Media Starlet!

I haven't updated this for ages, mainly because Hannah is essentially weaned now - she's tucking into our meals quite happily, and I'm not doing anything special for her. She's also not coming across new foods in the same numbers as she was towards the beginning, so it's tough to find something interesting to say!

BUT - Gill Rapley's book Baby Led Weaning was launched early in November, and I'm pleased to report that not only is Hannah included in the book (there's a picture of her and Neil eating falafel in there) but she also makes a mucky appearance on the related website, http://www.baby-led.com/, in the gallery - she's the one covered in spaghetti hoops! We went to the book launch at the Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green a couple of weekends ago, Hannah had fun showing off her BLW skills to all the other BLWers who were there:

Hannah has fairly recently got the hang of dunking, and ever since has taken to eaten fromage frais by scooping it out of the pot with fingers of toast, breadsticks, vegetable fingers, whatever else she's got to hand of an appropriate shape. She's ever-improving with her fork and spoon, and likes having both so that she can copy me and Neil at the dinner table. Oh, and Neil showed her how to do "cheers" with her sippy cup the other week, and ever since we've had to do cheers at every single meal. Yep, with mugs of coffee at breakfast, with a bottle of water at lunchtime, you name it! She just sits in her highchair saying "cheese" (well that's what it sounds like) and holding out her cup to be clonked.

I haven't got any weaning specific pics of late, so here's a couple of random ones to keep you going :o) First there's Hannah and Neil, engrossed in something on the telly, then there's Hannah modelling this seasons toddler fashions: Motherease Airflow Savannah nappy wrap, pink top from H&M, beautifully set off by flowery, sparkly wellies.

I'm liking the whole plate thing

Plates are marvellous, aren't they? They're certainly making the cleaning up operation after meals a lot easier, and Hannah's also got lots tidier at eating too - I'm not sure if that's just coincidence though.

Today for breakfast she had raspberry and pomegranate wheats, followed by a lunch of vegetable fingers and a cream cheese sandwich - lunch was preceded by a dried apricot, since she was shouting for food before it was ready.

For dinner there was pasta with a homemade sauce, and I couldn't believe how much of it Hannah ate. I thought I'd cooked far too much, and only put about 2/3 of it on her plate to start with, but she demolished that lot so I went back for the rest, and most of that got eaten too! She also ate over half of a cox's orange pippin - which I think is the first "natural state" apple I've given her. We don't have them in the house very often (I don't really like them, and I do the shopping!) and in the past I've steamed them for her slightly. But she got on really well with it, so I may have to add them to the shopping list from now on!

We were out for lunch after playgroup yesterday, here's a pic of Hannah and Jack looking for seconds from the bits they'd thrown on the floor:

Back in the game!

Hurrah! We finally have a new camera charger, so I've got lots of new pics of Hannah to show off :o) It's been ages since I updated this, I think it's boring without pics to go with it so haven't really been motivated to do anything. Anyway, ebay came to the rescue and now the camera is full of juice again.

Hannah has been doing all sorts of things in the past couple of weeks. Lots of painting at playgroup, including of my jeans and hand, and her hands. She fell off a climbing frame at the park, but was none the worse for wear, has been swimming three or four times and is far too confident in the water for her own good - she's of the opinion that she can swim just fine, thanks very much, and doesn't need anyone holding her up... Here's a couple of pics of her at the park the last week:

We went to a wedding yesterday (congrats to Diane and Rob!) and Hannah managed to be the only person who piped up at the "are there any reasons...?" bit, which made people chuckle. Here's a pic of her in her brand new party outfit:

Eating wise, she's started using cutlery much more frequently, and has even managed to get food into her mouth using a fork (not very often, and only when she's taken the edge of her hunger by shovelling it in with her hands first!). She's also started having a proper plate of food on her high chair tray, which she hasn't (yet) thrown on the floor - famous last words, of course, so expect a report back that we've no more plates left in the house!

For food she's carried on eating much of the same. We've moved Sunday dinner to an earlier time (about 5.30pm) so we can all eat together. This came as a bit of a shock to me and Neil the first time we did it, since we normally eat at around 8pm - we were starving by bedtime! It's lovely to have a relaxed family meal regularly though and we're carrying on with it when we can.

At yesterday's wedding reception Hannah's starter was melon, with margherita pizza for a main course then she had TWO sundae dishes full of fresh raspberries - she'd polished off the first lot before the waitress had left the table so got another, along with a big smile and "ooh she does like them, doesn't she" :oD She then scoffed an after eight mint and part of a huge slice of chocolate wedding cake. And then had some milk when we got home, too! I think the milk was just filling in the tiny spaces between all the food in her stomach though, she only had about half her normal amount...

Today she's eaten bruschetta for lunch, and roast dinner with quorn slices, roast spuds, two yorkshire puddings, roast butternut squash (she didn't eat this really though), white cabbage, carrots, and green beans.

It's no wonder she seems to be growing so fast! She's nealy grown into all her 12-18 month clothes, and she's only 17 months old yet, lol.

Puddlesuit success!

It's raining here (again). Good job we went out last weekend and bought Hannah a "puddlesuit" from Mothercare. It's like a waterproof bright pink hooded romper suit with long legs and sleeves. Obviously at the first sign of rain this week I put her in it and let her out to play on the patio! She didn't like having the hood up though - will post a picture as soon as I've got it off my phone. When it wasn't raining I gave her a couple of sticks of chalk to draw on the patio with, unfortunately she thought they would make a lovely snack and promptly ate them, or at least tried to. She wandered back in the kitchen looking very pleased with herself and with a distinct blue-green tinge about the chops.

Today before bed Hannah put her toys away herself, too. She brought them over to her toybox when I asked her, and we put them inside and said goodnight to them. It took ages, especially since all her wooden blocks were out on the floor and she would only pick them up one at a time to put them in their bag. But it saves me a job after she's in bed, so we'll persevere and I'm sure she'll get quicker eventually. Mum/Jo: no JCBs were involved!

Eating wise she's been having lots of blueberry wheats, then for lunch yesterday we ate hastily prepared toast - Hannah had peanut butter on hers before we dashed out to playgroup. Dinner wasn't much better, she had toast again but this time it was covered in spaghetti hoops. And needless to say, so was Hannah by the end of the meal!

Today it was blueberry wheats for breakfast again, and this time there was a nut cutlet and some pasta with creme fraiche and pepper for lunch. I wasn't sure whether Hannah would like the pasta or not, since I put a fair amount of pepper with it, but she pounced on it and ate loads - in fact only one lonely twist was dropped. I offered her a fromage frais for pudding, but she wasn't that fussed and only ate about 2/3 of it.

For dinner I gave her a peach and two halves of pear to start with, then two slices of eggy bread for afters - one spread with raspberry jam. Yes, I know that's the wrong way round, but I figured Hannah doesn't know that yet, and she was agitating for food but the eggy bread wasn't done. Needs must and all that!

It was only last week I was looking forward to all the playgroups starting back so that we could get back into a routine, but now I might regret it - both Hannah and I have got our first colds of the (school) year. Pass the lemsip, somebody, and a cuddle for Hannah while you're about it!

Baby Led Cleaning

Well today Hannah finallly got her hands on one of the cloths Neil was using to wipe her up with after lunch, and promptly used it to wipe her tray! Very impressive - although not so good that it saved us a job yet!

