Friday, April 25, 2008

New blog

I've switched my blog over and you can now find it at....

http://www.lisaglanville.com/

Nursery - Taster Session #1

Yesterday saw the first of TP's two taster sessions at nursery before going for the whole day on 1st May.

We got there at 9.30am and he sat down and played with toys but didn't leave my side and kept one eye on Mummy at all times!! After about half an hour, his key worker picked him up to put him in these little highchairs they have so that he could have a snack and then the crying began. So I went over to him and tried to calm him down, no luck he just sobbed. The key worker picked him up took him over to the window but he wouldn't settle so she gave him back to me to try and calm him a bit. After 20 minutes he had calmed down and I decided to leave because he was going to get upset when I left no matter how long I stayed, so I kissed him goodbye and waved and left. I could hear him screaming from outside, it was very distressing and I hated leaving him but I know he will get used to them all eventually.

I called at 11am to check that he was ok and he was in the garden playing, so that was nice and at 12.30pm I toddled back down there to pick him up. TP was having a nap but woke up when he heard my voice and reached for me and sobbed, poor little man. He had enjoyed playing in the garden apparently but hadn't eaten any dinner (which I expected) and despite me telling them about BLW and that TP feeds himself, they had even tried to feed him something and he was having none of it - that's my boy! :D

Lets hope Monday is a little better!

Bang, crash, smack!

When we got up on Tuesday morning, the last thing I expected to be doing was driving over to our local Minor Injuries Unit but that is what happened. TP was standing at the coffee table and turned around to look at me and he misplaced his footing or something and fell and hit part of his head on the table with a loud bang. He was crumpled on the floor in a heap and sobbing, and trying my very best not to panic I went to get him to make sure he was ok.

I couldn't find any lumps, bumps or cuts so gave him a cuddle and a kiss, when I went to give him a kiss there was blood on my dressing gown. So I carefully checked him again, only to notice that blood was bubbling from his mouth, so panic stricken again I shout for his Dad and we check his mouth. He had cut the top part of his gum and there was (what looked like) a big split and it was oozing with blood. As it didn't stop bleeding, I rang NHS Direct who told s to go to A&E or a nearby MIU which we did.

They saw us in under 40 minutes (which was very impressive I thought!) and checked a very wriggly TP over, who by now seemed to be back to his usual self and the wound had stopped bleeding. The Dr there said that it was a shallow cut (although it looked worse when it was bleeding) and it would heal itself and he didn't think that there would be any damage to his teeth.

So all in all, a very busy morning but thankfully everything was ok and TP's mouth is healing up very nicely and he doesn't even seem to notice the cut anymore.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Bodyclock

I read that a baby's bodyclock doesn't start to set itself until around 10 months, well I think TP's has started and I'm not sure I enjoy these 6am starts! It doesn't seem to matter what time he goes off to sleep as he will always wake up between 6 and 6.30am. Ahwell, it will come in handy on those days that I have to work I guess. Tp's getting on average 10 hours sleep a night, its obviously enough for him as he's bright as a button, unlike his zombie Mummy!

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Mummy must try harder!

I must make time to post more often! It's been a month to the day since my last post and boy has it been a busy month.

Well, where to start?

Crawling & standing up!
TP has been crawling (forwards!) now for about 3 weeks and no sooner had that started then we had the pulling himself up on absolutely everything. Sleep has never been TP's strong point but its even worse now as everytime he wakes up, he automatically stands up and then wonders how the heck he got there and more importantly how the heck does he get down again?? Touch wood, it seems to be easing off a bit and we can get back to our attempts of getting him to self-soothe again. Tonight, for instance is the first night towards no booby-feeds between bedtime feed and dreamfeed, he's woke up twice and so far so good he eventually went off the 2nd time in his cot by himself. :D

