Unusual lunch

Today I made banana on toast for Theo and I had a bacon sandwich. While he waited for his toast I gave him some rice crackers which he just threw off the high chair.

Then he had the banana on toast, but he didn't want it and just threw it off as well.

I gave him some bacon and he nibbled a bit and then threw it on the floor.

Ho hum.

He has spent all day pulling faces because he has a new tooth, so that might be why he wasn't interested in lunch.

Cheeky Little Monkey!

Me and Uncle and Theo went to my parents so I could use their shower and uncle could use their printer and I took along tuna sandwiches for packed lunch.

Tuna can be added to the list of fish that Theo likes. I'm starting to think he has definitely inherited my taste in food. Hopefully he hates ketchup and baked beans as much as I do, so I don't have to have them in the house. Mike hates fish, so he clearly got that from me.

Then again, he could just enjoy anything as long as it's on wheat based products.

Later I was at home and Theo was having a bit of a fuss, so was sat on my knee whilst I ate a packet of chocolate buttons. Now, young babies are not meant to have chocolate because it's an allergen, however Theo clearly didn't get the memo. As per usual he watched me eating them with great interest and kept trying to grab them from me. I picked on from the bag and was distracted by the telly for a few seconds. In those few seconds he lunged at the button and bloody well sucked it from my fingers! By the time I had him turned around and tried to fish it out, it had melted. He looked very damn pleased with himself. Cheeky monkey!

Note to self. Do not trust baby around chocolate ever again.

NESW. Never Eat Shredded Wheat. Or not.

Theo was getting bored of weetabix for breakfast, and it was so damned messy that I decided to change breakfast cereal. On Sunday I bought some mini shredded wheat for Monday morning and as you can see, it was most enjoyable to Theo. I just soaked them in a bit of formula so they were a bit soft and less bland.

I also invested in Ryvita (horrid stuff in my opinion) and he had a good old time eating Philadelphia and Ryvita (also smearing it all over his pram)

He had more cucumber for his gums and it made him happy.

We had lamb chops and homemade hash browns for tea and the less said about the hash browns the better (Mike said they were tasty, but he may have just been lying to make me feel better)

As the hash browns were a disaster I just gave him a piece of lamb. He liked it, but it proved too difficult for Theo to swallow, so he ended up gagging and bringing it all backup.

I'm starting to think all he knows how to chew and swallow is bready things with stuff on top.

Here he is with the lamb (it was a really nice bit as well and he just dropped most of it in his pram)

"I'll have the Penne All' Arribiata." "You'll need a tray."

Friday found us once again in Bolton. I was bored and gatecrashed lunch with my parents, and decided to try a new Italian place called Prosecco (not actually new, just a revamp, anyway)

As per, I had the penne all'arribiata and gave a few pieces to Theo. It was quite spicy but that didn't stop Theo from chomping away at the pieces of pasta. He rubbed sauce all over his face, but unfortunately I didn't get any pictures.

On saturday we headed off to a friend's house for cheese and wine and Theo had a few plain crackers and a bite of cracker with cheese on it. it was gorgonzola. I have a feeling that I did a bad thing giving him blue cheese, but it was a tiny wee bit and I think it mostly ended up on his top.

He did like it though. (Ha Mike! He likes blue cheese! In. Your. Face.)

He also munched through a stick of cucumber which went down a treat, but I think that may be because he is still teething badly and it was cool on his gums.

After he had had a bit of a munch I put a bit of houmous on the stick he was holding and that confused him a bit, but in a good way because he sucked all the houmous off.

He had nothing new on Sunday, though he tried his damnedest to chew through the box of Mike's easter egg.

Sushi!

Bought some sushi today from M&S. Theo loved it, though I don't think any of it actually went down. He just munched and dropped rice everywhere and dribbled rice everywhere and had a lot of fun.

Sushi face!