Breakfast was shredded wheat bitesize, plus most of a banana today as well. Clearly a hungry girl first thing. For lunch I gave her some tomato and boursin tart, followed by a homemade danish pastry thing (a square of pastry with a bit of marzipan and some dried fruit on, cooked). She picked the fruit off the top, ate that and pretty much ignored the rest of it other than a small nibble at the edges.

Today's dinner was quorn nuggets with peas, sweetcorn and saute potatoes. We'd all have had roast together, but we were out at Mothercare buying one of these puddlesuits for Hannah so that she can splash about in the rain (and even sit down in a puddle should the fancy take her). So it was a quick "argh, what have we got in that's fast?" when we got home. Still, Hannah ate most of what she was given, and followed it up with strawberries and a fromage frais for pudding as well. Then downed half a pint of milk before bed.

Playgroup starts back tomorrow, so even if the weather is nasty Hannah can burn off some energy in the church hall.

Hannah has also learnt how to strip wallpaper in the last day or two. There was a small bit of wallpaper in the living room that had lifted slightly as we had a mains water leak a while back and the wall got damp. Hannah quietly sat and picked at it on Friday while I was in the kitchen making tea, and now we have bits of wallpaper hanging off the wall. Fortunately she hasn't (yet) pulled any off, other than the lining paper from underneath. It jigsaws back together fairly well...just hope she doesn't do the same thing again anywhere else!

Ooh and finally, Auntie Jo is making us a fancy header thingy for the homepage of our blog, so watch this space... :o)

Each Peach and a plum

Hannah's not her normal cheery self at the mo, not sure what's up but we have a doc's appointment tomorrow morning so hopefully that will narrow things down. She's quite clingy and while not sleeping any longer than normal, is acting tired a lot during the day. Still, every cloud and all that, I'm getting lots of cuddles from her unlike the normal 5 second version!

She's still eating well, and has tried all sorts of things in the last few days. She's had shredded wheat or raspberry and pomegranate wheats for breakfast every day, and otherwise has eaten crumpets, saute potatoes, raisins, fruit salad (of peach, plum and kiwi), peaches and plums on their own, tomato, pb&j (that's peanut butter and jam, folks) on toast, scrambled egg, eggy bread, halloumi salad, beans on toast, jacket potato and beans, a marmite sandwich, cheddar cheese cubes, breadsticks, fromage frais, angel delight, and some organix crisps. Oh, and biscotti too.

She's now having strops when we tell her no, or move her away from something she's not meant to have (remote controls, phones, coffee cups... you name it!) and seems to have entered the "terrible twos" rather early. She's still trying to climb anything and everything, and wants to be outside playing even when it's tipping down with rain. Hannah can also get her arm into the greenhouse, and has helped herself to a number of cherry tomatoes off the plants in there. The first one she picked was green, and she didn't like that at all. Subsequent pickings have all been ripe, so I guess our talk about red tomatoes v green tomatoes may even have worked (or she's just figured out they're nasty if they're not ripe!).

I'm also wondering if she's getting ready for potty training - I think 16 months is a bit early though isn't it? Today she had a clean nappy put on after dinner, and within 10 minutes came over to me and took it off (it dropped onto the floor). When I checked, she'd filled it. It seems she knew, didn't like it, and was telling me "oi, where are the clean ones?" ;o) Fortunately all was well contained! So anyway, looks like we might be off looking at potty training accessories in the next few weeks. Suggestions on what might work are welcome, just leave a comment!

AWOL

Blimey, it's been a while - I promise we haven't been starving Hannah in the meantime! She decided 15 and a bit months was a good age to start growing her back molars, then followed that up with a cold, so we haven't had much evening time to ourselves recently. Fortunately things seem to be calming down now (hurrah!).

Yesterday, Hannah had pomegranate and raspberry wheats for breakfast, followed by corn on the cob and a fromage frais for lunch, and pasta with tomato sauce and grated cheese for dinner.

She's starting to get to grips with cutlery, as you can see from this photo:

However she hasn't actually managed to stab anything with her fork and get it to her mouth yet - still, practice makes perfect!

Over the bank holiday weekend we were away, and Hannah behaved beautifully. She had wheats for breakfast on both days, and also ate roasted mediterranean veggies, lots of cherry tomatoes, some vol au vents, a pain au chocolat, some banana and honey tea cake, some quorn ham and cheese escalope (which was lovely, must find out where to buy them from!), and lots more things that I'm probably better off not knowing about - I'm fairly sure she was snuck pringles, sweets, chocolate and all sorts of other things...


While we were away, Hannah learned how to play quoits - she put everyone else to shame, as every time someone missed the target, she ran over, picked it up and carefully placed it on the stick thingy. So she scored more points than everyone else put together, lol.

She's also started saying more words in the last week or so. We gave her some medicine the other night, and normally say "good girl" after each spoon she has. After the second spoon she looked up at us, grinned and said "good girl" herself! Well, it was more of "goo guh" but we knew what she meant. She's also started pointed at everything and saying what, and sometimes says up when pointing upwards or being picked up. Coming along nicely, I think! Cat remains the most popular word though - even when the cats are both avoiding her in order to protect their tails :o)

Dining room out of action

Hannah's been on fine form this week, although we haven't been anywhere exciting yet. She's enjoyed "helping" hang out washing, run round the garden (with the washing...), chase the cats, climb the furniture, pick up tiny weeny bits of dust off the floor that an adult eye can't see, and spy out on the decorator who's painting the dining room this week.

Having the decorator in means that Hannah's high chair is currently in the living room, along with a bunch of bookshelves, so it's all a bit crowded and complicated. For example after finishing her meal, Hannah is trapped in the chair until I've cleaned the floor underneath her as well as wiping her and her tray down. She's taking it all quite well so far though - let's hope it continues for another few days...

In terms of food, she's eaten cheerios, shredded wheat bitesize, a couple of pain au chocolats, a peach, half a banana, some strawberries, a plum, pasta with pesto tomato puree cherry tomatoes and grated cheese, potato wedges, pitta pockets filled with hummus mixed with cottage cheese and grated cheese and a few raisins, eggy bread, sausage and boiled potatoes, and all sorts of other things that have slipped my mind.

She's still playing with rather than using her cutlery, although I need to get better at letting her use it with every meal rather than just when I remember! Once I did see her pick up her fork, and carefully put some food on the end of it. She then looked at the food for a bit, picked it off with her other hand, and ate it. Not quite there yet, then... I'm not giving her the open beaker at the mo either, as she's a bit hemmed in by sofas and bookcases while eating at the mo, and I don't fancy drying out loads of books or sitting on a big wet patch after she's created a tidal wave with its contents. We should be back to normal next week, after the painting is finished, so it should be back in the game then.

Full of beans

Hannah has been full of beans today, in both senses of the word. Literally, because she had two slices of beans on toast for dinner, along with some raisins. She ate all of the beans, and sucked all of the bean juice out of the toast before discarding it. I think she nibbled on one of the slices, but didn't eat any significant quantity of it.

We had a busy day today, so after a breakfast of cranberry wheats we dashed off to Tumble Time at the local leisure centre. Hannah ran riot for 90 minutes or so, then we came home and she flaked out. When she woke up she had her lunch, which was some tomato tart, a plum, some blueberries and a couple of chocolate biscotti.

