Play and Learn Every Day

Fisher Price Sit Me Up Floor Seat - Review

13:00

It's so interesting how two children can differ so much. Ethan loved laying down on a play mat, but with Ivy she just wants to be upright, so I'm constantly on the lookout for different baby seats for her. I came across this new baby seat from Fisher Price and was instantly excited, because it was so different from any others that we have. The Fisher Price Sit Me Up Floor Seat holds a baby upright, similar to another seat that we have, but it looks much more comfortable for Ivy. It's recommended for babies aged 6 months and older, but as Ivy is very steady and holds her head confidently for a 5 month old I think that she is ready for it.

When it arrived I was excited to put it together for Ivy straight away, as she was having a bad teething day and I wanted somewhere nice for her to sit. I opened up the box, thinking this might be a very bad idea, but I was able to put it together, with Ethan "helping" and Ivy sitting in my lap, in about 5 minutes! The pieces all snap together so easily, no tools required. Why can't all toys be this simple to assemble? Life would be so much easier!

I love that it's made of a soft cloth, so it's nice on her skin and she's still able to wiggle around (and also washable!) It's bright and colourful, and comes with 2 toys attached to the front (which could be taken off and switched for other toys if you want to put some favourites on there). Ivy loves the toys it came with, a crinkly butterfly and a flower teether, both keep her busy for ages. For us it's also really great as it sits quite low to the ground, so it's almost like she's sitting on the floor, which means that she's at the same level as Ethan when he plays. He can happily play alongside her with his cars, and she's entertained by watching him and feels like she's a part of things. He can pass her toys and tries to involve her in his games as well, which is very sweet.

I am loving the simplicity of this baby seat, it's really just something to hold Ivy upright until she's strong enough to sit up on her own, and it's exactly what we needed to make her happy. I would highly recommend this chair, it's not too big, but it does fold down for easy storage and for travel, making it perfect anywhere you go. It's sells for £39.99 from shops and online, and it is real value for money. Ivy absolutely loves hers, it's a perfect place for me to quickly put her down when I need to do something, and Ethan loves that she's now at his level for play, so we're all happy!

* This is a review post, Fisher Price sent me the Sit Me Up Floor Seat to try out and to write an honest review. For more about my review process, please click here *

Follow Play & Learn Everyday on Pinterest for more fun ideas of things to do with your little ones:

Visit Play & Learn Everyday's profile on Pinterest.

2 1/2 years old

Rainbow Rice Play

09:30

2 1/2 years old

Sibling Bath Time

09:30

2 1/2 years old

The Tiger Who Came to Tea Live - Review

14:35

We were lucky enough to get tickets to see The Tiger Who Came to Tea Live, while it's on at The Lyric Theatre in London. It runs from now until 7th September, with matinee's on most days. It's recommended for ages 3 and up, but at 2 1/2 and loving the story, and other theatre experiences, Ethan was a fine age to watch the show.

Ethan was riveted from start to finish! It always amazes me, that at such a young age he already has such an appreciation for theatre, but he absolutely loves it. Seeing stories that he loves come to life on stage just amazes him. The Tiger Who Came to Tea has been one of his favourite stories from when he was quite small. I'm not sure what it is about the story, but it must be a favourite of many children.

The way that the production was done was just wonderful. Being able to stretch out a short story to make it a full length show that keeps children's attention for nearly an hour is no easy feat. Right from the beginning the actors were signing and dancing to draw the children in, there was lots of physical humour from the characters and a real setting of the scene. Instead of just focusing on the tiger's arrival, the play starts at the beginning of the day, going through all of the different meals and visitors that Sophie and her Mummy have. When it came time for the tiger's arrival Ethan was literally on the edge of his seat.

That tiger did not disappoint! He was huge, a magnificent presence on the stage, upstaging all others. He even did a little 'tiger aerobics' to encourage some audience participation and give the children a chance to stand up and stretch their legs (a brilliant idea for wriggly little ones). The magic of the plates being cleared off and the food disappearing from the cupboards and refrigerator was amazing. We marvelled at how the tiger managed to eat all that food so quickly!

