Guest Post: Making Food Fun - Healthy Snacks and How to Make Them

This guest post comes to you from the lovely Lily Helitzer. Full of great ideas for getting kids into different sorts of food, this article covers breakfast, lunch and dinner. Hope y'all enjoy! Will let you know how we get on with the 'pancake pen'.

With the summer holidays upon us, many parents are faced with the task of doing two things that their children’s teachers and dinner ladies are usually responsible for: occupying them and feeding them. However with a little bit of initiative and forward planning, you can combine these two by enlisting the kids help in creating their own meals. This will keep them entertained whilst simultaneously teaching them basic cooking skills and giving them an understanding of healthy, nutritional foods. Here are some ideas to give you inspiration on how to make meal times more fun, how to make healthy foods more appealing and how to enable your little ones to create culinary masterpieces that they can enjoy making as much as eating.

Breakfast
Presentation is everything so to make a healthy breakfast seem more enticing to your little ones by layering granola and yogurt into a Sundae glass. Top with chopped fruit and sprinkles to make their healthy breakfast look just like a sweet treat.

To encourage the kids to help prepare pancakes, why not let them create their very own ‘pancake pen’ instead of using a traditional ladle. By putting the pancake batter into an old ketchup bottle (or another similar squirty bottle) they can draw letters and shapes onto the griddle to make customised pancakes. When they’re done they can even decorate them with syrups, sauces and fruit. Voila!

Breakfast wraps are also great for kids to enjoy on the go. Spoon scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon into a tortilla and let them take them outdoors to enjoy. It’s an easy way to give them a filling, cooked breakfast on the go.

Lunch
Homemade pizzas are great fun for kids to make and whilst they’re perhaps not the healthiest meal in the world, you can certainly adapt them to include a variety of vegetables as toppings. To make pizza prep fun for the kids, encourage them to see their pizza base as a blank canvas that they can decorate with all of their favourite toppings. Spinach could become trees, ham slices could become a goofy smile and pepperoni could become a football. The possibilities are endless. The only problem is that they may not want to eat their pizza paintings after all of that hard work!

Alphabet noodles are cheap, easy to prepare and a great way of making a variety of soups more fun. Simply boil them up and add them to chicken, beef or vegetable soup and let the kids go wild with their spelling.

Sometimes the easiest thing to rustle up for lunch is a simple sandwich. But don’t just stick with boring cheese or salad. Why not try a ‘fruit’ sandwich by mixing chopped pineapple and dried fruits into cottage cheese for an exciting, different taste that gives the kids at least one of their 5 a day.

Dinner
Let the kids stare in amazement (and horror) as you coat their steaks or chops in blackcurrant jam or marmalade. They may think it looks disgusting but when they are grilled the fruity flavours work brilliantly alongside the meat. Serve with vegetables and mashed potatoes for an interestingly, healthy dinner.

Encourage the kids to use their initiative and the knowledge they’ve learnt about cooking to create their own twists on culinary classics. Start with a base dish (such as stew or macaroni cheese – these are suitable because almost anything can be added to them and they’ll still be edible!) and give the kids free reign about what they want to add. Anything from sea food, to fruit to red meat can be added to macaroni cheese and it can also be served in a variety of different ways – in a cocktail, a pie or even deep fried. Let the kids go wild and offer a prize for the best creation to spice things up a little!

For those warm summer evenings, it’s great to get the kids interested in salads. There are so many healthy and colourful ingredients that you can add to a salad to make it bright and interesting. Think outside of the box (or bowl in this case) and encourage the kids to make salad on a stick by adding feta cheese, cherry tomatoes, olives and celery to a stick in a kebab style. Using strawberries, blueberries and exotic fruits within salads can also add colour and flavour.

Refreshing Snacks
The kids will love watermelon carving which is, unsurprisingly, just like pumpkin carving. Only unlike pumpkin carving, they’ll probably be a lot more eager to eat the leftovers!

Homemade ice lollies are also a summer favourite and can be made from a variety of fruit juices and fizzy drinks. You can even buy lolly moulds that allow you to make multi flavour lollies!

Finally why not try making your own lemonade by squeezing the juice of 3 lemons into a mixture of five cups of water and one cup of sugar. Then add ice and leave to refrigerate for a fruity, refreshing drink.

