365 | TheBoyandMe

Days 62-68 of Project 365

March 9, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 56 Comments

62-68 of 365

62. Shoot! (These are the seeds we planted a week ago in our gardening play table. They've really shot up, which means that I now have to find somewhere to move them to so they can acclimatise to the outside temperature. However, look to the back, the middle seed label was written by The Boy.)

63. The Sands of Time (We went for a long walk and cycle along Cardiff Bay Barrage today and played in the pirate play park there. We were the only people in the park for quite some time, which meant that The Boy had free rein over the sandy, sunken, pirate ship.)

64. Lick! (The first ice-cream of the year down the beach! The Boy had an eye-test today and he was meant to have eyedrops to test for a stigmatism, however because he held so still and was compliant during the test, he didn't need the drops which I was very relieved about. As a result it meant we were able to nip down to the beach and enjoy an ice-cream on the pier with nana.)

65. Bed Fellows (The Boy looked so peaceful when I went to check on him at midnight, so calm and serene. Oliver Monkey is never far away, and the week wouldn't be complete without a sleeping photo!)

66. Bubbles at Bathtime! (We had an extra long bathtime tonight where we had the bubble machine out, a pot of bubbles and the underwater light – all to remember a special little girl who loved bubbles.)

67. Catch The Pigeon! (Remember the Wacky Races song? Our weekly cycle ride along the pier was just like a scene from that today. The pier was deserted aside from a few elderly couples having their 'daily constitutional' and one or two brave pigeons. I say brave because once The Boy saw them he was determined to scare them away, something that made the grannies and grandads chuckle at!)

68.Splat! (We've been to Nymans for a National Trust event today as we are helping to promote the 50 Things To Do Before You're 11 and ¾ campaign. More to follow on this, and I've had to add this photo in at the last minute so please forgive any editing errors in this post!)

—

365 #9

March 2, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 18 Comments

Heading into the third month of the year, the weather is improving as the days get longer, the sun stronger, and with that comes the promise of more outdoor play and better photographic opportunities. Having spent the afternoon exploring a (mostly) ruined castle, the photographs have virtually taken themselves.

We're coming to the first wall in Project 365; the novelty has worn off and taking photos has become a little tedious. Don't give up, it's such a rewarding project to do and you'll be amazed at seeing all that you've achieved at the end of the year. Keep snapping away, we all have rough weeks.

Choose your favourite photo from the past week and link it up below.
Please add the badge to your linked-up post so that other people know how to find all the other fabulous entries.
If you can spare five minutes to comment on a few other entries I know they'd appreciate it!

Days 55-61 of Project 365

March 2, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 42 Comments

55-61 of 365 55. 'Hello! Anyone there?' (We went exploring in the woods and had a great time squelching through the mud and finding our echo.)

56. 'Spiderman' (This cargo net is always the first thing he heads for in a local park, it's a bit of an ongoing challenge for him as it is designed for infants and juniors, having different size nets as well as different sized ladders. He likes to measure his progress by how easily he can get over the bigger gaps, but has yet to attempt climbing up the sail of the 'boat'.)

57. 'Can' (He's been using a Reading Eggs app called 'Tap The Cat' to practise his reading, spelling and writing, and under my site's host's recommendation I bought this pen for him to use with the iPad. He's finding it so much easier to overwrite and it's better than finger tracing for the development of his writing skills.)

58. 'New teeth' (He finally got stuck into the chocolate Gruffalo we bought him for Christmas and relished eating various parts of him to make him less scary!)

59. 'Underwater lights' (Kara from Innocent Charmer recently recommended this underwater bath light to me, which arrived this week, and has brought a whole new level of fun to bathtime!)

60. 'National Pride' (St. David's Day!)

61. 'Lean' (We've been exploring Caerphilly Castle today in the most gorgeous Spring sunshine, and in one half of this photograph you can see the leaning south east tower of the castle. More on that in this weekend's Country Kids post.)

—

365 #8

February 23, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 4 Comments

Well the weather this week has been a bit cheeky!

There I was thinking that Spring was coming and getting enthusiastic about being outdoors again, and it's turned into bitterest Winter again.

I'm not impressed!

As ever, this linky only works because of people linking to it and then contributing their thoughts to others' posts.

Join in by entering the URL of your favourite photograph of the week (either a 52 or a 365 photo) and show some comment love to everyone else in the community. We've got a Facebook group follow, and now I've created a collaborative Pinterest board follow (if you'd like to collaborate, let me know and I'll add you).

Choose your favourite photo from the past week and link it up below.
Please add the badge to your linked-up post so that other people know how to find all the other fabulous entries.
If you can spare five minutes to comment on a few other entries I know they'd appreciate it!

