11 Months! + Savory Yogurt/Quark Bowls

Monday

Arthur woke up at around 7:00 on Monday. Since Miklós was in the office, it meant I also woke up at 7, which I wasn’t too too thrilled about. Although I should be grateful that it was his papa he woke up at 1am screaming, rather than me. Still, Arthur was in a pretty good mood throughout the morning, despite the somewhat early wakeup. After his susu breakfast, we played a bit; his current obsession is removing all the vitamin containers from the shelf in the bathroom and grabbing my tongue.

We had quite a bit of time between Arthur’s two liquid breakfasts, so I fed him some solids in between. He ate quite a lot of Cheerios, a small peach, and some “pizza bites” - spoonfuls of cream cheese and tomato paste that I fed him. Yes, I was trying to finish off a can of tomato paste.

Arthur got in a very long nap (over an hour) during his 10:00 nursing session, and was in pretty good spirits for the rest of morning and early afternoon. He was pretty cute when we were having a video chat with G-Dawg, and really tried to interact with him! He seems to have just recently fully realized there’s a person on the other end of the computer, and kept crawling up to the computer, making vocalizations, and blowing raspberries at his grandpa.

I wonder if this increased fascination is also due to him recognizing G-Dawg after having spent several weeks with him. Because he certainly didn’t react that way to the guy who came to inspect our house in the afternoon. It was a man in his 50s or 60s who came to check for building flaws before they began a construction project across the street from us. He wasn’t a big guy, and seemed quite gentle and soft-spoken, but for some reason Arthur freaked out, and started crying whenever the dude was in eyesight. It wasn’t like the inspector tried to hold him or anything, so I’m not sure what the deal was - I’ve never seen him act like this before. Maybe it was the combination of it being a stranger and being in our home? Or maybe Arthur’s stranger anxiety really is getting worse. Either way, it was a relief when the guy left.

Arthur’s afternoon snack started off with some Cheerios, followed by the rest of the curry baby food purée from the previous day. Afterwards, I gave him several spoonfuls of a “Pizza Porridge” I had made in the morning - I whipped up some cream of wheat and mixed in both the remaining tomato paste and formula milk powder, along with some garlic-infused olive oil and nutritional yeast. I thought he wouldn’t be too crazy about it (it had a lot of tomato paste in there), but I was wrong - he seemed to like it more than the curry!

Arthur got another long nap in at his 3:00 nursing session (nearly an hour and a half, ended only by Mama and her pesky bladder), which he clearly needed. He was in a good mood for about an hour after waking up, then began fading and fussing again.

For his dinner, Arthur first finished off the pizza porridge I had made, then had a couple of pieces of omelette from yesterday. Once again, though, he continually dropped pieces of omelette on the floor. Somehow I don’t think he particularly likes this omelette.

Anyways, that means Arthur ate the following on Monday:

• Cheerios

• peach

• cream cheese

• tomato paste

• coconut curry baby food purée (carrots, pumpkin, onion, sweet potato, coconut milk, milk powder, potato flakes, rice meal, canola oil)

• Pizza Porridge (cream of wheat, garlic-infused olive oil, formula powder, nutritional yeast, tomato paste)

• Mamalette (garlic-infused olive oil, turmeric, paprika, onion powder, egg, spinach, hemp hearts, formula powder, nutritional yeast)

Tuesday

Arthur woke up a little before 7:30 on Tuesday. I was ahead of the game, though - I had woken up at 7:00, and so had some time to brush my teeth, wash my face, and empty the dishwasher all before the little bug stirred.

After his first susu breakfast, Arthur lucked out and got quite a solid solid second breakfast. He first finished off the omelette from earlier; it still doesn’t seem his favorite, but at least he ate it. Afterwards, I opened up a new jar of ready-made baby food purée; this one was a “ratatouille with rice” that contained carrots, milk, rice, tomatoes, red lentils, onion, zucchini, eggplant, milk powder, rice meal, canola oil, corn meal, parsley, basil, and oregano. He enjoyed two servings of the stuff: the first, with some toasted sesame oil stirred in, the second mixed with a bit of cashew butter. So, Arthur’s getting his allergens in today! Finally, Arthur had a couple of slices of plain, firm tofu as a “dessert.”

I’d say the little guy was in pretty high spirits afterwards. And after his usual 10:00 nap, he was in even better spirits! He helped his mom run some errands, cooed and crawled as fast as he could, had fun sticking his fingers in both his own and his mom’s nose, and sucking his index finger. He’s also begun straightening his legs while on his hands and knees, doing a sort of downward facing dog. Maybe this is a preliminary step to pulling himself up to stand?

For his afternoon snack, Arthur had a couple of slices of tofu, but didn’t seem terribly excited about them. He was clearly hungry, and kept grunting for food, even when there was some tofu in front of him. I’m not sure if he saw me with the jar of peanut butter or what, but I called it quits after a few pieces and fed him the rest of the ratatouille baby food purée, this time mixed with some peanut butter to get another allergen in. Arthur was much more into that than the tofu.