Lily Helitzer is a health and nutrition writer who works on behalf of Kwikmed, an FDA-approved pharmacy which offers an accessible and safe outlet to buy Cialis and other prescription medication.

Making clothes last longer

Having been inspired by the amazing work of Disney over at Ruffles and Stuff, I decided to have a go at making Daughter's clothes last longer. Because this is a crafty sort of post, I originally put it on my other blog, however, it's a baby thing too so have decided to repost here.

I love the fabric of this little suit - it really appeals to the day-dreamy side of me, all castles turning into hats and cloud elephants and such.

To keep it wearable I needed to increase the length, and did so - weirdly - by cutting bits off.I trimmed away the bottom fastenings and the sleeves to create...

...this. Because the fabric is a stretch jersey, I could have just left this as it is and the little t-shirt wouldn't have frayed, but as I had some  lace, I decided to add this to the edges to neaten things up...

Hooray!

So there you go. If you like this tutorial, then please let me know.I've got other ideas for stretching out the wear of baby clothes, and I'd love to share them if you're interested.

Do you have any suggestions for how to make clothes last?

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 :)

 

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.

Baby breakfast ideas

I don't know about you, but breakfast was never really my thing. I only started eating it at university because the campus cafe did a cooked one really cheaply (marketed correctly as the ideal hangover cure). In my food-snob days which followed shortly after - and which, frankly, never really vanished - I switched to porridge because it's filling, nutritious and cheap.

After a week or so of giving Daughter that foul baby rice gloop which can be easily confused for white emulsion, I switched her over to my prefered breakfast but thought that after three months or so of having oats, she must be pretty sick of the stuff. Variety, after all, is the spice of life.

The first meal of the day though, is a deceptively complicated affair. I wouldn't want to eat curry, or lasagne, or anything else of a particularly heavy nature, which leaves choices reasonably limited. With honey and uncooked cows milk still out of the question - roll on 1st birthday! - choices were further diminished. After a bit of thought though, I found the following things which Daughter loves:


Fruit yogurt, compote and oats - a nice vanilla yogurt, a sprinkling of oats and some stewed fruit makes a really nice start to the day. Yogurt, oats and banana is also really tasty and requires a little less forethought. Normally I stew fruit in the oven at the same time as I'm baking Daughter's other foods, but since batch cooking isn't for everyone, you can get some nice fruit mush from Ella's Kitchen and Plum.

Banana bread - this has become something of a staple in our house. It freezes well, uses up any leftover bananas and doesn't need any unusual ingredients that you're not likely to have in the cupboard. I make 2-3 loaves at a time so I don't need to worry about it later but it's quick enough to do from scratch. I used the Sainsbury's Little Ones recipe for it but it doesn't look to be online. This one is nearly identical though and is well worth a try.

Tea Loaf - I forget where I stumbled on this recipe but it has no added fat, is wonderfully moist and costs next to nothing to bake. The raisins give most of the sweetness so if you're worried about adding sugar, this is possibly the way to go, rather than the banana bread. I forget where I got my recipe base, but this is how it stands at the moment:

1 tea bag
around 250ml boiling water
ground white pepper
ground ginger
ground cinammon
ground nutmeg
250g raisins
125g sugar (brown is good but white works too
225g self raising flour
1 egg
spash of milk


Make a cup of strong, black tea and soak the raisins in it for at least 4 hours. I've left them for a week in the fridge before as they only get better with time. Mix the rest of the ingredients into the raisins adding the spices to taste and bake in a loaf tin on a low heat until cooked through. Slice and serve. If you're worried about it being too spicy, leave out the white pepper.

Fruit loaf - I've just been toasting Daughter a few slices of the supermarket's own brand fruit loaf for breakfast the past few days and she loves it. Her favourite sort - expensive tastes! - is the Marks and Spencer apple and raisin kind.

Toasted goodies - of course, there's always scotch pancakes, crumpets, toast and jam. Any toastable treat goes down well.

Joy

The last few days with Daughter have been a real joy. My siblings were here and as a result, my little girl has enjoyed being the centre of attention. We've had so, so much fun.

Daughter has been experimenting with happy noises - much to our delight - and getting much better at going to bed. I've found that the less I think about parenting and the more time I spend pulling silly faces, the easier life is.

So that's my goal - forget all about milestones, all about books, sleeping regularly, getting 'enough' sleep etc. As my wise mother told me, if Daughter is tired she'll sleep, regardless of where she is.

