A Bug's Life

Yesterday Bug said her first real word (in addition to Mama and Dada) and it was Yum! It made me so happy, she really must be enjoying all the food I cook her because she said it whilst eating dinner.

At the moment she’s been eating shepherd’s pie with purple sprouting broccoli and sweet potato mash

Aubergine Parmigiana

And her all time favourite. Broccoli. I hope she’ll always love broccoli.

Especially as on Monday Bug had her first taste of chocolate! Now I say it was her first taste but I didn’t give it to her! As you know, I take her food very seriously, she doesn’t eat any salt or sugar which makes what happened even funnier. She found DC’s Easter egg in the corner of the sitting room and helped herself! I was in the kitchen cooking and noticed it had gone very quiet and I walked in to find her covered in chocolate with a big smile on her face. Oh well, at least we have a funny story to tell and it proves that nothing is ever safe from a mobile little person!

As our weaning journey continues I’ve been finding it exciting coming up with tasty snacks for Bug that aren’t shop bought and will fill her up enough to see us through to the next meal. Bug eats. A lot! I’ve always been a fan of porridge because it’s so filling and slow burning whilst also being so good for you so I started playing around with the idea of making flapjacks but without any of the usual sugar or syrup.

I used dried fruit, mostly apricots and prunes but I’ve also just bought some figs which I know she’ll love too and have also been using grated apple, pear and banana too. I chop everything up…

Grate the apple

And mix everything together with a lot of oats and the secret ingredient…water! The water works with the oats to bind everything together perfectly and they come out so sweet from the natural fructose in the fruit that you really wouldn’t need any syrup or sugar at all.

I then bake them for 25 minutes until golden brown and hey presto a very yummy and healthy snack for Bug, and me!

She LOVES them, we get a very over the top excited dance from her when I get one out for her. The bonus is that they freeze really well too once they’re cut up into chunks so I just get out a few every morning and they’re defrosted by the time we eat them. These are perfect for using up fruit too and a great way of getting fruit into little people.

Easter was wonderful. Good Friday saw a lot of merriment and also huge excitement because Bug crawled forwards for the first time! As it was a Bank Holiday DC and I were both there to witness it and it was very emotional and made us both so happy to have been together for it. She’d been crawling backwards for weeks so this was a monumental moment, she’d finally figured out first gear! Since then she’s found all five gears and goes like the clappers!

We went to our dear friend Lara’s annual Eggstravaganza (see what she’s done there?!) which I loved for more than the fact there were a lot of games, food and friends all in one place.

I loved it because it was a true sign of how our lives are all moving forwards, together. When we celebrated the inaugural Eggstravaganza three years ago it was a very drunk experience, a very late party and of a very different vibe. Last year saw a number of us pregnant with other friends soon to be and then this year saw a lot of babies and buggies. I love how everything is evolving but the constant is that we’re all still together, having just as much fun, just in different ways.

This is the medal ceremony for the Egg and Spoon race (oh yes, we take these types of things very seriously, can you tell we’re a competitive bunch?!) DC and Uncle Oli were on the winning team and Bug was very proud.

I saw this occasion as a prime opportunity to make Bug a costume and what better than an Easter Bunny. Bug loves bunnies. She can’t sleep without her rabbit! A really heart stopping moment was when ‘Babbit’ dropped out of the buggy one day and I didn’t realise until Bug wouldn’t stop crying and I looked round to check and lo and behold she was Babbit-less. This then saw me abandon Bug with Claire and race down the seafront in search of Babbit. Thankfully I found it, lying neatly on the concrete. We then swiftly went and bought another one! Phew, always best to have two! One of which is actually sewn onto her Grobag because we went through a stage of going into Bug eight times a night just to give her Babbit back so she could continue to sleep. Ridiculous, so desperate measures were needed. As I said, Bug loves bunnies (so much so she crawls around her cot with Babbit in her mouth!)

I’ve always dreamt of having a little person to dress up so I took to the task very seriously. I decided to make use of things I had so dissected Bug’s winter hat

And used the pieces to make an Easter bunny hat whilst using the pompom for her tail (which lasted about a minute before she discovered it and ripped it off!)

In the evening we drove to my parent’s house and had a lovely family Easter together. Bug loves her Grandparents and she had lots of fun with them on the swings

And we all loved seeing them become big kids themselves!

Our weekend was full of many tasty treats for us all. I get my passion for cooking from my mum and she spoilt us all, including Bug, with incredible food such as slow roasted duck with Farcon (an amazing dish she’d tried whilst skiing in Chamonix and decided to recreate which in essence is polenta and potato cake but it’s really so much more), roast lamb and all the trimmings all accompanied by lots of delicious wine care of my Dad.

Bug loves being at their house, she gets to play with them and their dogs! She loves them and Max is so good with her, he’s so gentle and it’s lovely to see.

We’ll be back there in a few weeks to get ready to go on our family holiday to France, we can’t wait!

March saw us blessed with some serious sunshine and us mummies all went into picnic mode and dressed our children in amazing summer hats! (Little fact for you, DC hates Bug’s hat! I think it’s funny.)

We all spent a lot of time at the swings and having a jolly lovely time.

When DC was back at weekends we were still in serious picnic mode, determined, in true British spirit, to enjoy every ray of the beautiful sunshine.

We were so lucky that all this sunshine coincided with DC having a lot of consecutive four day weekends. We used these weekends for a lot of fun as well but as well as this, DC was having interviews for jobs in Brighton and he only went and got himself one! Yipeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! We’re all beyond excited because Bug and DC will see each other every single day and that is the best news ever and it’s such perfect timing because he’ll be home to enjoy the summer with his girls and our daydreams of picnic dinners in the park on his way home from work can finally be our reality.

Today was my first Mother’s Day. We spent a wonderful day together, the three of us which started with lovely cuddles in bed where Bug gave me pressies and a card she’d picked out all by herself. She’s such a clever one.

We went for a yummy brunch together and then to a friend’s first birthday party and then home for more cuddles and Sunday calmness.

I celebrated the turning of Mother’s Day with two very special ladies as we had a dinner party last night.

We started the evening with three babes all in the bath together, splashing around and having lots of fun and then they did us all proud by sleeping soundly upstairs whilst their parents ate a lot of food, drank a lot of wine and had a lot of laughs downstairs until it was time for them to be wrapped up and taken back to their own beds.

It was a very special evening because it’s how DC and I always dreamt our lives as parents would be. We’d always said we wanted Bug to fit into our lives and to continue, as much as possible, in doing all the things we love the most and eating food with friends is most certainly one of those things. It was a fantastic night (our heads were definitely a little sore this morning!) and it was lovely to be able to wish a happy first Mother’s Day at midnight to yummy mummies.