Strawberry shortstuff

Today Hannah ate shreddies for breakfast, and for lunch had two slices of toast, once with cream cheese on and the other a mixture of cream cheese and guacamole. She seemed to really like both of them, and definitely sucked the topping off both slices quite thoroughly. Pudding was a cereal bar and a banana, gratefully received.

For dinner Hannah had scrambled egg, and strawberries for pudding. She was so keen on the strawberries that she even managed to eat them from her bowl without chucking it on the floor, emptying it onto her head, or anything else that's messy. Wonders will never cease!

Sausage and mush, sorry mash

Shreddies for breakfast again this morning, and for lunch there was half a BLT sandwich, and a fajita with sour cream, guacamole, tomato, salsa, um I think that might be it! Hannah attacked the BLT first and ate most of it before moving on to the fajita. She liked that too, although it was the first time she'd tasted anything remotely mexican (not that an Old El Paso fajita kit really counts...). She had fromage frais for pudding, but didn't believe me when I told her that the pot was empty and she'd eaten it all:

Dinner was sausage and mash with gravy, and my goodness but that child knows how to make a mess! She enjoyed the sausage, and the mash too, and ate loads of it. But towards the end of the meal she mostly took to bashing her hand down on the mash to create a thin layer of it across the high chair tray. Or using it as edible playdough and randomly squishing it then biting chunks off her carefully arranged sculptures. Oh, and she mushed some into her hair, and rubbed her eyes with fists full of the stuff. If we'd been outside they'd have called it performance art :o)

Another triple update

Hannah's been suffering from a cold for the past few days, but apart from her cough sounding like she's on 40 a day at least, she's basically fine. No medicines necessary, which is a nice change!

Breakfast has been shreddies, except this morning when it was cranberry wheats as she's eaten all the shreddies (we bought a new box earlier though, don't worry!). She followed her shreddies with a banana on Friday, as she still seemed really hungry despite the hundred weight she's already eaten.

Lunches have been two slices of eggy bread today, a sandwich, and a sliced banana with raspberry fromage frais mixed through. Yesterday she had a slice of cheese and onion quiche, with some potato salad, some cherry tomatoes and a few bits of sweetcorn.

For dinner, she's eaten veggie carbonara, and today she had baked tomatoes this time with a bit of sour cream on top rather than mozzerella as I didn't have any of that in the fridge. She got on pretty well with it all, ate a surprising amount of the pasta, and generally had fun. On Friday night she had egg mayo served in two yorkshire puddings - a strange combination, but Hannah really liked it and steadily worked her way through the lot. Along with the peas and sweetcorn it came with.

Nothing spectacular has happened in the past few days, so there's not really much more to say than that. Although Hannah did go out to play in the garden for about the first time this year, the weather was (briefly) so nice on Saturday, hurrah!

Friday:

Saturday:

Sunday:

Late late late!

Hmm, we have been missing in action for a few days! So what's been happening since Monday...Obviously Hannah has eaten shreddies for breakfast every day, and tons of them too, I still have no idea where she's putting them but the European shreddie mountain is getting smaller by the day.

Lunch on Monday was out and about, but Hannah didn't want any of the tomato and mozzerella panini I bought for us to share. She did manage a banana and date fruit chew, a couple of rice cakes and an apple and orange cereal bar. She wasn't especially enthusiastic about any of it though.

Hannah mega-napped on Monday afternoon and I had to go and wake her at 5pm. She was very clingy and miserable and not remotely interested in food, so didn't have any tea at all. Her temperature was very high (39.6 C) so I just dosed her with Calpol and gave her milk, which fortunately she did take.

Tuesday was slightly better, her temp had gone and she ate lots of shreddies for breakfast again. For lunch she had toast, and for tea I gave her some pasta with a bit of tomato puree and cream cheese sauce with mushrooms and cherry tomatoes in it. She still wasn't all that interested, but at least she sucked the insides out of some of the bits of ravioli.

Today, Hannah woke up with tooth number 8 clearly visible. So that might explain the temp and how miserable she's been this week, at least I hope that's the reason! She's not needed any calpol today, but has put away about a ton of shreddies (well two bowls full anyway).

