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...