Ellas Kitchen Press Event, A Trip To Eye A&E, My Birthday and Teeth!

Some weeks pass by quietly, but last week was a blur of activity. I started the week with a migraine which entirely wiped out Monday and the rest of the time I was playing catch up (I did publish my great post on Father's Day gift ideas though). Luckily the migraine followed my normal 48 hour pattern and had gone by Tuesday because we were invited to an Ella's Kitchen Messy Meet Up event Tuesday lunchtime.

A poster saying "Ella's Kitchen Messy Meetups" and a toddler eating some food witha toy banana stuffed down her t-shirt"



Ella’s Kitchen Messy Meet Up (Press Event)


I woke up feeling shaky from barely having eaten or drunk anything, but I hate to cancel going to blogging events once I have accepted so I made an effort and headed into London with Little and Baby Boy. I’m so glad I did.

We have long been fan of Ella’s Kitchen, especially the fruit pouches and some of the baby rice ones which both girls have loved well past the weaning stage. I hadn't realised just how big the Ella’s Kitchen product range was, they have smooth purees suitable from 4 months through to Big Kids food. The range includes: pouches, snacks, puddings, toddler meals and hot food like chicken nuggets with veggies in.

I also didn’t know that they run a recycling programme for pouches which saved 335371 pouches from landfill last year! You can find out more about this and how to set up a collection point at ellacycle.co.uk.

The Messy Meet Up was lovely: everyone so friendly, we were given some advice on weaning, Little got to make some animals out of fruit and vegetables and of course there were lots bits from the range to try. Little and I both found some new favourites. 


A display showing all the Ella's Kitchen products including lots of different pouches, snacks and other food in colourful packaging
The HUGE Ella's Kitchen Range

Light up displays showing samples of the Ella's Kitchen range for each age group from 4 months to Big Kids
So many different products

Information about Ellacycle pouch recycling scheme and samples of their food
The Ellacycle pouch recycling scheme


Update on Baby Boy's Milestones (18 weeks old)


Baby Boy is just old enough for the smooth purees, but I don’t plan to start weaning him until 6 months. He got given a great goody bag full of things he can try later this year from the Ella's Kitchen event as well as a First Foods cook book (affiliate link) which will be fun to try out. As we edge towards weaning we have got the high chair out of the cupboard though. I wanted to see if it was supportive enough for Baby Boy to sit in at meal times so he can be at the table with us and hopefully let me eat without holding him. We tried it for dinner last night and he seemed to enjoy it, but I’ll only keep him in there for short periods until his muscles are stronger.

Baby Boy surprised us last week with the emergence of not one, but two teeth! He has been dribbly for ages, but I know from my eldest that teething symptoms don’t always means teeth coming through are imminent. Baby Boy loves to chew on our fingers, but we are having to insist on teethers now; those baby teeth are pretty sharp. I’m sure his sisters' first teeth didn’t come through until after they started food (so sometime after 6 months).

Baby Boy's other milestone this week was him finding his feet. The combination of his desire to grab his feet and him getting more confident rolling side to side is making nappy changes a lot of fun, but he’s definitely getting more smiley so I can forgive him the more challenging nappy changes. At least until he learns he can wee everywhere during them.

Baby Boy sitting on his Daddy chewing on Sophie Le Giraffe's leg
Teething

Baby Boy in a Fisher Price bouncer holding on to his feet
Finding His Feet


Update on Little: Toilet Training, Challenging Behaviour, Moorfields Eye A&E and Sleep (3 years 4 months old)


While I’m talking about my children’s toilet habits, Little is making some (slow) progress on toilet training. For a few weeks she has been very good at nursery and going on the potty, but she still doesn’t seem keen at home.  She has started to take herself off to the potty to do most of her number twos though which is really good news. Yesterday she decided to be bare bottomed for most of the day, but she only did about half her wees on the potty or toilet. A good proportion of the accidents seemed to be intentional and she didn’t tell us about them until approached. 

The intentional accidents are part of a larger challenge we are having around her behaviour at the moment where she keeps pushing limits and doing things she knows are wrong, like drawing on herself, going in cupboards she shouldn’t, sitting on her brother etc. We find we are constantly telling her “no” and to “stop that” so I’m now trying to make a big effort to distract her, praise good behaviour and generally give her attention in a positive way to try and prevent her getting up to mischief for attention.

Of course not all of her behaviour is intentional. Little was playing in the garden last week when she came in crying and telling me she had poked herself in the eye with a stick (accidentally). She said she could see a “tunnel” and a “hole” which worried me so I decided she needed to get it checked out asap. At 5pm it was too late for our closest hospitals eye departments so G took her to Moorfields A&E which isn’t too far away. As a specialist eye hospital I was happy that she would get good care and I could trust the outcome.

Fortunately her eye was just scratched and they said it should heal in a few days, but we have eye drops to give her to help. She didn’t get back home until 11.30pm and she hasn’t caught on her sleep yet because she is reluctant to go to bed in the evenings, keeps waking at night and is getting up early. I’m wondering if there is a 3 year sleep regression and obviously the tiredness isn’t helping her behaviour.
Toddler getting her scratched eye checked at Moorfield's eye hospital
Getting her eyes checked at Moorfields

A close up on a striped t-shirt and a sticker with "I was good at Moorfields Eye Hospital" with a picture of a teddy bear
Everything is better with a sticker

SATs and Accidents for M (7 years 8 months old)


My eldest has been having a few toilet accidents as well recently. She told me on Wednesday evening that she had wet herself 3 days in a row at school in the lunch queue. Apparently she would rather have an accident than be at the end of the queue. I guess that is 7 year old logic for you.

This week she has been doing her year 2 Special Agent Training, as her school calls SATs. They keep them really low key so the children don't feel pressure. Given how stressed M was about her Karate grading her comparative calm approach to the SATs was a relief. I guess the accidents could be related through. I'm just grateful that she is the one of my 3 children who is actually sleeping properly at the moment.

My 37th Birthday


It was my birthday on Saturday. I didn’t have high expectations because we really couldn’t afford for G to buy me much or to do anything exciting, but I bought myself some nice food on Friday as a bit of a treat.

A communication error with G meant he didn’t get me a cake (no cake on my birthday! Boo hoo!) and the girls were pretty challenging all day, from the initial refusal of M to wish me happy birthday when I got up through to Little refusing to go to bed so I could have some quiet time with G.  We did manage a nice walk in the forest complete with a quick stop off at the pub so it wasn't all bad.

Sunday was a much nicer day and I didn’t cry once. The girls were more affectionate and although we didn’t do a lot everyone was in a much better mood. Sometimes just the pressure of knowing it is a special day can be too much.


My girls climbing on trees in Epping Forest
Climbing In Epping Forest

Family birthday trip to the pub for snacks
Baby Boy's first visit to the pub

A phone balanced on the floor selfie mode timer family photo
A rare Family Photo

A pond in Epping Forest with Lily pads and green trees
A visit to the duck pond

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