Lunch today was a cream cheese sandwich, some carrot sticks, a cereal bar, a banana and some cottage cheese. She peeled the top off the sandwich and flung that on the floor, although she did eat the bit of bread with the cream cheese on at least. The carrot sticks went down well, as did most of the banana. The cottage cheese was a bonus extra as it was from my plate but she seemed to enjoy it.

For tea, well who decided that giving babies soup was a good idea?! The dining room is currently sporting an interesting spatter pattern of tomato soup. It was a tin of tomatoes, some herbs, a few mashed chick peas to thicken it, and a tablespoon of creme fraiche stirred through. Hannah seemed to really like it so it might make further appearances on the menu but only after I've cleared up properly from the first! She had chunks of bread that I dunked in the soup, and while I did give her the spoon and bowl (holding the bowl down to prevent disasters!) she mainly held the spoon in one hand while using her other hand to get at the soup. With mixed success. Note one hand holding the spoon here:

More shreddies please, I'm Hannah!

Quiet day today, Hannah started it off with two huge bowls of shreddies. Goodness knows what she's refuelling for, it's got to be something big!

For lunch she had a sausage, served with some peas and cauliflower. She liked the peas again, and seemed to enjoy chasing them round her tray, but not as much as she liked the sausage. Once that was in her grasp she didn't really let go of it until she'd eaten it. Please excuse the Christmas bib in the pic, all the rest were in the wash!



Dinner was a bit mixed, and she had a couple of rice cakes with cream cheese, a fromage frais, some veggie crackers, halved grapes, bits of mango, a dried apricot and a prune. She did much better with the dried fruit this time than last, we're putting it down to the increased number of teeth for her to bite through the skin with. Halved grapes caused her no problems, which was good as I still haven't forgotton the issue of the whole grape!

Update: Photos now added!

Party Girl

Hannah had shreddies for breakfast today, a pretty big bowlful of them too. She seemed to enjoy them as much as ever, which is always nice to see.

For lunch Hannah was meant to have jacket potato and grated cheese. She picked a bit of the grated cheese off and ate it, then nicked a slice of eggy bread off Neil and ate that instead. It apparently was much preferred over the potato, some of which Neil ate in lieu of his eggy bread. So perhaps we should call this a mix and match meal?

This afternoon Hannah attended her first first birthday party. While we were there she ate some poppadum, some onion bhajee along with cucumber and tomato, and obviously some birthday cake too. She also had a bit of water straight from a 500ml bottle, as silly mummy forgot to take the sippy cup out with us.

When we got home, she also had a sandwich. Half of it was cream cheese and marmite, the other half was cream cheese and jam. All went well, although we were a bit short on fruit and veg today, must do better.

Fruity!

Hannah was stuck with own brand shreddies for breakfast this morning, as that's what Neil managed to get hold of at the shops yesterday. She got on with them just as well as the normal branded shreddies, so no complaints there. However when it came to the clean up operation I found them slightly more difficult to peel off the muslins and floor. I'm not sure yet whether that was because I put more milk on them so they were soggier than normal, or whether they somehow are inherently stickier. Will observe and report back!

For lunch she had three oatcakes, two spread with cream cheese and one with butter and marmite. The marmite one made her judder again - she seems to be doing that more and more these days on a wider variety of foods, even stuff she's tasted before. She also had some raisins, a pack of cheesy poofs and a pear. Then she had her special dotted lines staring at my fab ice lolly, so I let her try some (just the strawberry flavour bit from the middle). That made her judder, a lot. She seemed fascinated by the whole thing though, and even though it made her pull some very funny faces she kept coming back for more. Of course I let her have more, since it was proving quality entertainment at the time...does that mean I'm a Bad Mother??? I did call a halt to the experiment after she bit a largish chunk of lolly off, and sat there pulling faces trying to melt it as quickly as she could, lol.

Tea was a much more sensible affair, she just had a large fruit salad with pear, peach, apricot and a huge number of strawberries in. She ate all the strawberries too, 150g of them! She was deliberately picking them out in preference to anything else offered. Oh and I nearly forgot, she also had a chocolate biscotti at Diane's house earlier this afternoon. She loved it, and managed to make very little mess even though she was cruising/crawling round with it in her hand and/or mouth. Not one to waste food, especially when it's chocolate flavoured!

