The magic pudding

Sometimes getting Redford to finish his dinner is like getting Nick to willingly do the vacuuming - near impossible. A lot of coercion is needed, including singing, many spoons, rice cakes, you name it, I've tried it. He does get there in the end but unfortunately he's half me and has inherited my incredibly short attention span and would rather twist in his highchair a little too Exorcist-ish for my liking and try rub his grubby hands on our nice new curtains.

Last night though, I hit the jackpot. We stumbled through his dinner (bolognaise, rice and kumara), with him getting more and more distracted and me getting more and more frustrated as the minutes went on. Dinner down, we moved onto pudding. I had a beautifully ripe avocado that I was desperate to use and wanted to pump Little Red with some good fats yet for some reason he's vetoed avo as of late - why, I have no earthly idea. So I got creative and mashed a quarter of it with half a banana and half a black doris plum and holy moly, I've never seen the child eat so fast! And he cried when it was all done.

As you can see, he morphed into somewhat of a sparrow - sticking his neck out as far as he could and opening his gob wide (for once):

Booyah! That is freaking good:

The last remnants, I can feel the tears welling already:

It doesn't look that appetizing but I had a wee taste and I have to admit, I struggled to give it to him.... I wanted to keep it all for myself! It was absolutely scrummy. We did it again tonight and yet again, it went down a treat - you'd think all Red's Christmases had come at once! 

So if you're after a healthy, oh-so-delish pudding, I totally recommend this. And don't keep it all for baby, shove some in your gob too!

Love Monday's - the couscous monster strikes again!

So over on love miss bonnie I've started love monday's which is dedicated to what YOU love! Over here on The Baby Bump, I love my little couscous monster. I'm a big fan of the stuff so I was pretty chuffed when Redford gobbled it all in one go the first time I gave it to him. Here's some pictures (cute, but hella messy!)....

 I heart couscous!

 The couscous beard.

 More please!

The monster strikes again....

The food conosseur - solids take five million and one

Oi vey! More solids junk, you say! Well, you know I like to keep y'all updated and this time I have lovely things to report!

As of last Friday we started Little Red on three meals a day and that, along with his super baby sleeping (I'm guessing), has helped immensely with getting his head around this whole food thing. He now lets me shove a spoon in his gob - to which he actually opens his mouth for - and even swallows it down. He's been doing so well in fact, he quite often finishes the whole bowl!

The firm fave at the moment is pear, potato and baby rice. Strange combo but oddly delicious. This morning we had pear and baby muesli and he scoffed it down.

Spoonie is still a must but anything to get the food down, right?

I had a play with the idea of BLW over spoon feeding but I can now confidently claim that Little Red's foodies are a mixture of both and it works! His main meals are spoonie meals but I generally give him a slice of apple, carrot, pear or avocado to chew on during the day. Plus, he's quite partial to hand feeding himself straight from the bowl, i.e. he shoves his hand in the puree - lumpy puree, might I add - and then into (onto?) his face. I'd be a tad surprised if any was actually going in, but that's not the point, is it?

So there you have it. All rainbows and cupcakes over this way. Stay tuned for more solids updates (hopefully all good ones)....

The food conosseur - solids take.... 3?

Admittedly, I'm beginning to lose count! An update on my last rant.... the solids are ever so slowly going down a little easier with each meal. The sleeping? Yeesh, don't even get me started.

But! I want to keep this post upbeat and positive so I'll stick to the foodies side of things. Now we haven't done a 180 and Little Red hasn't turned into a ravenous devourer of all things solid but we're getting there. I'm sticking to Farex baby rice (pear and apple) because, well, it pretty much tastes of mushy breast milk to which I add a little apple and (if I dare!) some mashed banana. We also gave Only Organics fruit muesli another try and this time - hooray! - no sore tummy's which is a hand clap moment as the wee bunny rather likes it. I also throw some baby muesli with apple and avocado in there sometimes to spice things up a little. 

This is all good and well as long as Little Red has a) his spoon, b) his sippy cup (from which he has no interest in drinking but does thoroughly enjoy throwing it on the floor) or c) a bowl to hold - preferably the one with the food in it. As long as he's happily distracted by either of these three things I can sneak the yums in and he even opens his mouth for the spoon, yippee!  

He's now steadily on the lunch and dinner bandwagon so, fingers crossed, it's all smooth sailing from here and at some point soon Sir Redford will be eating something more than anything with apple in it....

