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.

I don't want nectarine today thank you.

Lots of cranberry wheats for breakfast again today, and a mixed bag of lunch, which was rice cakes with mushed avocado spread on them, a breadstick, a banana, and a rusk. Hannah completely ignored the rice cakes, but ate the rusk and most of the banana and breadstick, so not too bad I suppose.

Dinner was fast fries (from Nigella Express) with quorn in honey and mustard sauce. I was quite surprised, Hannah's had the honey and mustard sauce before and didn't like it, but this time she ate most of it, which was great to see. And she liked the fries too - they're just potatoes bashed with a rolling pin and cooked in the frying pan, and they only take about 15 minutes to cook which is a blessing :o)

Pudding was fruit salad of grapes, strawberries and nectarine mixed with fromage frais and a bit of double cream. Hannah liked most of it, but found the nectarine a bit underripe for her liking. She did suck the fromage frais mix off it all though. Once she'd gathered all of the nectarine into one heap on her tray, she started ferrying it back onto the table in front of her - I think she only did this because she couldn't reach the bowl I served it from! It was very funny to watch, and she was very careful about placing it on the table rather than on the front of her tray. I've noticed her doing it a couple of times in the past, but not with so much concentration:

Woof woof!

Well today's big news is that Hannah has canines! A tad early, since according to this chart she's not meant to get them for another 5 months. Harrumph. Still, she's gone to bed without calpol for the first time in a week tonight, and so far so good...

Breakfast today was cranberry wheats, and Hannah ate lots of them although not quite all of the bowlful. It was a spectacularly full bowl though, so I'm not too surprised. Lunch was pasta spirals with a bit of pesto and some grated cheese stirred through, and I've not seen Hannah eat so much at lunch for ages.

For dinner I made some scrambled egg on toast, the egg promptly got thrown on the floor and the toast got a vague munching. Some egg did eventually go down, but only after I'd chased it around the room a time or two (I hear germs are good for their immune systems... ;o) ). She followed that with a bowlful of strawberries, and made short work of the whole lot.

Ooh look, a strawberry!:

Hmm, this strawberry is a strange green colour:



I think they've all gone, mum:

Yep, there's none in here:


Hannah has started bouncing again while in her high chair, which is funny to watch, especially when her legs are going back and forth frantically trying to get some momentum up. It doesn't seem to have occurred to her that the table means she can't actually get the high chair any closer!

Teeth, teeth and more teeth

Hannah is still teething (or teething again, take your pick) and consequently has been rather grumpy and picking at her food for the past few days rather than attacking it with her normal enthusiasm. She also got a few spots in the 7-10 days post-MMR period, as we were warned, which I don't think has helped! She has 11 teeth that have cut through the gum now, and at least 2 more that are nearly through - or maybe that's just wishful thinking? There are bumps there at any rate.

She's still managing a decent breakfast, mainly shredded wheat bitesize although she had cranberry wheats this morning. She's had a few snacks, things like chocolate biscotti, gingerbread men, raisins and grapes in the past few days.

Actual meals, in no particular order, have included eggy bread, a veggie burger with ciabatta bread roll, pasta, some Quorn picnic eggs (veggie scotch eggs really), a sausage, fromage frais, strawberries by the gazillion, a couple of bananas, a nectarine, potato wedges, boursin, and I'm sure there are things I've missed out as well. It doesn't look too bad written out like that, actually, maybe she's been eating more than I've given her credit for!

Fingers crossed that this tooth or teeth will actually put in an appearance sharpish and that we'll get a break before the next onslaught hits.

Lots of new foods to try...

Hannah seems to have eaten lots of new things in the past few days, although not at breakfast time which has been shredded wheat bitesize without fail. Although this morning it was accompanied by half a crumpet with butter on, which was mangled and mostly eaten with relish.

She's tried polenta in a tomato sauce with mozzerella cheese with a breadcrumb and cheddar cheese topping (quite nice), she's had some blue cheese - St Agur - of which she ate the first piece, then wrinkled her nose and pulled a face at the second pass. She had peas with her shepherd's pie last night which were mixed with a bit of chopped mint (she didn't seem to notice the mint), and she ate a carr's water biscuit with butter on too.

She's also eaten some bog standard stuff, like cheese on toast, shepherd's pie (twice), fromage frais, chocolate biscotti, strawberries by the bucket load, a couple of bananas, and cheese slices.

Here are some of the pictures I've taken in the past couple of days:

It's been quite warm so Hannah was only wearing her pants!

