Where there is a nappy bag there is a black hole. No matter how many bags I buy, no matter how many handy pockets they claim to have, I - being the uncoordinated walking mess that I am - can never find anything I need without having to drop to the floor and give the bag a good rummage. The only things I really need in a hurry are Wolf's snacks and his water bottle. A poopy nappy can wait, a hungry Wolf will not.

We had also been having a baggage problem on the already complicated day care days. Josh drops Wolf off in the morning and I pick him up in the afternoon, then we have a play and a snack in the city while waiting for Josh to finish work. We each have our own nappy bags, but Josh tended to leave his upstairs at the centre, and when I arrived carrying my own full bag, I would have to take two bags and a heavy Wolf downstairs and haul them around town for an hour.

We hadn't thought of getting Wolf his own bag; it seemed too grown up a thing. Wolf's only requirements at day care are a spare change of clothes, some extra snacks and his water bottle. All of which fit in his Busybee Friends 'PengPeng' Penguin lunch bag.

It's small, lightweight and super cute; even when full it's light and comfortable enough to hang across Wolf's body or slung on my shoulder or stroller. Wolf loves anything to do with birds and is obsessed with opening and closing things. He just learnt to work a zipper, so he can open his bag, fetch a snack and close it again without too much fuss. I find the small external pocket a great place to stuff empty wrappers and fruit peelings post snack.

What I really love about this bag is that while being a cute animal-shaped kid's bag, it isn't fluffy, furry or plushy. Fully wipe-down-able and made of robust nylon and polyester, it won't get that sticky matted, battered, dirty look that some other animal bags do. In simple black and white and in a very cute design, mums and dads won't feel too silly toting their kid's bag when they get tired of carrying it themselves.

With a fully adjustable strap, the Busybee Lunch bag will last Wolf for years. And when he's old enough for a bigger bag, we can upgrade to a PengPeng trundle bag or back pack for the complete collection. Wolf already has a shoe collection to rival my own; the PengPeng lunch bag could be the begginings of Wolf's lifelong accessory obsession. It's in the genes.

Check out the Busybees friends PengPeng Penguin Lunch box here…

Before Wolfgang, picnics weren’t high on our social activities list. I hate packing my beautifully made food into boxes, disposable plates and cutlery or carting dirty dishes home. But when dining out with friends plus multiple kids seems as daunting as Everest base-camp only trickier logistically, picnics are the best idea you’ve ever had.

I remember the scratchy tartan blanket my parents kept in the boot of the car for the impromptu picnics my dad loved. It was heavy, smelly and crumbs fused to the wool fibres. God forbid it should rain for it would be soaked through by the time we had packed up. Unlike my parents, I have a Skip Hop Central Park Outdoor blanket.

It’s a massive 150cm2 and is water resistant, BPA-Free, Phthalate-Free and PVA-Free allying the fears of modern parents. Nicely padded, bottoms are saved from hard and uneven ground. With such a large space, there’s enough room for people, food and all your gear and plenty of cushioning for little bodies to move around.

I love how lightweight it is and that you can wear it on your shoulder or as a backpack. The attached cooler/messenger bag is fully insulated, so great for keeping water and juice cool and Wolf’s fruit snacks fresh. I’ve found myself grabbing the blanket and cooler bag like I would a normal tote, tossing my phone, wallet, keys and snacks for Wolf in there and just heading off to the park.

Skip Hop designs are stylish and fun so both Josh and I like carrying it around. Two favourite features: quick to fold up and easy to wipe clean. It’s even machine washable. I can’t fold a map properly let alone picnic blanket about as wide as I am tall, so I love the folding tags that show me the way. When Wolf gets cranky it’s been easy to fold and zip up the blanket and head home. Spills and messes are inevitable with baby (and clumsy adults like me), but the Skip Hop has been so easy to clean. We have one of their change mats also, and if they can make something that poopy stains don’t stick to, then food and drink would be no problem!

The blanket also has some great indoor uses. Keep it folded and it’s a comfortable floor cushion for me as Wolf rockets around on all fours. If you have floorboards like we do, and your playgroup is planning to meet at yours, it makes a great extra safe space for babies to play. Josh likes to use it when giving Wolf a bath, the cushiony water-proof, wipe-down-able surface saving his knees from the cold and hard tiles as he kneels next to the tub.

