Croquet, anyone?

Wednesday 18th July 

Egg boxes provided to put collection of natural bits and pieces - another great idea from the NT

 Today we took daddy to Nyman's Gardens. You might be right in thinking that I love it there. Daddy wanted to see what the fuss was about and I don't think he was disappointed! The staff as always were lovely, we did the quiz in the house again and found foxy and learnt some new bits of information from the staff. Bean loves listening to the tales they tell about the house and enjoys retelling them to anyone who will listen. We went on the bamboo trail today which was new for us. Who knew there are so many different types of bamboo? We also hid in the trees, playing the most complicated game of hide and seek. Daddy and I kept being told off for hiding in the wrong places or counting too much, or not enough. We also enjoyed running through the meadow and a role play game where daddy and me were passengers on a ship sailing the sea, visiting an island and travelling home again. We saw a cat dragging what looked like a rat but in fact turned out to be a baby rabbit. They had put up child sized teepees on the green too where the boys enjoyed cooking jelly babies and other such delights. 


Daddy headed home with the boys and I took Plum to meet a new friend and first time mum (someone we met in our unfortunate admission to hospital when Plum was born) I decided to have Plum weighed whilst I was there out of politeness really. It seemed wrong to be at the clinic and decline the service. I wish I had though. Her weight was more than fine, according to their charts and graphs, although it just occurred to me that the charts they now use in the red books are for formula fed babies not breast fed ones, anyhow the health professional (nursery nurse) enquirered how weaning was going. When I explained that we were blw and it was going well, thank you, I got a lovely 'you should purée and spoon feed too' response. The best part was the reasoning. 
 1. We need to make sure that she is getting enough. 
2. She needs to learn to use a spoon (something to do with speech development was mentioned here too) 
3. She needs to experience a range of textures and flavours. 
4. Make sure she is drinking water with every meal. 


I did try not to get too cross and respond in a calm and adult fashion. I think I did quite well but the nursery nurse didn't argue back. Maybe she realised that it wasn't going to make a difference. So, for reference these were part of my response. 
1. I'm more concerned with developing a life long positive relationship with food not dictated by me force feeding my child to make sure that they 'get enough.' She will manage her own appetite and I will continue to breast feed when she demands it. 
2. Me spoon feeding her does not teach her to use a spoon! She will pick up a spoon when she is developmentally ready and (thank goodness she has older siblings) her brothers have no problems with their speech development because I didn't use a spoon at six months. Do you think Adam and Eve worried about their children using a spoon? -I didn't mention that, just an after thought. 
3. She eats exactly what we eat, giving her a wide experience of textures and disearnable flavours instead of all the same consistency, flavours mushed together.
4. I breast feed. Breast milk gives her exactly what she needs, when she needs it. It's another amazing part of the human body. Water from a cup can wait. (Although she was grabbing after daddy's water the other day so she had some then.)