Here's some video I took of her eating her fruit salad...she's quite chatty in it, as you will hear!

Fast food

Shreddies for breakfast today, and that was the end of the packet. She'd have quite liked another bowl so had to put up with a few of my cranberry wheats.

For lunch Hannah ate a sausage, some cauliflower and about a ton of peas. I cooked her some carrot to go with it, but so far as I could tell she didn't actually eat any. Perhaps it was just too orange for her? She also had a pear and a fromage frais for pudding. Not quite as good with handing the spoon back for reloading today as she was yesterday, but it only ended up on the mats twice rather than after every single mouthful, so I definitely think she's realised that it takes longer to get more when she flings it across the room.

We were out visiting friends this afternoon, and while we were there Hannah ate about two breadsticks - although they came in small pieces so it was hard to tell. Tea happened very quickly when we got home, and she just had two slices of toast with cream cheese spread on top.

Hannah Gets the Giggles

This will be a quick update of the last two days. Breakfast yesterday was cheerios and a few shreddies, and today it was shreddies as we're out of cheerios. Hannah also had a few of my cranberry wheats - out of my bowl too, cheeky minx.

Lunch today was pretend carbonara, pasta spirals with creme fraiche and some baco bits stirred through. She followed this up with some grapes and a quartered pear as well as a fromage frais. We had a breakthrough with the fromage frais, too. For the first time ever, Hannah held the spoon out for me to take off her after each mouthful. Normally it's hit and miss whether it ends up on the floor, on the cat, on the highchair somewhere...you get the idea! So a definite step forward, hopefully it'll happen next time too.

Yesterday Hannah had some potato wedges, plus some butterscotch flavour angel delight for pudding - she ate loads, which was rather disappointing as we were sharing it and I didn't get as much as I expected to!

Dinner yesterday was baked tomatoes and pesto, again Hannah ate loads - 4 tomatoes to be exact, followed by half a dozen grapes, 1 1/2 pears and precisely no segments of orange.

The orange was too tart for her, she pulled a face and did a whole-body judder when she tasted it. She scared me a bit with the grapes, she put them in her mouth whole and while she did bite into them the chewing was...well frankly she couldn't be bothered with the whole idea of chewing. She tried to swallow two grapes whole, and we had a moment before she managed to spit them out. However all was fine, and my heart rate slowed down eventually!

Today for dinner, Hannah ate two slices of cheese on toast. She ate all of it, including the toast all except a couple of crusts. And for some reason she got the giggles, so obviously I had to get a video of it - nothing to do with the fact I was pulling faces at her, I'm sure!

Happy Hannah

Hannah has spent most of today giggling. No idea why, but it was very nice to hear :o) She's also eaten a fair amount, starting with a big bowl of cheerios and a banana for breakfast.

We all had BLTs for lunch, well a veggie vesion and without any lettuce since I ate it all in the week. Hannah started by dismantling her sandwich, and to start with she concentrated on the bread and tomato. Eventually she picked up a piece of quorn bacon and gingerly tasted it, then decided that actually it wasn't too bad at all, then didn't let go of it until she'd eaten the lot. She also had a plum for pudding, although only about a third of it got eaten. Here's her reaction to her BLT:


Dinner was a pack of cheesy poofs, some rice cakes, a plum and some apple slices cooked by that nice Mr Tesco and put in a tin for us. Hannah nearly ate the entire tin of apple slices, although they were a bit mushy and rather too like puree and points for her to manage very well. In the end we resorted to me holding some of the mush on the end of my fingers, then Hannah leaned forward and helped herself if she wanted it. Turns out that idea is quite dangerous, as she hasn't realised that biting is bad. I was a bit more careful after she bit, as well as giving her a bit of a telling off (don't know how successful they are just yet, but never mind!).

Schwings!