Swimming
Every Friday we go swimming and have done since TP was around 8 weeks old with a company called Merbabies and we really look forward to it every week, well Mummy does anyway! They teach confidence in the water and TP gets dunked on a regular basis and really doesn't mind at all, he will also hang onto the bar along the edge quite happily all by himself and he even tries to push himself up onto the ledge - oh did I mention he jumps in from the ledge too? On 1st April we took part in am underwater photoshoot which Mummy was very excited for when we got there we sang our normal intro songs (so the babies felt comfortable and familiar) and then we had to hand them over to trained divers who lowered them into the water for their first images, it was at this point that TP burst into tears and didn't stop for the whole shoot! So after a very upsetting shoot, we waited anxiously for the photos. I'm not sure if I had high expectations or what but I was quite dissapointed with the results (I have the watermarked thumbnails but not sure if its ok to show them here, so wont just to be on the safe side!) for a number of reasons. Anyway, if I decide to buy any of the images and post them, the more I look at them the more they grow on me. :)

Playgroup
Its taken 10 months but we finally got our bums along to one of the local playgroups today and it was fantastic. TP showed off his new found crawling and standing skills and even shared a kiss and a hug with a little girl he met, he was taken aback by the hug but smiled and giggled at the kiss! TP was a gem, he even shared his toys after the initial glee of lots of new toys - he had to pick up each every toy.

7 month check (at 10 months!)
Last week we took TP along for his rather late 7 month check. Everything was fine apart from his uneven leg crease where his leg meets his bum (basically one bum cheek is saggier than the other) so we were told he had to be seen by his GP. We went there today and she checked him over, did that awful hip check where they push his little legs right up under his hip and said he needs an ultrasound scan at the hospital. We're not overly worried as he's very active on his legs, can 'froggy' without pain and theres no family history of hip problems - these, according to the Dr are all positives but she wants to be sure, hence the ultrasound.

Words & general babbling
TP has been babbling for a while and saying the usual Mama & Dada and Hiya, however we managed to teach him to say dog and everything is 'dog' now! You ask him where the cat or dog is and he looks right at them, its amazing (at least I think so!). TP also sings his favourite tv theme tune (which Booba & Booby from Baby TV), its very cute indeed, you start the La la 'ing and he joins in!

Parklife
On Tuesday the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day, so we organised a quick impromptu trip to the park with TP's best buddy. It was their first joint park visit and we all had so much fun! We had a picnic lunch of chicken baguette and fresh fruit and then played on the swings, slide and a motorbike on a big spring. :D

I can't upload all of the photos to here but you can see them here.

I told you we'd been busy this month!


Saturday, March 15, 2008

Pikelets

Already bored of giving TP the same breakfasts and trying to let him enjoy a range of new tastes last week we tried home-made pikelets for the first time. Pikelets, you know, those flat crumpets. I found a recipe for them and thought, I can do those and although they didn't come out looking like shop bought, they tasted rather yummy and TP agreed, he even tried to steal mine!

The recipe for the pikelets is below, the original recipe called for 1/4 cup of sugar which I found made them far too sweet, obviously if you want to add it you can but they taste much better without in my opinion.

Pikelets - makes approx 10 large

Ingredients
1 Egg
3/4 cup of milk
1 cup of standard white flour - I used organic plain, I think white bread flour would work too
1 tsp of baking powder
1/4 tsp lo-salt
25g (1oz) melted butter - I used unsalted. Butter is optional but highly recommended!

Method
Put the flour (recipe calls for sifted - I didn't and it was ok!), salt & baking powder in a bowl
Beat the egg (and sugar if adding) until thick and then add the milk
Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and stir then add the melted butter
Mix carefully until smooth (I did it all in my food mixer)
Drop tablespoon fulls of mixture into a lightly oiled (think pancakes) pan or griddle and let cook over a medium heat until a few bubbles appear on top and burst, then turn over with a spatula and cook on the other side until golden brown.

Serve with butter, cream cheese, jam or whatever you fancy! There is no reason why you couldn't make double quantities and freeze.



Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Catch up!

It's been ages since I posted anything so here's a quick catch up.


TP's Nanna & Grandad came to visit last week from Sunderland who he hadn't seen since September and my oh my did he make up for it! He was showing them every trick he could do and kept pulling a face I had never seen before, it was so funny like a little showing off face as if to say, "Look what I can do Nanna!" and fluttering his eyelashes at them. Anyway, it was a lovely week and we won't see them again until June for TP's birthday so we'll miss them alot, but kind of scary that the next time we will see them TP will be 1!! Where has the time gone?