After lunch we went swimming with a friend - during the madhouse inflatables session at the local pool, which we didn't know about before we turned up! Fortunately there weren't any inflatables in the baby pool, just lots and lots of small children and their parents. Hannah enjoyed being dunked, going on the water slide (but getting caught at the bottom), and playing with a foam surfboard - which she promptly stood up on when I sat her on it. Is she going to be a surfer girl? After swimming she and Sam had a biscuit each, then the aforementioned beans on toast made an appearance.

I don't quite know why, after swimming, I am absolutely shattered but Hannah was full of beans, at least until just before bedtime. Somehow it doesn't seem fair!

Making a mockery!

Hannah had mock pizzas for dinner tonight, made with two crumpets (toasted) spread with tomato puree, pesto, a bit of sweetcorn and some grated cheese then grilled. She really liked them, although she's still using the top down approach to food consumption. She peeled the cheese off, then ate the sweetcorn, then licked the tomato and pesto sauce off, then ate the crumpets.

Lunch was saute potatoes and a couple of sausages, plus a nectarine, some raisins and a few apricots. Hannah didn't eat much of the nectarine this time, probably about half of it which is well below par.

For breakfast there were cranberry wheats again, which were demolished as usual. In fact we're about out of those as well, so it may well be back to the emergency box of cheerios in the cupboard tomorrow, I've just remembered I forgot to buy any new cereal earlier, oops!

Stirring things up

Hannah had cranberry wheats again for breakfast today, and ate lots of them. Lunch was a jacket potato with margarine, plus some vegetable fingers - the first meal using her new cutlery. Of course what she mostly did was play with the cutlery, holding all of it (knife, fork and spoon) in one hand, while using the other hand to pick up her food and transfer it to her mouth. Still, practice makes perfect and all that, she can't be expected to get it right on day 1!

We went to the park this afternoon, but the fixture was rained off after about 45 minutes, so we went to a cafe instead. Hannah and Millie shared a packet of vanilla wafer biscuits, and ate the lot - and then a second pack too! Hannah was quite covered in crumbs by the time we got back home.

Perhaps as a consequence of all those biscuits, she wasn't really that interested in tea, which would have been stir fry. She did eat about half a slice of bread, plus some strawberries and blueberries that I picked up while we were out. The blueberries in particular she seemed to really go for, so they might make another appearance on the menu. I've never actually bought any for Hannah before, other than in fruit salads and stuff, so she hasn't eaten that many of them but they were given preferential treatment even to strawberries today!

I took a pic on my camera today, but have to find the SD card that goes into my computer before I can upload it, so bear with me - it will hopefully appear tomorrow!

Well better late than never, here's that pic finally!:

Cutlery, cups and other things

Hannah had cranberry wheats for breakfast today, a big bowl of them, and she only left two squidged into the table. For lunch she ate a huge bowl of pasta with tomato sauce and grated cheese mixed through. I was amazed that she ate pretty much the entire bowl, it was as much as I ate! She ate it really fast as well, using both hands to shovel in the spirals as quick as she could.

For dinner Hannah had two rice cakes, one with hummus and one with cottage cheese. When she picked up the rice cake with hummus on, she licked it very daintily, pulled a face and put it back on the table. She also had some cubes of red leicester, a nectarine, and a tomato cut into wedges.

While we were out this afternoon I bought Hannah her first proper metal cutlery - not the stuff with plastic handles which is all I'd seen until now - and an open plastic beaker. She tried using the beaker this evening before bed, and knew exactly what to do, carefully tipping it towards her, but was taken by surprise anyway when a small tidal wave of water hit her face and surfed all down her tshirt, jeans, and the sofa. Still, I'm sure she'll get better with a bit of practise... The cutlery will get its first outing tomorrow so we'll have to wait and see how she does with that (and whether she bothers using it at all).

Picnic in the rain

Hannah and I went out yesterday to meet up with some friends in St James's Park in London. Apart from accidentally arriving just as the changing of the guard happened, and the fact it rained rather more than we were hoping, nothing untoward happened (phew!).

Hannah had cranberry wheats for breakfast both yesterday and today, and for lunch yesterday in the park I frankly have no idea what she ate. If we meet up like that again, we're going to supply a trough to put all the food in for the children, and just let them help themselves - that was mostly what was happening anyway, perhaps it was an early version of school lunch swapsies? Anyway the food Hannah ate included (but wasn't necessarily limited to) a bit of a cream cheese sandwich, half a nectarine, some cheesy poofs (shared with all the other babies too), a tiny bit of cereal bar, and water from any cup she could lay her hands on. She also had a nibble on the lid of our lunchbox:

For dinner yesterday when we got home Hannah ate some potato wedges with cubes of cheddar and red leicester cheese, fruit compote and a rusk. She was very tired, so didn't make all that good a meal, and topped up on milk before bed.

Today's lunch was a boiled egg (left over from the picnic yesterday) and some boursin and tomato tart, which Hannah really liked - I'm always surprised by how much she likes strong flavours like garlic. She also had a couple of dried greengages (chewy and tasty was the verdict) to finish things off.

Since it's Sunday, dinner was of course Sunday roast. There was a quorn fillet, roast potatoes, white cabbage, carrots, peas and sweetcorn topped off with some lo salt gravy. Hannah ate a fair amount of the quorn and roasties, squished a few carrots into her tray, peered suspiciously at the cabbage before giving it a bit of a lick, and pounced on all the peas and sweetcorn as fast as she possibly could.

Camera out of electricity

No pics today, sorry folks - the camera finally ran out of charge, and I still can't find the charger so am ordering a new one.

Hannah ate a bowl of shreddies for breakfast this morning, and followed this up with a small bowl of cranberry wheats for afters - all of which disappeared too. Obviously she was a touch peckish!

Lunch was a quick affair after we got back from Tumble Time (where she did, indeed, tumble multiple times and also try to dive headfirst off a 5ft high castle thingy). She just had a couple of slices of cream cheese on toast and a sachet of apple puree.

For dinner Hannah had scrambled egg on toast (hmm, lots of toast on today's menu!) along with a rusk and a nectarine. She ate loads of it, far more than I was expecting, and in fact put away two bits of the scrambled egg on toast that I was convinced she'd hidden it somewhere around the high chair, but apparently not!

Hannah and I are off out for a picnic in St James's Park tomorrow, so goodness only knows what will happen! Keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't rain, please...

Finger Lickin' Good

Hannah has been fairly whingy today, and I don't know why. She's acting as though she's still teething, but has her first 16 teeth already, and she's not meant to get any more until she's about 2 1/2 or 3. Still, she's managed her food OK, tucking into a bowl of shreddies for breakfast first thing. Before breakfast she climbed up onto the sofa and sat down, picked up my half full bottle of water, took the lid off and oh-so-carefully tipped it up and helped herself to a drink. She looked mega cute doing it, it was just a shame that I was in the kitchen and had no access to a camera!

Lunch today was a couple of vegetable fingers, a slice of nice bread from the bakers, some cherry tomatoes, and two slices of melon. She also had a bit of my nectarine, I wasn't going to give her any to start with as it was a bit hard, but she was fairly insistent on sharing.

For dinner there was quorn korma and rice. By the end of the meal it looked as though a rice bomb had gone off in the dining room, oh well. And as you can see, she thought it was finger-lickin' good:

For pudding she had her very own nectarine, depsite their brick-like consistency, and appeared to enjoy it very much indeed.

