Coughs, Colds and Creative Christmas Countdown

Coughs, Colds and Creative Christmas Countdown Standstill

Its day 5 of the countdown being hosted by Creative with Kids please see her sight for all details.

We've come to a bit of a standstill on the countdown. Ninky has a really nasty cold and cough, so nasty he coughed so badly in his sleep that he vomited while still asleep. I have never been so glad to have gone back on my no baby in the marital bed rule in all my life. What if he had been in his cot and choked? I cant even think about it.

Needless to say we haven't done much of anything. Ninky is clingy and temperamental. I'm tired from not sleeping properly with him in our bed. We have just snuggled up on the sofa with our duvet and drank lots of nanny Jean's special cold remedy, Check out the recipe below. . 

We are going to fit in some of the activities that we missed but still want to try when Ninky is feeling better.

Day 3 - making your own Christmas paper from Theimaginationtree. This is definitely on our to do list so i will make sure to post pictures when we give it a go.

Day 4 - This was a Christmas song from angeliquefelix.com. We did give this a go but I have to admit i struggled with this song, i couldn't hold the tune in my head and when i could do that i couldn't get the words to fit. I consider myself reasonably musical but this was beyond me I'm afraid. I'm sure this has more to do with me than the song and the song itself has a nice sentiment.

Instead i got our Musical instruments out and taught Ninky some carols and Christmas songs. His favourites are 'When Santa got stuck up the Chimney' and 'Slient Night'. He loved Silent Night as a small baby and around his first Christmas he was teething so me and his dad sang this on repeat. The only other song to sooth him was his dad singing Mr Boombastic ( no I'm not sure why my husbands choose this song either but we've since decided at was probably sleep deprived hysteria)

Ninky really enjoys singing and has a large repertoire of songs however he does like to mix it up a bit and i recently heard him singing "jingle bells, jingle bells, old McDonald had a farm on a one horse open sleigh" He does make me laugh.

Day 4 - Christmas peppermint Stars from Science Sparks - .I hadn't heard of this website before today which is a shame as the quick look i manged was really rewarding. She seems to bring science to the everyday in a really accessible way so i will be stopping back there soon. Especially as Ninky seems to have a scientific way of looking at things if that's possible for  2 year old. its all why?, how?, what happens if i do this? I cant keep up sometimes but i love it none the less.

I was only missing White Chocolate for this activity but i just couldn't face dragging Ninky round the shop to get some so this very cute and I'm sure tasty educational activity is also being shunted along on our to do list.

Here is a picture of what we did manage yesterday and today.

Yesterday 4/12/12 - Santa and his Elves

I got these little fellas from a children's magazine that Ninky has. I do like to do most of my crafting with him from scratch but when you're feeling under he weather it's nice to take a short cut sometimes. The covers of the magazine made up the bodies, hats and hands and then there were stickers to add the faces and presents.

I had to do the cutting but older children would be able to manage this i think. Ninky did the gluing with a little help from me and stuck the faces and presents on himself. 

Something this activity taught me is that I'm best doing open ended art activities with Ninky than something with a specific end product. My inner OCD demon comes out and i found myself saying things like, but if you do that then it wont look just like the picture.  

I pulled myself up short, reminded myself he is only two and got out some plain paper, glue and Christmas shapes for him to go wild with after we had finished the elves.

I also found if i gave him 'important jobs' like holding the glue for mommy and sticking the hats on etc then it kept him more on task and he didn't take matters into his own hands. If you look closely you will see Santa has a cut through his hat that Ninky did while i wasn't looking and he was bored.

Today - 5/12/12

Today we kept things very simple. We had recently attended a local museum and made an apple pomander. I had only ever used oranges but they assured me that the original pomanders would have been apple as they didn't have oranges readily available in England at the time when they were first being made. I guess this makes sense.

Ninky didn't have the strength to push the cloves in himself so i used the end of a paint brush to make holes in the apple and then set the apple and cloves on a plate and showed him how to push the cloves in. This was a great fine motor activity.

He did about half the apple then got bored but he isn't well so is a bit restless. I think normally he would have stayed at this longer.

I then rolled the apple in some mixed spices including nutmeg,cinnamon, mace and ground cloves. I was told at the museum that this preserves the apple while it dries out.

I will be tying some ribbon round it and hanging it up when i can decide where, i want somewhere that the spices wont rub off on curtains or wallpaper and my options are few. I'll have a think and let you know if i come up with a solution.


Now as promised the recipe for Nanny Jean's Cold Remedy.

This isn't really a recipe and there is certainly no scientific proof that it has any cold fighting benefits but the separate parts are all known to help with colds and sore throats so i guess it wont hurt.

To me it tastes like comfort in a glass.

My family cant have a cold and not drink gallons of this stuff. Ninky asks for his 'make me better drink' already.

What you will need:

A large jug - 2 pint size approximately
Some runny honey - to taste but i normally put about 2-3  teaspoons per jug
Lemon Juice - have never measured this but i would guess at about a tablespoon or two to taste
Whole Cloves - about 10
Cordial, made to normal strength ( my Favourite is Ribena for this but i think that's just what i had as a kid)

Place everything in the jug and pourr boiling water over it. Allow to infuse and cool a little then enjoy when at a drinkable temperature.

Thanks for reading and i hope you pop back to see what we get up yo in the next few days, hopefully Ninky will be feeling better and we will have our take n the exciting activities from the countdown to show you.