July 2010: Weaning's in full swing, the kitchen floor's covered in ming

[CakeandRoses]

And voila: our 6th postnatal thread... which neatly works out roughly one a month [maths genius emoticon]

tsc I used readybrek for L and still have half a box left since she went off it but I reckon it's a bit stale after about 14 months in the cupboard. I give S normal oats or weetabix and it goes down fine.
mlic I'm not bidding on this one, it's all yours but it's looking like not too bad a price at the mo.
We've been to the doc's and back got yet more crap to smear all over L plus some antiB's and piriton. I'm going to ring the hospital in a mo and pester them re her dermo appt. Both dcs are in bed, S is snoozing and L's jumping up and down singing postman pat but I'm hoping she'll shush and sleep or it'll be a loooooong afternoon!
spirael good luck for the job!

DH keeps asking me to get one so I'd better bite the bullet and go ahead, I'll let you know if I bid on one so we don't bid against each other. I'd rather you had it then we battled for it!

TSC you have my sympathy, you really do, I know I whinge about J and his sleep sometimes but you really have it tough.

there's nowt wrong with jars if it suits you guys. as I said I use them pretty often and I only have one child to cook for... they are really high quality these days. how is frankie with finger foods now? j is getting better all the time with them, but I give him something I can spoonfeed at every meal as otherwise he gets frustrated and hungry. however i'm keen for him to master feeding himself asap as then I can eat my own foood while he eats his - even more vital with more than one child! i had lunch today at a friend's house, she is doing proper purist BLW with her baby, so we gave the babies avocado mashed on bread, and strawberries. Then I spoonfed J some yoghurt while her baby was handed loaded spoons of it - meanwhile my friend had finished her yoghurt and I hadn't even started mine. BLW is definitely good from that POV!

readybrek is fine for babies. i am still giving j expensive plum baby porridge but only cos I got it in sainsbury's 1/3 off baby event when I just started weaning and was a bit overexcited... as i said i give him weetabix too but only a half - i reckon he could eat a whole one but i'm worried about the salt content.

I'm here, just have nothing exciting to say...

My in laws have been and gone again stac, they weren't quite as annoying this time still pissed me off a couple of times but we had a nice day out at a big regional park that has a working farm on it and is by the sea too so A loved the animals and the beach bit.

They were here 4 days and have now flown off to Fiji for 2 weeks (lucky sods, we haven't been abroad for 3 years, not that we really need overseas holidays living where we do, I guess). They are back in 2 weeks and then we have 7 days together in a little seaside town a couple of hours drive from home. Was going to be 9 days but I am coming back a bit early as a friend is having a piss up few drinks at her house and I don't want to miss a night out, they're rare enough for me at mo. Dh and I did go and see "True Grit" the other night when they were here, it was very good.

Yo. tons to catch up on with you all so will probably post in dribs and drabs as i remember.

chulita how's L's skin tonight? Have you found a new dress after tsc and i ruined the idea of the other one?

i'm an idiot - i never go to sleep before midnight. i do think i need less sleep than other people though as i rarely feel really tired even though i never get great sleep

what do i feed A? it's a mad combo of whatever F and I are eating plus stuff i do for her so breadsticks/oatcakes and humous, pasta with pesto/tomato/veggie bolognese, porridge or baby rice mixed with banana or fruit puree, chunks of cucumber, sticks of roast veg like parsnips and carrot, organix cereal bars (which she loves), chunks of banana, peanut/almond butter on toast, noodles, steamed veg such as baby corn and sugar snap peas plus dairy free cheese and yoghurts.

tsc things sound bad there . what's changed with frankles? he used to be chilled and cheerful.

mind you, no excuse for you not be capable of a roux get thee to a saucepan and get stirring, woman!

if you tell me the types of things dp/Kate like then i'll think of some good recipes.

had a busy but nice day catching up with family. Met my sister, father and grandma for lunch with A, which was lovely. My stepmother came over later after work and walked with me to collect F. That was nice as she used to run a large corporate nursery and she was full of praise for F's nursery (which is a smaller, independent one).

Just collected dh from the airport and i'm about to go and collect a chinese takeaway.

i'm a very stupid loving wife i've realised - i've just turned down an invite to a London Fashion Week party on Fri night because I want to snuggle up with dh as I feel like i've barely seen him lately. what a saddo i've become.

also - stac (i think), just remembered i didnt reply about what i used on A's cradle cap. i used the magic goo but don't bother buying it specially, olive oil is cool

back from the chinese now as didn't post before i left. catch you all later

Yo cake.; You is down wiv da kids.

tis said post-ironically or something.

my cousin and my sister, i mean my sista do the street-talk to each other in texts etc, just being silly and i forget myself and show myself up by doing it elsewhere too

man

Do you mash it all together for him mlic? im really crap at cooking for ellie. I try to do something different but it never seems to turn out right! so always end up giving her pureed veg. She'll take the odd jar but doesnt really like them so only use them if im really stuck. I just dont know what to DO with food for her iyswim?! she will eat a rusk from her hand and rice cakes and melon. She grabbed my apple out of my hand this eve. She has a full weetabix with normal milk for brekkie and will eat yogurts so its the dinners that im stuck with.
For instance wooflands when you say you give beans on toast do you mash the beans into the toast or what?
These sound like such stupid questions but i've had absolutely no experience of feeding a baby before this!

some good suggestions from a poster on the current blw thread:

• porridge fingers

• strips of meat with whatever sauce they've been cooked in

• dough bread with sauce on that he can suck off (Pizza Express - possibly very salty but a one-off...eek)

• banana and ricotta, using toast fingers as a dip (I load the dipper myself)

• green beans, other roast veg (but apparently he has to be in the mood for this. One day he'll eat a stack of green beans and then days later will just wave them at me)

-boiled new potatoes (just eats like a small apple)

• omelette - my god, that was a surprise. Ate LOADS, much to the disturbance of my MIL..

• dahl (as a spread or dip)

Ricotta + anything = a great spread for toast. Hurrah!

kk yes with beans on toast what I've done is put the beans on the toast, then when giving it to him I've scraped the beans off and mashed them up and spoonfed, then cut the toast up and given it to him in soggy fingers (nice and easy to chew). my friend's purist BLW baby can pick up individual baked beans and eat them, but j would get cross!

tsc what a lot of different meals to cook... i would just mash one of them up for frankie.

i know in theory jars are expensive, but I got a load in the sainsbury's 1/3 off event, so i think each one was about 60p and that does two meals? so not really toooo bad. i noticed today that some jars were 9 for £4, but that might have been the little stage 1 jars. i think our poundshop does 2 stage 2 jars for a pound so if so will stock up next time.

tsc are you guys happy to eat veggie some of the time or would you prefer to have meat? e.g. why didn't you all have the risotto on mon? i'm not criticising - just trying to understand.

would everyone eat pies/pasties? would be easy to do ones with veg plus beans or whatever and also meaty ones.

was the lasagne a veggie one?

oh and a confession... i often just add cornflour mixed in a bit of water to a sauce rather than doing a roux - super quick and easy!

does K eat fish still then? if so, she's not actually a veggie.

how old is your friend's baby woodlands? i don't think they usually develop the pincer grip til 9 months, but boy does it get easier when they do!

oh and dh eats meat so i know what it's like trying to keep everyone happy. tbh, dh eats veggie most of the time but sometimes has what i'm doing but just cooks some chicken to go with it - e.g. roast, curries, stirfries.