Food has been a litte off the menu these past couple of weeks due to teething I think, well brekkie & lunch have been off but TP's seems to be favouring dinner at the moment! Nanna & Grandad were VERY impressed with TP's eating skills and he joined us a couple of times when we ate out last week but only to nibble on a cheese panini or half a chip (ooOO naughty Mummy!!).

We're still not crawling forwards but the safety gates have been installed due to TP's great skill of speed rolling, if it were an olympic event he would win gold that I have no doubt! So with the new rolling skill and the fact we have a HUGE tv unit with all kinds of consoles and tv equipment in it we've put up a Babydan barrier to prevent little fingers pushing buttons. Everytime you turn around, he seemed to be at the tv unit so now its all locked away - for how long I'm not so sure!

TP turned 9 months yesterday and I think he must be having a growth spurt or something, he fed almost every hour last night so needless to say ended up in bed with us, saying that he seems to always end up in bed with us lately (lazy Mummy!!) but at least we both get some sleep that way, even if he does hog the bed!

Well, TP's having a lovely nap now so I'm off to catch up on the housework and ironing and all that really exciting stuff that we only get to do during nap times!

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Organised Mummy

This week, I decided to get organised and create a menu for the week as I was fed up of scratching my head every day thinking what to cook for lunch & dinner.

So armed with my reliable recipes from the BLW site and a few other places, I created the weeks menu and this is what we have had so far. (I've posted the recipes at the bottom of the post.)

Mon - Brekfast:Apple & cinnamon hot cross bun with 2 pieces of nectarine
Lunch: Cheese, carrot & spring onion pitta pocket followed by a few raisins
Dinner: Chicken stir fry and 1/2 conference pear for dessert
Tues - Breakfast: 1/2 weetabix and small bit of banana
Lunch: Savoury Muffins followed by 1 bit of nectarine
Dinner: Vegetable chilli and rice and banana yoghurt for dessert
Weds - Breakfast: 1/2 Blueberry bran muffin
Lunch: Jacket potato with cheese and sweetcorn fritter followed by dried apricot & mango
Dinner: Cheese & spinach quesadilla and strawberry yoghurt (with Plum 4 grain porridge in)

So, Monday & Tuesday's menu went down well.

While I was in M&S last week I noticed they had an offer on their hot cross buns and as they are a firm fave in our house I took M&S up on their offer of buy one get one half price and bought 1 pack of regular and 1 pack of apple & cinnamon to give them a try, and oo they were yummy! TP (as always) loves his pitta pockets and I thought I would try something different by adding the spring onion which was a rgaing succes! The noodles, again are something he loves - I'm not sure whether he prefers to eat them or swing them around his arm the most though!

Tueday was another day for trying new things on the menu and I made my 1st attempt at savoury muffins, well I followed the cheese & onion recipe and added a few bits to suit us. So I used half red & half regular onions and added a tiny bit of bacon. Yes, I know bacon has alot of salt BUT TP doesn't really eat that much salt - mostly in bread & cheese and it was a tiny bit to add some flavour, I also threw some carrot in there too because you can never eat too many carrots. :D Disaster struck when I took my silicone muffin tin from the oven and it bent (as they do!) and I dropped the muffins, so had to start again and cook another batch! Anyway, they came out lovely and tasted so nice they were almost like dumplings that are really crispy on the outside and so soft and melting in the middle - I will definately be making these again! The veg chilli was nice but I think next time I will add more chilli powder as it was a bit mild, and I know TP can stand more heat. Oh, I overcooked the rice so it was nice and soft to mix in with the chilli.

Recipes:

Savoury Muffins - makes 6

Ingredients
5 oz plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 large egg
4fl oz milk
2oz cheese - grated
1/2 small red onion
1/2 small regular onion
1/2 strip bacon
1 carrot - grated

Method
Preheat the oven to gas mark 6 and line a muffin tun with 6 muffin cases
Fry the onion (until soft) and bacon - I used a griddle
Sift the flour and baking powder together and put into a bowl
Beat the egg in a jug and add the milk, whisk together
Fold into the flour (don't over-fold as we want to keep the air in)
Add cheese, onion, bacon and carrot (again, with minimum folding!)
Pour the mixture into the muffin cases and bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
Leave to cool (if you can wait that long!).


