A message from Emma

Photo update

It has been a busy busy week. Emma had a cold last week, and this week she picked up a nasty cough from somewhere. I guess it is just the time of year, but I really wish I could take it all away from her and make it better! She has been very sweet about it though. She will sit and play for a while, cough a bit and get upset, but try to be brave because she wants to carry on playing. She is such a good girl!

My Dad visited from the Netherlands last week too. It was great to see him - I kind of miss living so close to him! Emma was, as always, pleased to see him and had lots of fun showing off her new skills - bashing toys together (alot!!) and standing up and making baby steps when I hold her hands. I will try to get a video of it at some point!

On the BLW front, things are continuing to go well. We have finally managed to fit breakfast into our daily schedule! I was trying to give porridge to Emma (because it is my favourite for breakfast) but she was having none of it. However, she does like oaty cheerios with a tiny bit of milk on them to make them more squishy!

I gave her cous cous for the first time the other day. I made it with tomatoes and courgettes in it. It was so funny! I have never seen such a mess! She ate loads of it by squashing it together, and shoving as much as possible in her mouth at once. When she was bored with eating, she decided to pick up big handfulls and blow it. The dining room looked like a cous cous bomb had gone off! I managed to get one photo during the meal. What you can't see is that she has hidden most of it under her bib!
















Another new lunchtime favourite is scrambled egg on muffins. It is perfect, because it is so quick to make, and I love it too!
















And here are a couple of other random photos. As most of you know, I don't use a buggy very often. I probably only use it once or twice a month because I prefer to carry Emma in a wrap. But the other day I had an appointment, and was running very late. It was a long uphill walk, so I thought it would be easier to take her in the buggy. I was very wrong. The pavement slopes to the right for about three quarters of a mile, so by the time I got there my arms were killing me!! And for the first time in 8 months, I had left the house without a sling! (I normally have one stashed in the bottom of the buggy). Emma was not overly impressed by the buggy or her big pink fluffy coat.
















And to round things off, this is just a photo of Emma looking cute! :-)

















OK - that is three blog entries in one day. I think I am off the hook now!

Catherine has a new toy too!

My new Pacifica wrap from Kati Wraps arrived this morning. I am so happy with it! Purple and turquoise make such a good combination! I know I know - it only seems like five minutes since Earthy Rainbow arrived. But this one is a different length, and better for back carries. (Unfortunately, Emma is feeling poorly again though, and is on back carry strike). And it is a different colour. Do you get the impression I am trying to justify this in some way??

All I need now is a green wrap, in an even shorter length (4.1m or 3.6m), with a fringe, and then I will have reached stash nirvana. Santa - are you listening?

Earthy Rainbow will always be my favourite though. The pictures from our visit to Cornwall really show me how lovely it is!

Right - that is enough of me going on about wraps for one day! Here are some pictures to show off the new one!

See how it matches Emma's eyes:

















Showing off both the wrap and Emma's lovely hat:

















And proof that Pacifica definately passes the snuggle and sleep test!

Emma has a new toy

I am sure that Emma is going to be musical!! Every time she hears the music from her singing turtle, she looks up and does a little bouncy dance. She even does it when she is just sitting on her own, and I play the video for her. So cute! :-)

Family resemblance

Am busy busy busy at the moment, so the blog is (once again!) not being updated as often as I would like. But I had a little thought this morning about family resemblances that I thought I would share.

Obviously, Emma looks quite like me. Our eyes are rather similar, and our cheeks too. She also looks very like Brett. With him it is the eyes too (I can't tell if they look like mine or his most of the time!) and definately the nose.

People often comment that my sister (Anna) and I look very alike. So therefore it follows that Emma should look like Anna. Well, here is a picture:

















Same cheeks, same eyes, same nose! I think that Em looks more like Anna than me!!

Forgotton Broccoli

I have said it before, and I will say it again. Broccoli is (in my humble opinion) one of the most vile foods known to mankind. And to make it even worse, it makes everything near it smell and taste like broccoli too. Don't even get me started on how it makes other veg cooked in the same pot taste. Trouble is, Emma loves it! Because of my broccoli loathing, I don't tend to cook it very often. I mean, why bother cooking something that you have absolutely no intention of eating? One of the best things about baby led weaning is that you can feed the baby whatever you are eating. :-)

So anyway... I was thinking today that Emma has not had much in the way of green veggies recently. I eat a lot of peas and beans, but they are too small for her and I worry about her choking. For dinner tonight I cooked chicken in a tomato and courgette sauce with pasta. I gave the same to Em, but also boiled up some of the dreaded broccoli for her.

