Ok… maybe not.

Sophie did have a teeny weeny bite off the chicken satay though… haha…

But we have started to introduce her to table food, eating together (with her self feeding) and hopefully some table manners. That means no throwing food around when you’re done with eating.

Recently my MIL got us a new steel rice cooker, not the non-stick types. She also gave me a glass saucepan. All these as a result of all the news about how non-stick pans/pots are no good for health, esp for precious grandchild. hee hee.

I love the glass cooking pot and new rice cooker by the way. I have new inspiration to cook. It’s just so pretty to see your food cooking and bubbling thru the glass.

I’ve started to give Sophie rice and soup/sauce. Made this random dish recently. I had chicken, pumpkin and apple in the fridge so in it all went. Hahaha… Topped it with some rosemary. I like rosemary with chicken. It went on top of the rice in the cooker to be steamed. So easy. Yumms.

She finished 1/2 of the rice and 1/2 of the dish. Not too bad!

Now that Sophie is older, it’s so fun to watch her try new things.

She was so fascinated by the plastic cookie cutters which I got from Cold Storage for $1.99 (so cheap!).

We made cheese sandwiches with softmeal bread and cut them into shapes for breakfast. Going to try pancakes next!

Today was Sophie’s first attempt feeding herself with some porridge at lunchtime. Look here if you can’t see the video.

I finally plucked up the courage to let her try. I was thinking of waiting till she turned one to do it but I was clearing the cupboards and found this floor mat which Cel gave me long time ago. It is meant for messy feeding time.

Boy was it messy! It was hilarious! Esp the part when she put her head into the bowl! At the same time I was so thrilled to see that she kinda knew what she was supposed to do! It was a really messy end but thank God for the floor mat. I had to undress Sophie n put her in another chair so that she didn’t mess up the kitchen with the remaining bits. And into the bathe she went after that. Pretty simple and so fun! I tried it again at dinner and she fed herself consecutively 5 spoonsful! Wah! Super! Ok lah i donno how other kids her age do it hee hee but I was pretty impressed she managed to do it!

We’ve mastered drinking from a straw!

Thanks to a mummy from the forum who taught us the trick of first sucking out a bit of water and pressing the middle of the straw so that there is some to pour out into her mouth from the top of the straw so that she knows that water comes up… k, maybe my explanation is not as good but hopefully you get the idea…

Sophie got it after a few tries and she has been drinking using the straw since. Super cool. She even knows how to hold onto the bottle and drink on her own. Once she starts flipping it over, I’ll take it away coz I know she’s had enough.

She’s also learnt the word "drink" coz I started by signing it to her but after a while, I just had to ask her if she wanted a drink and she’ll grab the bottle if she wanted but will turn her head away if she doesn’t. Works well for us so forget about signing. I have no patience to follow thru with it. Haha…

I felt really ambitious today. I’ve been wanting to do this for a while.

Sophie has been self feeding for quite a while but never an entire meal. She has self fed salmon flakes, carrots and potatoes on their own before. So i thot i’ll combine all into one meal and try to let her fully self feed and just see how she’ll do it.

Ok… it’s pretty messy but she amazingly didn’t attempt to fling the bowl off her high chair table. She managed about 1/2 on her own and I got tired of waiting for her to chew and mashed up the rest and fed it to her. Hee…

Secondly, inspired by what the forum mummies shared about drinking from a straw, I went to buy a straw cup and tried to teach Sophie how to drink from it. She did it a few times but most times she just chewed on it. Oh wells, will keep on trying.

The other "equipment" in the photo (horse thingy), is meant to be a high chair toy but was a bit redundant during this meal coz she was self feeding. I forgot about that when i took the picture. Anyway it just makes the picture look nicer. Hee.

This was Sophie’s lunch – Steamed tofu with minced pork & veggies.

To make:

1. Mash Organic Tofu (Unicurd, purple one). Scoop four portions onto plate.

2. Mince pork and scoop onto the tofu.

3. Chop carrots and onions and scoop onto the tofu. Can add chopped spinach too but i forgot.

4. Steam for 10-15 mins, making sure that meat is cooked and carrots are soft.

5. Cook a hard boiled egg and take out the egg yolk. Chop into bits and sprinkle on top of the steamed tofu pieces.

5. Serve as is with porridge or use Pigeon bowl to mash if meat pieces are too large. For younger babies, can puree. But Sophie can handle as it so I norm just mash.

Sophie finished 3 of these plus her porridge. Btw, the "juice" on the plate was SUPER YUMMY! I gave it to Sophie like a soup. She loved it! Score 1! Woo hoo!

This was Sophie’s dinner – Creamy Pasta with Veggies. Gin passed me some of these star shaped baby pasta. This portion of pasta is about 2 1/2 tablespoonful before cooking.

To make:

Sauce

1. Steam veggies (I used cauliflower, carrot and peas)

2. Grate a bit of cheddar cheese onto the veggies just before the veggies are fully cooked.

3. Before blending the veggies (can mash too but i was lazy), add in some milk (agar agar portion). I used formula milk.

4. Pour onto cooked pasta.

Pasta

1. Cook in water for 10-15 mins or until soft.

Pour the sauce onto pasta and voila! I served as is. Sophie finished the whole bowl too! Score 2! Woo hoo!

I was a happy mommy today. Small expectations for a small little gal. Wonder what it’ll be like in 10 yrs time.