A swingingly good time

Breakfast today was more shredded wheat, once again Hannah ate absolutely tons of them - although she wasn't so keen on the ones that hadn't soaked up a fair amount of milk. Tomorrow I think she can have more milk on the cereal, to moisten them a bit more.

For lunch she ate beans on toast, along with part of a whole pear. The pear was a bit crunchy, rather than juicy, so she didn't make all that much progress with it despite managing to eat chunks out of the side and top. Beans were a popular choice, and she even managed quite a bit of the toast, too. Pre lunch she finished an open bag of cheesy poofs - well there were only four of them left!

Apparently beans on toast can be quite tiring though:

Dinner was a cheese triangle sandwich, two slices of melon, and a raspberry fromage frais. Hannah seemed really hungry though so as well as all that she also managed three or four apple rice cakes and a fistful of raisins. Didn't have time to cook anything for dinner, as we were late back from the park where we'd been playing on the swings, slide and dog onna spring (well only Hannah went on the first two, and I only went on the latter with her because she was refusing to hold on!).

More news about teeth...

Grandparents have taken over early morning Hannah duty - which is fab, I've had more lie-ins this week than I have since she was born! And I'm told she's eaten quantities of cheerios and mainly shredded wheat bitesize with a few grapes and suchlike thrown in for good measure.

Lunch yesterday was round at Aunty Jo's house, she kindly provided some roasted veggies - sweet potato, standard potato, and butternut squash. She also had a Heinz chocolate biscotti and a few halved grapes for good measure. Oh, and as George was eating first (we were doing shifts with the high chair) she was also placated with a few organix sweetcorn rings before the meal itself. And in other news she may have had a first taste of mince. Possibly. George was eating chilli, and Hannah was mooching round the kitchen when she discovered that there was food on George's lap. So obviously she helped herself to some, and even seemed to like it. I knew her learning to walk would come back to haunt us sooner or later... ;o)

Today's lunch was tomatoes with pesto and mozzerella, plus some ciabatta bread. She ate lots of it, and was offered a peach for pudding, which she threw on the floor. Eventually she swapped her peach for George's (Aunty Jo and George were visiting again!) banana bread and both babies were happy. You can find the recipe for the banana bread here on Aitch's blog.

Dinner yesterday was a sandwich I think - my memory is faulty, sorry! Today, Hannah ate a pile of falafel, half a pitta bread (originally served with falafel in, but treated as a seperate item by madam), a rapsberry fromage frais, a few strawberries, and a slice of melon.

And more news on the teeth front too. We now have two halves of molars. Sadly, not belonging to the same tooth, so there's clearly more work to do...she has been lots better over the past couple of days though, for example actually going to bed of an evening at a reasonable time and not getting up again (well I've jinxed it now...).

There will be photos added here, once Aunty Jo bothers emailing me copies as they're all on her camera.

Babies who lunch

Hannah and George had lunch together today, which was nice - the grandparents steered well clear though, and left Jo and me to manage the carnage of pasta and sauce. Which was not that bad really, all things considered.

And it was all going so well:

Hannah had bitesize shredded wheat for breakfast yesterday, and a mixture of those and cheerios for breakfast today. I'm told that she was much keener on the shredded wheat - I'd report it myself, but I was having a lie in and the grandparents were in charge, hurrah!

Dinner today was a hummus and tomato sandwich, a packet of cheesy poofs, a slice of melon and a strawberry fromage frais. Her arms were too tired to work the spoon again for the fromage frais, and she only managed about a third of the melon slice before giving up and chucking it on the floor.

Yesterday for dinner she ate a pitta bread filled with hummus and falafel. She really liked the falafel, and having only started with a couple of them she ended up eating everything that was available. She also had an organix apple and blueberry compote (which was very nice, I tried a bit!).

In other news, Hannah has been a nightmare going to bed for the past three nights, and this evening I found half of one of the four molars she's trying to grow has cut through the gum. I'm hoping that this means we're over a teething hump and there'll be some respite over the next few evenings, but somehow I doubt it... She's also taken to drinking the best part of a sippy cup full of water in her bedroom before going into her cot of an evening, I think that the cool water helps soothe her gums.

Sorry Daddy, I like celery!

