Pump it up!

Arundel Museum is a boys' heaven. Lots of people in sheds (mostly men) following time old pursuits and hobbies. Today we saw the blacksmith, wood turner, wood whittlers, print workshop, train enthusiasts fixing the brakes, a bus, and a trailer pulled by a machine that looked and sounded like it belonged in the film 'one of our dinosaurs is missing.' 

The museum also has historic artefacts and machines galore. Everytime we go we find something new and you could probably go a hundred times and still not have seen all of it (or learnt it all or understand it all.)

Today we kept coming across different water pumps: hand pumps, wind pumps, electric pumps, machine pumps. It seemed that every time Bean asked me 'what's this?' It was another pump! The hand pumps in the picture below actually worked and the boys spent the whole time I was breast feeding Plum pumping water.

The whole museum is set out over quite a large space, brilliant for a run around or walk along. We took the train to the far end of the museum grounds and then walked back. We played around with the telephone exchange a little and managed to coordinate Pumpkin calling the exchange where Bean answered. It really is quite complicated!


In another exhibition we saw three electricity displays behind a screen in a room. I'll be honest, I didn't really understand what the volunteer was saying but he used a lot of technical words and large numbers and there was a lot of sparks (I mean 4 ft long sparks) and some white flame and cracking and banging. Definitely ticked an awe and wonder box.

Plum is becoming more and more interested in food. Watching our every move, beginning to grab things and put them in her mouth. Crying when we sit at the table to eat and she thinks she's been left behind (not true) and being very happy when she comes to join us. She's beginning to be able to hold herself up sitting too. All moving towards the introduction of solid foods. We first heard about 'baby led-weaning' (not sure about the title myself but let's focus on the process) when coming to the weaning stage with Bean. It's something we embarked on very happily and successfully with both Bean and Pumpkin and now our journey continues with Plum. I have had to refresh myself a little just to make sure I don't miss something obvious. The basic idea is that babies eat whenever you eat and whatever you are eating, not puréed or chopped or mushed anymore than you would do for yourself (i.e.soup is generally whizzed and porridge is what ever consistency you enjoy your porridge.) They have the control. They feed themselves. I'll be honest (again! Second time in this post!) we do tend to eat more chip shaped food during the initial stages as babies find it easier to hold a stick shaped item (see cucumber above.) 
Found this on someone else's blog along with a few other bits that I might re-post.

Some of the great things I love about the concept behind BLW are that:

• There is no additional cooking needed, i.e. no separate meals
• Babies are involved in the experience from the start
• As there is no force-feeding occurring, eating doesn’t have a negative connotation (so no here comes a train, open the tunnel, the aeroplane wants to land!)
• They can eat till they are full and then stop.
• We can eat as a family together. No separate mealtimes required (according to Sue Palmer in her book Toxic Childhood what the modern world is doing to your children and what you can do about it, all children in a merit class she was involved in, without exception, had one thing in common they all had dedicated family meal times at the dinner table).
• BLW babies are more adventurous eaters as they’ve learned to explore new textures and flavours. 

A few other bonuses of BLW mentioned that I had not thought about before are:

• Long term health. If a baby is breastfed and BLW, they still have breast milk for much longer than a baby weaned on to purees (as they are fuller and require less milk)
• No stressful meal times
• Fewer food phobias etc
• Less need for games or tricks
• Eating out is easier as baby can eat something off your plate, making it also…
• Cheaper

The only downside to BLW is the mess. And boy, can it be messy.