Coloured Rice For Kids: DIY

Hey everyone! So this week I made some coloured rice for our son to play with, this DIY was sparked by him always wanting to touch rice whenever we'd prepare it for cooking! (As you can imagine, in Thailand, we cook it a lot.) One day, I made an additional bowl for him to play with, and he was thrilled! I also added some bottle lids to the bowl for him to scoop with and then some plastic cups so he could fill them with rice. He loved it. And obviously, this is a great sensory activity for developing those all-important fine motor skills.  So I decided to go out and buy another big bag of rice just for him to play with, it was fun for a while, but I wanted to make it better. After a little inspiration from the internet I decided coloured rice would be a winner, and it was.

And it's the simplest thing to make. Ever.

All you need is,

White Rice

White Vinegar

Food Colouring of Your Choice.

Plastic Zip Lock Bags

Something to dry your rice in!

A tub for the finished coloured rice.

So how do you make it?

Step 1

Put as much rice as you want for one colour, in one plastic bag.

(I used 5 cups but you can use more or less).

Step 2

Add a dash of food colouring to the bag.

(It doesn't need to be much at all).

Step 3

Add about half a teaspoon of white vinegar.

Step 4

Shake the bag until all (or most) of the rice is coloured!
(I was surprised at how quick this happened!)

Step 5

Carefully empty the rice into a tray for drying!

(making sure there is enough space for the other colours!)

Then repeat for however many colours you want!

After you have tipped all of the rice in the tray, leave it overnight to dry.

In the morning, carefully tip your colours into the larger tub and then watch your child's' face light up with joy at all of the beautiful colours!

You can use anything you want to scoop the rice and it's also fun to let your kids fill up jars, muffin tins, ice cube trays etc. Whatever you have lying around basically :)

 He was playing for hours :)

All in all, an extremely successful activity!

Let me know if you have enjoyed this little post and I will make more of course :)

Don't forget to say hi in the comments too!

Cola

Asher's 20 Months Update

My baby is turning into a little boy and it's so amazing to see. He's learning so many new words and starting to do things for himself, like slipping his shoes on and wiping the floor when he spills something. His emotions are really starting to show too, he will laugh hysterically at times and throw things around when he doesn't get his way. His moody face is super cute though, I can't help but smile.

So what has changed at 20 months?

Asher has been walking for 10 months now, so he's been on his feet a while and previous to this he was running everywhere, he is very confident on his feet, he used to scream to play in the garden and whenever we'd arrive home he wouldn't want to come inside! Now, finally, at 20 months, he's chilled out a bit, he will walk inside by himself and now he likes to sit and play more. Also, when we're out and about he now loves to hold mummy's hand, as appose to just running off like before. Holding his hand when we're out is one of my absolute favourite things to do. 

With regards to language we're raising Asher to be bilingual as he has an English mummy and a Thai daddy, and he's doing pretty well so far. I've heard the best way to raise a bilingual baby is for mummy to speak in her language to their son/daughter, and daddy to speak in his language. That way he will pick up the correct form of the two languages and will be able to swap between the two and learn both. Hopefully.

At first, he seemed to pick up Thai language a lot quicker, but I've found that since 18 months he's started to develop more on the English side, I think at first Thai was easier for him to pick up because Thai words seem to be easier to say. For example, in Thai 'water' is 'nam' and the word 'milk' is 'nom' and those were words he was using a lot. English is a lot wordier than Thai. He still says some things in Thai which he can't yet say in English, he will 'sai taw' which in English is 'put your shoes on' and 'pak pak' which is 'vegetables' in English. But when I talk to him in English, for example, when I tell him to put his shoes on, he understands. At 20 months he's started to pick up more simple English words, his favourite things to say at the moment are 'moon, star, ball, tree, sun and baby'. He can say some of those things in Thai too. He will also just copy random words we say. His language really is developing a lot at 18 months. He's already getting to grips with saying the phonics alphabet, which amazes me. 

At 20 months he is still breastfeeding in the morning and evenings, and he sometimes stills falls asleep doing that on a night, however, he can also soothe himself to sleep a lot more than before and if I walk with him he will often feel relaxed and when I put him down he will turn over and go to sleep by himself. He still sleeps in our room in a bed close to us. I really love having him nearby and love seeing his face in the morning when he wakes up, which is usually about the time I get up for work, he's my little alarm. He's an amazing sleeper and hardly wakes up in the night, unless he has the sniffles. Booo!