Vegetable Chilli - makes enough for 1 baby & 1 Mummy

Ingredients
1/2 onion
1/2 pepper
1/2 courgette
couple of mushrooms
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp smoked paprika (optional)
1 small tin of kidney beans
1 small tin of tomatoes
water (the amount depends on how thick you like your chilli)

Method
Dice the two halves of onion and fry in olive oil on medium heat until soft and add the chilli powder & smoked paprika if using and continue frying for a minute or 2
Slice or chop the vegetables and add to the pan and cook for a coule of minutes
Add the kidney beans, tomatoes and stir together the add the water to desired thickness
Bring to the boil and simmer for 20 -30 minutes

If you make it too spicy for the baby, you can stir some sour cream or mashed avocado into the chilli to cool it a bit.

Serve with over-cooked long grain rice or put into wraps for burritos!

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

So much has happened

Wow it feels like ages since I last posted here and quite alot has happened. TP is trying to crawl! He can commando crawl backwards, swivel round on his tummy and is rolling all over the place. On the down side he's doing it in his sleep and there have been a few times that I've had to go in and turn him onto his side or back again because he's stuck in his cot.

Sleep.. hmm thats something that is very rare in this house, for Mummy at least. TP is going through a phase (yes, thats what Im calling it for my own peace of mind!) and he will wake anything from every hour to every three hours. Every three hours is bliss, actually anything that ISN'T every hour is bliss!! I invested in Elizabeth Pantley's No Cry Sleep Solution and we've done 10 days, so tonight will tell whether we've any improvements but we'll leave that to another post. We've discovered how good co-sleeping can be, well good that I get some sleep, bad that I have to lie on the edge of our King Size bed because a certain 8 month old feels it neccessary to lie like a starfish!

Oh, last night when TP woke up at 12.30, I fed him and popped him back in his cot and he was just dosing off when he he turned onto his back and clapped his lips together a few times and said, clear as anything, "Mama!", why do they always do these things in the middle of the night when you can't jump up and down for joy and scream YAAAAAAY, he FINALLY said it !!!! Anyhoo, I sat in the chair and beamed inside. Ofcourse, he hasn't said it since but I can wait. :D

Well I'm sure alot more has happened but I can't think of it right now so I'd better get off to put TP in the bath.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

A day of new dishes

As TP is off his food still, I thought I would see if he would eat something new. So, armed with a couple of recipes, noodles with ketchup from babyledweaning.com and blueberry bran muffins from a book called Healthy Cooking For Your Kids (ISBN 1-40546-993-5), although I adapted them slightly. We had noodles for lunch and muffins for afternoon tea.

TP tucked into his noodles and especially enjoyed the mushrooms (another new thing!), although the noodles were a bit sticky - I think I maybe needed to add a bit of water or maybe I cooked them for too long. TP's pincer grip is really coming along now he picked up his peas, which were quite small without too many problems. Putting ketchup in noodles sounded really gross to me but a friend of mine tried them and said they were really nice, so I thought I would give it a go - Im not a great cook so anything thats easy is good by me! So, with an open mind I dug into my share of the noodles and was pleasantly suprised at how yummy they were.

The muffins came out perfectly, I've never made them before and had to substitute and leave out a few of the ingredients so I was slightly nervous! I was quite suprised how much he seemed to enjoy them.

The recipes are below, for the noodles I would just use however much of everything that you want to, it all depends on how strong in flavour and what you want to put in there!


Noodles - makes enough for Mummy & Baby

Ingredients

1/2 bag of ready made chow mein noodles
Olive oil
Squirt of garlic paste / fresh garlic
Sprinkling of five spice
A couple of dribbles of soy sauce
A few squirts of tomato ketchup
A few prawns (I used defrosted ready cooked prawns)
1/4 of red oinion
1 mushroom
Handful of frozen garden peas

Method

Heat the olive oil in a wok
Add the garlic and five spice and the onion, stir-fry until the onion softens a little
Add the prawns and mushroom and cook until they are cooked and then add the peas
Stir in the noodles and add the soy sauce and ketchup and keep stir-frying until the noodles are heated through

You can add any vegetables that you want, I just used what was in the house but next time I will probably add some mange tout and baby sweetcorn too and maybe use sprig onions instead of red oinions.


