Thursday 13 August 2015

Baby Business: Week 34, food glorious food

Feeding myself snacks. Tick
Feeding myself my own bottle. Tick
Feeding myself my pureed food. No chance!

I’d like to open up a discussion with other mums out there on the diets of their little ones. What they eat and won’t eat? When they went on to solids, how that went and when they started having non-pureed food? What snacks do you give them? How often do you feed them? What you won’t feed them and why?

It’s not that I have any major concerns, but I am truly amazed by what Little One will eat and where her incessant appetite comes from, maybe it’s in her genes or maybe it’s her non-stop energy throughout the day (every day is a new adventure with missions to accomplish and toys to battle). 

Whatever the cause, I have to say that I love food times with Little One – and as far as I’m concerned, the messier the better (I have a dog to hoover up!).

So almost eight months old and (apart from eggs) nothing has got in the way of Little One’s discovery of food. She does make me chuckle though in what I think is a deliberately clever move; whenever you put the first spoonful of food up to her lips, she pulls a face of disgust, wrinkles her nose and looks like she’s going to spit her food out. This is the same for everything, even her favourites. I guess she thinks that if she acts like she doesn’t like it from the offset then I won’t make her eat it if she really doesn’t like it. Clever.

As you know, I have been having a ball cooking for Little One and now feel well placed to write my own recipe book entitled ‘Crazy Cooking by Mummy’! The way I see it is that I create, cook and eat some ‘unusual/experimental’ dishes and most of the time get the big thumbs up from my patient guinea pigs... ooops, I mean my guests! As such, Little One’s diet needs to be fully prepared for this, so here goes Amelia’s top 10 meals at the moment:
1.       Squishy Sweet Potato and Beef Casserole
2.       Mad Veg Medley Curry
3.       Banana Avocado Mish-Mash
4.       Posh Salmon Mousse Toast
5.       Gooey Creamy Pineapple Chicken
6.       Pea, Courgette, Apple, Mint and Garlic Crush
7.       Very Berry Yoghurt
8.       Pepper and Paprika Parsnips
9.       Zesty Cinnamon Apples and Pears
1.       Bread and butter!

The stocks in the freezer are now getting low, so on with my adventurous bambino-chef hat and here’s to the introduction of luscious liver casserole, herby spag bol, tangy orange fish hot-pot, chickeny bean jalfrezi, summer fruit jellies and very lemony sorbet. I can’t wait to crack open that food blender...


Anyway, any suggestions of good recipes and dishes then please let me know. I may be creative, but you can’t beat the tried and tested!.

Tuesday 11 August 2015

A final exert from one of 'my books in progress'

The beauty surrounding him tried to distract him, but he could not escape. He was alone. He wanted to tell her about the way the water and the sky merged, with only the passing boats to indicate that there was even a place where the ocean stopped and the sky began. No he didn’t want to tell her, he wanted to be able to show her, share it with her, hold her as they looked out across the water.

The anger started as a distant anxious knot in his stomach. It rumbled and gurgled and he gasped to catch his breath as his heart-beats cramped. He felt the solid demon inside drag itself up from the pit of his stomach, clenching his chest and squeezing the air from his lungs. It shuddered and swelled into his throat and through to his finger tips. From nowhere the anger burst out of his mouth, pushing his hands in to a punching mass of fists and knuckles pounding the air, the rock, the sand. He fell to his knees, weak from this strangling fear of lost control. Yet the anger raged on like a tide of jagged emotions ripping through his frail old body. He wept. He shouted. He buried his head into his hands and he shook.

He’d finally been able to let out everything he’d been holding inside since that fateful day. He’d wanted to grieve, to shout and scream, but he’d been held back by a sense of denial, of accepting that reality was real and that there was no going back, even though there seemed no way of moving forward. To grieve is to accept. To accept is to understand. To understand is to let go.

George couldn’t let go.

Not here.

Not yet.

Soon.

Sunday 9 August 2015

My week...

With a Scottish air and Edinburgh Festival inspiration, this has been my week in Creativeland, Blogland and Writerland...