Unfortunately, Arthur showed no inclination to nap during his 3:00 nursing session, despite me taking breaks and trying again, giving him multiple opportunities to sleep. I wonder if it’s because of the energy drink I had at noon. I haven’t had one since before I was pregnant, but I was exhausted today and couldn’t resist when I saw it at the store. I definitely felt the caffeine, and it could absolutely be possible Arthur did too. He was a bit wired up. So I was very happy when he took a good long nap at his 5:00 nursing session.

For his dinner, Arthur got another Mama creation, again with a whole-wheat orzo/red lentil base. This one also had yellow bell pepper purée, ginger powder, onion powder, grits, chopped green onion, toasted sesame oil, and garlic-infused olive oil added in. He didn’t seem terribly into it, but did eat a reasonable amount, followed by some tofu slices.

So, on Tuesday, Arthur ate:

• Mamalette (garlic-infused olive oil, turmeric, paprika, onion powder, egg, spinach, hemp hearts, formula powder, nutritional yeast)

• ratatouille rice baby food purée (carrots, milk, rice, tomatoes, red lentils, onion, zucchini, eggplant, milk powder, rice meal, canola oil, corn meal, parsley, basil, oregano)

• toasted sesame oil

• cashew butter

• tofu

• peanut butter

• Mama’s Yum-Yum (whole-wheat orzo, corn grits, red lentils, toasted sesame oil, garlic-infused olive oil, green onion, yellow bell pepper purée, ginger powder, onion powder)

Wednesday

Arthur woke up at 5:00 on his 11 month birthday. He wailed for several minutes, but did eventually go back to sleep after waking up both of his parents. Arthur's second wakeup was at around 7:20, so similar to the previous day. His dad stuffed his face full of a peach and some Cheerios to pass the time until Mama got up.

After a susu breakfast, I helped Arthur out in the kitchen and then he took me to Kruidvat. Now that he's 11 months, Arthur is really taking the initiative. Then it was the usual 10:30 nap, and a walk with Pops. He was in a pretty sweet mood for much of the late morning and early afternoon, so his parents couldn't complain.

For his afternoon snack, Arthur started off with some tofu slices. He wasn't super into them, and seemed more interested in crumbling them into little pieces than in eating them. So we moved on to more of the orzo/grits/lentil dish from the previous day, and he was somewhat more excited about that. Still, it didn't seem to be his favorite. Arthur did, however, love his dessert: microwaved sweet potato slices! Now these he devoured while grunting repeatedly for more. Afterwards, it was more drinking from his sippy cup and nose picking! What it was not, however, was a nap at his 3:00 nursing session, once again. So, it was a fairly tired and fussy Arthur that set off with his dad for a 4:00 walk and who, unsurprisingly, ended up napping for most of said walk.

Apparently, napping wasn't the only thing Arthur did during his walk. While on my lap nursing afterwards, Arthur gave me a big smile, big enough that I noticed something a bit unusual in his mouth. I fished it out and turns out he had managed to eat a dried leaf! I think there were a couple on his stroller seat, so I guess he managed to fish one out and do his best to consume it.

As for the solids I actually let him consume at dinner? It was more tofu and the orzo-grits-lentil dish. Once again, neither of these dishes was Arthur's favorite, but he ate a bit of each. He had more of an appetite for his susu dessert though!

And that brings Arthur's Wednesday eats to:

• peach

• Cheerios

• tofu

• Mama’s Yum-Yum (whole-wheat orzo, corn grits, red lentils, toasted sesame oil, garlic-infused olive oil, green onion, yellow bell pepper purée, ginger powder, onion powder)

• cooked sweet potato

I didn't cook on Wednesday, but I did on Monday and Tuesday! If you could call it cooking - it was really salads, as the weather the past couple of days has been fairly hot. Last night, I did another spin on the yogurt salad bowl, inspired in part by the Turkish eggs I made the other day, and this savory yogurt bowl that Miklós made a couple of Sundays back (also quite nice). I really liked this iteration, and it was a good summer dinner! Here's how I made the bowls:

Savory Quark Bowls (serves 2)

Ingredients

• 500g quark/Greek yogurt/skyr

• 2 tsp minced garlic

• salt & pepper, to taste

• 1 can chickpeas, drained (mine was 265g drained)

• 500g tomatoes

• 2 garlic cloves, sliced

• pizza seasoning, to taste

• olive oil, to taste

• bread of choice, for serving (I used homemade Greek yogurt dough rolls)

Instructions

1. If your tomatoes are large, quarter them. Halve them if they are cherry tomatoes. Place them on a parchment-lined tray along with the sliced garlic. Sprinkle with pizza seasoning and roast in an oven preheated to 200 degrees Celsius for 45 minutes, or until they are starting to wrinkle and get brown at the edges.

2. Mix the yogurt or quark with the minced garlic, and season with salt & pepper to taste.

3. Plate the yogurt on two dishes. Top with chickpeas and tomatoes.

4. Add additional pizza seasoning, salt, and pepper if needed. Drizzle some olive oil on top.

5. Serve cold with bread!