Whilst January was a month that seemed to go on forever, February has just flown by! We have had a lovely month, having finally got ove...

Little Loves - February

Saturday, March 09, 2019 BookBairn 2 Comments


Whilst January was a month that seemed to go on forever, February has just flown by! We have had a lovely month, having finally got over all the winter bugs, we have had a few lovely family days out and with the sunshine back we have enjoyed playing in the garden quite a few times already. But the best thing about this month is that The Wee Page Turner has started to communicate so much more with us. I know I shouldn't compare but I was beginning to worry about his lack of words, and also his lack of interest in communicating with us, but it seems he's just a quieter soul. And now he is showing us what he likes and dislikes, asking to play certain things or pointing out things that he can see on our walks. He also started going to swimming lessons, having been on a waiting list for a space for quite some time, and he loves being in the pool! And he started to do actions along with songs. It's a delight to finally be getting to know my little boy!

Without further ado here are our February Little Loves...




The Wee Page Turner and I took a trip to the bookshop recently (it was really funny in fact as we parked right outside and as soon as we got out the car he climbed the bookshop step, made his way inside and made a beeline for the children's section) and he picked out the Eric Carle Big Box of Little Books. It's a lovely box set of nine mini board books each of which features five animals on different themes: home, forest, jungle etc. The Wee Page Turner loves Eric Carle's illustrations and he loves this box set too. He likes to get the books out and flip through the pages and trying to say the animal names or make their noises. He particularly likes pairing it up with out Google Home by getting her (via a grown up or his sister!) to make the animal sounds. Basically, lots of fun for animal fans!



BookBairn really loves a bagel for her breakfast and funnily enough she was eating one when the postman brought us this lovely and funny book starring a Bagel as the main character! Bagel in Love by Natasha Wing & Helen Dardik stars Bagel who just wants to enter the Cherry Jubilee dance contest but no one will be his partner. Pretzel sniffs that he doesn’t cut the mustard, Croissant thinks his moves are stale, and Doughnut’s eyes just glaze over. Perhaps a cute cupcake might be his taste? Witty and pun-filled this is a great book for children and adults alike! The illustrations are simply delicious and you will love it! We do!!


One of my goals this year is to reduce my family's use of plastic. And one of the books that has helped to inspire me on this journey is Turning the Tide on Plastic by Lucy Siegle which begins with a fascinating history of plastic and it's various uses as well as how it does and doesn't get disposed off. And then she launches into her 8R steps: record, reduce, replace, refuse, reuse, refill, rethink and recycle. I am a great recycler but that doesn't feel enough anymore to help our planet so I've been making conscious efforts to think about how we can avoid plastic altogether or how we can replace single use with reusable and importantly only consuming plastic that is actually useful. I'm going to do a whole blog post about the swaps that we have made so far and I recommend any tips on this subject too. But if you are on an anti-plastic journey then this book is a must! I listened to the audiobook as well as reading a library copy (which funnily is the only library book I've ever borrowed that wasn't in a plastic casing! I think the author would approve!).




One of the words that The Wee Page Turner has mastered is "car" so he has been playing with the little Disney Cars cars that BookBairn gave him for Christmas starring Lightning McQueen as his favourite so I thought he would enjoy the movie. But he wasn't too fussed. What he does love is the Cars mini movie called Hiccups! Lightning McQueen gets the hiccups and he just can't get rid of them. The Wee Page Turner laughs and laughs at it! The only thing is that it's only two minutes long!




The same day we went to the bookshop we also went to the shoe shop, the real reason for our trip to town and The Wee Page Turner needed a new pair so we picked up these gorgeous Clarks Doodles. They were a bargain at £5 in the sale and will be perfect for the better weather. And doesn't The Wee Page Turner look thrilled with his book post?!



[I don't have any picture unfortunately as I took videos of the kids playing instead and I'm keeping them to myself! - Sorry!]
This month saw a week of rather, unusually nice weather for the season so we got out to play in the garden for more than just fleeting moments and it turns out The Wee Page Turner just loves the slide! His face lights up when he slides down it. And BookBairn is getting much better at hide-and-seek. It was such fun - I hope that we have a lovely long Spring and Summer full of sunshine.




For our Touring Picture Book Club this month, BookBairn and I made a little team of paper dolls inspired by the characters in All Are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold & Suzanne Kaufman  - particularly using the cover illustration. I picked up some coloured paper in a pack of different skin tones and cut out some people shapes for her to choose from. We then raided our craft box for coloured paper, felt, buttons, ribbon, googly eyes and a whole manner of bits and bobs and got cutting and sticking. BookBairn had very clear ideas of the sorts of characters that she wanted to create and she really enjoyed the freedom to create rather than replicate. But mostly it was lots of fun to do together!!




When we got the awesome Bear Moves by Ben Bailey Smith & Sav Akyuz the bairns wanted to have a dance party so I asked our Google Home to play some disco music and out from the speakers blasted 'We Are Family' by Sister Sledge and BookBairn was totally taken with the tune. So much so that we listen to it daily (and have had a car trip where we listened to it all the way to Edinburgh on repeat!




Next month, March, we are celebrating BookBairn's birthday followed by a family trip to Florida! It's very exciting and I can't wait for our first family holiday as well as a few days at Disney!  But it does mean I won't be taking my laptop or very many books with us so things will most likely be a little but quiet on here.


Happy holidays to us! And see you when we get back!
Mummy and the bairns xx



Little Loves Coffee Work Sleep Repeat


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2 comments:

  1. What a great month! We're also trying to cut our plastic use & love bagels! Very exciting about Florida - not long to go...

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  2. Read
    I finished reading Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks which I really enjoyed. I’ve now started The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet. Also started Harry Potter 3 - The Prisoner......

    Watched
    The new series of Das Boot which was very enjoyable. I just can’t imagine what it must’ve been like to be in a very small submarine in the middle of the Atlantic. Scary.

    Wore
    no sweater on a particularly hot day on the golf course. Unbelievable for February in Scotland!

    Played
    in the garden with BookBairn and the Wee Page Turner. Great fun.

    Made
    them both pretty excited chasing them around and playing hide and seek.

    Heard
    The Wee Page Turner call me Papa when he saw me on a FaceTime call on Mummy’s phone.

    and Lastly
    Looking forward to March and our family holiday.

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