It is really hard to stop thinking about what she should be doing by which age when you're bombarded with messages telling you which formula your child should have at which age, which weaning foods are suitable etc. But today, Daughter stole toasted tea cake from my plate in a cafe and munched it without batting an eyelid. She picked up the food, put it in her mouth, chewed and swallowed. We promptly bought her some rusks after that, despite their 7+ month age-tag.

Even if I don't get enough sleep at night, I'm just going to zonk out during the day, even if it means I won't get everything done.

I know I swore I'd rip up the books before, but the 'information' about how you should raise your child is so structured into every aspect of our society that it's impossible to block out completely. I'll do my best to take it all with a pinch of salt from now on, now that I've seen how fun things are when you don't worry.

Jabs

At eleven o'clock today, Daughter will be going for her second round of jabs. She should have had these months ago, but due to the house move and an upset tummy, I postponed it until now.

I was wracked with terrible guilt after her first course of injections. Just before the needle went in, my little girl looked up at me and offered the biggest smile she'd ever given. Then there was a look of horror and then the screaming started. I felt as though I'd betrayed that big cheesy grin.

I know she won't remember this - I don't remember my immunisations, after all. I still feel pretty mean though, getting her up from a nice long nap, offering a bottle and a snuggle and then presenting her for needle jabbing...

Urgh. Listen to me. I meant for this blog to be a place where I could talk about all the wonderful things that Daughter does, without boring my friends to bits and its become a dumping ground for every bitch and moan I ever had. I will endeavour to be more positive in future.

Over and out.

New Born

We were out at the supermarket today and saw a couple with a crying new-born. The poor little thing was beside herself and it took me back.

Though Daughter does still 'go off on one' every so often, consciousness is no longer marked by an ear-splitting howl. It's amazing how, in less than five months, my child has changed so completely. People told me not to wish my time with her away, but I'm glad she's now so interested in her surroundings and is far more responsive.

I don't want to speak too soon after having put Daughter to bed, but things do seem to have become a bit easier. Slowly, by degrees, we are making some headway with sleeping. After doing the Johnson's Baby Sleep Challenge - which, I have to confess, has made me buy their night time bath - bedtime has become far, far less taxing. I still have to get up to (breast)feed twice during the night, but the timing of the last bottle of the day means that I can have a glass of wine, or a visit from Mr. Daniels with some ginger ale, every once in a while. And sometimes, after a day of screaming, a little tipple takes the edge off one's frayed nerves.

Christening

We are having Daughter christened. This is something that sits rather uncomfortably with me - not because I am against the idea, but because of the ramifications.

I don't know if I can be eloquent enough to explain my reservations but I will try.

I grew up in the church and used to love going to Sunday School - our church was a simple, white box sort of affair. It felt very homely and humble and honest. But a visit to the Vatican ruined church - and if I'm honest, Christianity - for me. It made me upset and angry that we had spent immeasurable money to build palaces for God's priests while people starved. I still believe in a loving deity, but I don't think said deity would approve of the sheer ... well, I don't know how to describe the Vatican. Ostentatious? Gold and black marble. The word Austere obviously wasn't in the artist's vocabulary. Don't get me wrong, it's glorious. But as far as deadly sins go, Greed springs to mind.

In any case. I think that we, as a species, are not able to comprehend what God is and what God wants. I know I said that I don't think They* would like us to spend money building palaces, but that's just my opinion.If they're omnipotent, how can we begin to imagine that we understand how they think/function?

But I digress. I worry about keeping the promises the Christening services involves. I know I can teach Daughter to love and be kind, but as I recall, you promise to bring the child up within the church, and I'm not sure I believe the church is the community I want to raise my child in. And I know thousands of people have their children Christened without intending to keep the promises they make on the day, but whether I believe in the ideology or not, people have still died for said ideology**. If I go into the service intending to brush aside the gravity of the oath I take, I make a mockery of everything those people died for.

But perhaps I'm over thinking this. Perhaps I can justify the ceremony by thinking of my own idea of God throughout. This throws up problems of its own though - how is my idea of God any better than that of the Christian faith?


This is exactly why I don't read philosophy. You start thinking about something trying to andwer a question, and end up with more questions.

So I make this promise here, because it will offend no one - I worry that I would offend my husband and friends were I to promise this on the day. I swear I will bring my daughter up to love, to believe and to question. I hope she will be able to form her own opinions in a sensible, reasonable way.

