Toddler free time

Now that Harry is at school I spend a lot of time alone with Mia. I do enjoy it, and it's becoming more fun as she gets older and able to do more things. But I also feel that Harry is missing out, because whenever I have time to spend with him she is always around. Although she has moved on from disrupting crafting sessions because she no longer quite tries to eat everything, she is still pretty disruptive when it comes to almost everything else that Harry is trying to concentrate on.

He could quite happily play for hours with his Lego or his Playmobil, but if Mia is there she just wants to play too, and she gets in the way of what he's trying to do. He becomes frustrated, she gets cross, and it ends up with them both screaming and Harry missing out on the opportunity to play.

Mia also has a much shorter attention span, meaning that when I take something out for them to play with together, like play dough or a sensory tub, she will become bored before Harry. I then have to take her away and find something else for her to do, so Harry will get lonely playing on his own and come over to see what we are doing, meaning that activities that I set up are finished with far too quickly.

I know that things will improve as Mia gets older, and things are so much better than when she was a baby. But I do very much enjoy the times when it's just me and Harry. At the weekend we had a lovely morning where we were able to play one of the board games that he received for Christmas (while making a good start on my Mother's Day Maltesers), then he set up a treasure hunt for me with clues (excellent writing practice), followed by a chance to play with his Playmobil castle and train set, undisturbed.

He's such a lovely little boy, funny, chatty and interesting to talk to. But the two of them are developing such differing personalities that they each require dealing with and entertaining in different ways, it certainly keeps me busy!