Days 48-54 of Project 365

February 23, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 74 Comments

48-54 of 365

48. 'Sandcastle' (It feels like too long since The Boy has played with his sandtable, so we uncovered it and he got stuck in making mini-sandcastles and driving his cars through the sand. A chillier day than it had been the previous week, turns out Spring wasn't on its way after all!)

49. 'Downfall' (I was sorting through one of the boxes in the Ikea unit in the living room when I found Downfall nestled at the bottom of it. I got it out for The Boy and we spent most of the morning playing the game; he picked it up quickly and was really good at developing a strategy. It has remained the most played with toy of the the week!)

50. 'Chilled Out' (Every day-off morning before Mr. TBaM goes to work, The Boy sits on our bed while I shower quickly and get dressed. This morning I climbed back into bed to warm up and The Boy leant against me chilling out playing on the iPad. I love how completely relaxed he is.)

51. 'Run, run as fast as you can!' (In lieu of the fact that we want an XBox Kinext but can't afford one, we've introduced The Boy to the Wii this week and he has become a fan of the bowling game. However, we introduced him to running on the Wii Fit and he is now obsessed with it and wants to play it all the time! He loves competing against us to see who can run the fastest and it's very cute to see his little legs flying around the place as he tried to run as fast as he possibly can.)

52. 'Eggy Words' (Yes I know it's another technology shot, but such is our life this week as it has been so damned cold! I've just downloaded Eggy Words by Reading Eggs for review, and The Boy has completely taken to spelling out simple CVC words on it, I'm very proud of him!)

53: 'Slumber' (Zonked out after a long morning at nursery, and a long afternoon playing with nana, The Boy slept soundly all night. Just before our bed I went to check on him and found this tousle-haired young man cuddling Oliver Monkey tight, I do love watching him sleep.)

54: 'Lazy Saturday' (We've been very lazy today and done hardly anything! I feel quite rotten this morning and Mr. TBaM very kindly let me have a lie-in which knocked out most of the morning, and they both went shopping to give me a bit more space. Upon their return I walked into the living room and found The Boy having a bit of a chill out session on the sofa with the iPad, again. I think it's the jeans which make him look like older, it's why I tend not to dress him in them.)

I'm actually a little ashamed of the fact that there are four technology photos in this lot and only one outdoor photo. We've failed a bit on our 15 minutes outdoor play this week (only managing it five times) because of how horribly cold it has been; next week will be better!

—

365 #7

February 16, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 6 Comments

What a marvellous week we've had! So busy with half-term activities and I've taken precisely eleventy billion photos with my dSLR. It turns out that me knackering my 18-55mm lens last weekend (I actually cried) was a blessing in disguise because the depth of field on my 28-105mm lens is so much better.

As ever, this linky only works because of people linking to it and then contributing their thoughts to others' posts.

Join in by entering the URL of your favourite photograph of the week (either a 52 or a 365 photo) and show some comment love to everyone else in the community. We've got a Facebook group, and now I've created a collaborative Pinterest board (if you'd like to collaborate, let me know and I'll add you).

Choose your favourite photo from the past week and link it up below.
Please add the badge to your linked-up post so that other people know how to find all the other fabulous entries.
If you can spare five minutes to comment on a few other entries I know they'd appreciate it!

Days 41-47 of Project 365

February 16, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 38 Comments

41-47 of 365

41: 'The Terrific Trio' (We were fortunate enough to be able to visit Mummy Mishaps and her boys today, and true to form we dragged them outside into the fresh air for their minimum of 15 minutes outdoor play a day. Hoods up, wellies on, find an old hoop and some puddles, and what more could you want? Really enjoyed our day, thank you Jenny!)

42: '3D' (Today I took The Boy to the cinema with Nana and his cousins, to see 'Sammy's Great Escape'. It's only the second time he's been to the cinema, the first time to see a 3D film. I'll confess that I wasn't sure how well he'd see it, I wasn't sure on the development of vision in tiddlers. However the moment he put them on, he reached out to touch the fish swimming towards him and he repeated this at least a dozen times throughout the film, before then lowering his glasses to try and understand why it looked like he could touch the images. It was really very magical and endearing.)

43: 'Zoomy paint' (Hugely productive day today: playdough, painting with cars and a themed waterplay – more on that another day, gymnastics, and outdoor play again. The Boy loved exploring the different way of mark-making with the paint.)

44: 'Solitary' (After nursery we went down the beach for a blast of fresh air to the system. 'Blast' and 'fresh' are both understatements here. It was freezing and windy. Oh and raining that irritating fine precipitation that gets everywhere! We managed a scoot to the end of the pier and back before collapsing into the warmth of the car. It is worth noting that we were the only people on the seafront!)

45: 'Shake and fizz' (A little science experiment today with some frozen vinegar blocks and coloured ice cubes, liquid vinegar, salt, bicarbonate of soda and a pinch of inquisitiveness.)