Blueberry Bran Muffins - makes 10 small muffins

Ingredients

150g/5 1/2 oz white plain flour
100g/3 1/2 oz wholemeal self-raising flour
1 tbsp oat bran - I used ground up All Bran (its all I had in the cupboard that was remotely bran-like!)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
50g/1 3/4oz light brown soft sugar
1 large egg
250ml / 7fl oz buttermilk - I made a substitute with 230ml milk & 1 tbsp lemon juice
180g fresh blueberries

Method
Preheat the oven to 180c/350f/Gas Mark 4 and line 10 holes of a muffin tin with muffin paper cases
Mix the flours, bran, baking powder, bicarb of soda together in a bowl and stir in the sugar
Whisk the egg and buttermilk together together in a jug
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir briefly to combine. Don't overmix - the mixture
should still be a little lumpy. Fold in the blueberries
Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases and bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes until risen and lightly browned
Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin (Or foof on one and burn your mouth when you taste it like I did!!)
Serve warm or cold, with greek yoghurt or cream (for Mum!)

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Burrito Joe!

TP made his Daddy a proud man tonight by eating a burrito. They are somewhat of a tradition in our house, we have them every Tuesday and I make a huge batch for TP's Daddy to take to work with him the next day, aptly named "Burrito Club" by the guys who he works with - they're famous you know!! :D


Anyway, tonight I made a little bit for TP. I took the mince and refried beans out of the pan before the chilli sauce went in and it was wrapped along with sour cream and Monterey Jack cheese, although TP isn't eating alot of food at the moment he did give the burrito a go.

Monday, February 4, 2008

Happy 8 Month Birthday TP!

Well today is TP's 8 month birthday, where has the time gone? We've not had much of a food week since his bout of teething but last night his sleep was MUCH better and he only woke twice in the night so Mummy had lots of sleep!

TP doesn't crawl yet, he shows no signs of being interested either if you put him on his front he rolls straight over onto his back! He would much rather sit up and play or stand on his legs, which is ok by me, I see my friends struggle trying to keep an eye on their little one's who are crawling EVERYWHERE! Stay sitting as long as you want to my boy, thats what I say. :D

TP just babbles endlessly, he loves to scream and is always laughing, he is such a joy, although I guess I am biased! :P He can say dada, calls our dog A (her name is Angel and he ALWAYS says A when she is close by, probably coincidence but hey!) but very rarely says mama, usually only if he's crying and having a tantrum, oh yes, he has those too but generally only at night!

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Toothy problems.

Well it's been one heck of a week. TP spent the first part of the week with a temperature, he was hovering around the 39 degrees mark and jumped up to 40 one night. After a quick call to NHS Direct I felt a bit calmer, but he went off to the Dr's the following day and the Dr decided it was teething and I was most annoyed that she didnt even bother to take his temperature (!). Anyhoo, a couple of nights in bed with Mummy & Daddy later his temperature went back to normal and his sleep got worse! Up every hour and a very tired Mummy & Daddy are hoping that the teeth will make an appearance very very soon.

On the plus side, TP's three 30 minute naps a day are changing and for the past 2 or 3 days, he has been having a 90 minute nap mid morning and then another 30 minute nap at about 2pm, Im trying to get him to take a further nap at about 4.30pm which seems to be key to him going to sleep alone at night without the need for having a booby in his mouth to sleep. The question is, how on earth do you make a baby sleep?! It's going to be late afternoon walks with him in the pushchair I think!

TP is comlpetely off his food at the moment, we've been offering him all 3 meals but are lucky if he puts anything to his mouth; most of it is ending up on the floor! Nevermind, he's been taking lots of milk and that's the most important thing.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

He likes spicy!

Today for lunch, TP's Daddy made spicy chicken soup with ho fun noodles which consisted of chicken fried in birds eye chilli's and a whole host of other ingredients that only TP's Daddy knows. He made the soup not realising that TP would be partaking so it wasn't made any calmer for little mouths, so I have to say I was quite nervous about giving it to TP.

No need to worry, he wolfed down the chicken and loved the noodles too, he kept sticking his tongue out so I think it may have been a bit hot but he was fine. TP had a special way to eat his noodles too, he grabbed them in his hand and sucked it into his mouth!

