Don't knock it 'til you've tried it

It's a steep learning curve. Being a baby, that is. And a new mum, or so Mama tells me. Apparently you sometimes need to offer a baby the same solid 14 times before they accept it. 14 times!!! That's 13 times too many if you don't like it! And my Mama ain't got that kind of patience, so I spare her and eat most things she offers me. I LOVED the Spinach-Parsnip- Basil stuff the other day, but now that she has this fancy BabyCook thingamagig, she's started cooking her own. Well let me tell you that Pink Lady Apple Puree with Vietnamese Cinnamon is yummy! That's more my kind of Yummy Mummy, I can guarantee you!

Enough about me. Mama has finally realised something essential, but does not exclude making the same mistake again. And again. And again. And... well, you get the picture. Now, she loves new-fangled stuff and trends as much (or a bit more) than the next person, and likes to be - maybe not a pioneer, that's too much trouble - but at least in the wagon just behind. Until she realises why everyone else can't be bothered and does the same as everybody else, glamourous or not.

Here's how it goes:

1. "Disposable nappies pollute too much. We'll use the re-usable ones" - Except what with not sleeping very much and all that, she never even got round to figuring out which kind she would use, and so the garage is full of disposable nappies on offer, albeit 70% bio-degradable

2. 'My Baby will never have a dummy' - I wish I could remind her of that whenever she tried to make me stop crying by forcing a piece of rubber into my mouth. It was fun for about 2 weeks, but then I got bored. So Mama's baby doesn't have a dummy, but not for want of trying...

3. "Swaddling a baby? But that's a horrifying, medieval form of torture only used in Chinese orphanages" - yes, or when your baby can't sleep in a foreign cot because her arms are thrashing about and you suddenly realise that you can make your baby nap as well by doing this. Admittedly, I have now grown out of that, so no need to call Amnesty International

4. "Baby-Led Weaning is the way to go. Spoon-feeding is SO last season" - until you find out that your wee one loves being spoon-fed and it means you can start cooking for them much earlier.

4bis "The experts say to start with veggies, so the babies don't get a sweet tooth" - Was that apple puree I just had for breakfast?

5. "We'll NEVER put our baby on a routine. I stayed up until my parents went to bed, so will my baby" - But I'm not her. And I like my routine, even if it does mean that Mama and Far can't go out in the evening anymore. No, falling asleep somewhere else is not an option: I WANT TO PARTY!!! But I just can't cope with the hang-overs...

6. "I'll wash my baby twice a week and only with water" - except the bath is now part of the bed-time routine and the Neal's Yard baby bath oil is so yummy!

Aaah, the things you learn once you have children... So maybe I'll end up being in a push-chair until I'm 5 years old, sitting with a coke in one hand and a packet of crisps in the other and Mama will be wearing an old tracksuit... Don't knock it 'til you've tried it!!!

PS: yes, Far has his share of input as well, luckily for me. And his learning curve is steep too, I can assure you!

Constance-Led Weaning

I don't know how to count yet, but even I can see there's a discrepancy somewhere! The WHO recommends weaning little people like me at 6 months. That's 2 weeks from now, wehe! But the health visitor from the NHS calculates 4 weeks to a month, so I should have been weaned 2 weeks ago. And how about just asking me if I want to be weaned???

Mama and Far read about this thing called Baby-Led Weaning, whereby you wait until the baby can pick up their own food and then you leave them to first lick it, then chomp on it and finally days or weeks later, swallow it. Choking risk? Schmoking risk!

So it started well last Sunday with a piece of avocado… Except it was slippery like the road to a certain hot place! But it was still mighty good fun. Then later in the day, I graduated to a broccoli ‘tree’ and carrot ‘branches’. Even better fun! But it was lucky I wasn’t hungry, ‘cause nothing got past my yet-to-appear back-teeth.

By Monday, I could tell Mama was getting impatient and questioning the whole thing. She wasn’t worried, oh no. Just wondering how long it would take for me to actually eat the food she had prepared. Because you see, my Mama prides herself on being a good cook, so I guess she appreciates when her food gets eaten and now just smeared behind the ears. Anyway, there was one avocado left, so this time she mashed it roughly and resorted to the utensil she had sworn never to use: the weaning spoon! And it went much much better, although I could tell she was feeling like she was letting the BLW side down and all because she has the patience span of a gnat.

Well, it paid off Monday afternoon when she mashed some more avocado with some lime and fed me again. This time, I chomped it to a fine puree and then swallowed it! Yummy! Can I have that every day? Well, it turns out I can’t as we had run out of ripe avocados, and so the menu today was a lumpy mash of potatoes and sweet potatoes (no salt) and that was even better! If I had known how to hold it, I would have licked the bowl!

Mama is disappointed with herself, I can tell. She says she’ll still give me finger food so I can accustom myself with it, along with the mash. And then she hopes that I’ll soon get tired of being fed and will want to do it on my own, like a big girl. Well, who knows what the future holds… All I can say if, I don’t know why she would prefer a method which is so much messier, but I get the best of both worlds: lots of good food to eat, and fun food to play with!

PS: it didn't make it better that Mama met our Aussie neighbour today who said that she shouldn't listen to the health visitor and just trust her instincts: babies can live just fine on breast milk for the 1st year. Well, does that mean I'm not getting any more sweet potatoe?