The songs were lovely and catchy (possibly too much so, I still have 'Yummy yummy sausages, yummy scrummy chips' going through my head!) Again they were mostly sung by the cast, but this particular song was for the whole audience to sing and get involved with. A brilliant way to draw the children into the story and make them feel like a part of the show.

We had a fantastic morning at the theatre and would highly recommend that you go and watch it! If you're in London book from now until September, or in Birmingham over the Christmas period.

* This is a review post, we were given tickets to see The Tiger Who Came to Tea Live so that we could see the show and give our honest opinion. For more information about our review process please click here *

2 1/2 years old

Starting Nursery School

14:43

I wrote a few months back about choosing a nursery for Ethan, and you may have noticed that you haven't heard much about it since then. After an unfortunate situation of not moving to the house that we had planned to, and with everything happening then (moving into a temporary home, Ivy being born, etc) we decided that we would wait for Ethan to start nursery. We have now found a lovely nursery, and we have been having settling in sessions for the past six weeks. I think it's quite rare to settle in for such a long time, I suppose it's because it is a full day nursery, but I think that it has made the transition easier for all of us. Ethan won't be attending the nursery for full days, as we don't need him to (and I wouldn't know what to do without him home with me!) but he will be going for three sessions a week. It seems strange since many schools are now ending for summer, but as this is a nursery that runs all year round, Ethan is just starting now!

We've been doing a few different things to prepare Ethan for nursery. We got out his little backpack and chose some spare clothes to go in it together. We've been reading books about starting nursery, we really like Maisy Goes to Nursery. It's a simple book that goes through all of the regular activities of the day at a nursery school, it's been a great way to start conversations about all of the things that Ethan will do while he's there. We've had to be quite careful when choosing books, as a few seem to start with the child being nervous to start school, and I really don't want to put ideas in Ethan's head that anyone would be scared about nursery or wouldn't want to go. That's why I like the simplicity of this one, we would love more like this, please let me know if you have any recommendations. From the book it was easy to incorporate a day at nursery into our imaginative play. We would take turns being a teacher and a child at the nursery, and do the different activities. We also talked about all of his friends who already go to nursery and all of the fun that they have!

Throughout the six weeks of settling in Ethan has been absolutely fine, the very first time that I left him they were making fruit salad, so he didn't even notice that I had gone. When I came back he was happy and smiling, and very excited to show me what he had made. As the weeks progressed, the sessions got longer and they varied through different times of the day. Ideally we didn't want Ethan to do any afternoon sessions, but as that is all that was available he will be spending one afternoon a week at nursery. This means that he will be there for nap time, and unfortunately this has been a bit of an issue. Everything else has been fine, but sleeping at nursery has, for some reason, made him very sad. It is absolutely heartbreaking. I know that we have been very lucky that Ethan had settled so well, so there was bound to be a stumbling block. The things that we've done to help Ethan were to talk a lot about it, to make him feel that he can tell us any of his worries. We chose a soft toy from home that he could bring into nursery with him to cuddle, to try to make it a more comfortable environment for him. And the only other thing I could think of, was to tell him that he just didn't have to nap there. I know that it will be very disruptive to his routine not to nap, but I just can't handle seeing him so sad. We will see how it goes for a few weeks, and I would love any other advice, but I have a feeling that we might just drop down to two morning sessions a week as soon as we can to avoid nap time altogether.

The final bit of preparation for nursery was to get Ethan some labels for all of his clothes. He's just got the hang of potty training, but there are bound to be some accidents (and he gets his tshirt wet from playing in the water at almost every session!) so his clothes need to be easily identified. We ordered some cute iron on labels from Labels4Kids as well as some bag labels and other labels that were part of the Back to School pack of Easy to use Iron On Labels that sells for £24. This way his clothes are labelled, as well as his shoes, bag and water bottles and snack pots. It's great to know that we'll be able to identify all of his things, and we won't be losing anything at nursery. I was also able to choose a design to go on the larger labels, so we went for a fire truck (you can see it on the bag label in the photo). That way even before Ethan knows how to read his name, he'll be able to recognise the fire truck on all of his things. The iron on labels are easy to use (even for someone like me who never irons!) and stay on the clothing really securely.

