16th Century Adventures

(Goblin is 41 months)

In the summer we are hoping to take part in a reenactment of Tudor life at Kentwell hall. Its something Hublet and I did as teenagers. Before Goblin came along we took an extended break. But Kentwell is such an amazing place for children that we felt it was time to go back. So we attended a preparatory open day. 

Even the adults find these preparatory days a little arduous. There is lots of waiting around in the cold to be seen. Goblin and his friend weren't interested in waiting around, and instead set about discovering all the hiding places on the manor with us in hot pursuit. Here, in pictures, is an account of our day.

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Naughty but Nice

(Goblin is 31 months)

Does your toddler ever do something that you know you should tell them off for? Something that you know on a bad day would make you really cross?

But its a good day and all you see is 

CUTE!  CUTE!  CUTE!

This week Goblin did something naughty. 

He emptied his entire chest of draws and dumped every single item on the floor. 

But then he hid in it and asked me to play hide and seek. 

How could I be cross?

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Hide and Sleep

(Goblin is 26 months)

Goblin has invented a new game. I call it 'Hide and Sleep'. I love it. 

Goblin asks to "Jump bed" - which means he wants to jump on our bed. Then when he's tucked under our duvet he says "Hide and seek" and points to the bottom end of the duvet. This is his instruction for me to hide under the duvet. He watches me pull the duvet over myself. Then he counts "two, three, two ... two three" and then he starts to shout "mummy, mummy". Sometimes he launches himself onto the duvet and laughs as I let out a loud groan with the full weight of a heavy toddler landing on my tummy. But equally as many times he searches the bedroom and often other rooms. It appears that even though he has watched me hide under the duvet he forgets where I am and starts to look for me. Meanwhile I take a nice long rest under the snuggly duvet - 

Best ...  Game ...  EEEEEVAR!

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Rainy Day Activities - Part 1: Hide and Seek

(Goblin is 24 months)

We are in Wales this week for a holiday, but unfortunately both Hublet and I have horrendous colds and Goblin is just recovering from his. He is still a bit forlorn and is tending to have an out of character melt down at the slightest thing, so not sure how relaxing this holiday will be. Add to this the fact the weather over night has changed from this:

To this:

And you can see why today was challenging to say the least. 

However, against the odds we managed to find an activity that entertained us all. Hide and seek kept Goblin happy for a good 45 minutes. And Hublet and I were entertained by how incredibly bad he is at it! Its weird because he is so observant usually. He'll be the one to spot the tractor on the shelf behind the TV presenter. He'll be sitting there shouting "tractor" at the TV and I will be saying "there isn't a tractor", and of course there is. Incidentally I don't do that any more, if he says there is a tractor, fire engine, motor bike or plane you can pretty much guarantee there will be one somewhere. It may just be a badge on someone's bag or a tiny oil painting in the far corner of a room but he'll spot it. So I was somewhat bemused at how completely useless he was at finding me and Hublet when we hid in quite obvious places. 

This was Hublet's first attempt at hiding (we soon realised that this is not hiding in plain sight). Despite the huge bulge in the curtain and the very obvious feet Goblin came out of the door, did not see the curtain bulge, looked through the conservatory doors that the curtains edge, and only spotted the feet when I pointed them out to him. (Now I don't usually like over punctuation but I think a '!!!!' would not be out of place here). 

So I tried to hide in a more obvious place. Look at Goblin's confused face. There is an identical chair next to the table he is standing on that does not have a cushion 'floating' two feet off the chair base. 

So Hublet went for the really really obvious and thankfully Goblin did spot him straight away, although working out how to get to him took a bit longer. 

Then Goblin hid. I helped him because he wouldn't stay in his hiding place while Hublet counted to ten. What was really funny is that he didn't really get the concept of hiding. He wanted to watch Hublet search, so Hublet had to pretend he couldn't see him while he searched the rest of the room. But Goblin thought Hublet was struggling so he climbed over the back of the chair and shouted "we're here, we're hiding".  

Goblin was then quite confused because Mummy and Daddy were doubled up laughing for quite a while. 

What I did discover was Goblin enjoyed the counting to ten, and as he did it every time either with me or with Hublet he got quite good at telling us what number came next (up to five at least).