Day two of the new "no morning breastfeed" regime today, and it worked just as well as yesterday. Hannah was perfectly happy to wait for her breakfast until we were dressed and downstairs. She had two (well, one and a half perhaps) bowls of cheerios today. I haven't managed to take any eating pics today, so instead have a pic of Hannah at the park during our post-breakfast walk, playing on the swings:



We ate lunch together, and all had a nut cutlet, roasted butternut squash, sweet potato and normal potato wedges, and gravy. Pudding was a few fresh strawberries. Hannah went mad for the nut cutlet, which she's not tried before, and also ate a lot of the normal potato wedges. The sweet potato and squash didn't get pounced on quite so eagerly but still went down pretty well. She didn't have so much of the funny reaction to the strawberries this time, either, and ate about four of them.

Dinner was pasta, with some cream cheese and pesto mixed through, along with some sweetcorn and peas. Hannah ate most of the peas and sweetcorn, and sucked all the cream cheese and pesto mix off the pasta. She ate a fair amount of pasta too, or at least a fair amount made it into her mouth even if some of it came straight out again and down her front or onto the floor.

Must do better on the photo front though, consider my wrists duly slapped!

Ewww, strawberries

Hannah had two enormous bowls of cheerios today, probably because I didn't give her a breastfeed first thing. Since her before-bed feed has been formula for a fair while now, it might well be that yesterday was the final feed that Hannah had from me :o( It's a strange thought but we'll see what happens.

Lunch was a chaotic affair, as I'd forgotton that I had to be somewhere until 5 minutes before we had to leave (oops!). So I grabbed some organix carrot sticks and rice cakes, bunged them in the bag and off we went. Hannah ate the carrot sticks on the bus, and when we got back home had some breadsticks, rice cakes and an apple and orange flavoured cereal bar. She drank lots of water too, but it didn't seem like she ate much food - probably because it was so disjointed.

For dinner Hannah had two slices of toast, one spread with cream cheese and the other with peanut butter. She seemed to like the peanut butter (it was the crunchy sort) and ate lots of the toast, too. She also ate a tomato (whole), a very ripe pear (whole), about a dozen raspberries, and three or four strawberries. There's a funny video of Hannah eating the strawberries, they made her judder! They weren't even tart - obviously I had to taste a few to make sure!

Here's Hannah's method of eating tomatoes:

And here she is using the same method on the juicy pear:

No nap = no tea

Today has been a bit weird, all things considered. Hannah had her bowls of cheerios for breakfast, but we were out and about for most of the rest of the day, which took it's toll on things.

Lunch was a whole pair, half a pack of cheesy poofs, some raisins, some sweetcorn, and a pack of heinz veggie crackers. The ladies sat near us in the cafe were very impressed with Hannah eating a whole pear, and she kept grinning back at them as if to say "I know, aren't I great?".

Tea didn't actually happen, as we didn't get home until after the normal tea time and having had no afternoon nap AT ALL. Hannah was far too tired to eat (and she kept rubbing her eyes, so goodness knows what sort of mess she'd have made with food!) so I gave her extra milk instead. It did the job, and she seemed satisfied with it Not normal practice though.

P-p-p-pick up a pancake

Hannah had cheerios for breakfast today - two enormous bowls of them! She ate absolutely loads, perhaps because she left lots of room by not really bothering much with her morning feed which was about half the length it normally is.

For lunch we all had pancakes, Hannah's two were filled with chopped fresh tomato, mushrooms, sweetcorn, and grated cheese. Then she had a special one for pudding, with a little bit of nutella and creme fraiche in. She seemed to like this one best - I can't imagine why ;o) - and smeared it all over her face.

Dinner was some of the chopped up veg left over from lunch - red pepper, sweetcorn and tomato - along with two rice cakes with cream cheese, some raisins and a banana. I nearly had to go and fetch her some seconds again, as she merrily ploughed her way through the plateful she had, but she did start to lose a bit of interest towards the end of the banana so the run for seconds was called off at the last minute.

She's still suffering from this cold, it's nearly a week now although she hasnt had a temp since the weekend. It's mainly affecting her at nap times and bedtime now, and her appetite definitely seems to be back to normal. In fact it seems bigger than normal, I guess because she's making up for the days when she didn't eat much at all.

