Mar 27, 2013 Posted by Lisa | Mama.ie

Project Distraction continues

My attempts to distract myself from my impending due date and the associated waiting game continue. So today I completed a crochet project for the first time ever. It took a few YouTube videos to learn some stitches and I had to redo the first few lines of my work more than once but I made a little baby hat. It’s far from perfect. For a start, I didn’t turn my work for the first three rows,... read more

Dec 3, 2012 Posted by Lisa | Mama.ie

A crafty robot friend

I’m very impressed with Charlie and Little Man and their recent crafty creation. They decided to entertain themselves one wet afternoon by building a new robot friend from materials found in our recycling bin. One tub lid, one Innocent smoothie bottle, two tube ends, four toilet rolls and some masking tape later they had a quirky little robot. Later that day, Charlie decided to spray paint the... read more

Sep 5, 2012 Posted by Lisa | Mama.ie

Wednesday Window: Discovering Lego

Last Christmas, Charlie’s sister gave Little Man a gift of some Star Wars Lego books, one of which came with over 200 Lego pieces and instructions to make not one, but eight different Star Wars vehicles. We put it away in the attic, thinking to take it out in a few years time when Little Man is old enough for it. But this week, he’s been absolutely fascinated by a little Lego kit that he picked... read more

Sep 2, 2012 Posted by Lisa | Mama.ie

App Review: Toca Doctor

We’ve been big fans of apps from Toca Boca in this house for a long time, but even so I was surprised by just how much Little Man likes our newest find, Toca Doctor. Since I installed it just over a week ago, it has been the go-to game for him. You start by enlisting the help of the Toca Doctor to diagnose the patient. After a quick scan, the doctor highlights the problem areas, and now it’s... read more

Aug 20, 2012 Posted by Lisa | Mama.ie

Engineering degree required

I thought Transformers were children’s toys? Seriously? Is a child supposed to be able to convert it from a car to a robot and back again? Now I know Little Man is not yet three so it would probably be a bit much to expect him to do it first time around. But I thought that between the two of us Charlie and I could figure it out this evening. Not so. We can get it to turn into a car, but neither the... read more

Aug 16, 2012 Posted by Lisa | Mama.ie

Why so quiet…

I feel I owe an explanation for how quiet I’ve been this week. Since we cut way back on naps (none most days and a maximum of 30 minutes on the days he sleeps), Little Man has been sound asleep by 8pm each evening. After the past couple of months of later and later bedtimes, it’s a wonderful novelty. But surely that must leave lots of extra time for blogging you might ask? Well yes…it... read more

Aug 3, 2012 Posted by Lisa | Mama.ie

App review: Smashing Planets

Back in June, Penny from the Alexander Residence sent me a new app for review. Smashing Planets is from the developers AppCrowd. In this game, you are tasked with defending your planet from evil space invaders and meteors, determined to destroy you. The game mechanic is simple – just draw a line on the touchscreen from your planet, indicating the path that you wish your missile to take. But watch... read more

Jul 16, 2012 Posted by Lisa | Mama.ie

If you see a crocodile

Boardgames form a big part of family life in our house. Part of our social life revolves around boardgames, and playing games together helped Charlie and me to re-ground our relationship and find time for each other in those post-baby chaotic months. For those reasons, we’re keen to foster a love of boardgames in Little Man – but at two years of age, it can be difficult to find a game... read more

Jun 28, 2012 Posted by Lisa | Mama.ie

Building a craft table

We’ve been doing a lot of arts and crafts in recent months, and although we’ve enjoyed it, it’s become really obvious that our small sitting room is just not a suitable crafting space. Then I spotted this IKEA Expedit table on IKEA Hackers and an idea was born. We were familiar with the Expedit shelving units because we used them to organise the bedroom wardrobes a few months back, and... read more

Jun 27, 2012 Posted by Lisa | Mama.ie

Wednesday Window: Crafting Space

This week’s Wednesday Window is just a little glimpse at a project that’s been consuming all our time and attention this week. We’re creating a crafting space (more on that later in the week). This sneak peek is one of our new IKEA jars for storing our crafting supplies. Can’t wait to get it all finished and get started on a few projects! I’ve come to accept that I’ll... read more

Jun 15, 2012 Posted by Lisa | Mama.ie

App review: Farm 123

Two weeks ago, I received a copy of Farm 123 for review. (Seems we were destined to play this particular app, because the same week, we won a copy of it from Mummysspace!) And what a great app this is. Designed by Story Toys (who were previously called Ideal Binary, one of our favourite app developers), this app has everything you would want to see in an app for a toddler. When you open the app first, you... read more

Jun 13, 2012 Posted by Lisa | Mama.ie

Wednesday Window: Robots!