The Skip Hop Central Park blanket is a so functional and attractive; nice to give or purchase for yourself when everyone else has given you soft toys for your baby shower or motherhood-related ‘inspiring quotes’ gift books for your birthday. When you do choose to give the gift of Skip Hop, arrange a picnic soon to show off exactly how useful it is.

I have an abundance of naval oranges at the moment. They are so cheap at the market and they have been consistently beautiful and heavy with juice. However, Wolf has gone off oranges, in fact gone off all the fruit of the season, when fruit used to be all he ever wanted. His dad tends to snack on baked goods rather than fresh fruit and you can always rely on him to let fruit rot in the basket until it’s soft enough to start oozing through the cracks. What with the endless illnesses contracted at child care and the generally poor weather, Wolf needs some vitamin C in him if he’s going to survive the Winter. My mum being a nurse and also visiting my dad in hospital as a child, I remembered that every patient’s tray meal comes a little tub of jelly. Watery, sugary, inevitably red coloured stuff it is, but it’s a good way of getting a little sugar and water into your system when you’re not feeling your best. I certainly ate a lot of it lying in bed post-birth. However, really proper jelly is made of fresh fruit juice or pulp, gelatine, and little else. Of course jelly, like ice cream, is generally associated with summer when we need our most refreshing, but this is good for a little sick boy or girl who is turning their nose up at the fresh stuff.

Real Orange Jelly

200mls fresh orange juice (from about three naval oranges)

3 leaves of gelatine (6 grams)

100mls of cold water

1 tablespoon sugar

1. Pour orange juice into a small saucepan and gently bring to the boil. When boiling dissolve the sugar.

2. Soak gelatine leaves in water until soft. Remove from water, squeezing out any excess and add to the boiled juice.

3. Whisk gelatine into juice until completely dissolved and mixed through.

4. Pour jelly mixture into a shallow tray. Place in fridge to chill until set, about 2 hours.

This makes a nice firm jelly that is still soft to eat. I used a large rectangular container for my jelly so I could chuck a lid on it and keep it in the fridge easily after it set. It was only about 2cm deep so I was able to make it just before dinner and have it set by the time Wolf finished his bath. The jelly tastes exactly like a fresh orange, only ridiculously easy to eat. This gives 3-4 baby serves or one adult serve. For larger recipes, just follow that you need 6 grams of gelatine for every 200mls of liquid. Don’t use pineapple or kiwi fruit as they contain enzymes that cause gelatine to not set.

The last time my cousin came over to visit Wolf and I, the first thing she said as she entered our apartment was: ‘Gee. It looks like a toy box exploded in here.’ And that was after I’d made the effort to clean. Alas, as time goes on I think we parents of young children allow our idea of ‘tidiness’ to expand along with our accumulation of stuff.

Up and till recently we had been using an old plastic bedside table on castors for the toys that live in the lounge room. This was fine in the early months when toys were limited to squeakers and rattles, but over the last year and a bit Wolf has accumulated enough stuff to rival my collection of junk. With only a two bedroom apartment and only as much storage space as we manage to carve out of the walls, this could lead to some sort of ‘dangerous hoarding’ expose on A Current Affair. Plastic toy bins and buckets have been added to try and keep track of some of Wolf’s smaller toys, and even the basket in Wolf’s walker was employed as the semi-permanent home for a few things.

When our large Dwell Studio storage bin arrived in the post, I admit I was slightly disappointed. How would something so flat and compact fit all of Wolf’s things? However, unfolding the storage bin, we found it so large that we could actually sit in it, without taking up much precious floor space. Every one of Wolf’s toys, including the all the small buckets and boxes we had also been using, fit in the storage bin with room for even more!

The great thing about fabric storage as opposed to plastic, is that it has the ability to expand. You don’t have to try and fit all the odd shaped toys in exactly right; everything can be tossed in and the box can accommodate it. Dwell Studio storage bins are made of heavy duty coated cotton canvas, and are Phthalate free and PVC free, just like you’d expect, allowing the bin to be both soft and strong, but also easy to clean. The strong canvas handles make the storage bin very easy to lift and move around the apartment which is great if you’re not the most muscular of parents or just exhausted but unable to let yourself stop tidying.