*I use 'They' in place of He/She.
**I'm referring to people having been killed for their beliefs, not to the farce that was the Crusades.

Nursery

I've always clamoured that I would never put my child into nursery. "What's the point in having kids if you're just going to pay other people to raise them," I have been known to say.

Only, I met Toddler's mum in the village today and went into Toddler's nursery with them. And Daughter just came to life as we walked through the door. They were singing and playing and she was laughing and straining to get out of her sling to get a better look.

I asked for some information about it all and whilst it does look like a great place for her to go - they grow food, cook it with the older kids, have a swimming pool, Spanish lessons and all kinds of musical fun - I still don't know if I'll be able to bring myself to take her there.

In my line of work, I don't earn a lot of money, so I would be working at a loss if I were to send her there full time. Part time might be viable though...

I just don't know. It would be good for her to socialise and for me to get away for a little while. Even if it's just to clean the house.

Heart vs head vs wallet. It's a 3 way battle - who will be victorious?

Avenue

I often forget about car boot sales. Ebay being as it is, you can get items shipped to your door for a fraction of the price that you'd pay in the shop and you can go hunting for them any time - day or night.

Only a car boot sale is better. You can pick up five glorious hardback books for less and a pound and not have to pay postage costs.

I stumbled upon 'The Year at Maple Hill Farm' for 20p and am so enamoured with the pictures that I'm going to get another copy, cut the best ones out and frame them to decorate my rather untidy nursery.

 

I also found The old car by Elisabeth Borchers (which amazon can not provide me with a picture of), and Bringing Down the Moon by Jonathan Emmett.

 

 

But bargain books aside. I'd forgotton about boot-sales as a way to save money. In recent years they've become nothing more than away to rid my home of clutter. As an avenue for making my dwindling maternity payments stretch further, I will be keeping an eye out for more sales!

Bargain!

So I bought a Maclaren Triumph pushchair from ebay the other day. For £25, it's proved to be the bargain of the decade!

I've been using a sling up until now, but Daughter is getting too heavy for long walks, especially if you need to have the nappy bag with you. Neat as mine it, it's still the size of what I'd call a weekend-away bag so lugging that around as well as the increasingly heavy baby is hard work.

We tested out the pram by having a walk around our local country park and Daughter loved it. Lots to look at, lots of fresh air and finally, after being on her back in our other pram, the chance to sit up whilst out and about. Nosy little girl loved every second of it.

I never imagined her sitting up. When we first took her home from the hospital, I never once imagined that the tiny little lady in my arms could be big enough to be struggling against her harness to sit forward.Just goes to show.

I still can't picture a complete night's sleep. The 29th of April was the last one I had, and as far as I can tell, will be the last one I ever have. Right now though, if I can't have quantity, I'm going for quality. Some yoga, some nice sleepy making tea and clean, line dried sheets should make for a deep, if short, snooze.

Speaking of which, I'm not wasting another minute of her being in bed. Night y'all!

Amber

I was sceptical, but the amber necklace I bought from Dino-Daisy seems to be working. Daughter hasn't been nearly as croddly since she's been wearing it and those infectious little chuckles are becoming increasingly numerous as a result.

With teething 'on hold', as it were, for the moment, I'm trying to build on the success we had with the Johnson's Sleep Challenge by gently encouraging Daughter to go to sleep on her own. So now, she has a bath, we do the baby massage - which used to be the high point of the evening but is now a bone of contention as it means bath-time is finished - and then I take her to the bedroom for a bottle. I make sure she's awake when I put her down in the cot and keep a hand on her chest, breathing heavily so she can hear me as I do, until she stops grumping, then I say goodnight and sit down to read my book. If she grumps again, I go back and keep my hand on her chest until the grumping stops again but I try to avoid eye contact as I do so and I don't say anything so that she knows it isn't awake time any more.

I don't know if the heavy breathing helps, but I know that if I can't sleep, I tune into Husband's breathing and by concentrating on following that, I soon drop off. It seems to be the same for Daughter but I don't have any scientific or anecdotal proof to back my weird little theory up.

