Seconds

My last post heralded the beginning of Miss T's eating. It began well.

Since then? Not so good.

I think the first feed was a success purely because of her curiosity (or perhaps just plain fluke?) because I've been diligently offering her rice cereal or the alternative, mashed banana, ever since and, oh, the screwed-up-ness of the little face.

Then yesterday there was a mildly alarming occurrence on the eating front. I stumbled into the house carrying one handbag, two bags of shopping, the contents of the mailbox and one wriggly baby. I plonked T on the bed and, to amuse her while I put the groceries away, I gave her a brightly coloured flyer from the mailbox. As you do.

By the time I came back in to get her, all of 30 seconds later, the corner of the flyer was gone. In its place a soggy mouth-shaped chomp mark.

The child ingested a real-estate flyer.

So. Yeah. First food: rice cereal. Second? Cheapo paper flyer.

I was quite concerned. Would she get ill? How would her poor little digestive system cope? She looked OK, but just to be sure I rang a friend of mine who's a printer.

He assured me that all commercial inks are vegetable based these days, and no, I didn't need to take her to the doctor - that was after he stopped laughing.

Possibly not my proudest parenting moment!

Hungry

Something a little bit momentous occurred here yesterday: Miss T had her first taste of real food (if you can call rice cereal 'real food').

She's 25 weeks and turns 6 calendar months next week, so I figure that's close enough to starting point. For the past few weeks T has been eyeing our food very hungrily - surely a sign she may be ready?



I was heading to the supermarket yesterday (on my own... yay... this is the nearest I am going to get to a day at the spa or a mini-break - sad or what?!) and so I picked up some rice cereal for her.

We cracked it open, mixed it with some breastmilk, popped on a bib and - lo - she ate.

Boy, did she eat. She gobbled it up.

It was as though she was saying, "Oh you people, didn't you realise I've been starving for weeks? There you are torturing me with your bikkies and your sandwiches and all I get is boring old milk..."

I felt a little sad to let go of my tiny baby who feeds only from me - though that will continue, it's just that she will have other food too.



So we've dragged the highchair up from the garage and given it a good hose-down.

Am braced for my kitchen to again become a baby destructo-zone. Smeared carrot, anyone?

Kindred spirits

Well, they do say like attracts like.

A compliment??

Don't you love the way people - particularly the slightly loopy ones - are drawn to babies?

Yesterday T and I parked out the front of E's preschool. Next to the preschool lives a lady. She is not a young lady, nor is her English all that good. But she loves to talk to the little kids as they go in and out of the preschool gates.

She came up to the car while I was getting T out of her seat and said this to her:

"Oh! Sixxxy bebbbby!"

(please excuse my inventive spelling, but I don't want my blog to come up when THAT is Googled. Ever.)

This is what T was wearing at the time:



Maybe she thought T was a boy (well, she is in blue), sporting a Peter Andre muscle-top outfit - very sixxxy? Maybe she meant, er, another word?

Whatever the case, I can't really think of any example of when you could legitimately use this description on anyone aged under 6 months.

I giggled all the way home.

Sweet

So it's Valentine's Day today. I thought it might be fun for E do something for Shaun and I (since he luuuurves us so much - so much that he can't bear to go to bed of a night, fearing he will miss a second of our scintillating company).

With limited funds, I decided we should make something. Then I had a small brainwave - my mum had given me some chocolate moulds a while back. Heart-shaped moulds, and therefore perfect for the occasion.

A quick trip to the shops and we'd bought some chocolate to use, condensed milk for the strawberry filling and two small paper boxes for presentation. Total cost? $7. And it was quite a fun (and simple) exercise. E especially loved the spoon-licking afterwards...!

Is it autumn SOON?

I am fed up. Over it. Had it.

The Sydney humidity has me beat. I don't know if it's just me, but it has been a looooong, hot summer. Perhaps it's just that with an extra bod in the house (un-airconditioned house) and working from home (in fact, spending most of the week at home) I am feeling it more.

Humidity not only makes me feel revolting (not to mention hot, bothered and grumpy) it also: a) frequently leaves me headachey and b) inflates our water bill - we're having double the showers.

When I was a kid, out on the searing hot North-West Slopes and Plains, I used to deal with the relentless summer heat by sitting on the tiles in the bathroom (every other surface in the house felt hot) and read a book, Trixie Belden perhaps or something by Enid Blyton, that was set in a winter. Preferably with snow. The more snow the better.

That's why, on a humid, icky afternoon where the thermometer has popped over 35, I have been looking back at some photos we've taken in recent years.

Here they are:



This is in New Zealand - a glacier. Oh to be there right now...



This shot was taken on the first morning after we'd arrived in England on our holiday in 2008. He looks cold, doesn't he?



This is when we had a long weekend in the Snowy Mountains in 2008. Looks wonderful.

Feeling a little cooler already!

Double take??

People say our kids look really alike. Generally? I don't think so. But that's possibly because I see them so much, know every plane of their faces.

Sometimes I look at pictures of E when he was a baby and at certain angles, yeah, they look like peas in a pod.

Here's Mr E - he's a little bit older in this picture than she is now (he's sitting, whereas she's not even rolling yet):



And this is how T looks at present:



What do you think? Alike? Both baldies anyway...