Birthday Celebration Part 1

My conclusion: She has no idea what the heck is going on.

Photo of the Day 26.05.09

AM

After waking up, before her bath and breakfast.

PM

Yoghurt at lunch

"No More!!!"

Dinner

She wants her fruit first, as usual (before the main meal).

She's indicating that the fruit bowl be placed in front of her. This is accompanied by "Ur! Ur!" to indicate the urgency of the job at hand.

"Mmmmmm...munch!"

After her bath, milk before bedtime

more messy food pictures

08.02.09

this is why you don't let your attention stray - not even for a second

08.12.08

I turned away to read something for 2 minutes, and when I looked up this is the sight that greeted me.

Her hair is all weird 'cos she grabbed it with cheese & avocado smeared all over her little hand.

Photo of the Day 02.12.08

walking (running!) and more eating...

the fine art of dining

ellis is already pretty good with eating finger foods as I started giving her food to practise with since she could do a "pincer" hold.

17.11.08

So I thought I'd try to see if I could train her to eat on her own with a spoon. Here's her first time at it:

On came the big bib from aunty jenna - you can see that she was none too happy with me for making me wait for her food to snap a picture.

The verdict? I had to help her along naturally - there was some mess but not too bad considering it was her first attempt at it. I suppose how fast she progresses will correspond to my tolerance level for mess. I'm trying very hard to ignore the inner voice to "clean up!" and focus on letting her learn.

After Each Meal, Every Meal

03.08.08

Eating

A typical breakfast

(l - r) barley cereal, pureed pear mixed with yoghurt, water


A typical dinner

(l - r) brown rice porridge (in chicken stock) with pureed carrots added, water


Here she is, mouth opened WIDE in anticipation. Feeding her is an art - there must be enough food on the spoon and the feeder must keep a steady pace, or be rewarded by drool blowing or a shriek. If all the above is met and she really likes whatever she's eating, she goes Ammm...mum...mum....loudly throughout the meal.





But after the food is gone and water is given the bub is NOT happy. She bats at the water container and snatches at the spoon. As you can see she has lifted her bum off her high chair in protest.

Someone else is at the dining table....

Ellis now sits in a high chair to take her meals. I used to feed her while she was in her Bumbo with me on a footstool, which was pretty awkward.

Once she got strong enough to sit up on her own, we went off hunting for a high chair. I've liked the Stokke Tripp Trapp since I first saw it. I'm a fan of Stokke for their clean, modern baby furnishings that blend well with existing adult furniture and decor. Most of their baby furniture can all be converted into something else that the kids can use as they grow older - but design alone would make me buy their products.

We first went to Mothercare, where I thought I could get a VIP discount but it turned out to be a fixed price item. We ended up buying it from MothersWork - and as the cashier was ringing it up, we were told that the chair was on 20% discount! They were clearing leftover stock from a Stokke fair they held a week earlier - wahaha...I almost broke out in a jig I was so happy!

So far the chair has been great - it's stable, fits Ellis well (no slipping and sliding) and most importantly she enjoys sitting in it, unlike the Bumbo which she used to try to squirm herself out of.

I was so surprised yesterday when on a whim I decided to put her in it while I was having lunch. (I usually leave her on the playmat) She entertained herself looking around (perhaps enjoying the new higher view; I didn't give her any toys) and I was actually able to eat my lunch in peace and read the papers at the same time - something almost unheard of these days!

But one of the best things about having a high chair is that our new little family member can join us at the dinner table for meals :)

More on Eating Solids

She does what I call "Happy Feet" - she taps both feet on the ground while she's being fed in her Bumbo, throughout the entire meal. She only does it while she's eating and it's cute to watch.

She averages 3 oz (6 Tbsp) a feed, but has gone up to 4 oz. So far, we've tried sweet potato, avocado, papaya, apples, spinach (she didn't like!) and broccoli. On top of brown rice cereal.

She will cry if we run out of food and she wants more. Her mouth opens really wide, she arches her back and cries.

She's gotten better at eating - she's very neat now so there's hardly any mess at all. And she can suck her spoon to get every little bit of food off.

Other developments - she likes blowing bubbles with her saliva. She can shriek quite loudly...and her favourite "words" - na-na, nan-nan and da-da. Sadly, no ma-ma. Yet.

Eating Solids Day 2

21.05.08

Eating Solids

20.05.08

Her first day, with her first food - Nestle Brown Rice Cereal

No problems - it was a good thing I made a pretty large portion since she went for seconds!

Oooooh...what's this?




This isn't as great as it's hyped up to be....




Wait, this isn't bad at all...



...I could get used to this....