Clunk click with every trip

It's clearly important that Hannah wears her high chair seat belt for every meal now. I forgot to do it up at lunchtime today, and this is what happened at the end of the meal after she'd finished her meal but I hadn't cleaned her up yet:

Breakfast today was shreddies again, and for lunch Hannah ate cheese on toast, a banana, some cherry tomatoes and some raspberries. She ate the raspberries so quickly I thought she's thrown them somewhere while I wasn't looking, but judging by the squished bits all over her face and lack of any leftovers during clean up, I think she must have eaten them!

Dinner was pasta with tomato and mascarpone sauce, and as you can see it was wiped all over Hannah's face and shovelled into her mouth as quickly as possible:

This was ollowed by a doughnut man (a special treat) which Hannah spent ages carefully disecting - licking most of the icing off the front first, then pulling apart the torso to get to the jam innards, then licking out the jam before setting about the flesh (as it were...):

I thought the smartie eyes might have been a choking hazard, so I selflessly ate those myself ;o) much to Hannah's disgust!

Take two spoons to the table? Hannah does.

Today, Hannah has mostly been impersonating a monkey, clambering onto the coffee table and standing up on it (I like to call it table surfing...) - did I mention she can reach the light switch from there? It's really annoying...:

climbing into her toybox to get that difficult-to-reach-yet-absolutely-essential toy from right at the back: and climbing up my legs, the stair gates, and her high chair.

She's eaten quite well today, having shreddies for breakfast - although only about half of the bowl that I gave her - followed by eggy bread (1 and a bit slices) and a slice of pineapple for lunch. The pineapple I just sliced, cut the slice in half and gave her. She took some time to decide it was edible, but then concentrated almost entirely on that rather than the leftover eggy bread. It did make her giggle a few times, I think because it tingled on her tongue.

Dinner was a buffet of a veggie burger, some sweetcorn ring crisps, a breadstick, some hummus, a rice cake, a couple of sticks of cheese, an apricot flavour barquette (french biscuit), some raisins and a couple of dried apricots. She also ate part of an organix fruity custard pot, but didn't seemed that fussed by it and was more entertained by battling with spoons (one for the hummus, one for the custard thing):



I'm not going to bother getting any more of the custard pots, Hannah's not been that keen on them at all really so I don't think they're worth it. I'll just have to get my bum in gear and make homemade custard for her, she definitely likes that!

She's growing up (literally!)

I took Hannah to get weighed and measured today, and at exactly 15 months old she's 21lbs 8oz, and 76cms tall. So she's put on 5cms and over a lb in the last few weeks. We thought she'd grown, since at the start of our holiday a few weeks back she could walk underneath the table, and by the end of it she was bashing her forehead on the edge, but 5cms does seem a lot - her trousers need less rolling up now, too, which is nice!

Food-wise she's been stocking up on carbs recently, concentrating on potatoes and pasta it seems. Over the weekend she ate halloumi salad, quiche and salad, roast dinner (with about a thousand roast potatoes to go with it), and something on Saturday night that escapes me!

Today she's had shreddies for breakfast, and two rice cakes with cream cheese, a packet of carrot sticks, a cereal bar, some slices of tomato, and a rusk for lunch. All of that got eaten except for the rice cakes - they were chewed a bit unenthusiastically then left on one side, although the cream cheese was carefully picked off the top before they were discarded.

Dinner was pasta with tomato and mascarpone sauce, and a bit of grated cheese on top. Hannah definitely enjoyed the pasta, the vast majority of it went straight down and didn't get close to the floor (always a good sign!). In fact you can tell how much she enjoyed it from this picture:

Pudding was a banana, but I think she'd filled up on pasta by that point as most of that did end up on the floor.

Also, we're on the look out for some nice small-person sized cutlery, as Hannah is trying more and more often to use a spoon or fork when we give them to her. I want some nice metal ones rather than the tacky plastic looking tombelyboo things we've got already - stuff that will last! Suggestions on where we might find these mythical items most welcome...

And finally (you'll be glad to hear) I saw the picture proofs of Gill Rapley's BLW book that featured Hannah yesterday, they looked fab (there were lots of pics of other BLW babies too) and we're still hoping that Hannah makes the cut. The book will be out later this year, in November I think, Amazon have it here.

How much can I remember?

Gosh, a whole week since the last update. Many apologies for general slackness! We're back from our holidays now (boooo), but you can't tell from the temperature which is roasty toasty :o)

Anyway, Hannah been eating shreddies again for breakfast this week, she was quite a fan of their return. She's also eaten croissants a couple of times, but they'll be few and far between now we're back home.

Otherwise, there's been a fair amount of fruit (melon, nectarines, greengages, raspberries), babybel and some organix gingerbread men for snacks, pasta and pesto, omelette with potato and pesto in, potato wedges, burger with roasties and veg, cheese on toast, cauliflower cheese, falafel in pitta pockets with salad and I'm sure a bunch of other stuff for lunches and dinners since we got back. For puddings she's eaten raspberry flavour angel delight, fresh raspberries, pom'potes that we brought back from France, and some ice cream yesterday when it was baking hot. I tried giving her an organix fruity rice pudding, but she didn't want it and it ended up all over the floor. Messy!

During the hot weather Hannah's drinking lots more fluids than she was previously. She's up to about 3 sippy cups full of water at the moment - about half of it goes during the meal, and she drinks the rest of it in the living room after her meal and before her nap/bedtime. She's also back on normal fresh milk rather than monkey milk and I think it's having a good effect on her nappies - there have been far too many stinky ones for comfort in the past two weeks, but hopefully things are settling back down to normal...famous last words!

Hannah seems to be turning into a stroppy teenager, by the way - she's taken to shouting for things, and when she doesn't get what she wants (or it's removed from her grip when we find her with it) she screams and cries. I'm hardening my heart and ignoring her though, nobody tells you how hard that is when you sign up for this parenthood thing!

I've lost the charger for the camera, so we're a bit short of photos at the moment - I'll have a proper look for it asap!

The sun has got his hat on (but Hannah hasn't)

Right, can anyone recommend ways to keep hats on a toddler's head? I'm thinking gaffer tape, string, superglue, the staple gun...suggestions? Hannah is so not fond of wearing hats, she's even tried to remove George's hat from him when she noticed him wearing it. Ever helpful, I suppose. Here's a rare picture of the hat in position:


She's eaten Golden Grahams for breakfast, and in fact has finished the box, so we're onto something new tomorrow. She's also had a slice of bread most mornings to go with them, and has a full on strop if you take the soggy crust away from her before she's finished with it. The girl is addicted!

Lunches have been bread and cheese mostly, today she had mini baked potatoes and rice squares (cooked rice mixed with pesto, egg and flour, then fried in the wok) as well, and some strawberries and an apricot sorbet for pudding. Yesterday she also had some tomato wedges to go with the bread and cheese.

For dinner, yesterday she ate quorn coq au vin with mini baked potatoes (and bread, of course). She ate loads of it, and I wasn't sure whether she'd like it to start with, but she proved me wrong again. Today's dinner was shepherd's pie, plus a slice of bread and a banana fromage frais and, as you can see, half a pain au chocolat:

Hannah didn't have her afternoon nap today (she went for a swim instead), so we gave her a couple of gingerbread men to snack on. She seems to get hungrier on days when her sleep is disrupted, I suppose she needs to get energy from somewhere. She's still keen on diving right into the pool given half a chance, but played nicely in her paddling pool for quite some time this afternoon. Then got out and played in the inflatable tyre that was on the side, mainly sitting in the middle of it and grinning at all and sundry.