Sweet treats - Oatmeal cookies

I hosted coffee group at our pad a couple of weeks ago and one of the treats brought was these incredibly addictive cookies. I grabbed the recipe off the mama that made them and whipped up a batch over the weekend. Needless to say, they're almost gone! So easy to make, so yummy and so deserving of being shared with you all....

 

Oatmeal Cookies (makes about 20 - depending on how many you taste test....)

85gm unsalted butter

1/2 cup raw sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup plain flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used almonds but walnuts or peanuts would be delish too)

1 & 1/2 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup dried fruit (I used raisins but next time I'm trying apricots & dark chocolate!)

Preheat oven to 180C. Cream butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla, mix well.

Sift flour, soda and salt together. Stir into creamed mixture.

Add everything else and mix well.  

Using you hands make walnut sized balls of dough and place them on a lined or greased cookie tray. The dough balls can be varied in size for small cookies or great big ones.

Press down balls till they about 1-1.5 cm thick. Bake in oven for about 12-15 mins or until edges of cookies are light golden brown.  Let them cool and enjoy!

The food conosseur - solids take 2

After a rather rocky start on the solids train a couple of weeks ago I made the executive decision to halt proceedings for a wee while. Not only was I getting frustrated, Little Red seemed to be going backwards rather than forwards and we were smack bam in the middle of moving house. I figured hey, it ain't going to hurt either of us if we take a step back and go back to solely boobie feeding - once we were settled in at the new place and all was peace, love and harmony again we'd have another shot.

The final box was unpacked last Thursday and the finishing touches put into Redford's bedroom (yes that's right! He now sleeps in his own room like a real big boy) so on Friday morning I thought OK, it feels good, let's do it. And away we went! A few days shy of hitting the 6 month mark (it's his half year birthday tomorrow - eek, my little man's growing up!) we hit solids with a vengeance. 

Day One started with mashed banana (unfortunately no photos, the camera was M.I.A) and then we moved onto a slice of apple later in the day....

 It ended up in the nose...

  then in the mouth "Hrm, I guess this is OK...."

 

  but in the end it was a lot more fun to play with.

Day Two was pureed pumpkin and kumara. Not as popular as the banana but it still went down alright. Most importantly though, this was the beginning of the spoon love affair.

Day Three was Only Organics Fruit Muesli which was by far the favourite. The spoon relationship is now in full swing. The Stars & Stripes look was unintentional but oh so patriotic.
 

  "It's OK for you to feed me with a spoon, Mum. As long as I get my own too."

 

  "Oh spoonie, I love you so!"

"We shall never be apart again."

So the solids have been a success thank goodness! As long as the button gets his special spoon - it must be this spoon, none other will suffice - everything is rainbows and lollipops. It's pretty cute really. Very cute, in fact. All these new tastes and textures to explore and what can I say? This time he's really taken it in his spoon obsessed stride.

Post Script: The Fruit Muesli which was the firm favourite has unfortunately been banished to the back of the cupboard for a while - gluten on a sensitive wee tum only two days into the journey made for many tears, a rock hard torso and a very red-faced attempt at pooping to no avail. My poor wee bean! So we'll be laying off wheat and gluten for a bit, fingers crossed I don't have an intolerant baby though, I myself have a very strong love affair with carbs!

Help! In desperate need of some "solid" advice!

To all the mamas out there - 

Little Red is just over 5 months now and showing all the right signs for starting solids. He's shoving everything in his mouth, making chewing motions, gawking (and grabbing!) at our food and is still hungry after his milk feeds, not to mention waking earlier and earlier each morning for his feed.

Yet, we've been trying for just over a week now and every time he seems to be less and less interested. At first he would push it out with his tongue. Then he started to swallow some of it. Now he's gone backwards and has begun the "motor boat game" or he just clamps his mouth shut - and I'm making sure I do the solids thing when he's at least a little hungry, i.e. about an hour or so after his milk feed.

I started on pumpkin and that went down like a cup of cold sick. I then moved onto Watties Organic apple and apple/banana which he was swallowing for a wee while but now spits out. I thought sticking to one flavour for a few days would ease him into it, but nope! I tried him on some pumpkin/kumara today for lunch (pureed to the point of liquidity) and again, my face got more of it than his tummy did.

I'm not sure what to do and need some help. Do I stick with it and hope he gets his head around it? Do I put it on hold for a week or so and try again? I figured he'd take to it like a duck to water seeing as he's quite the little piglet but I was wrong...

What to do, what to do? If you have any tips then please, enlighten me!

Miss Bonnie x