agnieszkawhitaker

SIT ME UP COSY …. no thanks :-)

I remember looking at it and thinking it’s brilliant ! So we bought it without thinking any more about it.

Turns out it’s not as brilliant as it seemed:

1. The lying position isn’t too good, Chloe would stay in it for 5 minutes and then cry … Looking at it I don’t think that she was comfortable in it.

2. Making it in to a siting upport was another great feature – or that’s what I thought…. When baby needs support when sitting it’s because it goes to the side, fills backwards or forwards …. So having support only on the back doesn’t make any sense.

So we didn’t really use it … Until Chloe was around 4-5 months and when she started learning to sit on her own. I used to put her right inside it and I must say it was great as I could go and do things while she was safety siting secured from every angle.

Would I recommend it? Not for what it’s designed for, but I got my money’s worth of it by using it a baby sit guard …

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER MEAL … PASTA WITH COURGETTES

DINNER RECIPE

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER MEAL ….

PASTA WITH COURGETTES

Ingredients – 1 courgette

– 50ml of single cream

– 1 small chicken breast (cooked)

– 2 tsp of Parmesan

– 1 tsp of basil (chopped)

– 50g of baby pasta

Cooking method:

Grate you courgette.

Cut you cooked chicken in to a very small cubes (I have just friend the chicken breast in a little bit of olive oil).

Cook your pasta according to cooking instructions.

Fry courgette in a little bit of olive oil for about 5 minutes (until it softens)

add cream and basil and cook for around 3 minutes. If needs add a little bit of water to the sauce. Add pasta then Parmesan and it’s ready to eat !

If your baby is still not eating solids you can blend all of it or blend everything except pasta. Good thing about this recipe is that you can make it in to a grown up version by just adding salt and pepper in to it to season! Hope that you and your baby will enjoy it !

SUGAR SUGAR SUGAR …. SUGAR EVERYWHERE ! Yes even in BABY food!

BABY ADVICE

I love sugar and anything that is sweet … It takes a lot of will power not to eat chocolate all day long every day.

I assumed that baby food, especially the one labeled : heathy, organic, no preservatives added will have no sugar or just minimal amount of it … NEVER assume anything ! I couldn’t be more wrong !

I was shocked to see baby food from 4 months old having over 20g of sugar per 100g. What was even more shocking is that things which shouldn’t have any sugar had lots of it !

Don’t get me wrong I am all for healthy but balanced diet, I give my baby, baby biscuits but I don’t want my baby to be consuming lots of sugar especially not when she is so small ! Also giving then sugar make the weaning and feeding so much more difficult because they refuse to eat things which are not sweet!

I started to check labels very carefully and found product which are nice but don’t have lots of sugar which I will share. Oh and just to clarify product is high in sugar when it has 20g or more of sugar per 100g.

CEREALS

There is a very small selection of cereals that don’t have lots of sugar in it, and only handful of cereals that have little or non sugar. My recommendation will be those 2 :

– Organix Multigrain Porridge (only 2g of sugar per 100g)

– Organic Mutligrain Mini Puffs (only 1g of sugar per 100g). I use the puffs to add to other porridges for the texture. I usually mix it with whatever porridge I make, especially with the flavoured ones. It’s great when you start to introduce texture to your baby’s food.

– Good flavoured porridge is by Ella’s Kitchen (11.7g of sugar per 100g). I usually make it with multigrain mini creel puffs.

– Organix Cereal Bannan & Rospberry (12g of sugar per 100g and believe me this is the smalles amount of sugar that I could find in the stage 3 cereals)

Bad boys:

– Cow&Gate Fruity Porridge – 40g of sugar per 100g !!!!!!! This should be illegal!

TREATS FOR BABIES :

Rice cakes.

It’s a great snack for babies from quite an early age (I have Chloe her first one at 5,5 months). They not high in sugar but even in this one snac the sugar level waries depending on the flavour (those are the Organix rice cakes) :
– Apple rice cakes -14g

– Berry rice cake – 10g

– Banana rice cake – 9,7g

– Strawberry rice cake – 6,7g

Biscuits:

Biscuits naturally have much more sugar than any other snack, but again I thought that because they are for babies the sugar level would be reduced …. Not always the case. There are healthier options like:

-Ella’s Kitchen Apple & Ginger biscuits 16,5g

-Ella’s Kitchen Milk and Vanilla biscuits 16,1g

-Ella’s Kitchen Hello-Copter Oat and spelt cookies 13,4g

A bit less healthier but not too bad :

– Heinz Biscotties Banana 22g

– Heinz Biscotties Apple 20g

– Heinz Biscotties Mango 22g

All of the others I found had 28g of sugar and above which is very very high so should be a treat from time to time only.