Using an open cup

We're all still having fun in France. Hannah went for her first ever bike ride today, we bought a child bike seat from Decathlon (loads cheaper than in the UK, too!) and fixed it onto one of the bikes here for a trial. Riding around made her giggle, so I think we can say it's a success.

It's a good job we've got decent locks on the gate to the pool, as well, as Hannah went in the paddling pool earlier (next to the big pool). After a few minutes she climbed out of it, wandered over to the side of the big pool, and stepped straight in. Good job I had a firm grip on her hands by that point...she did the same thing again later with Grandma when they'd gone to inspect the pool cleaner thingy too, she's too confident for her own good sometimes.

She's eaten lots of Golden Grahams, and eggy bread for breakfast, with water to drink. Dad refilled her sippy cup with perrier this morning after she finished her own water, which made her giggle and pull faces - we decided that the bubbles were tickling her tongue.

Lunch today was tomato and avocado bruschetta, a slice of bread and boursin, and some strawberries for pudding. She ate a square of chocolate, some chipsters (salty crisps, bad mummy!) and tried a bit of panach (non alcoholic shandy) today too, she grabbed the bottle of panach off me and tried to drink the lot! Will be keeping her further away from the bottle in future.

For dinner Hannah ate some 3-cheese tart, a couple of roast potatoes, some cauliflower cheese, peas and carrots and a yorkshire pudding. She enjoyed all of it, especially the roasties and cauliflower cheese. I gave her a rusk for pudding, which she tucked into with gusto.

She's also tried drinking out of an open plastic beaker a couple of times in the last two days. She did lots better than I expected with it, too. Well, she emptied the contents (water) onto the high chair tray twice, but drank a decent amount of it too.

Yesterday for lunch we were out so ate at a supermarket cafeteria, where Hannah had a boiled egg, a bread roll, and two slices of melon. She didn't eat much, but she was very tired as she didn't get a morning nap. Dinner was a cheese and vegetable burger, along with more bread. We thought Hannah had eaten all of her burger, but found she was sitting on half of it when she got down from the table. Oh well...

Given up on the time difference

It's taken a few days but we've finally given up on the time difference thing and are letting Hannah stay up later till between 8-8.30 French time, which is her normal bed time in the UK. Trying to get her up early and off for naps and bed at the "proper" times was hard work! She seems much happier now we've just adjusted all the times forward by an hour.

She's also still enjoying swimming most days, although has a worrying tendancy towards just diving at any person nearby that she wants to - good job we're all family! :o) Her favourite toy of the moment is a beach ball, which is nearly the same size as she is, but this doesn't stop her carrying it around for hours on end.

So on to the food. I've not done an update for the past few days, so this is testing my memory! She's eaten lots and lots of pain, with assorted toppings. She's had Golden Grahams for breakfast every day (which are honey flavoured shreddies, it appears, and the least chocolate or sugar laden cereal available in the local supermarket) along with bits of croissant and/or eggy bread, and also a nectarine or two.

Hannah has been really active while we've been away, and this is showing through as she's wanting more snacks during the day - most mornings, and I think every afternoon so far as well. And drinking lots out of her sippy cup. I gave her a tiny bit of peach and apricot flavoured sirop stuff in her water yesterday, however judging by today's nappies this may have been a mistake - she's not getting any more, anyway!

She's eaten pasta with pesto, creme fraiche and grated cheese for dinner on Wednesday, today she had leek tart along with bread and two fromage frais for lunch. Dinner today was some bread and cheese with a fruity rice pudding (organix) for pudding. Yesterday she had veggie meatballs for dinner, in a tomato sauce, followed by two slices of charentais melon. She made quite a mess with the tomato sauce, too!

Snacks have included biscotte (the hard biscuity French things that look like slices of bread), sweetcorn rings, biscotti (the Heinz baby ones), an apricot canoé soft biscuit thingy, some humzingers, a few chips that Grandad snuck off his plate for her during dinner last night, and probably a bunch of other things I don't know about!

Hannah's also getting a bit of a tan, despite the gallons of suncream that are ladled on to her daily. The good news is that she's much more tolerant of her sun hat, and has almost stopped trying to remove it - this morning I caught her trying to put it on, even, wonders will never cease :o)

Tooth #15 has arrived

Hannah likes pain (pain as in bread, not pain as in hurts, she definitely doesn't like that...). She seems to have eaten loaves of the stuff since we arrived, and there's no sign of it stopping! Just as well really, she's not eating all that much of anything else, and last night perhaps the reason why appeared - her fifteenth tooth! It's the canine tooth on the bottom right, at least I assume that's what they're called.

Anyway, Hannah has eaten cheerios for breakfast over the past two days, along with a bit of eggy bread and this morning she also had part of Neil's croissant (I wasn't sharing my pain au chocolat!). Lunch yesterday was margherita pizza along with bread - she chewed the crusts of the bread for ages, ate the topping off the pizza but ignored most of the base. She also had a fruity custard thingy and a humzinger, which disappeared super quickly.

Today, for lunch Hannah ate three bits of bread, half a tomato, a nectarine, threw some veggie burger and bits of cheese on the floor, and then had a sorbet (a homemade red berries flavour). The sorbet was made in an ice cube tray, and had a teaspoon stuck into it to give her something to grab hold of. She wasn't sure about it to start with, and pulled some funny faces, but decided it was nice enough to persevere. The whole lot got eaten in fairly short order, although when she bit off large chunks it did make her judder down to her toes.

After lunch Hannah went swimming:

For dinner last night we had quorn and mushroom pie, Hannah had sweetcorn and mash to go with hers, and concentrated mostly on the mash. For pudding she ate 2 humzingers and devoured them as quickly as normal.

Neil and I were out when Hannah had her dinner this evening, she tried another bit of quorn and mushroom pie but again didn't eat much of it - a bit of the pastry and nothing much of the filling. She pulled a funny face before scoffing two laughing cow triangles along with another couple of pieces of bread - apparently given because Grandma thought she hadn't eaten enough (according to Auntie Jo anyway), and gagged on an organix biscuit. The first time she's gagged on anything for simply ages, and it's when someone else is in charge! Good job Auntie Jo is another BLW mummy and knew not to panic (too much...) :o)

She's been filling up on eating bath toys in between meals, too:

Walking, swimming, eating, and other things

I can't remember if I mentioned this already, but Hannah got her 14th tooth through a week or so ago - finally! I'd go back and check to avoid repeating myself but...nah...I'm on holiday! So now that's through and she's getting over her cough and runny nose that came with it, things are getting back to normal and she's much better at going to bed at night.

Hannah has settled in nicely to eating different foods while we're in France. She hasn't blinked an eye at being offered UHT milk (known in our house as monkey milk, ever since my sister asked why it tasted different when she was little, and was told because it comes from monkeys and not from cows...). If anything, Hannah is drinking more of this milk than the normal supermarket full fat milk that we get at home - upwards of 9oz a night so far.

