Potato, carrot and cheese cakes.

These are yummy and great food for baby led weaning. Or as finger foods if you're not BLW. I have to be honest and say Jess didn't get too many of the first batch but I had to make sure they were ok!

Boil up some carrots and potatoes, when soft drain and mash them, add grated cheese and mix in well, then mix in flour until the mixture is the right consistancy to roll into little balls and hold together.

Roll into little balls and fry in a little olive oil squishing them down in the pan to make discs.

Obviously you can add pretty much anything to these, I'm going to try them with parsnip next time! They are also good cold and can be heated up in a dry frying pan if you want them hot again later.



I do need to credit my beloved domestic goddess of a sister for this one, she's really rather good!

More Eating

Well, the Baby Led Weaning (BLW) seems to be going very well! Even better since we got the new high chair to be honest. You're not really supposed to start on the eating thing until sprog can sit up pretty much unaided. Jess' attempts at sitting at the moment result in a very well practised quick lie down. Sometimes face first.... We initially got her a booster seat which, even when well padded out with a towel, didn't really offer much in the way of support and had her peering over the edge of the table so she struggled a bit to reach her food. I realised that it wasn't helping her when we visited a friend with a proper highchair which Jess sat in and happily devoured six large strawberries with not that much going on the floor. Needless to say, it was a very understanding friend who helped me hose the child down in the bath afterwards!

So I did a bit of research and brought an East Coast wooden folding highchair which was possibly a bit expensive; £44 off ebay in comparison the the ikea antilop wonder highchair which sells for £10.99 with the table being an extra budget busting £4.... Don't get me wrong, the antilop is actually excellent but crucially for us, it has slightly splayed legs and it doesn't fold and did I mention we live in a shoebox? Anyway, we now have our very pretty folding wooden highchair which keeps her mostly upright and will be even better when we get the insert for it so she doesn't keep smacking her head on the back when she's decided she's finished eating. It has a tray which is handy but the tray folds back too so she can get right up to the table and eat with us without being eye level with her lunch. Forgive me for raving about highchairs, makes a change from the nappies though....

I am eternally amazed at the development of her skills when it comes to eating. Depending on what it is she has come on leaps and bounds within a few weeks with getting things in her mouth and swallowing them and she knows that when the highchair comes out and Mummy starts laying the table it's food time and she'll shout at me until she's fed. While I'm typing this she's finishing her lunch which was soup followed by plum. The soup I leave thicker than Meanderingfather and I have it so it's bordering on veg puree but Jess eats it herself. I either pass her a loaded spoon or I leave the spoon in the soup in front of her, either way, she knows just what to do! Right now the plum is being decimated. I cut it roughly off the stone and Jess very efficiently eats the flesh and spits out the skin. It's great watching her learn that two hands are better than one when picking up something slippy.

Mmmm, plum!

Obviously though, she now wants EVERYTHING! Which means I have to be very aware that she will be lunging for my glass of wine in the pub. Luckily she will be fobbed off with sipping from a glass of water.

We're still going strong with the breastfeeding and hopefully will continue to do so for a while longer yet but she did have an odd wobble when the weaning started in earnest and for a few days she didn't want much boob but would just howl at it when I got her in position. I eventually worked out that she didn't want to be held so much so for a while she was feeding sitting beside me with minimal support and now she's back to normal thankfully!

In other news still not much luck with the nappies and the smell. I'm trying a few other things and if they work I shall up date you (lucky things that you are!)

The start of Jessie Led Weaning

We're not really supposed to be offering Jess food yet but as she's stolen a few bits off my plate we just thought we'd go along with it and see how things go. At the moment she doesn't get offered three meals a day but if she's awake and we're eating something suitable she can join in. Just to update, we're doing this hippy method of weaning which means Jess eats what we eat, no purees, no force feeding. Her main source of nutrition til she's got to grips with food is boob juice so hopefully weaning will be a fun journey into the delights of food and not a three times a day struggle to force mush down her throat. The only things that are out are excessive quantities of salt or sugar or anything she might choke on (biggish bits of nuts and seeds) which gives us quite a bit of scope!

So far she's had orange (which she adores), dates (maybe not the best plan, I have yet to find out!), tomato, avocado, cheese, cake, toast and butter, banana, scotch pancake, cous cous, pasta with tomato sauce, hummus, ice cream, yogurt (she actually sucked it off the lid, very cool!), cherries, nectarine, strawberries, cucumber and courgette. For the most part she has a suck and a gum of things just to get to grips with textures, tastes and how to pick things up but a lot of the fruit gets yummed up!

The only problem is the mess, which isn't really a problem because what gets dropped on the floor can be picked up again! And Jess can obviously be held under a tap to get her clean.... I've found that to save on washing eating half naked is better, skin being wipe cleanable, although food gets everywhere when they DIY! But as she can't sit up properly and can only be propped in the highchair for short periods (and some might say not at all!) she does a lot of her eating on my knee and happy as I am to be filthy dirty I have a real problem with being sticky and a baby sucking banana out of your hand brings a whole new meaning to the word! Although it is a good excuse for us to share a bath after tea....

The best bit of all this though is the faces she makes, my favourite being mouth hanging open, slight frown and a general how dare you poison me aura. Usually accompanied by a urrrrgggghhhh sound. Bizarrely this doesn't mean she hates it and she will go back for more!

 Jess getting to grips with avocado.

In other news, we've done a bit of swimming which she does seem to enjoy! We usually go with my incredibly lovely friend who sits in the coffee shop with her so I can do lengths for half an hour (bliss), then he swims while Jess and I bob about in the toddlers pool. We've also been with my Cousin and her bundle of joy who's a water babies baby and can apparently go underwater! I'm very impressed by this but haven't had the guts to dunk Jess yet although god knows why, seeing as I dropped her twice in the bath earlier and she managed not to inhale any!

We've (I've) also designed a nappy.... I have had ever more adventures in the world of nappies since my last post and my dear sister has introduced me to a website called wee notions (see links). It seems to be a family thing, when we find things we want but can't afford and /or don't need we like to tell as many people as possible to share the pain as it were. Anyway, on wee notions you can design your own nappy and they will make it and send it to you. And my god these things are exquisite. Needless to say, I couldn't really afford one and I definitely don't need one but I've ordered one anyway. It will arrive in a few weeks and I promise to post a photo as soon as I have it on the child!

Mini feeding update

Got the baby led weaning book by Gill Rapley this weekend and have nearly finished it. It has really geared me up towards starting Jess' weaning and I'm very excited about it now! The basic plan is to start when she's about six months or when she's ready and let her take charge. She'll still get all the goodies she needs from me and she'll explore food in her own time. No purees, no aeroplane noises and no trying to force feed her stuff she doesn't want. It'll all be done in her own time and she'll be eating the food John and I eat.

Which leads me on to the second bit.... As many of you know, John is a vegan, I'm a carnivore and Jess will be a vegetarian until she can decide what she wants to do. I try to cook vegan at home for our joint meals usually with added cheese for me but having received an old vegan cookbook from my brother in law I'm feeling very inspired to make our meals more varied and healthier. I want Jess to be eating exciting, healthy food so makes sense that all three of us do. I'm not saying I'm going vegan but dairy will hopefully play a less central role in our shared meals.

If the courier turns up with my phone and lets me pop out for supplies we may well be having black eye bean burgers tonight. Yum!

Feeling very foodie inspired!