If you read this blog you will know that we talk all the time about Baby Tilda up in the sky, playing with the stars, chasing the moon, bouncing on the clouds and sliding on rainbows.
We blow bubbles up to the sky most days as our Baby Tilda loves bubbles and we believe they carry love, wishes and kisses up to our Baby Girl.
The music at Tilda’s funeral had a definite starry theme.
She is our shining star.
We love and miss her every day.
We remember her in all that we do.
In the weeks and months since we found Baby Tilda sleeping we have been working closely with FSID who today have changed their name to The Lullaby Trust.
The Trust work with families like ours who are dealing with the loss of a baby and they also raise awareness of SIDS.
They have changed their name in the hope that it will encourage more families to approach them and access the services and information that they provide.
We have chosen our new identity to help us raise our voice, to ensure that sudden infant death is not ignored or considered to be an issue of the past.
Across the country, over 600 apparently healthy babies continue to die suddenly and unexpectedly every year. This is unacceptable and we want to do all we can to prevent these deaths.
We believe that our new identity will help us to reach even more parents with our expert advice on safer sleep for babies. Through greater engagement with families and also with policy makers we hope to achieve our ambition to halve the number of babies dying by 2020.
Together with Susanne aka Ghostwriter Mummy I have launched this lullaby linky to celebrate the relaunch of their charity and promote their wonderful new name.
Once again the power of the blogging community is coming to the fore, as in memory of my beautiful daughter, cruelly taken from us by SIDS, parenting bloggers across the UK and the world come together to make a difference.
These past weeks and months I have been so proud of my blog, the blogging community and the bloggers I am absolutely honoured to call my friends.
Today we come together as one to tell you about The Lullaby Trust in memory of a beautiful baby girl taken from her family, our family, far too soon.
My theme for today is messy lullabies and, of course, stars.
For our messy lullaby play we have chosen the one that Tilda loved best and the one that most reminds us of her.
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
We had the GiggleBellies version of this traditional lullaby playing as we entered the church for Matilda’s funeral.
It will always remind me of Baby Tilda and of my husband carrying our daughter’s tiny white casket in his arms.
Twinkle Twinkle means so much to us as a family and we sing it all the time.
Esther and William often watch this video as part of their bedtime routine.
They often ask me to sing it as we put them into their cots and turn off the lights.
We often play it as we project stars onto our playroom ceiling and think of Matilda Mae.
Today we had it playing in the background as we embarked on some star themed sensory play.
For today’s sensory play, I filled two of our big bowls with clear water beads.
I then added some marbles of different colours and sizes.
I sprinkled silver glitter over the beads and marbles.
I then sprinkled tiny gold stars.
Then I added glow in the dark stars and little glowing 3D planets.
I added some of our painted stones, (Very messy stone painting post coming tomorrow!!)
I added some of our plastic Easter eggs and a few spoons and shallow bowls.
I then set the bowls in the centre of our Tuff Spots and invited Esther and William to come and play.
They did not need to be asked twice.
I let them explore the bowls as they were and then after a while I added some space craft and some astronauts to extend their play.
We also lowered the lights and projected stars onto the ceiling to give a new atmosphere to our play.
It was really quite magical.
The real awe and wonder though came when we added submersive lights. Some white lights and some that changed colour. Esther and William were mesmerised. They ooohed and aaahed as they watched the effects of the lights in their bowls. The beads glimmered and shimmered and glowed. We put lights inside plastic eggs to make colour changing space eggs. The whole sensory experience was calming and soothing and just beautiful.
When Esther and William could stand it no longer they both stripped off their pyjamas and jumped into their bowls. Seeing how their bodies changed the look of the light and the beads was wonderful again. Watching their faces as they learned from their play was just amazing. We had such a lovely time with our messy lullaby and thinking about Matilda Mae.
I am going to write much more about our Space Sensory Play for my next Tales from the Tuff Spot post so please watch out for that.
Tonight though here are my two little treasures playing with their Messy Stars and making mummy sing them lullabies.
If you would like to find out more about the work of The Lullaby Trust then please visit their website.
You may be able to help save a baby’s life x
If you would like to link up for The Lullaby Trust you can grab the badge code below. Thank you x
Matilda Mae
The Lullaby Trust
I’ve never done anything like that with my children. It all looks ever so pretty. Xx
I love love love your ideas.
Amazing and so inspiring.
Esther and William are adorable and their giggles are gorgeous. Great singing from you! I love the different words 🙂
The Lullaby Trust is a wonderful name. We have a favourite lullaby in our family, which has been sung for a few generations. Maybe you know it or a version of it too?
Go to sleep my baby
Close your pretty eyes
Angels are above you
Peeping at you from the skies
Great big moon is shining
Stars begin to peep
Time for little *sing name here!*, to go to sleep xxxx
Thank you Jennie for sharing this post. I know you only through Twitter but I think of you and your family often. Best wishes for your great work with the Lullaby Trust.