Over-paranoid Mummy still gave TP raspberry yoghurt for afters just incase his mouth was hot. :D

Anyway, he's basically been off his food for the last week or so but he's definately found his appetite again.

The royal wave has gone

Yesterday TP gave his first real wave. No more sticking his arm up in the air ow that he can do a proper wave, he's waving at everything including tree's on his Granny's allotment! Ofcourse, he won't do it on demand so once I get a picture of him doing it then I will be sure to post it. :D

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Sleep is for the weak...

I haven't updated for a few days, simply because I'm knackered! I have a bad cold coming and TP has decided that he doesn't need to sleep and I feel like I'm spending every hour of the day in his nursery trying to get him to sleep! Even now as I type this, he was asleep but as soon as he went in the cot the wake up switch went on and now he's playing after a 10 minute nap. I don't know how he does it. :/ I've also started a diary to note milk feeds/ food feeds / nap and sleep times.

Anyway, food has been a bit hit and miss over the past few days, I'm not sure if he has some more teeth coming or he's having a growth spurt. TP has been feeding almost 2 hourly, night time included so something is definitely afoot!

On a brighter note, I tried him with some scrambled eggs again on Thursday (he didn't like them the first time he tried them) and he really enjoyed them this time, so hooray! Although, I did cheat a little and put cheese in too - he seems to eat anything that has cheese on it. :D

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Risotto

Well today I thought I would try and make risotto, which was probably a disaster waiting to happen because of two things... I've never had risotto and I followed a recipe on the rice packet which didn't have any measurements, plus I added a couple of my own ingredients!

Its lamb chops for Mummy & Daddy tonight, so I chopped off a bit of lamb to put in, diced some courgette, onion, aubergine and peppers and some tinned tomatoes. Made it how it told me to on the packet and URGH it was horrid! TP took one handful, put it in his mouth and pulled a face as if to say, "Oh my God Mother, WHAT IS THIS?!", so I quickly whizzed up some quesadilla instead with mozzarella and baby leaf spinach. Dinner, rescued!

For afters rather than the usual fruit or yoghurt I normally give him, we had some plum loaf made my Soreen and he munched it down so quickly!

Saturday, January 19, 2008

I think it was a bit tart...

Joe really likes raspberries in his yoghurt, so I had some leftover that needed eating so I thought I would give him a few to eat - afterall he needs to pratice that pincer grip! I put them on his tray and he carefully picked one up, put it to his mouth and bit down and then......


He only did this on the first bite of every raspberry and then munched the rest down before starting on the next.

On another note, it would seem that the pincer grip has appeared, right out of nowhere!

Friday, January 18, 2008

Gnocchi with Cheese & Creme Fraiche Sauce

Friday's are always hectic in this house. We have swimming at 1.30pm, right in the middle of the day which means I have to leave the house at 12.15pm ish to get there on time, so needless to say lunch usually goes out of the window, unless I am already in town and at a cafe. The problem with that is, is that TP is far too nosey to have a milk feed anywhere other than in the privacy of his bedroom, curtains closed and lights out... no really! So, rather than miss a milk feed, I miss out lunch - for the time being anyway, until I really need to give him lunch everyday.


For dinner tonight, I had a go at making a cheese sauce for TP's gnocchi rather than the usual pesto. I haven't made it before, normally I can't stand cheese sauce but oo, this one was quite tasty! TP wolfed his down, I think he had about 7 bits of gnocchi! We finished it off by sharing a lovely Empire apple, which he prefers to eat whole. It was funny actually because I think he has now discovered what his teeth are for, each time he grated the apple with his bottom teeth and got something deposited into his mouth he did a little shout and a big smile, it was very cute!


Cheese & Creme Fraiche Sauce

Ingredients

1/2 cup Creme Fraiche
1/4 tsp garlic - Im very lazy and used "Very Lazy Garlic"
1/2 cup vegetable stock - I use 1 tsp of sundried tomato paste and half a cup of boiled water.
Cornflour to thicken
1/2 - 1 cup of grated cheese (I use anything that is in the fridge, tonight it was Monterey Jack and Parmesan)
Couple of twists of black pepper

Method

Put the Creme Fraiche and stock in a pan and stir together and then stir in the garlic.
Add the cornflour, keep stirring or it will go lumpy!
Bring to the boil then add the cheese and pepper.
Stir until you reach your preferred thickness, if it too runny for you add a bit more cornflour.