I'm going to have to take her to the health visitor in the next few weeks and I'm a bit nervous. Last time we went for a weigh in, Daughter had dropped a percentile curve and in the 6 weeks between visits, had only gained 600g. Since then, I've started giving her bottles, baby rice and mush, so I really don't know how her weight is going to be when I go back. She's only 18 weeks too, so I'm a little nervous about admitting that I've started with big foods already. Also, the health visitor is the one who encouraged me to keep feeding through my mastitis and was so pleased that I'd managed to keep it up for so long. I know it's her job to advocate breast-feeding, but she really seemed to care that Daughter got the best. And having worked in health-care, I know how hard it is to keep up the enthusiasm around preaching the right, but difficult option - I don't want to upset anyone.

I know I've done the best for Daughter and me by stopping - a rough night of relentless feeding yesterday proved it - but I still don't want other people who've been really supportive to feel that I've let them down. Especially when they clearly care...

Aside from anything else, it's pride that's stopping me from going. I like to learn things on my own - I didn't get on well at school because everything was spoon-fed to me and I found that boring - which, I guess, is another reason I don't like the childcare books. I'm learning though, to take help when it's available. My pride doesn't like it, but every other aspect of my life does!

Body

After I'd finished watching the documentary I mentioned yesterday, iplayer recommended Cherry's Body Dilemmas which, as Daughter was still eating, I decided to indulge in.

I've not really got any issues with my body. I prefer clothes which hang better on athletic women - which is a shame because athletic is something I am certainly not! - but I don't think I need to hide myself away under a giant paper bag, or have surgery, or anything drastic like that. I could probably stand to eat fewer biscuits, but frankly, I find life too short for self-denial.

That a lot of women struggle with their figure after childbirth isn't something I can really relate to. My body just did the most awesome thing ever, and on the one occasion I did get a little sad, I just went to make Daughter laugh and suddenly the fact that my waist wasn't as little as once it was didn't matter in the slightest.

My body has served me well. It has created the most amazing little person ever and how could I ever hate it for aesthetic reasons after that?

To teething though. The amber necklace that I ordered for Daughter has arrived, as has her little rubber toothbrush, and whilst I'm not brave enough to let her sleep in the amber, it seems to be making her more comfortable during the day - thus allowing me to catch up on sleep we miss at night. Also, the brush is a HUGE success. She LOVES chewing it and I'd recommend one for any parent with a teething tot!

Motherhood

From the Bible to the popular song,
There's one theme that we find right along.
Of all ideals they hail as good,
The most sublime is Motherhood.
-- Tom Lehrer's 'Oedipus Rex'

Slightly out of  context, but Motherhood is generally seen as one of the most holy, precious concepts in the world. It's quite a tough thing then, to watch the BBC documentary* presented by Jamelia Davis, which deals with the way in which single mothers have been stigmatised over the years. From the workhouse, through the 50s and 60s to the present day, this very touching little film is well worth watching and is available for those in the UK until the 13th Sept.

It got me to thinking about how I would feel in each of the situations it dealt with. Could I have  gone into the workhouse knowing that I would have been separated from Daughter? Probably not.I would probably have tried to do something - anything - else. Could I have been pressured by loving parents into giving up Daughter to secure a future for myself? That's harder.

The things that women have faced and the decisions they've made down the centuries have never been easy. I'm so glad that the worst I have to deal with is deciding whether to bottle or breastfeed!

*"Singer Jamelia Davis is a single mum and it isn't something she's proud of. But why? After all, millions of other women in Britain are in the same boat. Jamelia sets out to explore the source of her shame through the experiences of other single mums in the past. She begins in the Victorian workhouse, where unmarried mothers were deemed unfit to raise their own children. She discovers that even in the swinging sixties the stigma was still so great that many young women felt they had no choice but to give their babies up for adoption."

Bottles

As regular readers will know, bottles are a fairly big deal for me. It took me ages to talk myself into switching from breast to formula milk, and I wanted the easiest bottles to use out there. As a maker of preserves, I know about 100 different ways to sterilise glass jars so I thought I'd go down the route of glass bottles, however finding them is far harder than you might expect. None of my local shops had any whilst I was looking so in the end, I chose Avent because though they're owned by Philips, the bottles are still made in England. And whilst the plastic ones can be recycled when they come to the end of their - relatively short - life, its not as easy to do as with durable glass, which can just be taken down to the nearest supermarket and tossed in with the remnants of Mum and Dad's tipple from the previous evening.