CORN SNACKS

– Organix Crunchy Sweetcorn Rings 3,5g

– Ella’s Kitchen Melty Puffs Tomatoes & Leek 0,5g ( the Strawberry and Bannan flavour already has 7,4g which is a lot).

– Ella’s Kitchen Lentil and carrot sticks 0,7g

– Ella’s Kitchen Cheese and Lentil Crunchy Wheels 0,2g

– Kiddylicious Blueberry Wafers 9,6g

– Kiddylicious Cheese flying Saucers 0,5g

Bad boys:

– Kiddylicious Passion Fruit and Peach Yoghurt Melts 45g

– most of the frut snacks like Bear Fruit Paws are high in sugar with 40g and more in 100g

– Organix Goodies Fruit Gummies Strawberry has 67g of sugar !!!!!!!!!

I could probably write a book about contest of sugar in baby food … Don’t want to bore everyone so the only thing I will say is check the back of the package for information ! Don’t be influenced by the colour of the package, marketing etc…. And remember that fruit and vegetables are always best option sometimes just not practical 😀

What is you experience, opinion? Do you have know of a yummy and healthy snacks/foods?

OMG IT HAS HAPPENED !!!!!

MY BABY EXPERIENCE

I AM SO HAPPY, SO PROUD AND SO EMOTIONAL at this same time. My little baby girl at the age of 9 months and 28 days started walking !!!!!

She did 1 or 2 steps before but today she just started walking !!!! It’s amazing how something just clicks in baby brain and they just start doing things! Chloe for a while now was walking with the walker, while holding to both of my hands and recently only one hand. She was also standing on her own for 3 seconds but as soon as she realised that no one was holding her/she wasn’t holding anything, she would sit down. And then yesterday she started standing, just like that as if she always did it… Then today she just started walking …. It amazes me how it just happens …. I am such a proud mummy now.

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER MEAL …SWEET POTATO FRIES

DINNER RECIPE

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER MEAL ….

The weather has turned in London to a rainy and chilly so we had to wear more layers. Chloe is wearing:

Jumpsuit from Primark,
Pink top and pink jacket with stars from H&M,
White lace trainers and pink headband from Mother Care
ANOTHER DAY, ANITHER MEAL…

SWEET POTATO FRIES

Great as part of a meal or just as a finger food. It’s healthy and so testy !

Ingredients:

– sweet potato (quantity depends on the amount that you want to make)

– thyme

– maple syrup (optional)

Cooking method:

Just cut your sweet potatoes in to a chips size. You don’t need to peal the skin I did it only because in my head my 10 months old could struggle with eating it.

Put a tiny bit of olive oil in to you baking tray, put your potatoes and cover with a little bit of thyme (you don’t have to use it)

Bake for around 15 min on 180C. You can add 1 tsp of maple syrup and sprinkle it on the top, put back in to the oven for 3 min.

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER MEAL, ANOTHER OUTFIT ….

DINNER RECIPE

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER OUTFIT …

Chloe is rocking today a casual look in this printed jumpsuit from LINEX. Look is finished with this cute headband from River Island Mini.

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER MEAL ….

AUBERGINE CURRY

Ingredients:

– 1 aubergine (sliced)

– 1 small carrot (sliced)

– 1/2 a red pepper (sliced)

– 1 onion

– 1 chicken/turkey breast (sliced or cut in to a small cubes if you don’t give your baby blended food)

– 1 tsp of mild chicken curry

– 100g of rice

– 400ml of coconut milk

– 1 garlick cove

Cooking instruction

Cook your rice fallowing cooking instructions.

Fry aubergine till soft and leave it to the side. Fry onion until gold then the add chicken and curry powder and garlic. Fry for a minute or two then add coconut milk.

Add you aubergine pepper and carrot and simmer fora round 15 minutes (making sure your chicken and carrot is cooked).

If you still introducing texture to your babes main meals blend your curry together and add your cooked rice for texture. If your baby eats solids make sure that all of your veg are cut in to small pieces (cut aubergine after frying it).

