Baby sensory board

As you know, I am a lover of sensory play. I also believe children are never too young for sensory play. The more senses engaged in an activity the better.

I made a sensory board for 2.0 today. Lots of colours for sight, textures for touch, some of them made noises for sound (bubble wrap is crinkly and the bumpy  cardboard makes noises when touched), and the feathers were eaten (though taste wasn't a sense I had in mind for the board).

Some children and babies do not cope well with too much stimulus so adjust the amount of items on your board to suit your child.

You can use anything as the base -cardboard (strong), an old tray I used an old tile that was spare.

A hot glue gun to glue it all down

Craft supplies (Sorry Lumpy I owe you a few top ups)

****** Even though the items are glued down, there is a chance they could still come off. Close parental supervision is required

Water & ice baby sensory play

It is getting very hot here in Brisbane. It is only the end of spring. Miss 2.0 is not keen on the heat. A simple and easy sensory activity that also kept her cool was to make a splash tray. Here is all you need to make your own.

A shallow non breakable tray (can you high chair tray instead)
Small amount of water room temperature
Ice.

the ice melted pretty quickly in the heat, it left some nice cold water.

Water & oil

After making another batch of cloud sand on the weekend,  Lumpy asked what else we could mix oil with.
I set up this simple task - water, food colouring and cooking oil.
I asked her what she thought would happen. She was certain there would be an explosion.
She was rather disappointed at first then pretty impressed the oil could stay separate to the water.
Tomorrow we will add dish liquid to it.

Frozen inspired ribbon wind sock

My sister in law planted the seed of a ribbon wind sock in my head a few weeks back. I saw hers this weekend and the blues reminded me of Frozen dress/merchandise colours.
I wanted to make one! My original plan was for Lumpy to make a rainbow one to hang outside for her and 2.0. LThe frozen inspiration part made me decide to do it as a surprise.
Off to the shops I went searching for blues and silver or white ribbon. I looked for a single snowflake Christmas decoration, this was unsuccessful. Is found a back of 6 baubles that were white with silver snowflakes.
I went to a second hand shop and found a bell and some pretty Christmas decorations for 50cents for the lot!

I used - 

* Covered wire (I have also seen people use embroidery hoops)

* 3 lots of ribbon

* Binding 

* Decorations (had to be fairly light as the wire isn't the strongest)- optional

* A ring to hang the finished sock

* Hot glue gun

* something to hang the decorations - like fishing line

Supplies ready to go. I used 3 different ribbons - all blue but different width, colour and patterns/textures. i had a selection of decorations bug only used a couple.

I did two loops of wire, Covered with the binding for strength and glued into place.

I precut my ribbon to the length I wanted. Hot glued them on in single ribbons. You can also twist them on so it's two pieces together.

The ring to hang it from the ceiling

Bell. I didn't want anything too noisy.

Now to pick up Lumpy and see if she notices it hanging from her ceiling!!

DIY light box

I have wanted a light box for Lumpy for a long, long time. The price tag always put me off. I looked up DIY so I could make a light box. However was put off by perspex and wood frame making. Fast forward a year (or 2 or 3), I revisited the DIY light box. I discovered that all I really needed was - a white or clear box, white paper, tape, foil and a light source!! We had an old small camping lantern that we took the casing off. All supplies we have at home, no need to buy anything. Other light source ideas included - christmas light strings, the battery operated tea light candles, small led lights.

I put foil all around the sides and bottom of the box, to project the light upwards. My husband put the foil over the light so it wasn't concentrated in one place and dispersed around the box to bounce off the foil and up. I did use some tape on the foil to hold it in place. Tape white paper to the lid. I used normal printer A4 paper.

A quick test shot.

I put an old sheet and some black fabric over Lumpy's play tent, set up the light box and a few items to put on the lid - water beads, buttons, some craft beads and a few marbles

Prompt to play

playing with the buttons

Marbles!