Yep, Neil has gone to the States with work for a week and before he'd even landed Hannah had been fed celery by her grandma. And liked it, too! It made a very loud crunch as she bit down on it, which was marvellously entertaining.

As well as celery, today Hannah ate cheerios and cranberry wheats for breakfast in combination - caused by the fact that we've now run out of both. Good job we're now at Grandma's and she's been shopping. Then we travelled up to mum and dad's, Hannah ate three organix gingerbread men in the car as we hit a bit of traffic that delayed lunch a tad.

Lunch was potato wedges, I put some creme fraiche and chives dip on one of them but Hannah didn't seem all that impressed so I ate the dip with my wedges instead :o) She had a banana for pudding, and ate about half of it - the rest ended up on the floor.

For dinner she had two slices of vegetable quiche, plus some salad bits (including the celery!). The quiche was more or less completely demolished, and for pudding she had two slices of melon, plus a raspberry fromage frais. Swiftly followed by a strawberry fromage frais - she seemed to be starving, poor girl apparently never gets fed! Bizarrely she couldn't be bothered to operate her own spoon today and when I presented the loaded spoon to her as normal, just leant forward with an open mouth to receive the fromage frais. It was very odd, and I'm not very practised at feeding her, I normally delegate the task! It did turn out to be quite a lot tidier than child-operated cutlery though so I can see the benefits.

And in a late update (10pm ish) Hannah woke up shortly after going to bed and ended up having a second bottle of milk as well as teething gel, calpol, ibuprofen, and anything else I could think of. I don't know whether this is a continuation of her 12 months growth spurt, whether travelling for 3 hours in the car worked up her appetite, or whether moving from formula onto cow's milk before bed is what's done it, but hopefully she's now settled for the night...fingers crossed! :o)

Will add some pictures once I've talked dad into showing me how to get them off his camera, as that's where they are currently! Bear with me...

Hurrah, here are the pics! 1: Hannah eating celery with a big grin 2: Dinner was yummy 3: My arms are too tired to work the spoon mummy...

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:

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!

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!

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.

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!

Easy Peas-y

Hannah's eaten loads in the last two days! She's started both days with an enormous bowl of cranberry wheats, in fact between us we've finished the box off already :o)

For lunch yesterday she had a quorn fillet, some potato wedges that I sprinkled a bit of cayenne pepper onto, and about a ton of peas (well, ish). She really enjoyed the peas, and seemed fascinated by how small they were and how she could chase them around the tray on her highchair. The wedges and quorn also went down well. Pudding was a few grapes.

Dinner yesterday was a couple of sices of toast with lentil pate spread on it. We've finally nearly eaten all of the lentil pate - one batch has lasted ages in the freezer - so it's nearly time to cook up a new batch. I also gave Hannah some raisins, which went the same way as the peas.


Today for lunch Hannah had a packet of carrot organix wotsits while we were out and about, plus two nectarines and a banana. The banana was a bit underripe and she wasn't all that keen on it, although she still managed about half of it. She's showing off her ability to eat a nectarine one handed while wielding a sippy cup:


Dinner was a dairy-based affair with two rice cakes spread with cream cheese, a serving of cottage cheese, and a peach flavoured fromage frais. As usual, anything arriving via a spoon was very well received and there was lots of excitement on show.

Hannah's also now having mixed feeds, for the past week she's had a breastfeed first thing in the morning (well, before 8am which is early enough for me!) then a bottle of formula before bed. She's consistently only taking those two milk feeds now, and I'll be moving her onto moo juice rather than mummy juice in just over a month, when she turns one :oO

Eat this, mummy!

Hannah had shreddies for breakfast again today, she ate just as many of them as usual and only dropped a three or four of them on the floor.

For lunch she had a selection of things - a pear, a plum, three apple rice cakes, an organix flapjack, and some cheese and herb crisps. She did really well with all of it, seeming to prefer the flapjack over anything else on offer. The plum didn't all get eaten, although some of it did, and the pear got ignored to start with, but once she figured out what it was the rest got devoured in short order. Hannah also tried to feed me today - as I was picking up some bits that had ended up on the floor she was busily stuffing her half eaten rice cake in my mouth. It was rather soggy, I have to say!