Polenta....

Well I thought we would try polenta, its good for you and something different. I was told to make it then grill it with either cheese or a pasta type sauce so I made it according to the packet and left it to cool and then grilled it on each side until it was golden. It wasn't really grabbing my attention much, it made me think of gruel (not that I actually know what gruel is!) and it was actually quite horrid! Ahwell, TP might like it.

So I whizzed up some tomato, courgette & aubergine sauce and poured it over the polenta and popped it on the tray. He took one taste and pulled the biggest EWW face ever! At least, my boy has some taste!

All was not lost, a quick blend of raspberries added to the yoghurt saved dinner! :D

Tomato, Courgette & Aubergine Sauce

Ingredients

1 large tomato - skinned
1/4 courgette - peeled & sliced
1/4 aubergine - peeled & sliced
1/4 Red Onion - chopped
Garlic
Olive Oil

Method
Put the oil in the pan and heat
Add garlic, onion & tomato stir frequently until tomato is slightly soft
Add courgette & aubergine and keep stirring
If sauce is very thick you can add a little bit of water.
Once the vegetables are blended together, take off the heat and serve.

I blended the sauce so it was nice and smooth to go over the polenta but it would be really nice left chunky over pasta or gnocchi.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

First proper lunch date.

Today was our first proper organised lunch date. We met a couple of TP's friends at the local childrens play centre (www.jansmadhouse.co.uk), its a really great place! Its a massive industrial unit and there is a HUGE play area, ball pit, slides, climbing nets that sort of thing and around the outside it has nice sofa's, two seperate soft play areas - one for toddlers and one for babies and then right at the end there is a cafe area, where they make all home-cooked food, and it tastes great! I wouldn't recommend going during the school holidays - we made that mistake once and stood around for 10 minutes before calling it a day and heading off to a nearby cafe but during school hours its really nice for the babies - theres cake for the Mum's too!

Anyway, I took a pack up for TP which consisted of Organix apple rice cakes (he really likes them!), a mini babybel, an apricot, an Organix gingerbread man and a couple of pieces of dried mango for him to suck on. If truth be known, I wasn't really expecting him to eat anything but he scoffed the lot!


So the day out was a resounding success. :D

Blueberry Pancakes


Joe's dinner yesterday was blueberry pancakes. I made a batch so I can freeze some for later, although they are so nice there are never many left over!


So here is the recipe:
Ingredients
Olive Oil
2 eggs, separated
75 ml milk (I use full fat)
100g wholemeal self-raising flour - you could also use regular self-raising
100g blueberries

Method
Whisk the egg whites into soft peaks.
In a seperate bowl mix the egg yolks, milk and flour.
Fold in the egg whites, then the blueberries.

Lightly coat a frying pan with oil and heat the oil until it starts to smoke.
Add a few spoonfuls of batter - so that you have small round pancakes.
Cook for a minute or two, flip (or turn with a spatula, if like me your flipping skills aren't great!) and cook on the other side for a further minute.

Make sure that the blueberries are cooled before giving to your little one! I usually slice a pancake in half and test the heat of the blueberries before handing over.

I've also doubled the quantities and froze the pancakes, seperated with baking paper for a nice quick snack!

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

TP's 1st Christmas

I was looking forward to Christmas this year. TP was really into his Christmas pressies, I was expecting him to prefer the wrapping paper rather than the toys but he actually enjoyed playing with the toys as each one was unwrapped!


Daddy cooked dinner and we were more excited about eating the dinner than anything else lol! We were home alone this year, so we had rib of beef rather than traditional turkey, as neither of us really like it. Suffice to say, TP takes after his Mummy & Daddy for his love of food and even tasted the sprouts!

To date

Right, Im going to start a fresh today so here a brief update on everything that Joe has had since we started.

Brekkie:
Weetabix - Small amount of milk dribbled on the biscuit to make it slightly soft but not too soft that it falls apart.
Raisin Wheats
- Again, with a small amout of milk to soften them.
Porridge - Ok, he seems to HATE porridge but I keep trying!
Hot Cross Buns
- I cant explain in words just how much TP loves these, which is great because I do too!
Raisin & Cinnamon Bagels - Another firm favourite, we've not tried them with crea mcheese yet but that may be a lunch to try!
Toast - with banana's mainly.

