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.

Millions of peaches, peaches for tea

Yesterday was a pretty good day, Hannah started off with a big bowl of cheerios again, eating loads. For lunch she had a marmite sandwich (love it or hate it, right?) and a banana, and followed this up with potato wedges for tea. Pudding was a nice fresh peach, which Hannah sat and munched her way through (after chucking her potato wedges on the floor mainly). There was nothing left of the peach except for the stone in the end, so I gave her a second peach and the same thing happened! Personally I didn't think that much of those peaches, they weren't the nice sweet ones but were a bit sour/tart tasting. Didn't seem to bother Hannah though and she happily ate her way through the pair of them.

The poor girl is still being fobbed off with rubbish meals though, I think she's looking forward to staying with Grandma next week as she stands more chance of being well fed!

Today was cheerios for breakfast again, same old same old. Lunch was a cheese and cucumber sandwich and a peach again - this time the peach ended up on the floor mostly. She also had a few raisins on her tray while I was making the sandwich, but these also ended up mostly on the floor - very unusual since Hannah normally goes for raisins in a big way. For dinner she had beans on toast, the first time she's had them for absolutely ages, and boy were they popular! She sat and carefully picked all the beans off the toast and ate them, then came back for the toast and sucked all the bean juice out of the bread. She was funny to watch, especially since she's figured out that sucking her fingers and hand after she's been handling beans also tastes good.


She's recently started opening her hand right up to get to the last bit of food inside it, so I quite often see her with a hand plastered across her face. It's got more frequent over the past two weeks, and now is pretty much a daily thing.

A furry peach

Yesterday Hannah ate shreddies for breakfast, then she had gnocchi with a passata based sauce for lunch followed by a slice of carrot cake that Neil brought home. She was quite keen on that (no surprises there!).

Dinner was two slices of cheese on toast, which again she made short work of. I didn't give her any pudding as she was too tired really.

Today, shreddies for breakfast again. Lunch was pasta with tomato sauce and grated cheese stirred through. Hannah ate lots of it this time, or at least she seemed to although there was a fair amount in her lap that I discovered during Operation Cleanup. For pudding she had a peach, and seemed entertained by the furry skin - up until now she's not come across peach skin. It didn't stop her eating it though, or attempting to eat the stone out of the middle either. I think that means she liked it... :o)

For dinner there was a sandwich filled with mashed banana and cream cheese. She also had the banana and cheese mix that didn't fit in the sandwich served off a spoon, along with a couple of little organix animal biscuits and some halved grapes. She ate the lot, too!

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.

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.

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.

I don't know why I bother *sulk*

Hannah ate shreddies for breakfast again today, and lunch was a mixed platter of different stuff. There was a fruit cereal bar, some cubes of cheese (red leicester and cheddar), a breadstick, two oatcakes with moroccan chickpea pate on, some french beans, a slice of cheese on toast (not in the original plan, but nicked off me), and two apple rice cakes. Ooh, and some raisins too. I should have remembered that, I took pictures of her using her fancy pincer grip to pick them up:

For dinner I cooked some garlic and herb tortellini, and mixed it with some tomato puree and pesto, Unfortunately Hannah spent the entire meal throwing it all on the floor, I don't think she actually ate a whole piece of it, although she got half way through a few of them. For afters there was two slices of melon. The first slice was chopped up as normal, into about five pieces. These she nibbled at but didn't seem all that keen on. The other slice I'd just cut into two pieces, and the bigger bits were all eaten.

So my conclusion from today is that Hannah likes either very small pieces of food like raisins, or very large pieces of food, like melon slices. If it falls somewhere in between, then maybe she'll eat it, maybe she won't. I think it depends on what direction the wind is blowing from, and whether she's got purple pants on. Or something.

Sniffles again :o(

Well, as of lunchtime today, Hannah has the sniffles again. She's been sniffle free for all of a week or so, it's just not on frankly. Anyway we battle on regardless, and good old medised helps.

So breakfast today was cheerios, presided over by Neil (I stayed in bed a bit longer :o) ). He tells me that Hannah ate loads, even the ones that were turned up during the clean up caught in her bib or on the high chair.

Lunch was pasta with mushrooms and a creamy tomato sauce, which we all ate, plus half a pear that was left from the tin of them I opened the other day. Hannah's pasta had a veggie lincolnshire sausage cut up in it too, as we'd saved it for her out of our dinner last night. She ate loads again, and seemed to find the pasta spirals very interesting at least in terms of texture. She got on lots better with the spirals than she did with the pasta tubes, which is what she's eaten before. I did have to fish a bit of the mushroom out of her ear at one point, she was diligent in smearing herself with the sauce, as you can see:

For dinner she just had a slice of cheese on toast and a clementine. She didn't really go for the clementine much, but did very well with the cheese on toast. For the first time we saw her actually bite small pieces of toast off and chew them - she didn't even spit all of them back out again! She definitely seems to like more flavoured cheeses too, today's was cathedral city.

Cauli Cheese Rejection

Strange day all told. Breakfast was good, as it usually is - in fact Hannah was desperately trying to find additional cheerios to eat towards the end of the meal:

Lunch was a toasted pitta bread filled with grated cheese melted in, and a yog-fruit digestive. She did remarkably well with the pitta bread, and even ate a bit of the bread. Mostly, of course, she sucked the cheese out of the middle and discarded the bread wrapping. Hannah really liked the digestive, and I ended up giving her another half of one after she'd scoffed the first lot. I thought it might be a bit too crumbly for her to manage very well, but the yogurt topping kind of held it all together, which was useful.

