the house, or just take it easy, doesn't make the day a failure. We've achieved a good balance. We go out often, we have people over often, we have us time often.


Ultimately, things are going well. Emily and I seem to have reached a point where we know how to work with each other. I am slowly even starting to feel comfortable cooking dinner in the kitchen while she plays in the living room. The fact that she is increasingly mobile helps as when she misses me or needs something, I hear the "clap, clap" of her hands on the wooden floor as she crawls towards the kitchen, or the little plastic wheels of her walker being pushed down the corridor, and she's with me again. I never leave her alone for more than a few minutes at a time. More often than not, she chooses to hang around the kitchen with me, playing with her fridge magnets or a wooden spoon, or "cleaning" the floor with the tea towels - and it wouldn't be the first time I've cooked dinner with her hanging off my leg either. Not a huge amount of fun, but sometimes it just needs to be done!

Early Morning Perspective

At nine o'clock on a Sunday Morning, it may just as well be six o'clock. With only a handful of people on a street that you know will be bustling in a few hours, there's a certain stillness in the air. The kind of stillness you can enter but not disturb. Dogs and owners are out for their walks. Shops are shut. Maintenance workers have time to stop and play peekaboo with a baby. There is an intoxicating simplicity to life that you can fill your lungs with. A mental snapshot of a quieter world to keep close for those other, overwhelming days.

Four Cups

This morning, Emily spent over half an hour playing with these four cups.
She singled them out from the rest of the set and focused on just these four.
I sat quietly and watched her play.

She learnt that
Cup 1 fits into Cups 2, 3, and 4.
Cup 2 only fits into Cups 3 and 4.
Cup 3 doesn't fit into Cup 1.
It doesn't fit into Cup 2 either, no matter how hard you try.
Cup 1 can even go into Cup 4 upside down.
None of the cups fit into each other sideways.
Cup 4 is big enough to pretend you're drinking out of it.
Cup 1 is small enough to lick the entire inside of.
All the cups are good for biting.
They are also excellent to bang against each other.


So much to discover!

Moments

My sweet Emily,

It hasn't been an easy few months. You and me, we've caught bugs and colds and every winter virus thrown our way. You've been an absolute trooper. You've barely moaned when you were ill, you've not complained when you were well and I wasn't and that meant more staying indoors. You've entertained yourself perfectly and never once made a day difficult for me to pull through. When I've looked at the clock in the morning and thought to myself it may be a long day, it never is. You're happy to snuggle on my lap while we read book after book after book. You love tickles and Mummy acting the fool for you, and I love your laughter. Every smile you send my way lights up my world and by the end of the day, when I lay you down for the night, I often wish you could fight sleep a few more minutes, just so I can enjoy you a little bit more.

I really am the luckiest Mummy in the world.



(Her latest Pretty Walrus post is here)