Ooh I could eat an elephant!

Shreddies for breakfast today, and quite a lot of them too. Hannah fed really well first thing and followed that up with a big bowl of cereal. I thought that would be it for the day and she'd just pick at her food at lunch and tea, but how wrong can you be?!

Lunch was some potato cakes made from last night's leftover mash. I mixed chopped spring onion in with some of them, and while Hannah wasn't especially keen it didn't stop her tucking in. Again she ate loads - easily a normal (ie not baby) sized portion. She followed that up with the rest of the tin of fruit salad that I opened yesterday and again there was none left when she was finished.

For dinner I gave her two slices of toast with cream cheese on, an apple and orange cereal bar, a plum (ignored rather than eaten), and some organix animal biscuits - 2 elephant shaped and one cat shaped. I found the cat curled up on the floor at the end of the meal (typical!), but the elephants both got eaten.

Lean, mean, eating machine

Hannah ate cheerios for breakfast today, and loads of them too. They're not as tidy as shreddies or mini shredded wheats as she does tend to drop a fair few down her front, but they are much easier to tidy up so on balance probably make my job slightly easier - so I'm all in favour!

Lunch was a pitta bread filled with grated cheese, and a banana. She basically ate all of both items. A bit of banana was squished around and didn't get eaten, but no more than one or two mouthfuls. So very impressive :o) I'm amazed she ate so much of the pitta bread though, I thought it would be too difficult for her to manage. She also ate a few mini veggie crackers, I think they're Heinz ones, they're made from leek carrot and cabbage - sounds horrible doesn't it?!



For dinner she had a babybel cheese, which was completely ignored, and a huge fruit salad. The fruit salad consisted of two slices of melon, plus about 1/3 of a tin of fruit salad in juice. Hannah ate every single piece - I couldn't believe it, and even hunted for where she'd hidden the pieces, but there were none to be found! So she must have had at least 3 of her 5 a day fruit and veg, not bad going for a mini person.

Cheerios are back!

Yes. cheerios are officially back on the menu. We stopped giving them to Hannah because she was so hungry in the mornings, and frustrated because cheerios were too small for her to get a decent mouthful of them with rudimentary dexterity (blimey two long words in a row, I'll calm down now...). She's much better with her pincer grip now, and she really seemed to appreciate the change this morning, so that was good.

Hannah had a quorn fillet, a baked sweet potato, plus some peas and sweetcorn for lunch. The latter were the only things she was really interested in, the quorn fillet ended up straight on the floor, many times over. The sweet potato joined it initially, but she did get more interested in it towards the end of the meal, when we introduced a spoon to gather up the final few peas and bits of sweetcorn. The sweet potato stuck to the spoon much better than the other vegetables did, too!

Tea was a couple of rice cakes spread with cream cheese, a plum, and a banana. Hannah scraped the cream cheese off the rice cakes with her fingernails, ate that then returned to chewing the rice cakes. Obviously - how else would you eat rice cakes and cream cheese??? Since she smeared cream cheese all over the two halves of plum, too, it proved a bit slippery for picking up. I ended up spearing it with a fork and letting Hannah eat it from that. She spent about half the time chewing on the plum, the other half she chewed on the fork handle instead. No, fork handles not four candles... ;o)

Haven't managed to take any pics of eating today as the battery ran out in the camera - but not until after we'd got this piccy of me and Hannah this morning in the snow:

She can walk!!!

Never mind the food today, our exciting news is that Hannah took some steps all by herself today for the first time! Only a couple, but three or four times during the day. Each time she was holding the edge of the sofa, and let go to walk to me when I was sat in the middle of the living room floor.

Give her a week, I won't be able to keep up... :oD

So food. Shreddies for breakfast, although definitely not as many as normal. For lunch I did quiche and salad for all of us, Hannah didn't really eat anything though. She had a couple of bits of cherry tomato, bit the cucumber but spat it out, and seemed fascinated by the lettuce. Not, however, to chew. More to rip apart and throw on the floor.

Dinner was a couple of crumpets, some apple and orange flavour flapjack, a fromage frais, some sweetcorn, a mushroom, and a pear cut into quarters. She wasn't very interested in any of it though, and most ended up on the floor.