Dinner was some quorn casserole. I gave her a slice of bread to go with it since the sauce was a bit runny and I thought she could soak it up - she promptly squashed bits of the casserole into the bread and ate it like a sandwich. There was a fromage frais for afters, apricot flavour today, and she was as attached to the spoon as always, not wanting to give it back.

Hannah dropped a breastfeed today, too - she missed her mid-afternoon feed and didn't seem particularly bothered by not having it. I made dinner a bit earlier to compensate, and this seemed to work out fine. We'll see what happens tomorrow, but if it's anything like the other feeds that have been dropped that'll be it.

Oh, and no photos today, the camera battery died on me earlier and it's now on charge. Normal service should be resumed tomorrow!

Mum, I've dropped it...

Hannah ate shreddies for lunch today and yesterday - I'm rationing her slightly as the consequences were so unpleasant after Sunday's massive portion, so she only gets one large-ish bowlful. Yesterday she did want more, so I gave her a banana. She looked a bit disgruntled by that, and didn't bother eating much of the banana either.

For her lunches, yesterday she had some sprouts (a first), some green beans (another first), a veggie lincolnshire sausage, and half a boiled egg. She prodded the sprouts for a while before trying them, but once she'd decided they were definitely food she actually got on quite well.

The beans went down pretty well, too, although I'm not sure how much she actually ate of them. She did OK with both the sausage and the boiled egg though, and ate a fair amount.

Hannah also seemed to have a meal where everything ended up thrown on the floor at least a dozen times! It's not normally as bad as that, but as you can see here, she knew where she'd left it - she just expects it to be back on her tray when she's ready for another helping.

Today she had two slices of toast spread with lentil pate, followed by a strawberry fromage frais and a few grapes. She ate most of the toast, as well as sucking all the pate off, which always comes as a surprise to me after months of treating toast and bread as disposable serving dishes.

In fact here she is after finishing the fromage frais:

For dinner today I gave her a breadstick while I was sorting it out, as she stood at the stairgate blocking the kitchen door and shouted at me. You'd think the poor girl never gets fed! Anyway, once we moved through and got her settled in the high chair she had a baked potato, with the flesh scooped out and mixed with cream cheese before being replaced. There was also a fruit puree strip (from health food shops) which she liked but couldn't really eat very well on account of it being too tough for her to chew, half a dozen corn crisps, and finally some raisins. For the first time she had absolutely no problem picking up the raisins and getting them to her mouth, and she was actively searching for them off the tray, her lap, the bib, everywhere she thought she might have dropped some!

One of those days, and a better one

Ugh, Friday turned out to be one of those days - it all started out fine, Hannah had her shreddies for breakfast and I grabbed some bits and pieces to eat while we were out and about at lunchtime. That went reasonably well, too. Hannah ate some melon chunks, a couple of breadsticks, a couple of apple rice cakes, plus half a pack of organix carrot crisps. I think that was it, anyway.

Then we got home, and Hannah proceded to have the screaming ab dabs for two hours. Which was nice. So her tea was a bit...different. It was squished in to the time in between her refusing to have a nap (and screaming instead) and when she should have been getting ready for bed, and consisted of three corn thins with homemade hummus on, a banana, and a fromage frais. She didn't eat much of it though, unsurprisingly since she'd been awake for far too long and was overtired. The corn thins mostly got thrown on the floor, the banana swiftly followed, as did the fromage frais spoon (plus attached fromage frais). So the clean up operation was fun!

Today was much better, Hannah ate shreddies for breakfast, and we all had pasta for lunch with tomato, mascarpone, and mushroom sauce. Somehow she didn't even make that much mess with it, although I'm not sure how! Her pudding was a couple of rusks I found (I thought we'd finished the packet ages ago), which she pounced on:

For dinner today she had lentil pate on toast and a slice of melon. She mostly ate the pate off the toast, and got on better with the melon once it had warmed up to nearly room temperature - it'd come out of the fridge only a few minutes before she started eating.

She's still having three feeds a day along with all her solids, generally a long feed in the morning, a shortish one mid-afternoon (as today, in the pic below), and an expressed feed before bed. She's taking less at the feed before bed, about 120ml / 5oz most nights, the other feeds haven't changed length for a while.

Superbaby!

Hannah ate shredded wheat bitesize for breakfast yesterday and today, and made good progress with them. I gave her a couple of my cranberry wheats (a Tesco version of them only filled with cranberry puree) and she liked those too - probably better than her own version to be honest!

