Pains, Painting and Playing

It's Grumpy Central in our house at the moment.  Munchkin is teething... again.  She seems to have been teething almost continuously for a year.  Munchkin does not teeth well.  The only thing that really seems to help when she's at her worst is paracetamol.  She's been really clingy on and off for about two weeks and has cried doing activities that she'd otherwise enjoy.  The worst thing is that she sometimes vomits with teething, usually after eating/drinking dairy products or banana.

We've tried some summer holiday toddler groups in the past few weeks.  Creation Station was a real hit. Munchkin loves painting and drawing and is always asking to do "rawing" so this was an obvious choice.  We went to a couple of one off summer holiday sessions in East Preston.  Unfortunately we can't attend during term time as sessions clash with our swimming and gymnastics classes.  Creation Station sessions begin with a group activity which includes opening a "magic box".  In the first session, this contained paper in different colours and textures.  In the second session, the box contained a brightly coloured parachute which everyone lifted up and the children hid under.  Munchkin is going through a shy, clingy stage and wouldn't join in with this.  Apparently the holiday groups are much bigger than the term time ones and she'd probably find these less daunting.

Our Creation Station Space Picture

Munchkin really enjoyed the creative part of Creation Station.  The first session was sunshine themed and we made a sunshine stamper which we used to make a print on a piece of fabric; Munchkin also got to paint a picture.  The second session was messy, messy, messy.  It was space themed and we made planet shapes to stick on a black background.  The black background had a star effect, achieved by lots of children flicking paint across a giant piece of paper which we then cut pieces from.  Many of the children, including Munchkin, decided to try their hands at face painting... with poster paint!  The children are given overalls to wear, parents aren't so it's best to wear old clothes.  Holiday sessions are aimed at 1 to 5 year olds and cost £5 a child (with a reduction for siblings).

On the Friday in between the two Creation Station sessions, we went to Boogie Bugs at East Preston Children and Family Centre.  This didn't go so well.  It's basically a group music and movement session.  The whole session is similar to the warm up at Munchkin's gym club.  Sometimes she'll do the warm up and other times she doesn't want to know (the coaches accept that this is par for the course with toddlers).  She was more interested in the babies in car seats at the edge of the room than anything else.  When I tried to get her to join in with the group activity, she screamed.  The group is aimed at age 18 months to 5 years.  Munchkin and her peer group (under 2s) all seemed more interested in other things in the room, chiefly the toys in the corner, than 45 minutes of music and movement.  She started asking to go home before the group had even finished!  I'm not saying it was a bad group, it seemed really popular.  It just wasn't for Munchkin.  On the way home, she told me that she had pain in her mouth.  I never got to give her anything for the pain because she fell asleep.  She awoke half an hour later in so much pain she almost had a fit.  It took what felt like forever, but was probably about 5 minutes to get her to open her mouth for pain relief.  Boogie Bugs only cost £1 a session.  It's next on in East Preston on Friday 30th August and is also held regularly at the Wickbourne Children and Family Centre in Littlehampton.

After my park related whinge in my last blog, a friend recommended the Gull Island playground by Splashpoint.  We went this weekend and I'm pleased to report that it has much more for Munchkin's age group than the playground at the other end of the prom.  She loved playing in the sand and also went on the medium sized slide, the baby slide, the roundabout, rockers and the monkey swing (well that's what I call them because I first saw them at Monkey World!).  The only thing this playground seems to be lacking is swings (it just had the one).  Are swings out of vogue with playground designers?  I can assure them they're not out of vogue with toddlers!  There was a fenced off area where either something had been removed and/or something new was being added.  I'm sure we'll go back, so it'll be interesting to see what's going in that space.  If we go again, we'll take a bucket and spade.

Next weekend, Munchkin's cousin Sweetpea is coming to stay, so we'll be going to Blackberry Farm near Lewes.  There's a blog in my head about parenting advice I've been given and would give to other people, so I need to write that at some point... not yet sure if it's one for here or Worthing Mums.