This week has been all about robots. Little Man has been playing Robot Workshop on the iPad and the iPhone. Such a simple little app. It’s essentially a shape sorting/simple jigsaw app, where you move each piece into place to make the robot. There are 12 different robots to choose from. We’ve made them all several times now. Thanks a million to the Apps for Parents group on Facebook for... read more

Jun 6, 2012 Posted by Lisa | Mama.ie

Wednesday Window: Dinosaur Days

I mentioned recently that we finally finished the volcano. But what’s the point in having a lovely finished volcano if you don’t play with it. And what better toy for playing with a volcano than dinosaurs. Thankfully Nana and Grandad just so happened to have a bucket full of them at their house. So when we paid them a visit at the weekend, we brought the volcano with us. The dinosaurs loved... read more

Jun 3, 2012 Posted by Lisa | Mama.ie

Craft: Thor Helmet

I think Charlie has caught the crafting bug. Little Man loves anything to do with superheroes, and so, inspired by the Avengers movie, Charlie decided to make a Thor helmet for him. You will need: a balloon newspaper strips wallpaper paste cardboard glue silver acrylic paint To make the helmet, first thing you need to do is blow up the balloon so that it is approximately the same circumference as your... read more

May 29, 2012 Posted by Lisa | Mama.ie

Craft: Volcanic ventures

It’s been a few weeks since we started on our volcanic venture, but we finally finished the volcano. Although it took us weeks to finish, that’s not because it was a difficult craft. It’s actually because the sun came out and we had better things to do (like make sandcastles on the beach!) than spend our days indoors doing arts and crafts. But at various stages over the past few weeks,... read more

May 23, 2012 Posted by Lisa | Mama.ie

Wednesday Window: Let the sun shine!

How nice to have been able to come home this evening and head straight out to the sand pit with Little Man to make sand castles, and build roads and hills and mountains with Bob the Builder and friends…and best of all, we didn’t have to wear wellies while playing in the sand for once! I really hope Met Eireann are right with the good forecast, because I already have lots of plans for outdoor... read more

May 20, 2012 Posted by Lisa | Mama.ie

Craft: Rocket Pack!

Seems this arts and crafts buzz is catching, because Charlie has been getting in on the act too and doing a pretty good job of it! The recycling bin in our house has become an infinite source of crafting materials. This time it was the turn of some plastic Fruit Shoot bottles to be reborn as something wonderful – a rocket pack! You will need: Two empty plastic juice bottles Duct tape Silver acrylic... read more

May 16, 2012 Posted by Lisa | Mama.ie

Wednesday Window: Volcanic Ventures

I’ve come to accept that I’ll never be wordless and I’ll never manage a true Wordless Wednesday post, so I’ve introduced my Wednesday Window posts instead. Wednesday Window offers a little snapshot of life in our house this week. The post contains a photo or photos taken this week and a sentence or three about it! If you have a Wednesday Window of your own that you’d like to... read more

May 14, 2012 Posted by Lisa | Mama.ie

Entertaining a toddler

We have been having so much fun with arts and crafts lately. Painting, drawing, sculpting, papier mâché – we’ve been trying our hand at all of it. But I must admit, I’m starting to wonder who we’re really entertaining here. Little Man’s attention lasts about 15 or 20 minutes and then he leaves Mammy and Daddy to it while he wanders off to play with something else! Yesterday... read more

May 12, 2012 Posted by Lisa | Mama.ie

Quick Craft: Spyglass

Not all fun crafts have to take hours. We had great fun this afternoon making a spyglass for some pirate-y play later on. You need: One empty kitchen roll tube Two sheets of coloured felt Fabric glue To make the spyglass, decide which colour felt sheet will form the main colour of the spyglass, and simply apply some fabric glue to that sheet and wrap it around the tube. I trimmed off the excess, but... read more

May 10, 2012 Posted by Lisa | Mama.ie

Seaside fun from Vintage Kids

The Vintage Kids Company is an Irish family-run business selling imaginative and creative toys for children. When they offered us a product for review from their summer toys collection on their site VintageKids.ie, we happily agreed. A few days later, a brown paper package tied up with string arrived in the post (and I spent the rest of the afternoon humming “These are a few of my favourite... read more

May 9, 2012 Posted by Lisa | Mama.ie

Wednesday Window: Irish Summer

I’ve come to accept that I’ll never be wordless and I’ll never manage a true Wordless Wednesday post, so I’ve introduced my Wednesday Window posts instead. Wednesday Window offers a little snapshot of life in our house this week. The post contains a photo or photos taken this week and a sentence or three about it! If you have a Wednesday Window of your own that you’d like to... read more

May 2, 2012 Posted by Lisa | Mama.ie

Wednesday Window: Spacecraft-y

Following on from last week’s realization that I was never going to manage a true Wordless Wednesday post, I’m continuing with my new Wednesday Window posts instead. Wednesday Window offers a little snapshot of life in our house this week. The post contains a photo or photos taken this week and a sentence or three about it! If you have a Wednesday Window of your own that you’d like to... read more

Apr 28, 2012 Posted by Lisa | Mama.ie

Egg carton raft

Inspired by MollyMoo’s Egg Carton Raft, we decided to make our own variation of an egg carton raft this weekend. Following the basic form demonstrated by MollyMoo, we created our raft by gluing lollipop sticks to the base of the egg carton. I made a mistake here and painted the egg carton first and then lacked the patience to wait for the paint to dry, which meant this was a really messy process! At... read more

Apr 25, 2012 Posted by Lisa | Mama.ie

Wednesday Window: Rainbows and Butterflies

I was going to call this post Wordless Wednesday, when I realised that I’m fooling myself if I think I can post a picture without saying a single word about it. I never manage that, despite my best intentions. But I’m not willing to give up these Wednesday-style posts because they’re some of my favorites to look back on – little snapshots offering a glimpse of something we did or... read more