46: 'Morning scoot' (I took him for his eye test only to discover he needs a more complex one involving dilating drops to check for a stigmatism, so we had to rebook. As it was 9.30 and we were dressed and out, we headed to Victoria Park in Cardiff which we last went to when he was too young to appreciate. He befriended a four year old little girl and they spent an hour happily racing around, holding hands, zooming down the zipwire, slipping on the ice, helping each other onto the equipment, and having a marvellous time.)

47: 'Hello up there!' (A bike ride through the foggy parks overlooking the beach and back along the seafront to the car, interspersed with some pebble 'plopping' down on the beach. 15 minutes? CHECK!)

I can't choose a favourite this week because I'm very pleased with all of them; they show a mummy and her son who have had a brilliant half-term together.

—

365 #6

February 9, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 4 Comments

"I can feel it coming in the air today, oh yeah!"

Anyone with me? Anyone else feel that shhhh 'Spring' might just be in sight? I can't wait because with my favourite season of the year comes longer days, more outdoor activities, better natural light and possibly, just possibly the promise of warmth. (I'm wearing a fleece with the heating on 23°C as I type this.)

As ever, this linky only works because of people linking to it and then contributing their thoughts to others' posts.

Join in by entering the URL of your favourite photograph of the week (either a 52 or a 365 photo) and show some comment love to everyone else in the community. We've got a Facebook group, and now I've created a collaborative Pinterest board (if you'd like to collaborate, let me know and I'll add you).

Choose your favourite photo from the past week and link it up below.
Please add the badge to your linked-up post so that other people know how to find all the other fabulous entries.
If you can spare five minutes to comment on a few other entries I know they'd appreciate it!

Days 34-40 of Project 365

February 9, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 37 Comments

34-39 of 365

34: 'Swinging' (The Boy learnt to pull himself up into his swing and then swing himself! All by himself! I'm so proud of him. He sat there happily swinging along while Mr. TBaM and I watched from our respective paused activities.)

35: 'Not Quite So Roar-y' (Quite possibly the most useless ride-on ever; cost £1 for a minute and barely moved. I'm not sure who was more unimpressed; me, mum or The Boy.)

36: 'The Paradise' (I had great fun creating this small world play beach for The Boy and he had great fun plopping the mummy and daddy into the sea. We made a miniature sandcastle and had a mini game of football with the Playmobil figures.)

37: 'Hopeful!' (We've been sent a Groclock for review and we started using it on the weekend after quite frankly the most ridiculous fortnight of early morning wake-ups. He's absolutely taken with it and loves watching it go to sleep. It does seem to be working because the morning after this photo was taken he woke at 5am and when he saw it was still night-time he went straight back to sleep until 7.35am!)

38: 'Sailing on the sea' (Grandad comes over to play with The Boy on a Thursday while I'm in work and Nana is looking after him, today they made this picture together with The Boy's tap-tap set.)

39: 'Pedal Power' (A quick trip to the beachfront after I picked him up from nursery and time to practise his bike riding. He's doing really well with it, steering well and staying steadily upright in his seat. The stabilisers are at the highest position they can be before removing them but he's not quite ready because he pedals too slowly. He's capable of pedalling faster but his problem is that he's too busy looking at the world around him and taking it all in to concentrate on the speed. And who can blame him?)

40: 'Wishing Well' (We've come away for the weekend to Weston-Super-Mare because I just need to get away from it all, we all do. It's not quite been the day I envisaged because it's über grey and drizzly, but we've had such fun! Off to see Mummy Mishaps and crew tomorrow!)

—

and with A Kilt and a Camera

365 #5

February 2, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 25 Comments

Hands up who's beginning to struggle?

This is the grey month, the month where 365 participants begin to flag. The excitement of the project has settled, the Christmas rush has finished, the snow has melted and the skies are grey. But don't give up! Pick yourself a theme for a week and stick to that. At various points throughout last year I'd do a week of 'From Where I Stand' following in the 'footsteps' (ahem) of A Kilt and A Camera. Other themes could be 'hands', 'action', 'outside', 'books', 'food', etc. Pick a theme and play with it, take interesting photos on that theme and enjoy! DON'T GIVE UP!

As ever, this linky only works because of people linking to it and then contributing their thoughts to others' posts.

Join in by entering the URL of your favourite photograph of the week (either a 52 or a 365 photo) and show some comment love to everyone else in the community. We've got a Facebook group, and now I've created a collaborative Pinterest board (if you'd like to collaborate, let me know and I'll add you).

Choose your favourite photo from the past week and link it up below.
Please add the badge to your linked-up post so that other people know how to find all the other fabulous entries.
If you can spare five minutes to comment on a few other entries I know they'd appreciate it!