Love and bubbles to you and Matilda Mae,
Sara x
(Babycup)
Wow – what an amazing time you had with the twins. What a wonderful thing you are doing helping raise awareness! Your idea to get everyone to blog their take on the lullaby theme was great – i look forward to reading all the posts x x x
Beautiful xx
Oh my goodness what a lovely idea, so magical! The Lullaby theme is just beautiful, I hope it helps to raise awareness.
How beautiful. Stars will always make me think of Matilda Mae x
This is just beautiful. Sending you lots of love today as you help the lullaby trust with its new beginnings xxxx
Well done jennie. A beautiful beautiful post. xxxxxx
What wonderful fun. My daughter and I will be singing twinkle twinkle and blowing bubbles to Mr Boo today during his daily physio in memory of Matilda Mae and in celebration of The Lullaby Trust.
I should also add: thank you for linking me up and thank you for the inspiration. We are definitely going to do this and I think I know the perfect day too xxxxx
Wow. This is beautiful. Your children are very lucky to have you.
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This looks like so much fun. I haven’t really commented since you lost Matilda Mae but I felt that I needed to do my bit. You are an amazing woman and always think of you blog name as ‘Inspire Edspire’ xx
This looks magical and dreamy. That last video is wonderful x
This looks like such great fun. S was captivated by all the sparkly photos and and videos and especially by your fab improvisation at the end 🙂
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Such a beautiful post Jennie, what you do for Esther and William is amazingly beautiful. So lovely that they also like the same ‘owl and star’ video that MC does (and I’m sure TC will too) xx
I adore this. What a truly magical idea.
I also live this version on Twinkle Twinkle. I’m going to down load it now.
Much Love xx
This looks utterly beautiful – I love the stars projected around the room, the lights and textures all look wonderful. What a beautiful way to remember Tilda.
Fabulous! Looks so much fun, what a lovely post Jennie. I had missed this was taking place. I will try to write a post asap and help spread the word not only for the Lullaby Trust, but for Matilda Mae xxx
Fabulous. You’re an incredible inspiration, and it looks like they had so much fun! Thankyou for sharing
Beautiful blog and a lovely way to remember your little star x
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Jennie you are an inspiration! You are amazing and wonderful in everything you do. Matilda Mae will be so proud of the legacy you are creating for her!
A beautiful thing to do and looks gorgeous. A lovely post. x
what a beautiful.thing to do, your Angel will be smiling down on you from heaven
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This looks fantastic – beautiful, brilliant ideas and great fun. Can’t wait to try it. I love that W is so committed to his twinkle bus and so delighted with your rather quick thinking lullabies – absolutely fabulous x
You are amazing. Your family are too.
I am in awe. Well done for doing so much good at such a painful time.
Inspirational lady. Proud to link up.
Where do you get all your creative ideas from Jennie? Your children are very blessed with you as their mummy!
Absolutely love this messy play idea. Can you also do a downloadable list of supplies… maybe even where you source things like the lights from?
What an absolutely gorgeous post. I’m truly inspired by your strength. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of you and Matilda Mae. I have linked up – thank you for hosting this xx
This looks fabulous!! Your ideas are brilliant, I would love to do this!! The music has made me cry as I remember Matilda’s service. Your children are very lucky to have such an inspirational Mummy xxx
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I have not commented on your blog before but I have linked up to this post to help spread the word of the lullaby trust and felt I wanted to comment and tell you how inspiring your strength through such a tragic time is. Your children are very lucky to have you as their mum. I have been following your messy play posts as well and they are all amazing, I especially love this star themed one.
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That looks like so much fun with the twins, amazing idea!
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A beautiful post. An inspirational lady. xx
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Oh wow, that looks super cool! And really pretty! 🙂 xx
I’m always baffled as to how you find the time for all this amazing stuff! And so incredibly creative. An amazing experience for your lovely children, & the sort I wouldn’t expect to see in a home! You’re an inspiration x
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This is beautiful. Your children are so blessed to have such wonderful sensory experiences and I have no doubt that Matilda is very proud of you. I tried to add the badge code to a post I wrote in order to link up, but when I published the post all that appeared on the blog was the code jargon and not the image. Do you know what I have done wrong? (it’s my first time ever trying to link up to something!). I copied and pasted the badge code into my post. Is there something I have missed? xx
You are truly an inspirational lady and an incredibly strong one too – do all of this at such a difficult time. I follow your blog and when I am having one of those days your blog always makes me remind me what I have and I how I should just get on with it! The activities that you do are fantastic and I am planning on doing this with my two little ones – can I ask where you bought the flower shape connecting blocks, I cannot seem to find them anywhere in the UK?
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