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.

Going out for his first walk.


Gnocchi with pesto veg and cheese.



JJ has enjoyed getting to grips with his walking over the past couple of weeks and is very impressed with his new shoes!

On the food front JJ is eating well. He has a great fondness for beans (of any variety but especially kidney beans) at the minute - he even chose them over blueberries! He is getting good at telling us when he is hungry now. He will say 'num num num' as a kind of eating noise. If we ask him if he is hungry he goes into the kitchen. He is also pointing at the cupboard. If he gets grumpy it is often if he is hungry and needs a snack.

He had a fillet and a half of salmon (which I marinated with honey, ginger and lime) last night along with veggies and cous cous (he found the cous cous hard work though!). Guess he needs the protein. He is loving kiwi fruit, beans, potatoes (as always!), greek yogurt with honey, bananas and cheerios.

He has also got one more tooth now which evens out his 3 on the bottom. He was pretty grouchy with it coming through though so I'm not looking to the rest coming through.

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!

Christmas capers!

Birthday cake



Christmas Dinner




A scarily green Christmas tree meringue at a party!


Wow, it's been a while since I posted! I blame the massively chaotic festive season with a string of parties, family gatherings and other such jolly festivities!

We have had a lovely Christmas time and Jacob has had a ball!


It was also his first birthday which was great - he had a blueberry sponge cake as blueberries must be his all time favourite food. He loved it, although he much preferred the berries to the cake, and spilled crumbs all over his granny!

We had a couple of baby group Christmas parties and he ate well at both - a lot of treats he wouldn't normally have but he did do well with sandwiches and fruit at them too. He thoroughly enjoyed his Christmas dinner, with turkey hot or cold being a firm favourite at the minute..luckily!

Other food he has had worth noting is Thai red curry - went down well surprisingly! He is loving clementines, pate, anything wrapped in pastry, risotto, meat (especially turkey!), jelly (occasionally at parties), malt loaf too. He has started eating toast by sucking, licking, nibbling off whatever is spread on it before (sometimes) eating the toast itself. He is much less messy and is getting very good at spooning his own yogurt and using his fork (unless he is really hungry or it is something he loves and then the fork is to slow and hit and miss so it is back to shovelling fist fulls in!).

I am not sure if Jacob is officially weaned now or not - he eats exactly what we eat 95% of the time so perhaps he is!? I will still keep blogging for a while longer until he has mastered cutlery but there is much less to report nowadays now that he has tried almost every food out there and seems to always like most things. So to avoid boring you all I will do fortnightly or so posts unless something exciting happens.

Wishing you all a happy new year!!!

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.

Mixed bag

On Saturday we had the usual breakfast of shreddies but he was not very interested.
Lunch was ...... can't remember!
For tea we had Fish and Potato pie which went down quite well.

Sunday we had beans, poached egg and toast for lunch which he really enjoyed! He always loves eggs though.
For tea we had chilli which he only ate half of. He is enjoying using his fork now but it is slowing him down a bit and distracting him from eating as he doesn't really have the hang og it yet

Monday lunch was a quesadilla for JJ with cheese, chicken and peas - he ate the while thing but it took him a while as he was very chilled and relaxed!
For tea we had pasta but again he wasn't overly enthusiastic.

Stew and lumps!

JJ had shreddies for breakfast and pinched some of my toast as usual.

Lunch was 1 slice of philly on toast (since he missed it on Wednesday!!) 3 veggie nuggets, cherry tomatoes, a banana....might have been more - not sure!

I made a stew for tea with mash and dumplings (or lumps as my brother called them when he was little).... (having a lot of mash at the minute...think it must be the cold weather!). He seemed to quite like it but didn't seem overly hungry but ate a bit and had a kiwi.