To top all of that off, she didn't even drink as much milk as I'd have expected given that she only really had one decent meal all day. Hopefully her appetite will be back to normal in the next few days. At least there was no sign of a temperature today.

Poorly Poppet

Well Hannah's got a stinker of a cold, it's official. And the fab medised is now not recommended for under 2s, apparently it's new advice and doctors have said there's no evidence to show that it, or anything similar, actually helps treat the cold symptoms. But since we've got half a bottle of it left, she's been dosed up with it regardless, and at least it's brought her temp down. She's been very limp and cuddly all afternoon (extra cuddles for mummy, hurrah!).

Anyway, onto the food she's eaten today. Shreddies for breakfast, and quite a few of them too, although not quite the huge amount she normally manages. It was probably the best meal of the day.

For lunch Hannah had two slices of beans on toast. She ate probably half of the beans and a quarter of the toast I gave her, but drank a huge amount of water - I had to refill her sippy cup part way through the meal. I think that must be down to her cold, probably because she's breathing through her mouth and it and her throat are getting dryer than normal. It's not affecting her smiling muscles though:

Tea was two slices of melon, a banana and four cherry tomatoes. She ate the cherry tomatoes pretty well, managed just less than one slice of melon and half the banana at most. I gave her the cherry tomatoes whole this time, she seemed to like biting into them and squirting the juice and seeds into her mouth, even if the tartness did make her judder more than once! It was very funny to watch, her reaction was so extended :oD

Hopefully she'll be feeling a bit better tomorrow though.

Baby it's cold outside

Hannah's coming down with a cold again I think. She's been sneezing quite a lot and coughing a bit, and is developing a runny nose...doesn't look good, does it?

Anyway, on the food front today she ate shreddies for breakfast, the same amount as normal so was clearly feeling OK at this point. For lunch I gave her some cheese on toast, and she ate about 1 1/2 slices of it, most impressive. In fact, even the toast mostly disappeared.

Tea was a slightly different story, I made her a cheese omelette and cut a pear into quarters. She ate one of the pear quarters, or at least a fair amount of it, and nothing else at all.

She drank more milk before bed than normal, so she's clearly making up for not eating that way, and I gave her some medised before she went to bed which seemed to help. Hope this cold doesnt last long...

Wonderful Wedges

Hannah had lots of shreddies for breakfast - in fact she had seconds of them! Neil was in charge of this meal, so I don't know exactly how they went down, but they definitely did go down!

For lunch she had a couple of breadsticks to stave off the hunger pangs. Her actual meal was potato and sweet potato wedges and a fromage frais. The standard potato wedges were better received than the sweet variety, which I thought odd as in the past she's clearly shown a preference for sweet potato.

Dinner was two slices of cream cheese on toast, followed by a plum. There was very little toast or cream cheese left after Hannah had had her way with it, although she did leave half of the plum.

She's also got a bit of a sniffle which I suspect is turning into a full blown cold...will have to wait and see on that one, but the medised is primed and ready to go!

Not hungry really

Hannah ate shreddies for breakfast today and seemed to welcome their return, scoffing a large bowlful. Lunch was a two part affair, part of it on the bus on the way back from Tooting, and the rest after her (very delayed) morning nap. It was two babybel cheeses, some cheesy poofs, a couple of apple rice cakes, two breadsticks, a banana and date fruit bar, some chickpeas and some raisins. The babybel was a hit, Hannah took really big bites of them and kept holding on to them until they were finished. The banana and date bar was also popular, although rather messy, it seemed to leave dark brown smears all over everything that Hannah touched after eating it.

Tea was a quorn fillet with some left over chasseur sauce, which Hannah didn't like much. At least I assume that was the reason she threw it all on the floor, anyway. She also had a plum and a fromage frais, which went down much better.

Accident with the sippy cup today though - it was in the living room and Hannah picked it up to have a drink but I think forgot that she wasn't in her highchair. She leant back and toppled over, cracking her head on the floor. It didn't seem to deter her though, and after a quick cuddle she tried the cup again this time with no injury!