Yesterday she had avocado slices and cream cheese in a sandwich for lunch - although she mainly tossed the avocado on the floor, licked the cream cheese off the bread then threw that away too (grrr!). She did devour the apricot fromage frais I gave her for pudding though, so I suppose it's a case of being thankful for small mercies.

Lunch today was preceded by a couple of apple flavoured rice cakes, which Hannah seems to really like. After that, she had a cream cheese and raspberry jam sandwich and a strawberry fromage frais. She did eat a bit of the sandwich, so better than yesterday. While eating her fromage frais though, she did develop the need to pretend to be Superbaby:

She spotted me eating a slice of cheese on toast mid-afternoon (a VERY late lunch!), and immediately made a beeline for me, clambered up my legs and shouted until I handed over half a slice of it, And being contrary, this time she ate all the bread as well as the cheese topping, and followed it up with a yogurt and fruit digestive biscuit.

For dinner yesterday Hannah ate some corn thins - one covered in cream cheese, and two with homemade hummus spread on them. Personally I wasn't all that taken with the hummus, but Hannah really liked it and ate loads of the stuff - just as well, I made plenty! The recipe was really easy, I'll try and post it up tomorrow. She also ate a banana for pudding - the first time she's managed to eat a banana for a week or two, she's been mostly ignoring them when offered.

Today, Hannah had a baked sweet potato, some more of that homemade hummus, and a strawberry fromage frais for afters. Oh, and a whole nectarine. She spent a lot of time chucking the potato and nectarine on the floor, but objected when she didn't get them back quickly enough, so I'm not quite sure what was going on. I assume she's starting to test my reactions to things - will have to work at ignoring her playing up, I think!

Finally, in other news, Hannah's cousin George had his first ever taste of solid food yesterday - he chomped away at a cucumber stick (also Hannah's first food), as you can see:

George isn't planning to make a regular appearance in the blog, but he might turn up as a special guest on occasion now he's started eating... :o)

Gnawing a (g)nectarine

Right, I'm finally getting round to updating things after the last few action-packed days. This post covers Wednesday and Thursday, yesterday's food will follow shortly...

So breakfast on both days was shreddies. And on Wednesday we experienced a major milestone! I've been using baby signing with Hannah for the past few months - since we started weaning really - and at the end of breakfast when I signed "finished", she responded with "more". I decided to make the most of it, and gave her a second (much smaller!) bowl of shreddies to reinforce the communication. And was so excited by what she'd done that I immediately phoned Neil to tell him! :o) She did the same thing on Thursday morning at breakfast too, so it doesn't seem to have been a one off. Now I'm keeping a close eye out for any other signs that show up.

On Wednesday, at lunchtime we were out and about, so it was a snack-y meal of what I'd chucked in the changing bag before we left the house. It included a gingernut biscuit (from the plate at the venue rather than one from home), then some organix cheese and herb corn crisps, a couple of breadsticks, some grapes and a gingerbread man. On Thursday she ate a cream cheese sandwich, some cherry tomatoes, some dried fruit and a whole nectarine. It was the first time she's had a piece of fruit whole, and I was amazed how well she did with it. It looked quite comical, as if an adult had been given an entire cantaloupe melon to eat like an apple, but was very effective.

On Wednesday, dinner was a courgette cooked in butter, some baked stuffed mushrooms, and followed by a banana and a fromage frais, but Hannah didn't really eat much of it at all (except the fromage frais, of course, and the filling from the mushrooms). And it looked so nice, too:

The courgette mostly got thrown on the floor, the banana got ignored. I really don't know why, as she hadn't eaten an enormous amount earlier in the day, and she should have been ready for something to eat! Perhaps the double breakfast was still filling her up.

For dinner on Thursday, Hannah ate some organix carrot crisps, a raspberry and apple flavour cereal bar, a gingerbread man, and a slice of cream cheese on toast. There was nothing spectacular to report at all really, so I'll end it there!

Keep smiling,

Cate.

Introducing snacks

Right, time for another update. We've been rather busy this week so they seem to be coming in pairs rather than daily - sorry about that!