Breakfast yesterday was fruity wheats, I think it was pomegranate and rasberry flavour this time, that Jo brought with her for George. She also had some pain with a bit of butter on it, and a banana that mostly got mashed into the floor. This was followed by a lunch of spaghetti bolognase, which she liked but didn't eat much of, and more bread. It takes her ages to chew her way through the crust of a bit of pain, but she does persevere and gets there in the end.

Dinner yesterday was curry and rice, which Hannah quite enjoyed and ate a decent amount of. Her favourite bit was the poppadom, followed by the onion bhaji. The consequences of this meal today mean that it won't be getting served again for quite some time...I'll leave the details of that to your imagination, suffice to say they weren't that pleasant! She also ate a couple of humzingers - dried fruit formed into chewy bars for the uninitiated. These got inhaled, within seconds.

Today Hannah had honey flavoured cheerios for breakfast, along with a banana that once again mostly got turned into mash and swept onto the floor. Lunch was a special Sunday fried breakfast (yes, at lunchtime, quiet at the back there!) and included a fried slice, which Hannah loved and spent ages eating, a quorn sausage and two bits of quorn bacon, a fried egg and a tinned tomato. She didn't eat the fried egg, although she did poke at the yolk a bit before chucking it in the floor. Pretty much all of the rest of it got scoffed in short order though.

Dinner this evening was gnocchi with ratatouille (hmm, don't know if that's spelled correctly! Never mind). Hannah also had a couple of slices of bread again, which we dunked into the tomato juice from the ratattoille for her. Pudding was strawberries, but bizarrely she didn't want to eat all of them and George ended up scoffing her leftovers, Hannah had a rusk instead, which did get eaten.

She's getting keener on carbs, I think it has to do with the miles that she does tracking about the house in between naps - she's never still unless she's asleep, it seems, or in need of a cuddle due to falling down the stairs (only off the bottom step, fortunately) or on the patio (tripped on a paving slab) or over a foot (not looking where she's going...again).

We took Hannah swimming in Grandma and Grandad's shiny new swimming pool yesterday, but it was a bit parky so we only stayed in for about 10 minutes before she started shivering so we had to take her out. It did mean that her swim seat (from toys r us, suitable for up to 1 year or 24 lbs - good job Hannah is a tiddler!) got its first ever use after having bought it more than a year ago.

Bonjour a tous!

Just a quick update on what we've been upto over the past few days :o) We're now on holiday for a couple of weeks, in France. Hannah is still teething and didn't endear us to the neighbours in the cabins either side of us on the overnight boat - although the Brittany Ferries travel cot we paid an extra fiver for was really good with a proper mattress and little duvet and everything.

Hannah didn't eat much yesterday - she went to sleep very late on Thursday night (like, 10.30 or something) and we had to get her up early as we docked and had to get in the car. So she had about 1/4 of a pain au chocolat and a few bits of plain croissant for breakfast, along with some water.

Lunch was when we arrived - Hannah spent nearly all the time in the car asleep, catching up on what she missed the night before I think. She had some bread, a babybel, a nectarine and a banana. Again, not a huge amount, and I was kind of expecting her to eat more to make up for her missed breakfast.

For dinner she had a burger thing made from mashed up veggies wrapped round a babybel, dipped in egg and breadcrumbs and cooked. Grandma made them for her, and she ate two, along with some mange tout and a fruity rice pudding from organix.

She was better at going to bed last night, thank goodness, although still dosed up with ibuprofen. Her fourth molar is at least partially through now though, so I'm hoping that we're on the downward slope after this last bout. And I'm hoping that we get more of a break before any more teeth show up - I mean, how many teeth does 1 14-month-old need?!

200th post :o)

Wow, we've been weaning Hannah for so long I've managed to witter on about it a whole 200 times! And, I don't think I mentioned it the other day, but I signed and sent back the consent form for one of Hannah's photos to be used in Gill Rapley's Baby Led Weaning book - we don't know whether it'll make the final cut yet, that's up to the editor, but the photo has been submitted! The book is due to be published later this year.

So for breakfast today Hannah ate shreddies, and she polished off a decent sized bowlful. I offered her a banana to follow, she took about one bite then squished it between her fingers and threw it on the floor. Lovely. Her appetite is definitely returning though, which is good news.

Lunch was on the move (well, on the bus actually!) and I gave her some raisins, a couple of rice cakes, some cubes of cheddar cheese, a drink of water and a gingerbread biscotti. She ate loads, or so it seemed to me, and was very tidy about it too.

When we got home Hannah had a slice of veggie sausage plait for tea along with peas and sweetcorn and a bit of lo salt gravy. She really went for the sos plait, and polished off the slice in short order. She had four enormous strawberries for pudding, although again she was enjoying squishing them through her fingers as much as eating them.

Hannah has also worked out how to close the spout on her sippy cup (the Tommee Tippee free flow type). Unfortunately she's not quite able to reopen it when she wants a drink, so I seem to have spent most of the last couple of days reopening the spout up for her, only for it to be thrown at me a few minutes later closed.

We're off on holiday on Thursday for a couple of weeks, and I don't know how often I'll be able to update things while we're away - if you don't hear from us for a little while, don't worry! We'll be back...

Away for the weekend

We were away for the weekend, met up with some friends which was very nice indeed! Shame the weather couldn't have been more cooperative! So the whole weekend Hannah ate rather snack-based meals, but seemed to enjoy herself anyway.

Breakfasts were a combination - a couple of days it was shreddies, and the rest was shredded wheat bitesize. She's still been eating smaller than normal portions, and I was beginning to think this was the new normal, but this morning she was pretty much back on form, putting away certainly a medium bowl of shreddies, if not quite a large bowlful.

Lunches were pasta with cream cheese and tomato sauce (today), and over the weekend were sandwiches, organix things - gingerbread men, crisps, cereal bars, fruit chewy things - and bits stolen off my plate. She had a couple of bananas, too at some point.

Dinner on Saturday was round at cousin George's house, Hannah ate a veggie bake and a vegetable sausage, plus lots of peas and a half-size corn on the cob. It was the first time she'd tried sweetcorn in its cob form, and to start with she wasn't quite sure what to make of it, but soon settled down to give it a good gnawing. She then had a load of peas off my plate - the peas and sweetcorn were the only things she ate much off, most of the rest got mashed up a bit and thrown on the floor - Sophie the spotty dog was in heaven!

On Sunday, we were stuck in traffic so Hannah's dinner was a mish mash of what I had with us in the car - about four honey flavour rice cakes, a carrot cake cereal bar, a raspberry and apple cereal bar, a gingerbread man, a tiny bit of babybel cheese, a date and banana fruit chew, some cheesy poofs and sweetcorn rings, and nearly a sippy cup full of water. It was easily her biggest meal of the weekend, at least I'm pretty sure it was.

Today, Hannah had a slice of cheese on toast with a few grapes and strawberries. She mauled the toast, squished the grapes and even squished a strawberry or two before eating them. Not like her at all! I think she's been practising posing for the camera though:




Her teeth have been hurting for the past few days (AGAIN, bah) and I think that's mostly why her appetite has been so much smaller than normal. All three of the molars that were part through are now completely through (both sides of them), and if the other molar isn't through yet, then it will be in a day or two I think - when I felt her gums earlier it was either just peeking through or about to be. Oh, and I got bitten for my trouble too.

