24 Weeks + Pasta Salad for the Breastfeeding Soul

Arthur is 24 weeks old today! Not a big milestone or anything, but the big half year birthday is just over two weeks away!

We celebrated with a food combination: parsnip purée mixed with scrambled eggs. I heated it up for 15 seconds in the microwave, because I think part of his apprehension with some of the foods

he's tried in the past is due to their coming straight of the fridge. Warm food is always better. He was lukewarm about it at first, but once he realized there was egg in the mixture, seemed to enjoy it quite a bit, opening his mouth wide for more!

Nap-time continues to be a struggle, although Miklós feels like it's improving slightly. The past two days, he's lasted a whopping 15 minutes in the crib before getting upset, which is a new record. Still, the only sleep he gets during the day continues to be either on me when he's nursing, or in the stroller when Miklós takes him for his afternoon walk. But I'm hoping that this will go the way of diaper changes, baths, and, increasingly, tummy time: activities he used to hate, but now enjoys.

The day was a busy one for Arthur; he read books, did tummy time, played games, and helped his mom run some errands. Going to Lidl with Arthur is always fun; the store attendants there love him. Today, one of them tried to get him to play with her keychain and said something about his "happy eyes," and another asked me all sorts of questions and commented on how beautiful his eyes were. As if Arthur didn't have a big enough ego already.

We also tried a new version of peek-a-boo today! He doesn't like the classic version, but sometimes Miklós hides behind a pillow and pops out, and Arthur just loves that. Today, I did a similar thing when he was downstairs in the crib, rising up slowly into his sight range and talking in a deep voice. He was giggling up a storm then! He's been pretty giggly today in general; he was laughing quite a bit during dinner when I was pushing his downstairs crib back and forth, and later just due to me looking away from him and then back at him. Maybe it helps that he napped on me during three of his feedings; a well-rested baby is a happy baby!

His afternoon snack (in addition to all the booby juice he chugged) was Peanut Butter Spinach Delight: watered-down peanut butter + a few pieces of cooked spinach from yesterday. It took him a bit to warm up to it, as always, but he absolutely loved it once

he figured out it was mostly peanut butter. It may have been his most enthusiastic solid session yet; he kept pulling my hand holding the spoon to his mouth and smacking his lips, and ate three or four spoonfuls of the stuff!

Arthur's menu for today, thus, came to:

• egg

• olive oil

• parsnip

• peanut butter

• spinach

The grown-ups of the family had frozen pizza for dinner tonight, so no recipe for that, but I did want to save a pasta salad recipe I made a couple of days ago. It was really good and super-high protein (56g for half the salad!), which I’ve found really helps my milk production. Here’s how I made it.

Greek-ish Pasta Salad (serves 2)

Ingredients

• 250g red lentil pasta

• 1 ½ cups cherry tomatoes

• ½ cup pitted and sliced black olives

• 5 or so garlic cloves, halved

• 325g tofu “feta” (diced firm tofu marinated in olive/pickle juice with garlic, peppercorns, and herbs)

• 1 tbsp olive oil (I used garlic-infused)

• spices to taste: salt, pepper, MSG, basil, oregano

Instructions

1. Cook pasta in salted water, drain, and run cold water over it until it cools.

2. Roast tomatoes and garlic cloves until soft.

3. Mince roasted garlic and add to pasta, along with the other ingredients.

4. Stir well, and put in the fridge to cool. Serve cold.