He had mango for pudding and he made his way through a whole half stick (with only a little bit falling on his top)

Later on he had some melon and pineapple and that made him happy as well. Although the pineapple was a bit hit and miss.

Bloody teething

Theo scared the bejesus out of me yesterday by being very out of sorts all day. In a bit of a panic I took him to the walk in centre. All is well, he is just teething big style.

Needless to say I felt like a tool bothering the nurses over bloody teething (PFB much?) but she said it was fine and as long as I felt reassured then I wasn't wasting their time.

Anyway, she said they can have trouble weaning, and he currently is having trouble drinking from his bottle because of the pain in his gums, so I'm trying to give him foods I know he likes and that I think he will enjoy chewing on.

Currently this is his usual breakfast weetabix.

No idea what I'm going to give him for lunch though.

Weekend foods

Friday was Pizza Express Day.

He had a munch on some organix rice cakes (I'm thinking it was a mistake to get him these as he likes them a bit too much) before I handed over some pizza. It was quattro formaggi (sp?), so cheese and tomato on toast, essentially. Needless to say he loved it and munched away until all that as left was a soggy bit of crust.

Saturday he had crumpets for breakfast and the liked them a lot. Unfortunately they didn't like him and he gagged a lot. I suppose it's the texture he struggled with.

That night I made dinner for my parents. I made french onion soup; chicken stuffed with cheese (stilton or goats cheese, I made two of each because Mike hates Stilton) wrapped in parma ham with sweet potato mash; and sticky toffee pudding (I left that up to Cartmel Sticky Toffee Pudding Company, though the rest was from scratch)

Theo was feeling tired so just joined us for the soup (had to soak it in bread so he could hold it) Soup was a success.

On Sunday he had weetabix for breakfast and crumpets. Again he gagged on the crumpets, so we'll have to abandon them for the time being, which is a shame because he really liked them.

He had more soup for lunch as well as feta in pitta bread as well as some onions from the soup. He wasn't interested in the feta pittas, but the pitta soaked in soup and the onions went down a treat.

For dinner we went to Grandma and Grandpa's. He had honeydew melon, which he has decided isn't half bad, strawberry (tasty) melba toast, yorkshire pudding, and *sigh* mashed carrot (less said about that the better) and ice cream.

Tonight we are looking forward to chicken fajitas made by Daddy. Om nom nom.

Oh yes, I have been trying to get him to eat broccoli for over a week now, but every time he gets hold of it, he just waggles it about. Yesterday he finally had a bit of a lick, and was totally uninterested. I was actually a bit saddened because I as convinced he would love it.

Heaton Park

So we headed off to Heaton Park with a friend with our little picnic. I've been missing out. Heaton Park is amazing. Theo had a lot of fun looking at the animals. We found a nice spot to eat. Here is Theo waggling a carrot about. He wasn't too fussed about eating it.

Previous forays into meat eating have not gone too well for Theo, but he was very happy with his roast chicken, though he got cold and fussy after a while so we went for a walk to look at the animals.

We went off to Slattery's to warm up with cake and tea. I was hungrier than I thought, so got a cream cheese and salmon bagel instead of cake. Theo liked licking the cucumber from the garnish. He was in high spirits as you can see.

After consulting my memory, I figured he would be ok with smoked salmon (think it's only shark, marlin, swordfish and shellfish that they can't eat, and neither me nor DH are allergic)

He obviously takes after mummy and loved it. We'll have to work very hard to keep Theo in smoked salmon.

"Mummy, that man over there has purple shoes!"

Biscuit angst

Yesterday we headed to town so I could have a driving lesson and Nana could look after him. I took along a banana and some green beans. Once at the pub I had a cheese and ham melt. I gave Theo some cheesy bread, but he seemed really uninterested.

He was happier with his banana.

I got a digestive biscuit with my coffee and gave some to Theo (oh yeah, Wednesday is clearly healthy eating day) He enjoyed it and got biscuit everywhere.