For breakfast on both Monday and Tuesday, Hannah had Shreddies. She definitely likes them, goodness knows why, I think they're nasty! Clearly she has her own preferences. She gets through a significant amount of them, too - I weighed them on one day and there were 45g of them in the bowl, and not many left at the end of the meal. I'm sure that the recommended portion size is 30g, she's definitely got hollow legs!


Lunch on Monday was pasta with cream cheese and tomato sauce, cherry tomatoes cut into quarters, and a quorn "chicken" slice cut into pieces and all stirred together. I gave her a fromage frais for pudding, which was as popular as ever. Part way through the meal Hannah nicked the spoon I was using to get the pasta from the bowl to her tray, and as you can see she quite liked it!



Her lunch yesterday consisted of two spinach and rictotta sausages, half a pack of organix carrot crisp things, followed by half a nectarine. She did really well with the nectarine, and ate the majority of flesh while leaving the skin (yes, that's still happening!).

Dinner on Monday was a couple of oatcakes with boursin spread on them, 3 tinned peach halves, and a gingerbread man. She seemed to really like the oatcake and boursin combo, although it did make her smell rather garlicky afterwards! That improved after I found and removed the boursin she'd stashed behind one ear, though. Kids, eh?

Yesterday's dinner started with a couple of breadsticks that I gave Hannah while I was preparing the rest of her meal, to stop her shouting to tell me she would starving to death if I didn't get a move on. At least I assume that's what all the noise was about, it stopped once she had the breadsticks... I think it's going to be worth having something small to give her as a snack to munch on while I'm sorting out her dinner, if you've got any suggestions other than breadsticks then leave me a comment! Ideally not messy food, as she's generally stood holding on to the gate we've put across the door between the living room and kitchen so only has one hand to hold the food with.


To follow, she ate about half a courgette that I cooked in a little butter, the rest of the organix carrot crisps from earlier, a gingerbread man, and half a dozen grapes that I halved for her.

Quick note on breastfeeding too, while I remember. We're definitely winding down I think, Hannah consistently feeds three times a day, morning, mid-afternoon and before bed. The before bed feed is the one I express, and I've been noticing that the amount I can express is getting less and less. I've sometimes topped it up with some formula (aptamil first, fwiw) but the amount I top it up by always seems to get left - Hannah doesn't want it. So she's taking a significant amount less milk than even just a few weeks ago. I'll keep an eye on things and report back...

Cherries, cashew nuts and other things

Friday:

In a break with tradition, Hannah had shreddies for breakfast. I naively thought they were just wheat with nothing added, but it turns out they've got sugar and other things in too. So they won't be making a terribly regular appearance on the breakfast table even if they make a nice change from cheerios and shredded wheat. Hannah certainly thought they made a nice change, she ate absolutely tons of them.

For lunch she had an organix gingerbread man, some saucy tomato noughts and crosses (corn crisps), a couple of breadsticks and some halved cherry tomatoes. I gave her the gingerbread man because she was creating as I was being slack and late with her lunch, it kept her going for long enough that I could grab the rest of the offerings.

Dinner was baked beans - served on a spoon, which wasn't as messy as you might have thought - plus some halved cherries and a banana. Hannah wasn't really sure what to make of the cherries, she sucked at them a bit but didn't really eat much of them. Cherry juice dribbled down her chin and all over the bib, it all looked quite gory!

Saturday:

Breakfast today was shreddies again, and again they were very well received. For lunch Hannah ate a corn thin with pureed avocado spread on it, a breadstick, some saucy tomato noughts and crosses, an apple and raspberry cereal bar, a banana and a slice of melon. She went at the avocado covered corn thin with gusto, although most of the topping seemed to end up on her face rather than in her belly. She did attempt to use the banana and cereal bar to wipe it off again, with mixed success :o) the flannel at the end of the meal did a much better job!

For dinner, Neil gave her some halved cherry tomatoes, a few cashew nuts, a fromage frais, some halved cherries, a slice of bread with cream cheese. The tomatoes came out of the fridge, and were a bit cold for Hannah to start with, but she went back to them once she'd eaten the bread and cream cheese and sucked all the insides out plus ate some of the flesh. She got on pretty well with the cashew nuts, too - the first time she's tried them. She seemed to really like biting into them and hearing them crunch - new teeth coming in useful! Naturally she ate the entire fromage frais, and was more enthusiastic about the cherries today than she was yesterday.