My boy is long off eating mashed food, but when he was Ella's Kitchen were a reliable and nutritious fail safe if we were travelling or I hadn't managed to make some mash from scratch.

A friend alerted me to savings that can be made when buying Ella's Kitchen in bulk via Amazon. Check it out here: Ella's Kitchen Savings 

I caught Nigel Slater's Simple Cooking programme on BBC1 a few weeks ago and there he featured the clever people from Banhmi11 who showed him how to make their chargrilled seabass summer rolls with pineapple dipping sauce. I was excited to realise that Banhimi11 have a stall at my local Broadway Market and also Chatsworth Road market. For the last two saturdays I have made a point of going to the market for a roll. I first tried their Cha Cha Chicken: Grilled Chicken Breast in Coconut and Lemongrass Marinade, followed up recently by their Fish Q: Grilled Tumeric Catfish, tossed with Dill and Spring Onion. For £4-5.00 you are given a light and crispy bagutte filled with hot, spicy tangy wonderousness. I can't wait to try making my own.

Thanks to Banhmi11 for the photo.

We are off to Canada at the end of the week to visit baby boy's grandmother for her 60th birthday. I'm really looking forward to the trip....but also a bit trepiditious about the 'joys' of travelling with the very young.

For the flight I am drawing on some of the experience I got from my last long haul flight but also Elizabeth Pantley's advice is always worth a look.

I learnt a lesson from our trip to Copenhagen about the need for make shift black-out blinds during summer travel. The giant windows and thin white curtains in our apartment were useless for everything other than protecting your privacy from passers by.  We got very little sleep that holiday, though the 4 new teeth that came through didn't help much either.  

Anyway, today I have invested in some of these brilliant travel blinds that stick on to the window itself blocking out any pesky light and allowing more chance that I will get to sleep in beyond 5am!

On the day after the day that I faced my own mortality, farewelled my youth and mentally calculated the years left til I qualified for a pensioners bus pass (27)... it was nice to be reminded of 2001 and all the angst and boredom of being 24. 

Before that album, I was out of step, obvious. Everything I liked was 'nice.' Then a friend came in wearing pink fishnet tights and briefed me on its significance, its importance and I was forever changed. Ta-da.

Take a listen to the Stereogram tribute album which is free to download.

I find it hard to listen to covers of songs I love but I think Owen Pallet has done a good job of covering 'Hard to Explain.'  I don't think lead vocals are especially his strength but he's set the song to strings and it sounds divine.

I'd not heard of Deradoorian before but will seek out her music on the back of her reinterpretation of 'Trying your luck' which is lush and dreamy.

Over, out and off to consider new hair styles

Are you watching The Hour on  BBC2?  It is 'the best thing I have seen on television in ages'.

Set at the BBC in the 1950s the programme is about the start of a brand new current affairs programme. It's all Mad Men-esque hour glass figures, suits, cigarettes, and smouldering looks. I love that shit.

Isn't timing of The Hour's launch is impeccable? Just when we are all feeling disillusioned about grubby journalism this programme comes along and sexes it up again. 

Catch up on BBC iplayer now (if you live in the UK...if you don't you might have to wait for the box set!) - so far it is 2 episodes into the 6 part series.

Another great evening where the little one went down to sleep very easily - in 15 minutes or less.

Yet, he still woke up at 11.30pm, 2pm and 5am. I know this isn't unusual at all, in fact it is much better than what some of my friends are going through... but I'd like it to stop, or lessen, soon.  Please.

In the small hours I breast fed him to sleep, though at 5am it also required pacing the hall with his 11kg frame in a front pack.

A few weeks ago I heard talk of 'Go to Sleep' by Helen Walsh where, though diagnosed with post-natal depression, Helen's fog lifts as soon as her baby starts to sleep through the night. In this book she asserts that it is sleeplessness that brings on this so-called depression, rather than it being depression in itself.  

I'm keen to get the book to put in a huge pile with all my other unread books.  Although I haven't felt 'depressed' this year, I've certainly had blue days from time to time which I attribute to sleeplessness/identity change/uncertainty/general drudgery. Yet I have also had more joy, contentment and happiness than I have ever had. Go figure?

I swooned and fell for a quiet back lawn, siren and bus free streets, fresh air, butterflies and beauty the other day....is it inevitable that at some point we all turn to the dark side and start to hanker for our own peice of suburbia? I'm not sure. I feel a bit dirty saying it, but I was seduced by all that silence.