What is great about this recipie is that you can eat it as well ! For a grow up version don’t add carrot or pepper, add salt and season depending on how space you like it 🙂

DESSERT :

Fresh fruit selection, today grapes and blueberries . If your baby is smal remember to cut grapes in half as they are chocking hazard.

YOU ALL NEED ONE !

BABY STUFF - DO WE NEED ALL OF IT ?

I must say before I got pregnant I didn’t know that nappy bins existed 😂 I have to say they are briliant ! I will advance everyone to get one ! They are handy, look good and what’s the most important locks all of the smelly smells away ! You can gret one in white, pink or blue !

I have the Tommee Tippee Sangenic Nappy Disposal System – Pink. It individually seals each nappy away in seconds offering anti-bacterial protection from germs and odours.

Thank god for Coffeeshops !! 😊

MY BABY EXPERIENCE

I have never spend so much time in a coffeeshop as I do while on maternity leave. They bring normality in to my life! On the beginning before I meet my Mums gang I would go to one to be round people and so I cant see all of the stuff which need to be done at home. I would buy lots of magasines have a cake (we all deserve it !!!!!) and my decafe (breastfeeding) coffee (lots of it) while Chloe was sleeping (they do sleep a lot of the beginning) .

You know the time when they are still quite small (3 months or so) and you are trying to establish a routine and they don’t want to sleep … Of we went in the pram for a walk and as soon as she would fall asleep I would head to a coffeeshop, we all know that you can’t go home because as soon as you open the door baby is wide awake !!!

Now is all about socialising.Yummy mummies with our perfect prams pushing our perfect baby stroll in to a coffee shop and take it over moving all of the tables and chairs so we can park 8 prams, and fit 8 highchairs on top of all of the space that we mums need – the customers and the owners hate us !

LUNCH TIME ! Some great accesories which I love !

MY BABY EXPERIENCE

Weaning is so much fun and I love going out for lunch with Chloe; I recon Chloe enjoyed it more as she has food, lots of distraction and a lot of attention (the 3 things that she can’t live without). But you need so much stuff : wipes, antibacterial wipes, pot with main meal, pot with a dessert, pot with snacks, bib, water, spoon, lunch bag, some toys etc…..

I found lots of very good items out there which make the whole proved a bit easier or just a bum more fun.

1. MAM spoon.

What is great about this spoon is that it comes with a cover! It’s such a smal but genius idea! You know that your spoon is clean and ready for your baby to use it, and once your lunch is over you don’t need to worry about cleaning it or the spoon staining your lunch bag. It comes in few different colours.

2. MAM bowl.

What is great about this bowl is that it’s separated in two so you can have your dinner and a dessert in one container. The way is seperated is very good as it doesn’t let one food lik in to the other part of the container. Saves a lot of space !

3. Lunch bag

There is so many amazing lunch bags out ther, choice is very big. My favourite one will be the one made by SKIP HOP. They do an animal range which is the cuttest ever. We have two now: a zebra one and unicorn one. They are beautiful and so much fun for kids. Chloe loves to play with her bag!

There is a very big choice depending on what you like or what animal your baby loves😊

Do you have any great lunch gadgets or items that you cannot live without or just love ? Please share with me and others!

Work 😫😫😫

MY BABY EXPERIENCE

I had to slowly start thinking about work. Needing to organise meeting with work to talk about returning after maternity; organise some keep in touch days so I know what was happening while I was gone (fashion never sleeps as we say where I work-lots to catch up on) and the worst of all needing to start to leave my little precious girl with other people.

Unfortunately due to my work I won’t be able to go back part time … This makes it harder, especially that all of the other mums are going back back part time.

I started to make small steps by having grandparents over for few hours observing how I do things with Chloe. Then leaving Chloe for an hour, then for 3 hours (it was the longest I could do).

First of my keep in touch days Chloe’s grandad was looking after her … With my husband who I made to work from home so he can keep an eye on everything. Not that there is anything to worry about, Grandad is amazing withChloe, and he knows what he is doing but I just can’t bring myself to leave her for more than few hours with anyone other than my husband. I have done 2 keep in touch days so far and because my husband was working from home it wasn’t too bad… I just don’t know how will I be able to go back full time to work???!!!!! Right now I don’t know how I will do it… I will have to somehow… Everyone else is doing it so it can’t be that bad???? My friend just went back to work and she is loving it ???? Just thinking about it is stressing me out !!!!