Week 2329th May - 4th June 2005 Emma's Entry
I was very nervous about the idea of weaning Evan and my original plans were to return to work in the summer and Caroline would look after Evan instead. That would have been perfect because Caroline being the cook could prepare all his foods. Now that my plans are different I then realised that I would be around at weaning time and I am actually very glad I didn't miss this momentous period in Evans development. I actually look forward to feed time and when we get to try him on new foods. I decided to prepare the carrot (Evan's first food after baby rice) because I couldn't wait for Caroline to help. How difficult could it be? Hmmm exactly... What Caroline forgot to mention in her entry was that she wouldn't let me buy more than one carrot because she thought it would make more than enough :). I am not much of a cook and I chose to use the microwave as my learning apparatus—bad choice! I turned this poor little carrot into a rubbery mess... I used the saucepan and followed the guidelines in my weaning book for carrot ala puree attempt 2 and Evan enjoyed the non lumpy carrot so much more.
We finally took Evan on his longest journey yet this week to see his great grandmother in Birmingham. We've had to cancel this trip a few times previously so she was very excited to finally see him as he was only 6 weeks old when she made the trip down to us to see her very first great grandchild. I went armed with spare clothes because I know what Evan can be like and he wasn't sick at all! This was the first trip we have had to do since we started weaning so we had to prepare even more things in advance and I actually think we didn't take enough with us because he polished off the carrot puree really quickly and still wanted some more so we had to make up a little batch of baby rice which we happened to have with us. You'd think I would learn from my mistakes and not attempt too much cooking. Well this week I hosted the lunch at my house for my friends and their babies. It was also Rachel's birthday so I decided to bake a cake. I was not too adventurous, I went for a cake that has been successful in the past. The only missing ingredient this time was having Caroline in the kitchen with me when I baked it. My cherry and almond cake turned out to be a cherry and almond cake without the cherries and almonds. The icing butter that you put in the middle and on the top was made out of caster sugar as well... You'd think I would have associated icing sugar with it because it's called icing butter! It actually turned out much better than you would have thought after reading this :). Now I know why I am usually the washer upper, at least it's giving me practice for when I host Evan's birthday parties in a few years time. Emma
Caroline's Entry
The weaning continues... we've introduced two new foods this week - carrot and banana. No, not at the same time! We tried the banana first and that probably wasn't the best option as it was really difficult to mash properly! It got all lumpy and kinda slimy and this proved quite a problem. Every time we gave him a mouthful that was a bit too lumpy he'd pull thus funny face, make a kind of gagging noise and poke his tongue out. Highly amusing I thought :) We thought the banana was tricky; nothing compared to our carrot troubles! You'd think mashing a cooked carrot would be pretty easy? Well yes under normal circumstances it would but not so when Emma is doing the cooking! Baby food has to be soft - not crunchy, not even al-dente! Not only was the carrot undercooked but because she only cooked one carrot and we went from bowl-with-fork to food processor number 1, to hand blender, to food processor number 2 and back again this meant that we ended up with a walnut-sized lump! To be fair she did much better the next day when she cooked up another big batch of them which we were able to puree properly. Evan made a funny face when we first gave him the carrot but he's eaten everything we've given him so he must like it. One of the other funny things about weaning is that the poo has changed! Picture the usual runny greenish poo, now add a little slimy banana, the obligatory lumps of carrot and you've just about got it! YUM!
I'm getting Evan trained early on the computer. I had him on my lap the other day and he just start whacking on the keyboard, he looked so cute. So we thought it would be funny to load up Word and see what he came up with. He didn't write much but you can tell it was from the heart... here's his first letter to Mummy. His second attempt showed his skills - he managed to bold everything, put page breaks in and even managed to insert a hyperlink! You can read Evan's second letter here!
Caroline |
