Today we had a busy day!  Nap from 8:30am - 10am, then off to swimming lessons ("you put your right arm in, you put your right arm in, you put your right arm in and you splash it all around..."), then chiropractor (for Tabitha AND Mumma), then off to Chadstone to meet up with some gorgeous mums and babies.  Tabitha loves other babies, but tends to kill them with kindness - she crawls up to them, then ON to them, then grabs great big handfulls of clothes/hair/face to squeeze and cuddle.  So I have to keep a hand at the ready at all times!

One of the other babies got a good handful of Tabitha's hair, which has never happened before, and boy did she cry!  "SQUEEEEEAAAAAAAAWAAWAAAWAAA" she called, until I scooped her up for cuddles.  Ahhh, babies...

Then we came home for her last nap, read a Jemima Puddleduck book, then off to bed.

Here are two cute photos of Tabitha eating lunch from yesterday.  You will note that I "double bib" her.  This is a good tip for Baby-Led Weaning - the long sleeve bib stops her arms getting covered in grease/sauce/mush, while the plastic 'pelican bib' catches any solid bits that fall straight down, for easy retrieval.  The long-sleeve bibs go in the washing machine with the cloth nappies, and the pelican bibs go in the dishwasher.  We have around five of each.

The best long-sleeve bibs I have found for Baby-Led Weaning are the Silly Billyz brand - because they come in a 'Small' size, which is nearly tiny enough for a 6 - 10 month old baby (with the sleeves rolled up once).  Because babies fed on purees don't start really feeding themselves until around a year of age, most 'sleeve bibs' are just massive.  The Silly Billyz bibs are available online, and I've also purchased them from Parenthood in Malvern (which is a fabulous baby store).

As I was taking her photo, she bit her finger by mistake.  Ouch!  It is so sad seeing her cry, but it is also oh-so-cute...  poor little baby:

Because she eats such little amounts for lunch and dinner, I buy or cook a large serving or batch, then individually wrap up each serving (each serve is enough for Tabitha, plus a little for me to nibble on too - this is important, because it is best to sit and eat with the baby, so that they learn to eat by mimicking.  They also, of course, enjoy the company).

I keep a whole stash of these little portions in the freezer.  All sorts of meals, for plenty of variety.  Below, you can see:  organic beef schnitzel pieces; lovely spinach and ricotta filled pasta from Yarra Valley Dairy (to serve with fresh basil pesto, a favourite); a veggieburger (75 per cent vegetables with whole wheat flour); and two homemade date scones.  Often she eats what we have for dinner, and if I am out for lunch, I order something for her off the menu.  But having a really decent freezer stash of healthy portioned meals comes in handy - otherwise it's easy to end up feeding her toast all day!

Here is her beef schnitzel lunch - those pieces are each about the size of my palm.  One gets cut into a few strips for Tabitha, and the other goes in a sandwich for my own lunch:

 

The Daddy often doesn't get home until well after 7pm, even 8pm, so on some nights I eat dinner with Tabitha, and on other nights I eat dinner with him.