The joy of recycled toys

It seems like a lifetime ago when I wrote about getting into some hands on arts and craft with Matilda and making her some keepsakes and toys - how fast life seems to go as you get older.

Well I thought it about high time that I brought that discussion back, why? Well as I chased Matilda around the hotel room on Easter morning, trying to get a good bunny shot I realised something - when deciding what toys to bring along with us, we had to pick some of her very favourites, we only had limited space and they needed to be able to keep her entertained. And THIS is what we packed...??

 

Yup that's right we brought three old chocolate wafer tins with us!

That might seem a little mad on first glance but actually its genius - they are some of her favourite toys and they can be almost anything.

In the photo above they were being fitting into one another, along with some small balls, then they become drums:

And they can be all sots of other things - towers to stack on top of one another, laying on their side they are great for rolling balls into, they roll around themselves (with a little reshaping) and sometimes its just fun to carry them around full of 'stuff'.

So far from being the craziest thing we did - it was one of the more successful.

That is unless you're our neighbours in the hotel when Matilda is playing the drums, sorry about that ;)

I just love that some of the best fun comes from materials that could have been thrown away without a thought, but instead provide hours of fun and learning. I am constantly trying to come up for uses for other materials we have around the home - thank goodness for those crafty mum blogs out there.

Oh and BTW - they weren't the only toys we took :)

Why is it so hard to say the V word?

Vagina

There I said it, well actually no I didn't, I typed it didn't I?

This one little word have had me thinking this past week. Not what you were expecting read, right? :)

To fully understand I am going to take you back to that imaginary list we have spoken about before, you know the one you tend to make years before you have children of all the things you are going to do as a parent when you do have children?

My list had things I had picked up from other parents, like keep the room dimly lit with no TV, phones or any bright lights or loud noises for night feeds, it helps them feed and then drift of back to sleep - you too (it really does!)

It also had teach your kids the proper name for their 'bits', after a conversation with a friend years ago about her kids and the day care they went to. And that's exactly what I had planned to do...

That is until push came to shove.

And now, well its the plan but we are having trouble saying it.

Yes for some stupid, crazy, completely irrational reason Matilda's Dad and I find it odd to say vagina to our daughter.

Why??

I have no idea.