Fruity fruity!

Today Isaac had his first taste of nectarine. He used all 4 of his teeth to nash his way through it. He has 4 teeth now by the way; the top 2 came through just before the weekend and now he's onto his next lot. He puts his hand to his gum & grimaces...poor little mite. I don't envy him this pain at all.

Anyhoo, I think he liked the nectarine as he scoffed nearly the whole thing! :-D

Can't...stop...baking...

It seems I either bake nothing or have a bit of a frenzy. Typical me, all or nothing. Yesterday I made sugar cookies. I used the recipe in The Joy of Vegan Baking by Collen Patrick-Goudreau. I've made sugar cookies before, but not very well. Have you ever made sugar cookies? They're perfect if you want to make a shaped cookie/biscuit to ice. Good for occasions (like baby showers - I saw a very cute onesie cutter the other day) BUT they are an awful faff. Very tasty, but a massive faff to achieve perfect results. There's shed loads of refrigeration and then some more refrigeration and some extra refrigeration just in case of dough warming. Not really being bothered about achieving perfect results, I have decided from this moment on to not faff so much, thus saying b*****ks to the refrigeration completely and not using a cookie cutter. I like them round & if I want shapes I'll make something else. Meh. Here are my attempted-not-perfect-but-delicious sugar cookies.

I haven't iced anything before and must say that it was great fun! I used unrefined icing sugar, hence the golden colour. The icing recipe was from the same book and was very easy. No faffing there you'll be pleased to hear. I didn't even know that some icing contains egg whites. WTF? Yes that right. Regal icing contains uncooked egg whites. Yuk!

Anyhoo. My second batch of baked goods were made earlier today and are vegan blueberry muffins. I Googled "vegan blueberry muffins" and got quite a few results (surprise eh?), but most of them were a right faff! (We know how I feel about faffing.) Or required ingredients I do not have. So, I chose this recipe from recipesforvegans.co.uk. I haven't tried anything else from the site. They were so easy and quick to make!  And delicious! Thumbs up! Not bad considering the blueberries needing using up.

I've also made a fruit salad (gotta love reduced fruit) & spiced lentil soup today. But they aren't baked so do not get a photo.

I hear my Little Man has woken up so off I shall go to get him. I love how he greets me when I enter his room:

:-)

Onwards and...downwards?

Isaac is becoming increasingly mobile these days. He's not a particularly speedy mover, but he Wiggles around a fair bit and shuffles about in a backwards manner, too. He even tried to pull himself up on the coffee table the other day! Looks like it's time to think about baby proofing. Yipee!

His favourite thing to do when on the sofa is to lunge forward and investigate what's going on on the floor. Which is invariably nothing, but he does it regardless. Each time he does this my heartbeat quickens as I prepare to leap to his rescue should he overbalance any; can't have him landing on his noggin!  

Don't let him play on the sofa!  you declare.

Now, where's the fun in that?

Teasing with toys that aren't even yours.

Isaac has taken a shine to Rinny's favourite toy. The red-legs-chewed-off-doesn't-squeak-anymore-bounces-lots-ball. She's so good with him. She wouldn't dare try to take it from him. She knows the line exists and that she definitely shouldn't cross it.

(I don't usually let Isaac play with her toys if he happens across one because A) it's unfair to Rinny & B) it's not terribly hygienic, but today I caved for the sake of funny pictures.)

Doesn't stop her sulking though.

Garden, grub & a gift!

This weekend was quiet; a rare occurrence in our house! We had planned that friends were coming to stay and some Couch Surfers too, but as it worked out no one came, Simon's cousin moved out and was only Simon, Isaac, Rinny and I. It was lovely.

I had an unexpected night out with most of my NCT girlfriends to say goodbye to Maria who is moving away. The meal was fabulous (as it always is at Le Bistrot Pierre) and proved to be highly entertaining as the night wore on! Pictures not posted to protect the innocent ;-)

Our little dog, Rinny, was quite poorly last week. She was sick a few times and not herself at all. I took her to the vet on Friday evening & she received an injection to stop her being sick. That seemed to do the trick, along with not eating for a few days and you'll be pleased to know she's now back to her insane, couch hogging, incessant ball chasing, voracious self!

On Sunday Isaac woke up with a ridiculously cute tuft of hair sticking out which stayed there all day.

We were (and still are) shrouded by oppressive dark clouds (where did Summer go?!) so when the sun came out we legged it outside to get some vitamin D!

We wanted to go the route of baby led weaning, but Isaac doesn't get the food in his mouth fast enough to not get fed up with being hungry. Sometimes he just don't wanna eat and on these rare occasions we let him loose on the food. Which he likes. I think the dog likes it more as she always does very well!

I've known since being a child that the box is always more fun than the toy. It seems the same is true for blankets. This IKEA blanket/throw thing is the source of much happy time spent with Little Man. He particularly likes having it thrown over him so he can fight his way out.

He also likes lying under it with his Mama. Sometimes. When he's not too busy Wiggling!

As I said, Simon's cousin moved out this weekend and during the process we gained a very generous gift of a keyboard. On the same day that someone told me I should learn to play the piano no less!! Isaac loves playing on it. He loves the dials and buttons & has actually made some pretty awesome music on it so far!

Here's something else to add to the list of things he's *going* to be - virtuoso!

Next weekend: carnival fun and possibly camping *fingers crossed*

On the radio (uh oh!)

We were on the radio today...quite unbelievable! I say we, I was. Isaac was much of the focus, but he's a baby thus not capable of holding a radio-style conversation.

It was all quite unplanned. I innocently sent a text to the Shaun Keaveny breakfast show on BBC 6 Music yesterday asking them to play my earworm (Can I Play With Madness by Iron Maiden - oh yes). Later in the day someone rang me to see if I wanted to be on the following day for a feature called My Morning Racket. Initially I said no because I've never been good at anything involving people watching me as my school friends know well (freezing up, dry mouth, talking at high speed, turning as red as you like), but she talked me into it. Plus no one was actually watching so it was OK.

Turns out I didn't get to talk to Shaun because, typically, he went on holiday the day before! So I spoke to Andrew Collins instead, who was very nice. I've only just heard myself and I've decided that it's not too bad so...here I am on the radio!



(Simon aren't you proud? I got the audio file embedded in the page all by myself!! Well, strictly speaking, I used this awesome tutorial. Thank you for teaching me html & css though :-D xx)

P.S.: Please forgive my Leatherface ignorance.
P.P.S.: If you can't see the embedded flash player, click here instead.

Morning Mega Bloks

Our latest post-breakfast activity, just before Isaac has his nap, is playing with the Mega Bloks. The game goes like this: I build some sort of structure, hand it to Isaac who pulls it apart in seconds! Then he looks at me in a way that says "build another one Mama, please." How can I refuse? Such fun!

P.S.: Cracking shot of the ScienceFingers™! A double whammy in-fact!!