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)