I wish I liked it as much as she does! I don't know what it is about it that she loves so much, but I suspect it must be the colour. It certainly can't be the taste. But I get the feeling I am going to have to come to terms with this dislike, get over it, and cook it more often! Here she is trying to get two bits in at once!

Better now thanks!

Brett did a really nice roast dinner today. Emma was feeling much better, and tucked right in!

I mentioned earlier that Emma had gone for a nap on her own for the first time the other day. Well, my success was short lived. We are right back to nursing, rocking, coaxing and snuggling to sleep. Oh well! In some ways I like it. Having her fall asleep in my arms is always lovely. But it would be nice if she could manage it on her own too, so I need to keep on trying!

Colds

Things have been a bit quiet around here recently, because Emma and I have been suffering from colds. It has put Emma right off her food, and she has been so bunged up that she was struggling to breath. I am happy to say that she is getting better now though, so normal blogging service should be resumed very soon.


In the meantime, here is a cute picture of Emma in the new hat that my mum bought for her! :-)

Poor head

Emma bumped her head yesterday afternoon. She had a good old sob for a couple of minutes, then forgot all about it again. She was very clingy all afternoon though. When Brett came home from work, she really wanted a cuddle. I just had to post this picture, because it is so sweet.

What is the point?

Yesterday, I thought I would be a bit more creative with Emma's dinner. I had some "flash mash" (mashed potatoes with parmesan and spring onions) left over in the fridge. So, for lunch I added some tuna and some cooked mashed carrots. Then I formed them into tiny fish cakes, coated them in breadcrumbs, and fried them in a tiny bit of olive oil. They were absolutely lovely!
















However, Emma had other ideas, and turned them straight back into mash again. So all the faffing with forming nice cakes, coating in breadcrumbs and frying them was for nothing. I might as well have mixed it all together and dumped it on her tray! Oh well - should have known really shouldn't I! :-)

Breakfast - no thanks!

We are having a bit of a problem with breakfast at the moment. Basically, it just doesn't happen. I have tried, but the timing of it just doesn't work out, and she is not interested. Recently, Emma has started to master the art of eating with a spoon, so I thought I would start sharing my porridge with her. This morning was our first go.

When she eventually got some in her mouth, the face she pulled showed me immediately that this was unlikely to work. I tried a bit more, but she clearly didn't like it. I had one pear left in the fruit bowl, so I decided to mash half of that into it to see if this would help. I love these pears, and I had been looking forward to having the last one with my lunch! But if it means getting Emma to eat breakfast then the sacrifice is worth it! ;-)

That didn't work either... she was still not interested. So I gave her what was left of the pear. That ended up on the dining room floor. The only thing she was interested in eating for breakfast was her own bib.

Lets hope that tomorrow is more successful! Maybe we will have toast instead.

We did have one big breakthrough today though. A bit later on in the morning, I noticed that Emma was looking tired. It was 9.30 which is about the time she normally goes for a nap. Usually, I have to feed, rock, cuddle and coax her to sleep, then put her in the cot when she is absolutely zonked and sneak away. We had done this for just about every sleep in the last 8 months. But we were playing on my bed at the time and she looked like she was going to fall asleep. So, I put her in the cot, and she drifted off to sleep on her own! To those who don't have problems getting their kids off to sleep, this probably sounds like nothing. But believe me, this is brilliant news for me! I will try the same again tomorrow.

Pizza

Since we moved house, I have been a bit disorganised with Emma's food to be honest. She has been eating lots of fruit and veg, but I just haven't had time to try anything new and exciting. So this week I decided to get myself back in gear.

It all went a bit wrong today though. We were out for the day, got back late, Emma was hungry and tired, and I had not had a chance to prepare any food. So, out of desperation, I made little pizzas out of muffin, tomato puree and cheese. (Thanks to a recommendation on the babycentre forums). OK - not particularly great on the nutrition front, but next time I will add peppers or mushrooms or something. She spent about 10 minutes inspecting what had been put in front of her. She would lick it, look at it, turn it over, look some more... no actual eating. Then all of a sudden she was in there and there was no stopping her. It looks like pizza is a hit! At least I know that I have an easy little thing I can make with no time and practically no ingredients now!

Sunny day

The weather was so nice yesterday! I was tired out from a long walk in the morning and lots of unpacking and tidying, so we just had a lovely chilled out afternoon in the garden. It really makes me wish I had had a nice big garden during the summer!






Normally I make sure I don't have washing up if I am taking pics in the garden... but this is pretty washing!

















And here we are just back from our walk...