I made her some cauliflower cheese for tea, but she didn't eat any of it, I'm not even sure that any of it made it into her mouth for a taste. She missed her late afternoon nap, and generally seemed to be a bit out of sorts, spending over an hour either grizzling or yelling. When I put her in the high chair she swiped the cauliflower cheese off the tray and just banged her fists on the tray until I took her back into the living room a few minutes later. She settled down OK at bedtime, and didn't wake for a dream feed, so I can only assume that she wasn't especially hungry yesterday.

Out and about

We've all been out and about today, travelling to see my parents. So breakfast was a swift bowl of cheerios at home before departure. Hannah ate lunch at a motorway service station on the M40, fortunately we took a packed lunch with us so didn't have to search for something suitable. She ate three rice cakes, two with marmite and one with raspberry jam on, and a rusk. I was planning to give her a clementine too, but we left it in the car!

Hannah's dinner was our late lunch when we arrived chez the grandparents. She ate some sticks of cheddar cheese, a vache qui rit triangle (messy but tasty), and some veggie sausage plait. The pastry flaked off quite well, although she did manage to eat some of it. It made her cough a time or two as well. The sausage bit from the middle was received quite enthusiastically, but generally she was flagging over dinner due to not really napping all day. Let's hope she settles down OK this evening...

Roast dinner

Today we had another family breakfast, which was really nice. We all sat round eating chopped bits of fruit, and Neil and I also had yogurt and coffee (I don't think Hannah should have coffee yet, although by the way she tries to nick mine, she disagrees!). There was fresh pineapple, melon, and mango all round, and we had grapefruit too but didn't give Hannah any.

Lunch was pitta bread, toasted and filled with grated cheddar which I pinged in the microwave so it had melted, an oatcake with butter and marmite on, some tomato and boursin tart, then there were more pieces of fruit for pudding.

The tomato and boursin tart was a surprise hit, I wasn't actually going to give her any of it but there was some leftovers in the fridge so I thought it'd be worth a try. It's just a block of puff pastry rolled out and covered with boursin mixed with creme fraiche and topped with sliced tomatoes. Cook for about 40 minutes at gas 6 or thereabouts, nice and easy and went down really well. Hannah coped really well with the pastry, I had thought that she might struggle with it as it was fairly flaky. Next time I make it I think I'll try doing individual size tarts, rather than one big one.

Obviously being Sunday what could I serve her for dinner but a roast? Well, sort of. She had her first Quorn fillet, accompanied by some carrot and parsnip batons, and an avocado that was in the cupboard and needed eating. She followed this up with half a rusk - it would have been a whole one, but Neil ate half of it. Again it all went down rather well, not bad for so many new tastes in one day.

Three meals a day!

Today is the day...Hannah has eaten three meals today for the first time.

Firstly at breakfast she ate some melon, some mango, and a medjool date. The mango and date were new, she hadn't tried them previously, and the mango was a little underripe so put up a fight. She did manage to make some headway though, and seemed to like it too. The date was sticky, and even when she opened her hand to grab something else, it stayed where it was, which confused her a bit.

Lunch was pasta with tomato puree and grated cheese again, followed by melon (again!), a couple of dried apple rings, some sultanas, and a strawberry flavoured fromage frais. I wasn't sure how she'd get on with the sultanas, since she's only just got the hang of her pincer grip. She surprised both of us by managing to pick one of them up at her first attempt, but didn't manage to transfer it to her mouth. So it didn't actually get eaten, we'll try them again in a few days I think.



I'm still impressed with how much of each piece of melon she manages to eat now, we're basically just left with the rind at the end.

Dinner confused Hannah today - it's the first time she's had any though. It was a slice of eggy bread cut into fingers, and she ate a fair amount of it too. I'll have to start thinking up new meals to give her though, now she's on three a day!

Teeth, pincer grips and other things

Yes, Hannah appears to have two shiny new teeth to show off! Well, little points of teeth really, but still they do seem to have broken through her gums at the bottom centre. She's well and truly growing up (*sob*).

As if that wasn't enough, at breakfast there was a definite pincer grip too - see the pic for evidence:

Anyway, on to the food. For breakfast Hannah ate a banana, a slice of melon, and a rusk. The fruit was better received than the rusk, but that had its day once she'd seen off the banana and melon.

For lunch there was pasta mixed with a squirt of tomato puree and some grated cheddar. It's the first time I've tried her with cheddar, and it was the really strong stuff, since that's the sort I like so it was in the fridge. She did pull a funny face at the first taste, but carried on regardless and pretty much demolished the lot of it. Her fancy new pincer grip meant that the pasta tubes didn't offer much resistance - it was quite difficult to pick up last time she tried - which is just as well as I forgot that I bought pasta twists specially to make it easier, they're still sat in the cupboard, oh well!

I gave her another slice of melon for pudding, and she drank from her sippy cup again too. All in all a very good day!

Update: that'll teach me for posting this while she's still eating - I've just been and got her a second slice of melon and another rusk, as she'd eaten everything I'd given her! No idea where she's putting it all... Oh and she's having a bath this afternoon, I've just discovered dried-in banana in her hair and behind her ear. Lovely.