The Very Hungry Baby

In the light of the moon, a little egg lay on a leaf....

Well no more trips to the coffee shop of despair (CSoD) recently, which is just as well as I'd probably find pleading eyes looking longingly at my skinny mocha and muffin as Evelyn is now discovering food with increasing enthusiasm.

We made our first moves towards weaning just after Christmas. Baby rice, diluted to the point of being little more than gritty milk was received grudgingly and with some confusion. I of course ploughed on in and in a couple of frenzied evenings had filled the bottom drawer of the freezer (previously reserved for vodka and overpriced soup) with an enormous collection of little cubes in varying shades of Orange and green. This accomplished, Evelyn promptly lost all interest in solid food.

                               Evelyn is not impressed by carrot

A couple of weeks later, after the appearance of two teeth and a number of sleepless nights we had another go. This time things have progressed very well and Evelyn is now on three solid(ish) meals a day. This week she seems to have discovered her inner glutton and in addition to her carefully prepared purée is keen to pinch whatever she can from my plate. So, it would seem that there are plenty of genes from Mum and Dad in there after all! 

This all presents several challenges, not least of which is how on earth do you keep your flat suitable for showing to prospective purchasers, when there is a small person devoted to redecorating it with carrot? Also, and inevitably - who do you look to for advice?  The big players in the weaning book stakes seem to be the ever controversial Gina Ford (you can feed any number of things, but it MUST be at 11.45am precisely), the ubiquitous Annabel Karmel (purée anything that doesn't move, preferably in full hair and makeup and a floral apron), or the slightly unnerving Baby Led Weaning (prepare yourself folks, this is going to be messy, very messy).

Mostly on the basis that it was the first book I found and potentially slightly less taxing on the carpet we're mostly in the Annabel Karmel camp at the moment, tho rarely in full hair and make up.

The other reason why trips to the CSoD are limited is that between the 5 milk feeds, 3 solid feeds and non stop puréeing and carpet cleaning there isn't really the time! On the plus side, most of the purées are actually quite yummy and although I'm now rarely given the chance of polishing off Evelyn's leftovers,  making up double batches has led to us being able to ditch some of those overpriced soups for home made variations. I've also been trying to share Evelyn's meal times by nibbling on fruit or carrot sticks while feeding her (tho bananas now mostly end up getting pinched), so that's probably doing me good. I suspect however that this will not be the case when we get onto making more elaborate meals for Evelyn. Babies need a lot of fat in their diet which means full fat, full calorie cheese, yogurt, milk etc. chances of me NOT picking at that while I cook it? Very Very limited.

I might have to go now, I'm getting really hungry!

Kxxx