Back to BLW - because that is what this blog was originally supposed to be all about... Emma has two teeth on the bottom now, and the top two look like they will be here any day. But this is causing a few problems with eating. She used to gum and food and suck it until it was mushy. Then she would chew it around her mouth and swallow it. But now she takes a great big bite, tries to chew it around, then spits it out. I hope she gets the hang of it again soon!

This one's for you Anne!

As requested by Anne (Emma's Nana) here is a little video of Emma being very silly in the garden this afternoon.

Cornwall

Cornwall is great - in some ways I am a bit loath to tell everyone just how nice it is, because I don't want too many people to go crowding into to the lovely quiet bits. :-)

We stayed in a lovely cottage at Trebarwith Strand with the rest of my family. I haven't been on a family holiday since we went to Morocco when I was about 18ish. That was a very long time ago! But it was great to spend time with everyone away from the normal familiar surroundings. Trebarwith Strand is a big favourite with my family, and I can really see why. It is so quiet and peaceful up on the cliff, but the sea crashes around you so fiercely when you are down on the rocks. It feels so wild, and really blows away the cobwebs!

We did the obligatory trip to the Eden project. It was kind of cool, because it was so big, but in my opinion it was not a patch on the Hortus Botanicus. Actually, it made me a bit homesick for Amsterdam. One thing I will say though is that the food is excellent! Really natural and home made tasting. We forgot to bring anything for Emma, so she ended up having "Molly Cake" in the cafe. It was healthy cake made with fruits and juices with no sugar or anything. It was surprisingly nice, and she really liked it! (I have even kept the ingredients label to see if I can work out how to make it!)

We also went to Tintagel. I didn't think much of the town, but the beach was just wonderful. I had to clamber down the rocks quite precariously with Emma in the sling, but once there she was absolutely mesmerised by the crashing sea. We found a great cave, and it was quite funny because we ran into another babywearing mum in there! I was not the only one mad enough to climb over the rocks with my baby! :-) We didn't get to go up to the castle, because it is really not baby friendly terrain. Maybe next time.

Here are the best of the photos. Sorry - there are quite a few, but I had so many to choose from!

Trebarwith Strand looking back from the beach:














Trebarwith Strand sunset:














Me carrying Emma on Trebarwith Strand at sunset:




























Mum outside the cave at Tintagel:














Dad and Lee doing manly stone skimming on the beach at Tintagel:














Emma tucks into Molly Cake at the Eden Project:














And finally...
... an arty photo of the rocks at Trebarwith Strand:














If you are still with me, thanks a lot!
I can't take credit for any of the photos - they are all down to Brett. :-)

This is a place that is very special to my family, so I don't think it is going to be too long before we go there again. Maybe next time Emma will be old enough for a bucket and spade!

So here we are in the UK

Hi again. Life is returning to some kind of normality, so it is time for me to start blogging again! The move to Godalming went really smoothly. Huge amounts of thanks to everyone who helped us! (At both the NL and UK ends).

The house is everything I could have hoped for and more. (I didn't see it in real life before moving here. Mad I know). It is so tiny and cosy, the garden is twice as big as I thought it was. It is quiet and peaceful, and the walk to town is nice. There are so many places for us to walk and feed the ducks around here... I have totally fallen in love with the place.

Emma has coped with everything really well. The first night that we got here was spent at my Mum's house. The next evening, Brett arrived with all our stuff. That was a very late night, and Emma ended up sleeping on a mattress on the floor. Then she had one night in her own bed and we were off to Cornwall for 5 days. Poor wee thing didn't know if she was coming or going! But she has really settled down now. Funny thing is, she seems to be sleeping better than ever - 2 good long naps during the day (she used to cat nap in 30 minute bursts, but now it is 1.5 hours twice a day) and still sleeping well at night. I wonder how long this will last...

The biggest news from Emma is that she is sitting up on the floor now. She can't quite get there on her own yet, but if I help her to sit up then she can stay there for 15 mins or so. It is great - there are so many more games we can play this way!

On the eating front, all is going well. I have finally introduced the concept of a spoon. I really enjoy the BLW approach, but was finding it rather limiting. There is some food that you just can't eat with your fingers! OK - so it is only really yoghurt and porridge at the moment, but I eat a lot of these so it is great if Emma does too. The thing is, she absolutely will not let me spoon feed her. I have to load the spoon, give it to her, and let her feed herself. I have not graduated to letting her have the yoghurt pot to load the spoon herself yet. For goodness sake - we are living in rented accomodation now. I can't afford to get the carpets cleaned every week because Emma has coated them in porridge! Maybe it is something we can work towards! Here is a photo of Em enjoying her first yoghurt.
















Lots more to come... I am going to do a seperate post about Cornwall later tonight.