Later I went into Boots and got some baby food apple rice crackers. They assure me they are healthy and have no bad stuff. Just rice cracker, apple juice and cinnamon. I gave one to Theo. He pulled a face, but then carried on munching. I tried one myself and, oh my God, were they sweet! I tried another one and then another and soon I had polished off half the bag, whereas Theo had eaten a half of one. Oops.

This morning I headed off to toddler group. I decided not to take the rest of the rice cracker and just take his bottle. I met a friend there and she had some of these biscuits. I thought one couldn't hurt. Turns out it did. Even though he had dribbled all over it, and it was all mushy, Theo somehow managed to cut his mouth on the biscuit. I mean, he managed a digestive yesterday! What the hell?! I had no idea what was wrong until I fished the biscuit out of his mouth with a wipe and the wipe came back with a teeny bit of blood on it.

He was not at all happy and he cried a lot. Luckily only for about 20 seconds. Not much bothers him for too long. He wanted to carry on with the biscuit, but I decided to call it a day with that.

Still not sure how he did it.

Off to Heaton park later and I'm taking roast chicken, carrots, broccoli and pineapple with me.

Cheese on toast

Oh my God, did Theo like this. He just couldn't get enough of it.

At one point he was slipping to the side and I went to straighten him out and he burst into tears because I had interrupted precious eating cheese on toast time.

Needless to say all this gluttony on his part led to a massive gagging fit. However, not even being a bit sick could deter him from the delicious cheesy goodness.

If you look carefully here you can see that he has some in both fists because one fist full of cheese and bread isn't enough apparently.

Oh yes, a word about the sippy cup.

Best. Sippy. Cup. Ever.

It's from Superdrug. It's a couple of pounds and it's well worth it. The other one he has gets knocked off the high chair and the top comes off and water goes everyhwere. Most inconvenient.

Here he is having a sip. He can't quite get it right on his own, so he does need help with it. One handle for mummy, one handle for Theo.

p.s. isn't he such a poser. He knows to smile for the camera now. To get most of the action shots I have to wait for him to stop smiling at the camera and focus on whatever he was doing before he decided to strike a pose.

Green beans

Green beans for lunch today!

I initially worried about him choking on an unforseen bean lurking in the pod, but then thought, "ah, he'll be fine."

He was. he spat a bean out at me, but there was no choking.

He enjoyed the beans as you can see.

Spoon fed breakfast

Today I decided to see what Theo was like being spoon fed. I've been worrying (perhaps unnecessarily) about his progress. He's trying food, but not much is going in, I don't think. I wanted to see if he was interested in eating more.

I made weetabix with milk (formula) and mashed banana.

It went down like a c**k in a nunnery.

He disliked the taste, and when he grabbed some mush with his hands it squished through his fingers and it really upset him. He started to cry.

He liked waggling the spoon about though.

Do you want some mum?

He had a munch on some dry weetabix and was indifferent.

He had to have a bath afterwards because he got so bloody messy, and that weetabix is like cement.

Mumsnet meet-up - 8th March

Yesterday we headed out to meet some other mumsnetters at the Trafford Centre. I had lots of fun, but Theo was a bit cranky.

We ate in Giraffe and I had meatball jambalaya with linguine (so more of a meatball and pasta dish than jambalaya really, but we won't quibble)

It was very nice and Theo managed to eat some linguine before getting tired and irritable. He tried the meatball, but it was a bit too spicy for him I think.

The waitress was lovely, and even told me there was nothing in the pasta that was unsuitable for Theo.

I got a picture of Theo with pasta sauce all over his face, but it didn't come out too well. He had rubbed his eyes sleepily so there was even sauce in his eyebrows.

Carroty success and Mummy's Pie - 5th March

I decided to retry the carrot using carrots I prepared myself. Theo liked them a lot more than the slippy pre-cut ones.