She didn't like the parsley tree that came with the shepherd's pie:

And she's been playing out in the garden a lot (although for some reason prefers patio underfoot than grass, which seems to tickle her feet cos she keeps trying to stand on one foot or no feet!):

More strawberry shortstuff

Hannah's had shredded wheat bitesize for breakfast for the past two days, and some strawberries the size of planets to follow. In fact she's had rather a lot of strawberries in the past two days, which she's consistently refused to share with me ;o)

Lunch yesterday was some pretend pizzas, which were crumpets spread with tomato puree and grated cheese then grilled till the cheese was melted. A new addition to Hannah's diet, although she's eaten all the component parts before. She liked them, and especially liked the way she could pick the cheese off the top of them. She had a fromage frais and some strawberries for pudding.

Today Hannah didn't seem that hungry at lunchtime. She was given a courgette cake and some salad bits, a slice of cheese and more strawberries. The courgette cake was grated courgette mixed with an egg and some mashed potato and griddled till they were cooked. Hannah flung them mostly on the floor. She did eat a slice of cheese, tried a bit of beetroot for the first time (not the vinegary kind), some radish and cucumber, and found room for the strawberries:



For dinner yesterday Hannah had a cheese and eggy bread sandwich - let me explain: make a cheese sandwich as normal. Make the eggy bread mix as normal, dunk each side of the cheese sandwich in it and shallow fry until it's golden brown and the cheese is a bit melty. Cut into fingers or squares according to preference. It tastes fantastic, and Hannah liked it too!

Today's dinner was spag bol, which got munched in short order, followed by a fromage frais and two chocolate biscotti. All of it got eaten, although she was least keen on the fromage frais, and ended up with it running down the side of her face from her hair by the end. Good job there was a bath waiting upstairs...

Dinner a deux

Couple of days to update you on - there was no blog yesterday as it was the dreaded MMR jab day, so Hannah was rather unsettled in the evening and took hours to fall asleep. We gave her calpol, and she felt rather hot which I am putting down to her two war wounds. Fortunately she was placated easily enough with milky bar buttons off the nurse after the second injection.

Yesterday Hannah ate cheerios and pear (a whole one) for breakfast, and had cauliflower cheese for lunch before William and Sam came round to play with their mums. She also had half a pack of organix carrot sticks and a fair bit of water too. During the play date (well, it was with two boys...) she also ate one or two Nice biscuits, and would like to apologise to William for stealing his crisps out of Diane's changing bag. She found the packet, and stood there helping herself for a while before we clocked her and stopped it. Still, she shared biscuits and things with William and Sam in return so I suppose it's fair enough. She and William were confused over sippy cups as well - they each had their own, but used them interchangably throughout the afternoon. It was especially funny when they were passing it back and forth between each other.

Dinner after a short nap was a couple of slices of cream cheese on toast. Short and sweet, I guess she was still full of snacks from the afternoon goings on.

Today started with cheerios again, this time served with a banana that she didn't eat much of. Lunch was at the grandparents, and was ciabatta bread with tomato, pesto and mozzerella. Oh, and she ate a gingerbread man in the car on the way, as she woke up early from her nap (perhaps not surprisingly really).

She ate some cheesy poofs in the afternoon after her nap, as dinner was going to be later than normal to fit in with Aunty Jo, Uncle Matt and George coming round to join us. Hannah and George sat together and caused havoc:




Hannah didn't eat much, at least to start with, but was offered roasted vegetables, a bit of quorn lamb and mint cutlet (I thought it was nice!), and some couscous, which she did eat a fair bit of. Obviously she likes the challenge and sticks her nose up at stuff that's easy to handle :o) She also had pudding, which was part of a fat free sponge cake served with cherry pie filling. It was lovely!

There was rhubarb crumble too, but Hannah didn't get any of that - there's always tomorrow...unless I get there first ;o)

I took Hannah to the baby clinic for a weigh in after her injections yesterday, and I'm pleased to report that she's finally passed the 20lbs mark - 20lbs 3oz, or 9.02kg I think it was. So she's officially heavy enough to graduate into her stage 1 car seat, which was used earlier today for the first time as we travelled up to my parents for the week while Neil's off in the US (again) with work. Hannah liked facing forwards, and seemed to find it easier to sleep in the new seat, goodness knows why!

A new tooth at last :o)

Yay, we finally have evidence of tooth number 11. Not that 9 and 10 are through properly yet, Hannah's a girl, she's bound to be good at multi-tasking ;o) It's the bottom left premolar I think and is only just coming through the gum so there's a way to go yet.

Breakfast today was a bowl of cheerios and a banana. Hannah ate most of both of them, not too bad at all. For lunch we had quiche and salad, and Hannah had a fromage frais for pudding. She didn't eat much (or any) of the salad bits, which was only a tomato and some cucumber slices on the basis that she likes to rip up lettuce and throw it around.

There was a cream cheese sandwich, some carrot crisps, a pear, two slices of melon and a cereal bar for tea, but Hannah hardly ate any of it. She managed some of the cream cheese from the middle of the sandwich, nibbled one bit of the pear, ate about one slice of melon and half or two thirds of the cereal bar. And all of the carrot crisps, of course.


