Baby baking ideas

Daughter has been getting up at 5am for the last few weeks - something I'm keen to put an end to, if only so I don't have to read Norman the Slug with the Silly Shell seven hundred times before breakfast.

Keeping a little person occupied throughout such a long day has been something of a struggle. Naturally, we have a few trips to the library, play at watering the flowers, and on Thursdays, Daughter goes to creche while I visit the PND group run by Suffolk MIND.

The other day though, I ran out of things to occupy her with and the little toot was getting fractious in the heat. Cue the baking.

Trying to build on her new skill of putting pasta into the saucepan from the jar (without eating it in transit), I melted some dark chocolate and got her to add some cereal we had lying around (Aldi's 'Benefit' flakes). As she stirred, I threw in some powdered coconut, some raisins and some honey to sweeten.

We scooped the mixture into some silicon moulds and then sprinkled some edible glitter on top. They looked gorgeous and tasted really good too.

I would recommend using rice crispies rather than flakes as Daughter found them hard to bite, despite her spectacular front teeth. Which she's learned to grind and make horrific noises with...

Just thought I'd share a rainy (or sunny!) day activity that even the tiniest of people can take part in :)

 

Heat

I've not been about much lately because the heat has been making Daughter fractious (and Husband, for that matter). A spate of 5am starts thanks to thin curtains is something I could do without.

I have a lot of posts planned - more book reviews, starting with Kipper by Mick Inkpen for a start - but they'll have to wait until nap time tomorrow. For now, I would strongly suggest heading over to http://inspireimaginationthroughcreation.blogspot.co.uk/ for ways to paint with ice :)

Hope you've all been having fun :)

Sainsbury's Little Ones, Recipes and Nutrition

Not technically a children's book, but a very useful tome nevertheless if you're planning on making all your own food for little people.

Sainsbury's Little Ones, Recipes and Nutrition cookbook is a lovely addition to any shelf and has given me a wealth of ideas in regards to feeding Daughter.

I decided early on that I didn't want her to eat jarred food. I wouldn't want to eat it myself so I saw no reason to feed it to Daughter. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with going down the jar route, just that it wasn't for me. Too much waste, too much money and I just didn't think it looked palatable. Which is where this book came in.

To begin with, beyond the usual fruit purees, I had trouble coming up with ideas of what to feed my little girl. Aside from the various mashes I featured on here, I was stuck - especially when it came to introducing meat. Luckily, the first few pages of Sainsbury's Little Ones cover a selection of different mash, following up with a range of foods that introduce varying textures. The only qualm I have with this part is the inclusion of beetroot - don't get me wrong, I love the stuff, but my carpet, walls and Daughter's clothes don't...

Usually I have a load of other things prepared when it comes to dinner times, but when I don't, Little Ones offers a lot of quick and easy ideas. I also use it as a rough guide regarding appropriate portion size, something that I just had no idea of to begin with. It's all very down to earth - not 'organic everything only'. Most of what's there can be prepared on a budget.

There are also various recipes for the whole family for when you get to a stage where you're all eating the same thing.

So yes, all in all, a very worthwhile book if you're starting off on the adventure that is weaning. I'm going to head to the library soon and look for some more comprehensive books about feeding slightly older children though as I think Daughter might be getting bored of these offerings now!

The Odd Egg

The Odd Egg by Emily Gravett is a definite favourite with Daughter, Husband and I. It tells the story of a group of birds waiting for their eggs to hatch, and duck - who doesn't have an egg of his own.

Personally, I love the quirky illustrations. Daughter finds it incredibly good fun to turn the half-pages which have been cut away to reveal the different eggs hatching. This is a really clever, visual way to show time passing and little fingers find it very easy to turn the board pages. The only criticism I have with it is that she finds them too fun and will keep returning to this page again and again, making it impossible to reach the (incredibly funny) climax of the tale.

This is a great buy for younger children in terms of story alone, but for people looking to open a dialogue on adoption this might be a really simple way to introduce the concept. It can also be used to start explaining an 'unconventional' family model - duck is a boy after all and still has a baby. That the egg is not his doesn't alter his love for it.

This is possibly my favourite book so far.

The Highway Rat

Not as famous as its spiritual predecessor The Gruffalo, Julia Donaldson and Alex Scheffler's take on Alfred Noyes' poem The Highwayman is a wonderful offering which teaches both consequence and humility without a preachy tone.

The Highway Rat follows the story of the title character as he robs the other woodland creatures of their foods.Written in the same style as Noyes' original verse, there are lines of repetition which some other reviewers (on amazon, if you're interested) found irritating and difficult to read. In our house though, these are the highlight. Daughter doesn't speak yet and so is perhaps too young to find repetitive things annoying, but the familiarity of the repeated line makes her little face light up and sometimes, with the second or third reading of, "the highway," she'll try and copy the syllables. It's very heartening. 

Having loved the original Highwayman poem, this was a real treat for me to read and made me revisit the Loreena McKennit track of the same name - another really fond memory from growing up. I hope that as Daughter gets older, I can use this as a way to introduce Noyes to her and other poets such as R. L. Stevenson and Poe. I am really keen for her to know that poetry isn't something to just be dissected at school until it is a lifeless thing.

I can see why people have voted this down - if repetition and verse aren't your thing then you're not going to get on with it, no matter how beautiful the illustrations are. And if you're not passionate, then you're not going be able to stir up that sort of enthusiasm in those you're reading to. For us though, this is a definite book-shelf highlight.

Milk and Bookies

For those of you in the USA, I stumbled upon this little initiative today and think it sounds amazing.

Milk and Bookies is a great way of promoting literacy and I really hope it takes off and eventually comes to this side of the pond.

Norman, The Slug with the Silly Shell

I spent so long yesterday reading Norman the Slug with a Silly Shell that I didn't get chance to review it. Written by Sue Hendra of Barry the Fish with Fingers fame, Norman is a wonderfully silly book about how you can be anything you want to be with a little ingenuity.

 

Norman the slug idolises the snails and their wonderful shells. He longs to join in with their games, but can't because his squishy body is unstackable. Norman takes it on himself to fashion his own shell from an old donut.Having done so, he inadvertently saves the lives of his new friends.

Daughter adored this book. After having read it to her three times, she snatched it off me and made Husband read it to her too. After her nap, it was the first thing she went for, stroking Norman on all the pages, finally kissing the cover.To begin with, keeping her attention on anything other than the shiny front page was difficult but after a single read through she was hooked.

The 'moral' of this story is somewhat ambiguous. I took it to be an overwhelmingly positive one -  Norman wanted a shell and used his imagination to create one - the old Back to the Future mantra of, "If you put  your mind to it, you can accomplish anything". There are those, however, who will inevitably say that it's a book about needing to conform in order to have friends. Until Norman gets a shell, no one is interested in being his friend but once he matches the rest of his peers, he is accepted. I suppose how you take it depends on your world view.

In any case, Norman the Slug with a Silly Shell was very well received in our home. Now, if you'll excuse me, guess what I have to read. Again.