Back in the city I headed with my hairy one and little cherub to Le Peche Mignon, the most perfect cafe in every way.  Quiet, great chairs (so comfortable and well designed), and most importantly strong coffee and quality ingredients.  It's so easy to get there from Shoreditch on the East London line (train line of my dreams) and nice to try out a new park every now and then (Highbury Fields).

Of late we have been working hard at sorting out the boy's sleep. Read no further if this subject bores you - because I am fucking obsessed. I need my sleep or I am no ones friend.

As the end of year one approaches (!) I just wanted to document this sleep struggle and celebrate this small success.

We started at the beginning of June (when he was 10 months old). Our first goal was to break his breastfeeding/sleep association. We introduced a cuddly -  which we would only give him at nap or bed time which has always been 7pm. Then instead of simply breastfeeding him into submission, we started walking him to sleep in our Ergo Baby carrier - round, and around and around our local park. He was incensed at this change and fought it bitterly for a few nights and days before it became regular, expected.

We were pleased that we'd sucessfully broken the breastfeeding/sleep association. We knew we had when he started falling asleep in the pram rather than crying to be let out and breastfed to sleep. We'd also had enough of schlepping around the park every evening, and that it was time to teach him to go to sleep in his bed. I spoke about our plans regularly with friends, my lovely and wise nail technician and also our Health Visitor (who was actually not much help, but it depends on who you have). We needed encouragement and support to take the next step, and a lot of wine.

Having read all the tomes on the subject (Babywhisperer, Elizabeth Pantley, Gina Ford, Ferber as well as less well known books bought in a panic from amazon), we decided to do a version of controlled crying. I never ever thought I would do this. It goes against all my principles of parenting: trust, communication, support, nurture ...but at the time it seemed to be the best, and fastest way to allow him the space to teach himself to comfort himself to sleep. We did this for 3 nights - following an our long bedtime routine including stories, milk and cuddles we started leaving him, first for 5 mins, returning and comforting, then leaving for ten minutes, and then 15 minutes. The first night he was asleep after 45 minutes of this process and only woke once in the night. The second night it took 25 minutes and the following night about 15. His night time waking continued to decrease.

On the fourth night, illogically, I decided I didn't want to do it anymore. Although by this stage, we'd collectively done the 'hard yards', I just decided that I wanted to stay and 'just be there' whilst he went to sleep. I would just sit in the room, on the floor next to his cot, not doing much at all, just being there. I much preferred this approach, it felt more humane. It takes a bit longer to achieve results and is probably just as tearful and stressful, but it sat better with me.

After a week this it would take on average 45 minutes for him to go to sleep - generally in 3 phases - first what I call the 'roly poly olympics' lots of rolling about in the bed and giggling. During this phase I would leave the room for 2 minutes to let him settle down, and return again to a more serious boy and quietly lay his comforter on the mattress and pat it and tell him it is sleep time. The second phase would be some tired whimpering, whinging and crying. The third would phase would involve him lying down, exhausted, sometimes holding my hand or pushing it away, and finally going to sleep.

After two weeks it would take no longer than 20 minutes for this process to run, and sometimes as little as 2 minutes before he was slumbering. It feels like a massive achievement.

The nights are still not much better, waking twice on average. But we are being more careful and thoughtful about the timing of his afternoon naps as well as what and how much and when he eats his evening meal - we hope this helps.

Our next challenge is putting him down for daytime naps. I'd like to be able to simply put him in his cot and let him drift off, rather than rely on the pram or front pack....

still mustering the energy for that one. Do you have any hints or tips?

What to do with local babies in this dog gone, variable 'summer' weather?

Here are some ideas:

Call the Museum of Childhood from 10am tomorrow (Friday 24th June) for priority bookings on Wondertots: In the Night on 8 July run by Artburst. Dress for a mess guys;  this is all about creating and thinking about noctural animals....ooooooo spppooky.  Call 020 8983 5205.

Put a note in your diary to also call the Museum on 18 July to attend a book reading with well loved author, Judith Kerr on 28 July. She will be reading from The Tiger who Came to Tea.

Story time at Whitechapel Idea Store - every day from 10.30-11.15am.

Hark! Yet another new cafe and bakery (mmmm baked goods) is to open on Hackney Road. This time opposite the Hackney City Farm where News & Booze (what more do we need frankly?) used to be.  Take your babes there for buns etc...and then head down to Esoteria for a cup of good coffee.

And when your babies are slumbering, ignore the piles of washing, dishes and general detritus and enjoy a flick through Apartmento Magazine #07 which Hairy Daddy was given as part of his Father's Day treats. Isn't it nice when presents can be shared..........? This mummy knows so.