growing up

charlotte is finally getting a bit mobile (i'll look back with fondness on the days when she stayed put, i'm sure!) and she can now shuffle to her toy box and pull all of the toys out. it's brilliant as it keeps her occupied for ages. i have a feeling that this game will be short lived and soon she'll be in the cat food, kitchen cupboards and up the stairs. time to get babyproofing.



her first tooth is finally starting to come through too. i'm not looking forward to the experience of breastfeeding during teething...

grandma's asparagus soup

charlotte had fresh bread dunked in soup for lunch yesterday. she definitely enjoyed it as she kept sucking the soup out of the bread and then letting me re-dunk it.

we went to holland and barratt in the afternoon and bought an apple and pear spread. i mixed it with some plain alpro for pudding at tea time and she went a bit loopy in anticipation of each new mouthful. i've never seen her so excited about food and it was great to see. maybe we're getting closer to having proper meals together...

bank holiday roast

charlotte had her first roast dinner on monday. a piece of roast beef, roast potato and parsnip, carrot and spinach. she enjoyed the roasted veg but wasn't so keen on the meat or spinach.

the custard incident

we went out for lunch on saturday with some friends who have twins the same age as charlotte. during the meal, one of the boys dunked his hand in a bowl of custard and we were all worried that he may burn himself as it was quite hot. he took it in his stride and then returned to the play mat on the floor to continue playing. unfortunately, there must have still been some custard on his hand as a few minutes later, charlotte's dairy rash came up on her face. they had been sharing toys and, well, you can guess the rest. luckily it was a milder reaction as there was so little dairy present, but scary nonetheless.

so charlotte is still definitely allergic to dairy products.

no food today

charlotte was so excited about being in kingston shopping for summer clothes that she didn't want any solids today.
it's going to be a long night!

pasta and bolognese sauce

so i continued with the pasta and alpro theme today. she ate pasta with sauce for lunch and then just the sauce mixed with soya cheese for tea. i also steamed her some courgette for tea and she sucked all the juice out. i was able to feed her pieces of mince and vegetables on a spoon which was brilliant, but the courgette was firmly grasped in both hands to be sucked whenever i took a while to replenish the spoon.
here is a video of her "blink and you'll miss it" approach to eating pasta:

alpro yoghurt was also reasonably successful. she takes the spoon from me and feeds feeds herself which is very messy but great for teaching her how to use a spoon.

also, we went to visit yiayia (grandma in greek) and her great aunt and uncle. charlotte adored her great uncle and wouldn't stop smiling at him; she also kept everyone amused by clapping for us. unfortunately she hasn't learned to open up her hands to do it so she looks like a thunderbirds puppet. i'll try to get video uploaded.

pasta and alpro yoghurt

well, after realising that charlotte only really eats pasta and alpro yoghurt that's what i'll be feeding her for the moment! she had pasta and chunky tomato/veg/chicken sauce for lunch which she definitely ate a bit of. for dinner she had bolognese sauce with some chopped veg added and cheese on top (no pasta this time). she did manage a few bits of mince but didn't eat much. i then unveiled the alpro yoghurt to a big grin and kicking about. it is the only thing she'll eat off a spoon and she had a good amount of it.

last night she had pizza and only ate the toppings and then a melon and mango lolly for pud. i reckon i could do variations on pasta and sauces, yoghurt and lollies for a while and give her a reasonably balanced diet.... she is still having 8 nursing sessions in 24 hours so she won't go hungry.