Veggies galore

Mmmm this soup is gooood!



Austrian boiled eggs just taste better!


JJ has been enjoying his food as usual. He is a proper little boy now and seems so grown up...especially when I look back at the pictures on this blog! He eats beautifully with a fork, spoons in his cereals at breakfast and is still keen to try new things.





I now have an allotment and a greenhouse so he is currently enjoying lots of fresh veg. He is a bit of a monkey at sneaking into the greenhouse and picking and munching all the ripe cherry tomatoes (although they do taste sooo good home grown.) This week he tucked into 2 bowls of a yummy (and very green) veg soup made with lots of rainbow chard which we picked that morning. We are also picking up 3 chickens this week so we will have lovely fresh eggs each day. JJ developed a taste for boiled eggs for breakfast on a recent holiday to Austria so this should please him, as well as the fact that he is animal mad! He was great on holiday, eating anything we ate, his favourite being risotto. I think the staff at our hotel took a liking tohim as he was so appreciative of the food and ate so well!





Hope all the regulars and their little ones are well xxxx

Fun video!

Snacks in the park


Yeay! Salmon for tea

JJ has been eating fairly well over the past couple of weeks. Fish is a big favourite at the moment with salmon being top of the list! He has also taken a liking to Organix gingerbread men (although we try to keep his sweet snacks to a minimum but he knows where they are kept and he knows what he wants!).





I have added a very cute video of JJ eating his tea. It shows quite well where he is up to with his fork too. He isn't normally so excitable at meal times but it was salmon for tea which I think sent him into a frenzy! In fact he ate his fillet of slamon in about 30 seconds and then kept shouting more and pointing at this daddy's so ended up having another half!





JJ has been a bit more challenging behaviour wise recently. He has become very clingy to me at home which is driving everybody mad. He is fine if I am not there but the second he sees me he starts whinging and wanting to be picked up. I have read this is a common stage and that it passes but I really hope it passes soon. To add to this we are doing some major work to the house - re-arranging the whole ground floor and this just adds to the chaos! Because the kitchen will be out of action for a while, me and JJ are heading to my Mum's for a few days while his daddy works on it.

Walking!

Pinching biscuits!

Cinnamon apples - the old favourite!

Stew - a winter fave!

Play dough - don't hink he quite gets it!





Since the last post JJ has started walking!! He has been looking like he is ready for ages but never seemed to have the confidence to walk without holding our hands etc, but one day he started taking a few steps on his own and the next day he was walking every where! This does however mean that he has quite a few bumps on his head and he is scaring me half to death most of the time. I guess you have to let them toddle and they are bound to fall so I have to get used to the knocks!

He has seemed very grumpy in the run up to tea time recently - I think he is using more energy now he is walking, so we have started giving him a banana and rice cakes mid afternoon.

He is also now no longer breast feeding :-( I stopped the morning feed just after Christmas (replaced with cows milk) and he didn't seem to notice. I then finished his bed time feed on the 11th- again he hasn't seemed bothered and doesn't ask for it so I think he was ready. He has barely taken anything at night for a long time now - it was more for the cuddles - so he still get cuddles but no milk. He has cows milk now morning and night.

On the food front things are pretty much the same. He has stalled a bit with his fork, he got quite good and could use the scooping action to pick things up now and again but he hasn't managed it for a while now. I think Christmas and all the upheaval has set him back -I also think it depends on his mood a bit.


He drives me mad some days thinking it is so funny to drop his food over the edge of his high chair and then shakes his head and says no (well 'booooooow' which is his version!) before I do, so he knows he shouldn't. He does do it sometimes with particular things he doesn't fancy but I don't think he always realises they are going over the edge as he just sort of flings them out the way! It is usually when he has about had enough that he messes about so I just take his food away and stop the meal, or take it away for a minute then give it back. I should maybe try to ignore and say nothing, pretend not to notice so I don't reinforce it, as he thinks it's funny when I say no and I don't want him thinking it is funny. Will give it a go and let you know.

He is really growing up now and is such a cheeky chappy at the minute, but can have the odd tantrum too! I can't believe how quickly time has gone by.

Haven't heard from a few of the 'regulars' in a while - hope you are well - leave a comment and let me know how you are getting on!

teeth!

This week has been ok food wise but JJ's rapidly growing front teeth and 2 newly emerging top teeth have made him a bit unpredictable. He has been eating but not as much as usual. He has a firm favourite in potato and has eaten his own body weight in blueberries, but has otherwise been a bit picky. I am sure it will settle down once teeth are through. He is persevering with his fork and spoon but it can distract him and hold him up. If it is there he seems determined to use it but hasn't got a reliable scoop or stab action and it's a bit pot luck. Consequently he can eat a lot less if the fork gets too interesting! He is getting better with his yogurt and spoon though but does seem to have gone off yogurt a bit.

He has had jambalaya, lasagne, pasta, crumpets, egg sandwiches, omlette, jacket potatoes, chicken and more this week.

He a=has also adopted a new photo pose designed to show off his new teeth - more of a grimace on occasions and much cuter in real life than on the photos!

Other news (long!!)
JJ seems to be learning something new every day:
He is standing a lot on his own now and getting stronger every day.
He will cuddle his toys, our cat, dog or us if you ask him to.
He loves putting objects in containers, and taking them out, and putting them in etc etc!!
He nods and shakes his head to mean yes or no (if he throws food over his high chair he turns straight to me and shakes his head before I have said a word!)
He likes to kick a ball around whilst walking holding our fingers.
He loves to point and make an accompanying curious noise to direct us where he would like to go!
He demands blueberries using the point and a special 'I want blueberries' noise!
He has learnt to turn the dvd player on and off (despite the fact it is in the living room we rarely use and he has never seen us do it!)
He loves to push himself around on a ride on toy at baby group.

Large lunch and using his fork!

Yummy, JJ loves Shreddies!

What a poser!! He did this as soon as he saw the camera!

JJ had his new breakfast favourite shreddies again - he just loves em! He also had a little bit of my toast.




He had a long, leisurely and large lunch! I made some cheesy pancakes and he ate them all (6 in total!), along with a banana, some dried apricots and a tomato.

For tea JJ had chicken, mash and veggies and 2 kiwis for pudding. He also used his fork on his own properly which we caught on video. He seems to find the fork much easier than a spoon.

Other News:
JJ stood up and stayed up for a few seconds unsupported today which he hasn't done spontaneously before! He can also do the action to the song 'Wind the Bobbin up' Which is just the cutest thing!
He has also started to sleep for longer at nap times in the past week - an hour or so !!! Unheard of till now but I hoped I haven't jinxed it!

Curry

NEW PICTURES/VIDEOS ADDED BELOW

JJ had his usual breakfast today of oatibix and fruit.





For lunch he had a wholemeal cheey pitta bread with some fruit for pudding - nectarine I think!





Tea was a bit of an experiment. I made a butternut squash curry (very mild) and he quite enjoyed it. We had it with jacket potatoes as we weren't in the mod for rice. He also did quite well with his fork - I was stabbing bits for him and he was eating them off the fork (rather than pulling them off like he did last time!). The forks we use are ikes plastic ones - 18 knives, forks and spoons for about £1 - fab! He also was offered mashed banana and yogurt but didn't want any.





Other news: JJ is able to put shapes into his shape sorter now - well he can't et them in the right holes but he just sort of drops them onto the holes and they go in. He also went to a soft play centre and had a brilliant time, crawling and climbing around.