Waterbeads.

Baby play

Those who know me, know I LOVE sensory play for kids and infants. Lets confess, I love getting my hands in on shaving foam and goey messy play. After a huge Pintrest feeding session yesterday, I found a heap of cool ideas for baby sensory play!! I took some of those ideas and used what I had on hand :)

Miss 2.0 has been out of sorts and feeding a lot the last 24 or so hours, making getting stuff done hard. This morning I reallllllly needed to clean my floor, However 2.0 wasn't happy to play on the floor without me. While I am a true believer in "the dishes can wait while I show the kids the rainbow, the rainbow won't wait while I do the dishes", my floors were realllllly in need of a vacuum.
Anyway, I did see baby playing in a box. So I figured I'd find a box (Anyone who knows my husband knows we have a box or two around the house), But some soft blocks in and pop 2.0 in and moved her around the house while I did the floors. I think the picture speaks for itself!
I really, really love how determined she is at trying to grab things, The concentration on her face is priceless, and then the title "victory" noises she makes melt my heart!

We still have a lot of water beads left, so when i saw on pinterest people making sensory bags and bottles for babies, I decided to use the water beads.

You can just use a snap lock bag, I got this slightly stronger bag with purchase so used that. I reinforced the seal with clear packing tape. I did not add any gel/soap/water to the bag as the beads have quiet a good squishability and movement as is.
The water bottle I decided to not add a liquid first, purely for weight 2.0 is only 4.5 months old and I just learning to hold things, i didn't want her to drop a full/partially full bottle on herself, plus it would add weight. I will add a liquid when she is bigger so the movement of the beads is altered. Clear packing tape around the lid also.
I used clear packing tape for 2 reasons - 1) It doesn't take focus off the beads and 2) we have lots of it.

Please excuse the Brisbane Baby Uniform of a nappy and nothing else!

They were fascinating from the start!

Giving them a poke, she actually got cranky when they kept moving away from her hand.

She was fascinated in this when i was holding it and shaking it. Once she had it, it became food.

I'm already working through a few ideas for next time!

Iron balls take 1

So I'm a non red meat (or pig or emu or crocodile) eating, breastfeeding Mumma. I've always had issues with my iron. I can generally keep my iron stable and need to take tablets at times of stress, big workloads or pregnant/breastfeeding.

Anyway, I was looking for iron boosting snacks.

***** Please note, if you suspect low iron, consult your doctor before attempting to treat it.
****** Please note, this is not medical advice, this is a recipe for getting more iron into MY diet. Which I am sharing for others to try as a snack.
******* Chickpeas can cause excess wind in some people, so use caution if breastfeeding. ... or going on a road trip in a full car.

Google gave me some ideas on what to eat - 100grams of chickpeas 6.2mg... YUM chickpeas.. right? !?

So I decided to make chickpea balls with some other iron containing foods

So here is my recipe for.
iron balls take 1

200 grams chickpeas (tinned, rinsed very very well) 12.4mg iron
50 g dried dates 0.5mg iron
15 g cacao 2.2mg iron
Honey
Blitzed up oats

Blend the dates and chickpeas until all combined and sticking together
Mix in honey to your taste.
I found it a little too moist so added some blitzed up oats (diy quick oats )
Roll into balls. I made 10 biggish balls, so roughly 1.5mg iron per ball.

I have a sweet tooth so I dipped my balls into melted chocolate and refrigerated. You could try rolling in coconut or chocolate sprinkles.
Store in fridge

A few things I will do different next time
1 use apricots instead of dates (slightly higher iron)
2 refrigerate the mix for 30-60 minutes before rolling/ dipping as they became very sticky towards the end  (could also be the brisbane heat ;))
3 I may add peanut butter.

You could also add any protein/superfood/nutrient powders you take.

This was the first time I have worked with cacao.... no one warned me how strong the flavour is!!

Miss Lumpy  enjoyed the bowl!