Also, Hannah has a cold at the mo. No idea where it came from, but she's been spreading it round her baby friends for several days now. So we're dosing her on both ibuprofen (for the teeth) and medised (for the cold) at night, but she seems to be managing fine during the day so long as there's something for her to look at/destroy/play with/pester (mainly the cats, that last one!).

Hopefully she'll be over the teething and the cold in a few days, because we're off on holiday for a couple of weeks on Thursday! Don't fancy taking a poorly baby on a 12 hour ferry crossing...

Nice nectarine (and videos not photos today)

Hannah ate shreddies for breakfast again, and for lunch she had some quorn nuggets, a slice of bread and a tomato cut into wedges. She was offered four nuggets, and ate about three of them, pre-dunked in a tiny bit of ketchup. She liked and ate a decent amount of everything she was served this time - feels like the first time in days that's happened!

She didn't have any snacks today, but did have a fair amount of water again.



For dinner I gave her two slices of cream cheese on toast, a whole nectarine, and an organix fruit bar - date and apple flavoured I think. The fruit bars are pretty chewy, but Hannah gnawed away at it for a while and seemed to get on with it very well. The nectarine started out well, but ended up being a slipperly customer once she'd covered it in cream cheese:

Food, meet floor. Floor, food.

Hannah is developing a fine throwing arm, I have to say. She can get a decent heft on her food and get it to the other side of the dining room in the blink of an eye. Fortunately not all of it goes that way, but enough does that it's getting rather annoying.

Shreddies for breakfast again today, and again a smaller bowl eaten. Lunch was scrambled egg on toast, some raisins, and an organix carrot cake bar, oh and the tag end of a pack of carrot crisp things. She ate a decent amount of scrambled egg - good job too, else I'd have started to get offended and think it was my cooking she is objecting to! She's drunk loads of water again today as well - we've refilled her cup at least three or four times.

For dinner Hannah had sausage and mash, with a bit of gravy. When she's had this in the past she tends to concentrate on the sausage and ignore the mash to some extent. Today, just to be contrary, she did the exact opposite. The sausage got thrown on the floor, the mash got more or less hoovered up. Well, apart from one largeish blob which splatted nicely under the high chair.

Ooh and we shared some raspberries picked fresh from the garden just before bed time (well, before we brushed her teeth anyway!).

The one benefit of the new rule about not replacing food that's thrown away and taking the systematic emptying of the stuff on her tray onto the floor as a sign that she's finished eating is that mealtimes are getting a fair bit shorter. I normally allow 30 minutes per meal - ie, that's how long Hannah spends in her high chair, roughly. That's been her tolerance for meals ever since we started BLW, but tonight's dinner was down to 15 minutes at most, breakfast was similar too. Obviously she's getting better and more efficient at eating, but I don't think that's the only reason.

No appetite?

Hannah really hasn't eaten much again today (at least by her normal standards). She had shreddies for breakfast and only ate about half as many as normal. I don't know whether it's because of the heat or what.

Lunch was pasta with tomato sauce and grated cheese, the first dozen or so got hoovered up and most of the rest of them ended up on the floor. Pudding, which was fruit salad mixed with fromage frais, didn't even get tasted. It did get put back in the fridge for dinner though.

This afternoon Hannah mostly stayed awake. She did go for a nap (briefly) but sang and chattered to herself for an hour and eventually got bored and yelled so she got up again.

Dinner was a cream cheese sandwich and a few carrot wotsits, all the carrot things were eaten and over half of the sandwich. The fruit salad was ignored yet again, although she did suck the fromage frais off about half a dozen pieces of the fruit.

Hannah's had gallons of water to drink today, again I assume because of the heat, and generally has been quite grumpy and unsettled. She did flake out after her milk before I took her up to bed though:





She didn't even really wake up during the nappy change and while I inserted her into her sleeping bag - good job I bought a couple of new 1-tog ones a couple of weeks ago, they're getting lots of use at the moment!

Painting at playgroup

Hannah did a painting at playgroup today - how brave of me! She didn't even paint herself - although that was mainly because she was wearing a bloke's shirt to protect her clothes, it was so big even her feet were wrapped in it. And she used a ride-on toy as a walker, pushing it backwards, which would have been fine if not for the small boy sat on it at the time... He was very confused by the whole thing, poor lad.

She had shreddies for breakfast, and lunch was a mishmash of things on the way back from playgroup. She ate a cereal bar, a pink wafer biscuit (that was at playgroup actually), some rice cakes, some cheesy poofs, and after her nap she also ate a slice of bread and butter. And drank loads of water, I guess because of the heat.

For dinner I gave her some potato wedges and cubes of cheddar and red leicester cheese, followed by a jelly and a fromage frais. She only ate about half of the fromage frais before starting to throw it around the room, and as I mentioned before this means the food gets taken away and Hannah leaves the table. Not that she seems to care one way or the other, to be honest.

On the whole she hasn't seemed to eat all that much today - I was expecting her to eat a lot at dinner, but she really didn't. Probably because she fell head first off the sofa this afternoon and has a lump the size of a (smallish!) egg on her forehead. The other thing I found out today is that Hannah's not a fan of icepacks! Still, hopefully the bruise won't last too long...

Her feet were made for walking...

Hannah has spent most of this weekend walking. Not necessarily going anywhere, but definitely walking. We took her to the park yesterday, and apart from trying to go for a swim at one point while we were feeding the ducks, she played on the swings and in the sandpit. First time she'd tried the sandpit and she really liked it, but took quite a lot of cleaning up after she got out!

The new reins I got for her (from Boots for less than £7, fact fans) were fab, she walked about half way along the high street in them but then decided her legs were too tired to work anymore, and just sat down on the pavement - in front of the offy :o) and refused to move. Good job we'd taken the pushchair with us as well!

Anyway, onto the edibles: breakfast was shreddies both yesterday and today, while lunch was a BLT (only without any L as Hannah just tears it up and chucks it on the floor) followed by some sweetcorn rings and pasta in creme fraiche and pesto. She seemed to eat loads, but I'm sure that long walk burned it all off...

Today's lunch was a platter featuring sweetcorn rings, cubes of cheddar cheese, a tomato cut into segments, a rice cake spread with cream cheese, some dried apricots, and a fromage frais. She didn't actually eat the rice cake, but did piggle the cream cheese off its surface and eat that (or smear it around her face). She only had about half of the fromage frais, as she took to smacking the spoon down on her tray so it flicked off - we took that as a sign that she was finished, so didn't give her any more.

In fact generally, now she's definitely started dropping and throwing food deliberately, we've stopped giving it back to her. If she throws her sippy cup then it gets put back on the table, out of reach, for a few minutes - or until she leans forward and tries to get it, when we give it back. If she shakes or throws it again, it gets removed again. This all sounds good, and I think the food thing is having a bit of an effect, but it seems to make no different whatsoever most of the time, sadly. Any other ideas for instilling some kind of table manners gratefully received!

Yesterday's dinner was Hannah's first ever taste of runny egg. She had a fried egg with a slice of bread cut into soldiers, and liked both the soldiers and the egg. She wasn't convinced about mixing the two together though, preferring to eat the runny yolk with her fingers, and follow it up with a soldier or two. She had a banana for her pudding, and ate the majority of that as well - all that exercise clearly worked up an appetite!