* Labels4Kids sent us the Back to School pack of labels to try out and review, the other products mentioned in this post were bought by us, but do contain affiliate links. For more about our review process, please click here *

4 months old

Rolling

10:51

My sweet baby girl has learned to roll! We knew it was coming, but last week she finally made it over onto her tummy. She's not all that happy when she gets there, as she isn't a huge fan of tummy time, but she is quite proud of herself!

Ethan rolled at about 3 1/2 months, so I was a bit surprised that she had absolutely no interest in it at that age. Of course all babies develop differently, but for some reason I just assumed that second babies usually became mobile more quickly to keep up with their older siblings.

I think that a part of it had to do with having a completely different routine. I now have two children's needs to consider, so that means that Ivy doesn't get as much time to play and explore on her mat (and a lot of that time is spent fighting off her big brothers cuddles!)

So knowing that I have no real influence on rolling, as I think it's a natural instinct and she would figure it out eventually, I decided to try some things that might encourage her and make it more fun.

First, I set up a play mat for her that was separate to Ethan's. At first they were sharing, but it was always covered in toy cars, so this works better. Then I placed some of her favourite toys around her; a mirror, a rattle, this squishy rattle toy that she loves, her bunny and her favourite teething toy. Obviously I would hand her things, but I would also show her things that were slightly out of reach, that she would need to roll to reach. I always put the mirror just above her head and to one side, so that when she arched her head back to roll, she could see herself. Then, any time that she would arch her head back or lift her legs to try to roll, I would give her a helping hand, so that she had an idea of what she was trying to do and what it felt like. Eventually she managed to put enough power behind that roll to get herself all the way over. And unlike Ethan, now she's rolling constantly, and after only a couple of days she figured out how to free that trapped arm and is now much happier on her tummy as well!

2 1/2 years old

Water Play

09:30

It is no secret that Ethan is truly a water baby. You get that boy anywhere near water and he gets absolutely soaked! I have a feeling that Ivy is going to be the same, she already loves the bath and the pool (and was even happy the one time she had a shower!) So a quick activity when Ethan's a bit grumpy and the weather is nice, but not quite nice enough to put out the paddling pool, is to set up the tuff spot tray in the garden and fill it with water. It doesn't even need very much water, but he always has fun and always gets completely soaked (even if I tell him not to jump in, he just can't resist!)

I like to put a variety of different things in there for him to play with; cups, scoops, a water wheel and cars (of course!) Sometimes we have just water, and sometimes I put in a bit of washing up liquid to make bubbles. He loves when we put bubbles in, he was so cute the first time, it was such a surprise when he started to swish the water around and bubbles appeared!

As part of the Toy Testing Team for Learning Resources we were sent these Twisty Droppers to play with and explore. They are great in so many ways, Ethan loves to be able to fill them with water and squirt the water around (sometimes in my direction, so beware, you might get wet too, ha ha!) They are a bit of a challenge for his fine motor control and Physical Development, to be able to squeeze the dropper and release it slowly to fill it with water (of course he figured out the squeezing to squirt the water quite quickly!) He uses them to fill up the cups, to turn the water wheel, to make the water bubbly when I've put washing up liquid in and to squirt for different levels to watch the effects. We can squeeze the droppers fast to make lots of water come out, but we also enjoyed holding the droppers up high and squeezing out just one drip at a time to make ripples in the surface of the water like raindrops. We literally had fun for hours with these droppers, I would highly recommend them. I think they're one water toy that we'll be taking inside to play in the bathtub when winter comes.

* This is a review post, we were sent the Twisty Droppers from Learning Resources to play with and write an honest review. For more about our review process, please click here *

Pages

Fisher Price Sit Me Up Floor Seat - Review

Rainbow Rice Play

Sibling Bath Time

The Tiger Who Came to Tea Live - Review

Starting Nursery School

Rolling

Water Play

Follow

Popular Topics

Search This Blog

Topics

Popular Posts

UK Blog Awards

Blog Archive