Now I want more DwellStudio Storage bins for all over the apartment! I’m thinking one for dirty laundry, one for the bathroom for folded towels, another in Wolf’s room for nappies. So many possibilities, and so many prints to choose from. I do love the chocolate dot print with it’s neutral tones; but it would look great in the company of the green and blue owl pattern and the pretty sparrow print. You can tell the credit card is in my hand.

Check out the range of DwellStudio storage bins here…

Bananas are a real friend to mothers. They’re one of the earliest solid foods your baby will taste, and often a toddler favourite when nothing else will do. Bananas are a fail safe. Most of the time. So as per usual you when you did your weekly shop you bought a big hand of bananas thinking junior would make them disappear in no time. But this week junior is having nothing of it. This week it’s all about apples, but they have to be diced and stewed, NOT fresh and sliced. Your bananas have browned and gone mushy, and no one in your household eats over-ripe bananas. Here’s where this banana bread recipe comes in. It requires only a few more household ingredients to make. Not only will you appear incredibly resourceful, but you’ll have something delicious for any visitors or for your afternoon tea. People will lavish praise on you. And when your baby-daddy comes home to it’s warm and delicious smells, your already goddess-like appearance in his eyes will increase a hundred fold. Thus giving you a bargaining chip when you approach him about that $400 il tutto nappy bag you want. Especially since it’s going to arrive tomorrow via express post.

Ingredients

3-4 large over ripe bananas

2 eggs

125 g brown sugar

100 g butter, soft

200 plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons powdered cinnamon

pinch salt

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 175 degrees celcius. Line a baking tin about 18 x 28cm in size with a little butter and a sheet of baking paper.

2. Mash banana flesh with a fork.

3. In a separate bowl cream soft but not melted butter with the brown sugar until combined.

4. Add eggs to butter and sugar mixture one at a time, whisking each in until fully combined.

5. Sift flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt into the mixture and fold together.

6. Add mashed banana and fold together.

7. Pour mixture into your prepared pan. Dust the top with a little cinnamon.

8. Bake in oven for about 30 minutes, or until golden brown on top and the centre springs back when pressed.

Make sure you cut yourself a piece a few minutes after you’ve removed it from the oven; chef’s benefit. Kids like this recipe too; it’s a sweet treat you can give them guilt free. This makes a nice large loaf that could last up to a week, if only everyone wouldn’t eat it all. I do recommend using a wider flatter tin as opposed to a higher loaf tin, as this eliminates the stress of your banana bread being uncooked in the middle. If you feel like being silly and decadent, a handful of chopped dark chocolate into the mixture makes this another dish entirely.

Every time I make a chicken and vegetable pie, I am reminded of the best and most important day of my life. I had surprised Josh with his favourite pie the night I went into labour. I’d had what I thought were some pretty interesting Braxton Hicks contractions all evening as I diced veggies and cut pastry. Now and again I would pause in my cooking and clutch my belly and then shake it off  as though the pain had been that of a mild burn or knife nick, an hourly occurrence of a heavily pregnant cook (or if you’re me). The lovely golden pie came out of the oven as Josh arrived home from work and we managed to watch an entire episode of Masterchef and get through half a piece of pie each before we realised that Braxton Hicks my contractions were not. I was on the floor writhing with pain within the hour. I absently watched a Twix ad three times in my non-writhing moments and so craved one during and after the birth. Before we made a dash for the hospital, I had the presence of mind to tell Josh to wrap up the pie and place it in the fridge. Beyond that all I remember is traffic, pain and a lot of time with my legs open. And my first ever experience of anything properly mind altering, as I sucked down enormous lungfuls of nitrous oxide. When we brought baby Wolf home a few days later, we had our leftover pie for lunch. It tasted better than ever.

Ingredients

2 chicken breasts

2 rashers of bacon

3 cloves of garlic

1 onion

half a bunch of celery

3 carrots

1 ear of corn

a cup of button mushrooms

1 tablespoon flour

¼ cup cream

¼ cup of chicken stock

1 egg, beaten

Basic shortcrust pastry (or alternatively 2 sheets of store bought shortcrust of puff pastry)

175g butter

350g plain flour

pinch of salt

¼ cup water

Method

1. Place butter, flour and salt in food processor. Gradually add water while processing until mixture becomes single piece of dough. Remove from processor and lightly knead on a floured surface, wrap dough in plastic wrap and place in fridge. You can do this the day before if you like.