At the moment, one of the things we are struggling with is trying to get him to eat more. It's hard to tell if he's eating enough sometimes, he's a healthy weight but sometimes it doesn't look like he's eating a lot. We try to give him a variety of food but he seems to love just eating plain rice with vegetables, fish, he LOVES fish. He also loves pasta and toast too and he loves eating pieces of cucumber, apple and mango. Now I've written this all down I feel like maybe he is eating better than I thought, but sometimes it doesn't feel a lot maybe because he tries to eat by himself a lot, his spoon control is getting much better but a lot still goes on the floor! Oh he doesn’t like food that has an odd texture and he LOVES fruit juice too and fruit shakes (they’re popular in Thailand!), he will finish a cup in two seconds flat and then want more. 

His current favourite things are:

The Moon, Stars and Trees.

Countryside.

Playing Football.

Climbing everything.

Standing on things.

Pouring milk on the floor.

Cleaning the milk up.

Helping mummy with food.

Putting lids on things.

Putting things away.

Scribbling with his crayons.

Playing with water.

Being cheeky.

The Phonics Alphabet

Holding mummy's hand.

AEROPLANES AND HELICOPTERS!!

He gets so excited when he sees an aeroplane, which he currently calls 'bin' which means fly in Thai! I just love him so much and he really is the best thing to ever happen to me. Although it's not all sunshine and rainbows, it is hard work and I feel like I'm constantly cleaning up after him, but it's all worth, he brings us so much joy and he is a good boy really :) <3

5 Things I Would Tell My Pregnant Self

Hello, everyone! I currently have a 1-year-old little boy, named 'Asher' and he brings me so much joy that myself and my partner have been discussing having another baby, it won't be right away, but hopefully in the not too distance future :) Anyway, it got me thinking, if I was pregnant again, what advice would I give myself? So here it is!

Firstly:

Don't over think things! 

I know it's a mother's instinct to worry and I definitely think it's a good thing to be worried about certain things, it shows you care and helps you behave responsibly during pregnancy too. Having said that, I think worrying or over thinking too extremely taints the whole experience of being pregnant. It is hard, obviously because you can't see your little one (unless you go for a scan - which could be a pricey process if you do it often enough!). But I kinda wish I hadn't worried as much and tried to enjoy it more, after all, being pregnant is such an amazing feeling!

Secondly

Don't eat too much!

But what are you talking about? You can eat for two!! Right? Wrong.
Myself and probably most others have heard this old tale. And that's exactly what is, a tale.
Whilst you definitely feel hungrier when pregnant, you shouldn't overdo it.  Like me. Until I realised you're actually only supposed to have about 300-500 calories extra per day... which is about half a sandwich, not an extra pizza. I think this is an important one because eating too much can be bad for your baby and it makes it harder for you to return back to your original size post pregnancy!

Thirdly

Read up on how to breastfeed!

I definitely wish I'd researched more about breastfeeding!
I didn't research much about it because I think I just thought it would be a walk in the park.
It looked so simple, just this beautiful, natural connection between mother and baby... which it is, but not at first. It's actually really hard until you and your gorgeous little newborn get the hang of it. When I was pregnant I wish I'd researched more about it;  if I'd read more I think I'd of definitely been more ready for the challenges I faced within the first few months of breastfeeding!

Fourthly 

Make a detailed birth plan!

Now I'm giving myself some points here because I actually did make a birth plan for my first pregnancy. But I would definitely do it again! Probably in even more detail.
 Having this wonderful piece of paper made my delivery so comfortable and exactly how I wanted it. It was amazing how much the midwives took note on what I had written, I was seriously impressed. I think I even got given the private room for our family after birth because of the fact I'd written that I would like one if possible. Amazing.

Lastly

Don't wait, do it now!

Whatever you want to do, do it now! It is true that once your little one comes along, things are going to get hectic! I think it's hard to comprehend how much when someone tells you, but you really will not have much time for yourself or anyone really (except your baby). So use this time to do things you want to do, read a book, go out, get a pedicure, reply to those emails....

Do it, do it now!

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Lots of love 'n' stuff

Cola