He also had a corn on the cob, which was a bloody stupid idea, and he left that well alone. He is clearly already more sensible than I am.

That's a well chewed carrot there son.

Carrots make for a happy baby.

I had some apple custard tart left over from the night before (homemade as well. I even did the pastry from scratch) and he enjoyed a piece of apple picked from the tart.

Here he is with a piece of stray custard on his face. Also milk (he wanted a feed halfway through lunch. Can't BLW with Theo when he's hungry. I know that seems counter productive, but the Gill Rapley book suggests not trying them with food when they are hungry)

They aren't that different Theo - 3rd March

More banana and honeydew melon. The banana went well as usual (though he sometimes struggles to hold it because it gets slippy)

The melon however was not a success. he really didn't like it as much as the cantaloupe. I thought he would love it but apparently they taste vastly different to Theo.

He also spent most of breakfast looking out the window.

I'm not too keen on this mother.

Later that day he had eggy bread (not french toast) and apples fried in butter (got that idea from here)

He enjoyed the eggy bread immensely (he is gagging in this picture, but he persevered)

He didn't hate the apples, but he wasn't very interested in them.

Off to Nana and Grandad's - 28th Feb

On Sunday we headed off to my parents for spaghetti.

Granddad gave him a lick of his ice lolly, which would usually bother me, but you know what? It was a few licks, and it's not like he will be bloody eating ice lollies every day.

The chillyness obviously confused him, but other than that he enjoyed it.

By the time the spaghetti was made he was tired and grumpy, so in the end he didn't get to eat any. Ho hum.

I nicked some cantaloupe melon whilst I was there to give to him the next day.

He liked cantaloupe melon a lot.

Garlic Bread !? - 24th Feb

The next day, bouyed by the success with the houmous and banana I headed off to my brother's pub. I had chilli, which I couldn't really share with Theo, however my friend kindly donated some chicken pasta and some garlic bread (yeah I know it's probably too salty, shoot me)

Action shot of him gagging after trying to chew it hands free.

I took it off him briefly and he wasn't happy.

"I has bread!" says Theo.

Om nom nom.

My friend videoed it. He is gagging at the end and my friend got a bit worried so stopped filming. he is fine though, I assure you. He carried on eating afterwards.

First tastes - 23rd Feb

We started a few days before his 6 month "birthday" (I couldn't wait)

I was having wholemeal pitta with feta, houmous (hummus?) and salami. I decided Theo could try the pitta and the houmous.

I threw some banana in there for good measure.

I will admit that at first I did wave it in front of his face and put it in his mouth for him at first (not very baby led) but it was mostly because he wasn't paying a blind bit of attention to the food. He obviously gets his attention span from Mummy.

He got the hang of it in the end. Sort of. The houmous went down very well with him, as did the banana. In fact, I forsee banana becoming a firm favourite. Here is he rubbing houmous and pitta into the table.

Later that evening he had steamed runner beans, carrots and broccoli. Mike (The Husband) persuaded me to buy one of those mini bags of vegetables. I think this was an error because they came out of my homemade steamer (also known as a sieve over a lidded pan of water. I'm dead classy, me) and they were a bit sad. You can see they are slippy and a bit pathetic.

Theo wasn't very impressed, but I endeavoured to try again some other time with fresher vegetables.

An introduction

This is Theo.

Ain't he cute? :D

He turned 6 months old a few weeks ago and with that began his first forays into the world of solids.

We (we being me and my husband) decided that Baby Led Weaning (BLW) was the way we wanted to wean him onto solids, and so I've decided to blog about the ins and outs, mostly so I can keep track of his progress.

Here he is trying out his brand new high chair. It's a Chicco Happy Snack. It suits our needs quite nicely, but apparently this Ikea one is better. I figured the Happy Snack had more back support, as he is still a bit wibbly on occasion. I have to put a blanket under him when he sits in it though because otherwise the tray is a bit too high.

He'll grow into it.