I think Hannah didn't feel very well though, judging by the three revolting nappies and clearing up of sick that took place in between eating dinner and going to bed. She went to bed an hour later than normal, just to check whether she was going to carry on being sick and so on, but I'm hoping that it's cleared her system already. This may be famous last words, I'll have to let you know.

In other news, Hannah's having her first MMR tomorrow morning, so we'll have to see how she copes with that and how it affects her. I'm hoping she'll take it in her stride like she did her 12 month injections...

Whatamess in Carshalton

Hurrah! We seem (fingers crossed and all that) to be back to normal on the teething/sleeping front. In fact Hannah has remembered what sleep is, and today spent 5 (!) hours napping, yay! She did sing to herself for about an hour after Neil put her to bed, but we left her to it and now all is quiet...shhhh :o)

Anyway, foodstuffs. Breakfast today was cheerios, followed by a slice of melon and a whole banana. She lost interest in the melon towards the end of the slice, but there was so little left on the rind I'd still class it as eaten.

Lunch today was more roast veggies - potato, sweet potato and butternut squash again. Hannah still paid no real attention to the squash, but did eat some sweet potato today, and most of the standard potato she was given. For pudding we all had fresh cherries. I think it's the first time Hannah's eaten them, she went at them as if they were strawberries, which is to say rather enthusiastically! I stoned them before giving them to her of course, which was a bit of a faff so I'm not sure they'll be making a regular appearance on the menu - they're expensive too, which is a shame cos we love them.

I made the mistake of giving Hannah spaghetti hoops on toast for her dinner, she first picked most of the hoops off the toast in giant fistfuls, then sucked at the toast before eating most of that, too. The girl was definitely hungry...for pudding she had a banana muffin. It's a good job she's so little still, as half of pudding came before the main course today, which was too hot for her to eat straight off. She did have some of the muffin after the hoops though, so I figure it still counts.

She got so messy with the spaghetti hoops that she ended up having an emergency bath - straight from the high chair to the bath! Good job I thought to remove her trousers before starting the meal though, they'd have been covered:

Lunch overboard!

Breakfast today was a mixture of shreddies and cheerios - I meant to give her shreddies, only apparently we only had about half a dozen left in the box. It was interesting watching Hannah eat though, she deliberately went for the shreddies over the cheerios and was campaigning for more shreddies when she'd got them all despite there being cheerios left on her tray.

Lunch was a mixture of roast veggies - potato wedges, sweet potato wedges, and butternut squash. Hannah ignored the butternut squash completely, poked the sweet potato for a while then tried a bit of it before throwing it on the floor, and actually ate the potato wedges. She had a nectarine and a banana muffin for pudding, and ate all of the muffin but only about half of the fruit - I wonder whether she found it a bit hard going with all these troublesome teeth on their way through?

For dinner she had an omelette with peas, sweetcorn and grated cheese in. Some of it got eaten, but a fair amount ended up on the floor (again). There were a few strawberries for pudding, and an organix carrot cake cereal bar. She liked the cereal bar, although it didn't taste much like carrot cake when I tried it - shame really! You can see it here clutched in her hand:


And here she is flinging omelette on the floor:

Damn teeth

Grr well I'm tired of teething, I expect Hannah is too. I can't remember the last time she had a full, uninterrupted nights sleep (or me either :o( ). Fortunately it doesn't seem to have affected her eating and she's been putting away as much as normal.

Yesterday she started with the last shredded wheat bitesize, and then we all went to Kidspace in Croydon where she ran riot for nearly 2 hours. She went straight to bed when we got home, so lunch was somewhat delayed, and nobody can remember what we ate! Sorry :o) But here's some pics of Kidspace to make up for it:

For dinner Hannah had two crumpets with butter plus a slice of melon and some strawberries. And part of a fromage frais - maybe half of it.

Today, breakfast was a bowl of cheerios, followed by three (!) slices of melon and half a fromage frais. I couldn't believe how much melon she kept eating - for the first time she ate absolutely all the flesh off the rind, all that was left was the thinnest bit of green rind you can imagine!

We went to playgroup this morning, so lunch was taken at a local cafe with a friend afterwards. Hannah ate part of my mozzerella basil and tomato panini, a load of organix sweetcorn rings, some raisins, a gingerbread man, a chocolate biscotti, and she also stole some of Millie's sausage and scotch egg too (so much for bringing up a vegetarian baby...). Mille nicked Hannah's raisins and sweetcorn rings in return, so no harm done!

Dinner today was baked tomatoes with pesto and emmental, followed by the rest of this morning's fromage frais and a bunch of strawberries. All very popular, she ate all four of the tomatoes that I cooked for her, I was expecting there to be leftovers but no such luck.