As with all things, I should have checked online before making my purchase.  Born Free do a nice range,  as do Green to Grow. And if you're not a fan of buying from amazon, the nice, hippie-friendly company Spirit of Nature now sell the German brand Emil. Score.

As discussed in a previous post, I found breastfeeding really harsh on account of the D-MER which I suffered from. IF - and it's a giant 'if' - I were to ever brave labour again, I would  probably just bite the bullet straight off, stack up on some of the Emil bottles and go straight on the formula after baby had done with the colostrum. But, as I say, BIG if.

Consumer

I've never been much of a consumer. In fact, I go so far as to make my own tortillas.

Yeah, that's right. Tortillas.

I'm learning though, that with Daughter, saying no to things is much harder. Don't get me wrong, she's too young to be making spoilt little demands but I see things and think, 'Ooh, I could get that for her!' And then I do. With myself I see something, think, 'I could get that for me' and then talk myself out of it.

Today, I bought all kinds of little goodies because, 'they were on sale' and Daughter would 'grow into them'. Euch. Last time I do that. Not only did I come away from the supermarket £50 poorer, but since becoming a parent I seem to have triggered some kind of plastic magnet deep within me. Little plastic tubs to store food in, little plastic spoons to feed it with, plastic teething toys, plastic baths, plastic ... everything.

Well, it ends now. I can use regular Tupperware to store food in - it doesn't have to be tiny. The plastic spoons are soft, so fair enough, I guess... The toys will be sterilised and passed on, the bath will be filled with balls - which I will get second hand - when Daughter gets too big for it, then used as a wash basket, or planter, or... mop bucket even. Anything. Then it will get recycled or passed on.

I started talking to an awesome lady of motherslittlehelpers.co.uk and love the idea of a toy library. Will definitely be using that as Daughter gets older. And it's made me consider other areas too. Books can't be recycled in the same way as regular paper, so even though I can get them second hand without impacting too greatly, the normal library is a good way to go too. And I loved going as a kid - I could go and choose different books and take them home with me like treasures. It was fantastic.

Teething things

As promised, here is a list of interesting teething things I've found. In the end, after considering many options, I decided on a Baltic amber necklace from Dino Daisy, and a little teething toothbrush which Daughter can hold herself and chew on.

Other things I came across though include, the rather attractive Waldorf Maple Teether Natural Teething Ring because as previously stated, I'm really a big hippie and the wood appeals to my sense of 'natural is best'. I also thought about the Nuby Fun Keys Teether Ring because Daughter is fascinated by my car keys and I killed the previous key teether I had by trying to sterilise it.

Apparently gummy things don't sterilise well... I will let you know how I get on with my order when it arrives, and tell you whether or not the amber works. Apparently the Succinic acid in the amber is released by heat from the skin and has an analgesic effect. It's like a nicotine patch, I guess... I'm willing to try, in any case, despite being slightly sceptical*. If nothing else, I'll have a pretty amber bracelet at the end of this.


*For those looking for a well considered pinch of salt, I would recommend reading this page.

Teething

And so it begins.

Aside from being used as a chew toy, this poses some interesting dilemmas.

I hate brushing my own teeth (I do it, clearly) because even the smell of mint makes me wretch. The idea of cleaning someone else's actually makes me feel slightly nauseous. I don't know why I have this aversion to all things mint, but there we go.

I think Husband will like this though. He often spoke of feeling useless where Daughter was concerned because he couldn't feed her to comfort her when she was crying, so that he now has something he can do with her that I honestly can't, I hope it'll show  him that he's absolutely NOT useless..

Since Daughter seems to be sleeping and dinner seems to be ready, I'm going to go and sit down at the table for the first time in months, but will try and post some of the interesting teething things I've found tomorrow.

Down

Anyone have any hints for putting a baby down in their cot?

Daughter will fall asleep in my arms within seconds, but actually laying her in her bed is a demanding task, not for the faint-hearted.Even the slightest degree of height difference is noted by her seemingly-sleepy brain and a few inches from the mattress, her arms splay out to the sides, jolting her awake with a cry.

I have been trying to put her down drowsy, but a lot of the time this results in her either snapping awake and wanting to play, or her snapping awake in fury - how dare I put her down? It's not an asking cry - it's an angry, shouting at naughty mummy sort of cry. It makes me laugh, but it's not really helpful in terms of getting her to sleep so I can get on with things.

So yes, any helpful suggestions would be greatly appreciated. :)