Dinner this evening was roast potatoes, a quorn fillet cooked in garlic oil, and some peas and sweetcorn. The peas and sweetcorn seemed to be the most hilarious food in the world, as every time she put some in her mouth it made her laugh. We have no idea why! She had a pot of jelly for afters, and liked that too.

Big Cook Little Cook

Little Cook did her first ever cooking today, helping to make some rock cakes. She celebrated by having one of them at lunch time, very nice they were too. It wasn't even as messy as I'd feared, which was nice! She quite enjoyed getting her hands mucky, and only ate a bit of the raw mixture...

Breakfast today was shreddies again, while as well as rock cake Hannah had two slices of quiche and some salad bits for lunch. Mid morning she had a few raisins and dried apricots, too.

Mid afternoon she tried to steal more raisins off Sam who'd come round to play, but I distracted her with a gingerbread biscotti, otherwise I thought the nappy consequences might be unpleasant. Then for dinner there was beans on toast. And beans on Hannah too, it turned out. She managed to spread them all over her face:

And when I got her out of the high chair I also had to wash her legs down (good job I'd taken her trousers off before the meal even started!) and Neil when he got home gave her face another wash - apparently I'd only managed to get the top, thickest layer of bean juice off.

Remembered to take pics today!

Breakfast today was shreddies and again Hannah dived straight in. I think her appetite is getting smaller now though - which I'm told it should do once she turned one, as she isn't growing quite so fast any more. Don't think anyone told Hannah that, mind... So she ate about 3/4 of a bowl of shreddies and threw the rest on the floor.

Hannah had a snack mid-morning, as we were out and about so I was expecting a late nap and knockon late lunch, but as it turned out lunch was only about 45 minutes later than normal. The cheesy poofs and rice cake were gratefully received anyway.

For lunch I made some pasta (well, OK, I cooked some pasta) with creme fraiche and pesto with cherry tomatoes mixed through. It seemed to go down quite well, so that was good, and she also ate half a pack of cheesy poofs and some raisins and dried apricots for pudding too. Oh, and a fruit jelly (or Organix fruit wobbler). Raspberry flavour.



Midafternoon Hannah and her friend William both had a gingerbread biscotti, and shared sippy cups. Hannah had great fun throwing both sippy cups over the stairgate at the living room door, she seemed to be aiming for the cats water bowl. And got far too close for comfort, we might have to relocate the cat bowl *again*.

Dinner was a peanut butter and jam sandwich with a few organix tomato wheels, and a fresh tomato to go with them. She had about 2/3 of a fromage frais for pudding, which surprised me as she normally goes mad for them. Definitely not so much appetite as normal.

Here's Hannah demonstrating that she can fit an entire tomato slice thingy in - sideways! I think she's just showing of...:

A chaotic day...

Today was a bit mad, as Hannah and I were out of the house for most of it, so eating on the run. Breakfast was en famille since it's Neil's working from home day, Hannah made a start on the new box of shreddies that Mr Tesco delivered yesterday.

Lunch was started in a waiting room, and finished on the bus. In the waiting room Hannah ate two gingerbread biscotti (new discovery, very popular), a breadstick, and nicked a bit of bread and butter out of another little girl's lunchbox. We gave her a breadstick and dried apricot in return - and don't worry, we don't have a complete hoodlum who accosts strangers on our hands, I'd met the girl's mum before at an antenatal clinic and we were having a natter!

On the bus, Hannah then ate half a dozen dried apricots, a bit more breadstick, and a cream cheese sandwich. Since I didn't fancy hosing the pushchair down when we got home, I broke the sandwich into tiny pieces and gave them to Hannah one at a time, which worked very well - she even ate all of the bread, wonders will never cease!

After her very delayed nap (only one nap today, too) Hannah drank loads of water, and kept nicking the strawberries I was eating - I'd bite half the strawberry off, and before I got a chance to finish it Hannah leant forward with her mouth open and scoffed the lot! Cheeky effort. Two things it taught me: 1, don't eat anything while I'm carrying Hannah around and 2, she's grown again - no way she could have stretched that far a couple of weeks ago!

Dinner today was two slices of cheese on toast, and Hannah carefully peeled the cheese away from the toast before bothering to eat any of it. I'm considering giving her a small pile of melted cheese and two seperate slices of toast next time, it'll save me a job ;o) She accompanied this with some halved cherry tomatoes, and followed it up with a small portion of homemade rhubarb crumble. I think it was the first time we've given her rhubarb, she wasn't entirely sure what to make of it and it did make her judder a couple of times.

Cheerios back on the menu

For some reason Hannah really went for the cheerios at breakfast this morning. They were mixed with the last few blueberry wheats (good job Tescos is delivering tomorrow!) but she seemed to prefer them over the wheats, which is strange because she's not really gone for them for the last little while - I think they were too frustrating, she couldn't pick up enough in one go to get a decent mouthful.

Lunch was pasta mixed with tomato and grated cheese. Hannah surprised me with how quickly she was putting away the pasta, at least until she got bored/full/fed up/or something and started chucking it all around. She's started removing her own bib by the way, when she's had enough to eat. She can wriggle her arms out of the sleeves then just pulls at it until the velcro gives way and she's free. Which is fine apart from when it happens part way through a meal, as it did today... Pudding was some tinned rice pudding, we shared a tin of it and it was very nice! Mine was mixed with strawberry jam, and I let Hannah have a tiny bit of that, too, but she seemed to prefer the plain flavour and ate loads of it. She was a bit put out that we were sharing a single bowl of it, to be honest - I think she's have happily eaten the entire bowl herself but she never got the chance!

For dinner she had two slices of toast, one spread with peanut butter and one with peanut butter and jam. Not much of the toast got eaten, but she picked all the topping off it and ate that, at least. It was followed by a very ripe nectarine, which Hannah liked squishing her fingers into rather than actually eating. Then she threw it on the floor, so that was the end of dinner.

Geek Hannah

Blueberry wheats all round for breakfast this morning, we've run out of all other cereal - well apart from cheerios anyway! We all ate lunch together as well, and had eggy bread this time. Hannah had about 1 1/2 slices of it, cut into fingers, and followed it up with loads of strawberries out of the garden.

Her dinner was cherry tomatoes, grapes, and a couple of rice cakes spread with pesto and cream cheese. She seemed to like all of it, and in her new "I can tidy up myself" frame of mind, carefully put the sucked dry husks of tomato and grape back onto the plate they were served from once she'd finished with them :o)

No pics today, so here's one of Geek Hannah working hard from yesterday:

Mmm, chalk!

Well Hannah today mainly ate blue chalk. We met up with some friends and Hannah discovered that in the playhouse at the bottom of Helen's garden was a pack of chalk. She opened it, removed the blue chalk, and ate the lot:
But don't worry, that's not all she had (and there's no evidence of blue in her nappies so far...). For breakfast she ate blueberry wheats, but only half a bowlful and she didn't want the banana I offered her either.

Lunch was while we were out at Helen's and Hannah ate two slices of toast with peanut butter on, and one had hummus on as well. She had some bits of salad - cucumber and such - a few of Natasha's blueberries and strawberries, and a squished peach that looked more like a doughnut (it wasn't, I promise!). She also had some water out of her sippy cup, Natasha's sippy cup and William's sippy cup, and I think she had some juice out of the other Hannah's cup as well. She's not fussy ;o)

Dinner when we got home was put together very quickly and was a few quorn nuggets with peas, plus a few strawberries out of the garden.