Lunch:
Veggies - Roasted, steamed, mashed or boiled.
Ravioli - Done tinned, am yet to try out that new pasta maker we got for Christmas!
Sandwich - mostly with cheese, not tried cooked meats in a sandwich yet.
Pitta pockets - cheese and carrot / cheese on its own / tomatoes & cheese - does anyone see a pattern here? :P
Yoghurt - Home made (oh yes!) witha fruit puree (home blended, none of this jarred stuff!)
Rice cakes
Blueberry Pancakes

Dinner:
Roast dinner - He's had chicken, beef and lamb so far, all a hit!
Curry - Yes, he tried some meat from my bhuna, some bombay potato and onion bhaji!
Quesadilla - mainly with cheese and veggies
Gnocchi
Pasta twirls
Pesto
- making my own. :D
Jacket potato
Potato wedges
Fishcakes
- homemade again.

There must be more but my mind has blank for now!

First foods

TP's first foods were fruit and veg! The very first thing he had was banana, he loved it although it was very slippery so I improvised and chopped the end off a peeled banana and cut the skin down so that he had his very own mini 'nana! Since then we've given him all kinds of fruit and veg, a few of his favourites are...

Apricots - he ADORES apricots, they are his absolute favourite fruit.
Raspberries - Not so sure about them on their own but loves them blended into yoghurt.
Banana - Another firm favourite although I've found its easier if I use the crinkle cutter to chip bits off for him - he can get a much better grip.
Mango - Again, the crinkle cutter comes in VERY handy with mango!
Apple - You cant eat an apple without TP begging for a bit, at first I was worried about the choking thing and would stick it in the microwave for 30 seconds or so but I feel confident that he can manage a small bit with supervision.
Pears - ANother favourite, I've just started to give him a whole pear to hold himself, I just peel half of the pear so that he can hold onto the skin side.
Blueberries - He cant quite manage these without me splitting them, he's not mastered his pincer grip yet but loves them blended into yoghurt.
Butternut Squash - Cut into crinkle chips and roasted with garlic.
Parsnips - Cut into chips and roasted (sometimes with ginger!).
Sweet Potato - Again, cut into chips and roasted, sometimes with garlic.
Cabbage - Oddly, he really liked cabbage!
Swede - I mash the swede and he grabs handfuls and shoves them into his mouth lol!

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Another toofy!

We saw our first tooth on New Years Eve and today I just found a 2nd tooth! Well lets hope all those sleepless nights will start to ease up now that we have our 2 bottom teeth.

I keep trying to look at them but tp keeps sticking his tongue over, he's keeping them a closely guarded secret lol.

Where it all began

At 5 and a half months, we started Tigerpiddler (to be known as TP!) weaning. I had done lots of reading (yay for the interweb!) and found this different way of weaning where you bypassed puree and went straight to finger food, known as Baby Led Weaning.

Although the guidelines say wait until 6 months, Joe had started to show interest in food and could sit up unaided, although not for a long time and I decided to introduce him slowly with the odd bit of fruit and veg here and there, afterall it's baby led weaning!

Like every new Mum, I was a little worried that he wouldn't be eating as much as puree-fed babies and also I was afraid he would choke (not realising the difference between choking and gagging). Luckily, I had stumbled upon an excellent BLW blog & forum ran by Aitch. BLW Blog and BLW Forum , which is full of excellent tips and people who can help you with almost any question!

So, for anyone wondering how to begin at the BLW lark, here are a few things you need to know...

Babies can survive on breastmilk alone for up to 1 year - in some countries they milk feed for up to 2 years!

Food should be seen as a new toy until your little one is around 1 year.

Your baby WILL gag, pull "eww" faces and sometimes throw more away than he will eat - its normal! The gagging thing is all part of the learning process and after a couple of weeks the gagging will subside a little as your baby will have learned to cough up bits that are too big to swallow.

If you dont like mess, go buy a mat to sit underneath your high chair. :P

Monday, January 14, 2008

Hello!

Im setting up this blog on behalf of my son, who was born in June, last year. We've recently started weaning him the baby led way and this will most likely be an account of the weaning!