A Trip to the Zoo + Fajitas!

Friday

Arthur slept in until 7:45 or so on Friday, which was great, because we had a busy day planned: we were going to the zoo! Gaia Zoo is about a 30 minute drive from us, and Miklós had given me a coupon for a day at the zoo for Christmas. So, at 9:30, we set off!

We were surprised when we tried to put him in his car seat; he barely fit! I guess it’s been a while since he was in it, but in the interim, he’s grown a lot taller, and his legs couldn’t stretch out straight in front of him, so he had to hold them froggy style, or kind of bent. Looks like we need to upgrade to a forward-facing seat.

Surprisingly, though, Arthur was pretty content on the drive over, which I didn’t expect, seeing how cramped he was in the seat. He was pretty content just to look at me and out the rear window, and only very gently fussed for a minute or two towards the end. Which he immediately followed up by drifting off, right as we arrived. It made sense though; it was 10:00, which is his most reliable nap time.

I gave Arthur a quick nursing session in the car when we arrived (he didn’t seem terribly hungry), and then we were off to explore the zoo! It was a beautiful zoo, with a lovely layout reminiscent of a botanical garden. Arthur didn’t seem terribly interested in the animals themselves, but he did seem to really enjoy people watching! I thought for sure he’d fall asleep soon after our arrival, given how tired he had seemed when we got there, but he was perfectly happy to just sit in the stroller and look around him for a good two hours while we walked around the zoo.

Arthur approves of Dutch humor

We stopped for the bathroom, drinks, and a nursing session around 12:30, but Arthur wasn’t super hungry then, either. But at least when we set off afterwards, he fell asleep in the stroller, and slept in there for over an hour, which I was not going to complain about.

The dude had another nursing session when he woke up, a little before 3, but once again, he wasn’t very interested in drinking. My necklace and water bottle were far more alluring for him. So on the car ride home, I gave him the water bottle to play with, and that kept him happily occupied for the entirety of the ride, interspersed with looking at my face and smiling. I was pretty enamored with him at that moment. I have to say, it’s pretty funny how obsessed Arthur is with plastic water bottles. They really are incredibly appealing to him right now, more so than any of his actual toys, I think. Well, it’s cheap and easy entertainment, so I’ll take it!

Unfortunately Arthur didn’t nap during his 5:00 nursing session at home (though he at least drank a decent amount), which means he only got the one nap during the day. So I was dreading dinner, but I needn’t have worried. I opted to feed him more tofu slices, since it was low-mess and sitting in the fridge waiting to be eaten. And he was actually pretty chill and ate them thoughtfully and deliberately, with very little mess. He actually finished the block off!

So, Arthur’s solid intake for Friday was a grand total of:

• tofu

Yup, that’s it. We’ll get back on the solid bandwagon tomorrow!

Saturday

Arthur woke up around 7 on Saturday, and, after some tummy time when his dad didn’t hand him the toys like he wanted, but tried to get Arthur to reach them himself, worked himself up into kind of a mood. He continued in that vein upon reaching me and my boobs, where he fussed and fussed after just a few minutes on the right boob, wanting to move on to the left. I refused to let him switch immediately, wanting him to nurse at least 10 minutes before switching. I didn’t want to have more nursing sessions where I was flipping him back and forth every minute or two. So that was a bit challenging, but I did hold out, comforting him as he fussed, but refusing to yield until he nursed a bit longer on the first boob. We’re working on it.

Luckily the little bug got a much-needed nap in at his 10:00 nursing session, and then we were off to Jumbo! He got a second walk with his pops afterwards; it was a beautiful sunny day, so I’m sure Arthur enjoyed himself. He didn’t enjoy himself as much as I’d hoped when they got back, however; Arthur was very restless during his 1:00 nursing session, not drinking much, and not, as I’d very much wanted him to, napping either.

Bell pepper!

So, he was a bit fussy during his afternoon snack; I think he really could have done with a second nap before then. Still, Arthur did have a good appetite, and we more than made up for our lack of solids yesterday! He started off with an entrée of puréed spinach, which I mixed with powdered formula and almond flour. When he polished that off, Arthur got to try a new food: bell peppers! Of the readily accessible and affordable fruits and veggies around here, bell peppers, particularly yellow ones, have some of the highest vitamin C densities. I’d been a bit hesitant to feed him strips of them before, given my paranoia of him choking, but he’d been doing so good with the tofu strips, I figured was time to bite the bullet and move on.

We happened to have a yellow bell pepper in the fridge, so after reading up how best to prepare it for a baby, I cut it into quarters, steamed it, and then peeled it. I sliced it into long narrow strips, and fed them to Arthur one at a time, and he seemed to tolerate it fine. I wouldn’t say he was terribly enthusiastic about it or anything, but he ate it, and didn’t gag or choke at all! When he finished a quarter of the bell pepper, I gave him some soy yogurt as a reward; now that he liked! And we finished off with some practice cup drinking, although I don’t think Arthur actually drank any of the water he was served.

Blessedly, Arthur took a nap during his 3:00 nursing session, so he had plenty of energy for a second walk with Miklós and a video call with his Oma, who is very excited to see him in a week!

Arthur’s dinner was a simple one, but one full of allergens that I knew he’d enjoy: scrambled egg in sesame oil! This particular iteration included some puréed spinach and garlic powder as well. And, as I expected, Arthur was more than happy to devour it. In fact, he finished the entire egg, so I fed him a bit more bell pepper to help him absorb that spinach and keep him occupied until his bedtime nursing session.

So that brings Arthur’s much more respectable Saturday solid menu to:

• spinach purée

• almond meal

• formula powder (milk)

• bell pepper (new food!)

• soy yogurt

• egg

• sesame oil

• garlic powder

The adults, meanwhile, enjoyed fajitas for dinner. I used to make them all the time in Hungary, but the soy curls I used for them aren't readily available here. But recently I realized that the fava-pea protein chunks I can get at the health food store would be a pretty good stand-in: they're also a dried vegetarian meat substitute that soaks up the flavors of whatever you marinade it in. So I made a batch using those, and they turned out great; looks like fajitas will be back on our regular dinner rotation! Here's how I made them:

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Veggie Fajitas (serves 2 hungry people)

Ingredients

• 1 bag soy curls/dried pea protein chunks (80-90g)

• 1 bouillon cube (I used beef)

• 2 bell peppers, any color (optionally, you can replace one of them with mushrooms), sliced into thin strips

• 2-3 red onions, sliced into thin strips

• fajita seasoning (in the past, I’ve used this recipe and it was really good, though I quadrupled the salt. I found half the batch to be a good amount for one serving of fajitas. Today, I was feeling lazy, and used a premade mix)

• lime juice, to taste (I generally use a couple of squirts from a bottle, probably about 1 tbsp)

• 1 heaping tbsp olive oil

• rice/tortillas/etc. for serving (I love to serve this with red rice)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

2. Soak the dried soy curls/dried veggie meat in boiling water with the bouillon cube for a few minutes.

3. Drain, then add to a large bowl along with the bell peppers and onions.

4. Drizzle with the lime juice and olive oil.

5. Sprinkle on the fajita seasoning, and toss everything to combine.

6. Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Spread the mixture on the tray evenly so that nothing overlaps.

7. Bake 35-35 minutes, or until crispy.

8. Serve warm, preferably with red rice!