A little snippet of a book I'm working on... 
http://vrheal.blogspot.com/2015/06/an-exert-from-another-of-my-books-in.html

Baby business saw a poo in the bath ereeeeekkkk!!!
http://vrheal.blogspot.com/2015/08/baby-business-week-32-you-have-to-youre.html

Champagne #colour_collective, meet Moet the puppy
http://ididadoodletoday.blogspot.com/2015/08/7th-july-2015.html

Dog doodle http://ididadoodletoday.blogspot.com/2015/08/4th-august-2015.html

Cat doodle
http://ididadoodletoday.blogspot.com/2015/08/3rd-august-2015.html

Froggy doodle
http://ididadoodletoday.blogspot.com/2015/08/6th-august-2015.html

Thursday 6 August 2015

Baby Business: Week 32, you have to. You’re a mother!

First French bread. Tick
First smoothie. Tick
First avocado. Tick
First egg. YUCK!

I think it’s safe to assume that everyone knows exactly how much I love being a mummy to baby Little One - I may have mentioned it once or twice! What I haven’t mentioned are the bits I don’t like about being a mother... “What?” I hear you cry. Yes, there are some things I do not like:

1.       Injections: Can’t we just wave a magic wand that wraps our little ones in a protective layer, safe from all illnesses? That way we wouldn’t have to inflict injections on them. I have to say, my guilt was marginally eased as I didn’t hold Little One when she had her injections, instead I took the ‘saviour’ role, giving her cuddles straight after and carrying her away from the mean lady with the needle!

2.       The first fall: Oooohhhhhhhh that resounding thud. You know the one – it sounds like an arctic lorry hitting the side of your house.

You move like grease lightening, but everything goes into slow motion and your precious little one goes from smiley baby, sitting playing happily to a falling confused baby toppling backwards... and you just don’t get there in time. THUD... Silence. ...That look of shock... The crumpling of the face... The quivering of the lips... The cry... The guilt!

3.       Cutting nails: What is it with babies’ nails - how quickly do they grow?! And our wriggly little ones really make it a challenge to cut them.

So, how do you do it? Baby nail scissors? Baby nail clippers? Or good old chewing? My method... ask someone else to do it! That may seem like a cop-out, but unfortunately I have a very good excuse. I’d made a lovely game with Little One in order to cut her nails. One foot down, four nails in and... NOOOOOOOO, I snipped her toe. Now I would like to point out that Little One didn’t even notice and actually carried on giggling at the game, but I was in tears and devastated that I had injured my little girl.

4.       Car seat woes: There you are with ‘going to the zoo’ CD playing, raspberries being blown back and forth between us, when we enter a tunnel...

All goes a little dark... silence... and then a screech and total sobbing (scared cries). Oh no – I am on the M25, heavy traffic, I am on my own... I can’t stop, I can’t cuddle my baby, I can’t pick her up for a reassuring hug. I have to listen helplessly to her crying, trying to calm and sooth her with words, rhymes, funny noises... A whole three minutes later (which believe me feels like hours) and the sobbing gradually subsides, but the damage is done. I have failed my little girl by not being able to wrap my arms round her when she got scared.

5.       Poo in the bath (my favourite!) – I really don’t think I need to say too much about this one and I think I am fully justified in stating that this is a part of being a mummy that is not fun! Though it is intriguing - where does that amount come from and how come it sticks to everything, even things when they were not in the bath at the time? A very messy stinky mystery!

I would like to reassure every mum out there that I am working on a solution to all the above and I fully expect to have them sussed, fixed and mastered by... well... ermmmmmm... actually... nope, I have nothing!

Tuesday 4 August 2015

An exert from another of 'my books in progress'

Each one of us course the veins of our city, helping her grow, develop into her entirety. Each of us is integral; each of us important. Each human cog links to another; we join, we part, we collide and become one. We are our city, and our city is us.

A million hearts beat as one heart, in this city I call home.

But then we change. Our worlds divide, our hunger drives us through competition. We are strong, but the weak lose out. We are leaders, but others won't be led. The pulse weakens and the few select move forward, as layers fall away.

Our city stands strong in the inherited and weak in the few. She will continue, we will fuel her and together we will evolve.

Sunday 2 August 2015

My week...

Another week of summer madness and fun, oh and some work and creativity too! Here's how my week in Creativeland, Blogland and Writerland has been...


My favourite doodle this week?

And July's top blog posts were...

So another month has gone by and both my blogs have been marvelously busy - thank you to all my lovely visitors. And the most popular posts for July?

Stories & Stuff Blog

Number One (Post from November 2014)That 'what's-going-to-happen-in-the-dark' feeling >

Number Two (Post from 8th June): I forgot to feed my Tamagotchi blog >


i did a doodle today Blog

Number One: 24th July Colour Collective piece >

Number Two: 17th July Nature's Couture piece >