2.Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Finely chop garlic. Dice bacon. Roughly dice all veggies to around the same size, say about 1.5cm and remove corn kernels from the cob.

3. Roughly dice chicken breasts into 2cm cubes. Lightly coat with flour.

4. In a large pot heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil and gently sauté garlic and bacon. Add all veggies except mushrooms. Sauté until carrots are just tender.

5. Add mushrooms. Add chicken and brown but do not cook through.

6. Add stock and cream to chicken and vegetable mixture, stir through mixture until combined

7. Season mixture and allow to cool

8. Meanwhile grease pie dish. Take a third of your dough and roll out to a rough 2mm round. Line pie dish with pastry and lightly dock with a fork to prevent pastry shrinkage. Brush with beaten egg and place into oven. Cook until pastry has just begun to colour. This basically prevents any chance of uncooked pastry base, the biggest fear with making a pie.

9. Pour chicken and vegetable mixture into pie base. Brush the edges of the pastry base with a bit of beaten egg.

10. Roll out another pastry circle and place over your pie. Using a fork, press the uncooked pastry top into the edges of the cooked pastry base to ensure a good seal. The beaten egg will help this also. Cut a small cross in the centre of the pastry top to allow steam to escape and prevent the pastry from getting soggy. Brush lightly with more beaten egg.

11. Place in oven and cook for about 20 minutes until pastry is golden. Serve immediately with a lovely green salad.

Whether it be during illness, post-vaccinations or just one of those weeks, sometimes Wolf can be a very fussy eater. It can be hard to get anything more than toast and bananas into him. I’ve tried to instil Wolf with the spirit of a gourmet, but right now he displays all the worst characteristics of the sort of food critic you’d throw out of your restaurant. Admittedly Wolf is still getting over the tail end of a nasty week long virus, which the whole family shared.

On the plus side his aim is bang on; if you want a lamp chop - a former favourite - lobbed right at your face Wolf is your man.

My fail safe in these situations is pasta. We’re also going through another finger food stage where anything served via a spoon is a cause for tantrums. Carbohydrates keep baby from getting hungry and a sticky sauce full of good things ensure that while Wolf enjoys one of his favourite foods, he’s still getting some nutrition in there.

Pesto is really easy to throw together, especially if you have a food processor (mother’s essential arsenal), and you can hide a lot of green goodness in it. Pine nuts, an essential component of pesto, are actually the seed of the as a opposed to the fruit, so not actually a nut. Also, though raw garlic is usually used, I like to roast it for a milder flavour that is more baby friendly. Using spinach adds extra iron to your pesto, but you can replace it with rocket or any robust green. I bet everyone has a great pesto recipe, and I find this one works for me. This makes enough for three adult serves and one baby serve, with enough pesto leftover for a very delicious chicken sandwich for mum’s lunch the next day.

I like to use penne because even if Wolf is in an extremely fussy mood and tries to wipe off the sauce, he can’t extract the stuff inside!

Pesto Pasta

1 packed cup fresh basil leaves

5 garlic cloves

1 cup grated good quality parmesan, grated

¼ cup pine kernels

2 packed cups of baby spinach leaves

½ cup olive oil

salt and pepper

500g penne pasta

1. Set a large pot of water to boil with a pinch of salt. In a 180 degree oven, roast your garlic cloves, skin on, for about 7 minutes, until garlic is fragrant and soft. Remove flesh from skins.

2. Spread your pine kernels on a baking tray and place in the oven. Toast until golden brown. This will happen very quickly, within about 5 minutes so watch it carefully.

3.In a food processor add your basil, roasted garlic, pine kernels, spinach leaves and a couple of good splashes of olive oil. Process until smooth. You will need to periodically add splashes of olive oil to your mixture to help everything break down. Season to taste.

4. Add penne to boiling water and cook until al dente. Drain.

5. Put penne back in pot and add pesto mix. Stir until all pasta is coated with sauce.

6. Serve with extra grated parmesan on top.