A Visit from Nagymama + Turkish Eggs

Saturday

Arthur woke up a bit before 8:00 on Saturday, while I was being noisy in the bathroom. He was in a pretty good mood throughout the morning, and had not one, but two solid snacks in between his two morning nursing sessions: more of Mama’s Delight and a number of Cheerios. He also helped me pick up groceries in between, so it’s only natural he’d have worked up an appetite.

Surprisingly, Arthur showed no interest in napping during his second morning nursing session, despite rubbing his eyes and fussing a bit beforehand. Ah well, I guess he did have a somewhat late start to the morning. Sooo instead of napping, Arthur kept first me, then his pops, company in the kitchen. Miklós fed Arthur some more Cheerios while he ate lunch, then took him on a second trip to Albert Heijn, the lucky boy.

But, despite more eye rubbing, Arthur didn’t nap on his walk or during his 1:00 nursing session either. So he was in a bit of a gremlin mood when it came time to his usual afternoon snack, grunting angrily for more every half second he went without food in his mouth. He wolfed down quite a bit of homemade low-fat yogurt, mixed in various portions with broken flax seeds, shredded coconut, and oat flour. He also had another portion of Mama’s Delight. In between bites that I fed him, he settled for some Cheerios, though he was not as impressed with them, and would grunt for more of the spoon-fed stuff even when there were several Cheerios in front of him.

Arthur was, obviously, exhausted by the time his 3:00 nursing session came around, and I was really expecting him to fall asleep as soon as he hit the boob. Maybe he was overtired by that point, because he started fussing and squirming pretty quickly on the boob, had an explosive poop, and then a meltdown when I changed him. So that was fun.

Grandmother and child reunion

Still, Arthur wasn’t too fussy for the rest of the afternoon - he really just wanted to crawl around and explore. I think I was the grumpier one! Miklós was picking up his mom from the airport, so I was on my own with the dude. I took a page out of Omi’s book and tossed him a couple of Cheerios on the freshly mopped floor while I had my own snack. Then, at 5:00 I tried with bated breath to nurse him again and he blessedly fell asleep. So at least the little guy got in one nap today, though he seemed to be even more groggy and grumpy after his nap than he did before it. I can relate - I feel the same after trying to nap.

Still, Arthur was in good enough spirits when Nagymama arrived at 6:30. He seemed very interested in her, and happily went into her arms when she reached for him. The two of them sat together, reading and crawling and chatting while I made dinner.

For his own dinner, Arthur had the second half of the omelette I had made the previous day. When he finished that off, I gave him a few bites of my focaccia, and he seemed to enjoy that, too!

So, Arthur’s Saturday solid intake came to:

• Mama’s Delight (yellow bell pepper purée, red lentils, whole-wheat orzo, bay leaves, tahini, TVP, formula powder, garlic-infused olive oil, peanut butter)

• Cheerios

• homemade low-fat yogurt

• flax seeds

• shredded coconut

• oat flour

• Mama's Deluxe Omelette (egg, turmeric, paprika, onion powder, garlic-infused olive oil, avocado, hemp hearts, nutritional yeast)

• homemade focaccia (spelt flour, yeast, salt, olive oil, corn meal, garlic, tomato, rosemary)

Sunday

Apparently Arthur woke up at 5:00 on Sunday morning. Normally, Miklós lets him cry for a couple of minutes, and the dude falls back asleep. However, today it was Nagymama sleeping in the room with him, and she didn’t want him to wake up his parents, so she picked him up out of his crib. He was content in her arms, but started up again when she tried to put him back in his crib, so she gave up, and lay him on the bed next to her. She stayed up reading, and Arthur snuggled into her and fell back asleep. I felt pretty bad for her, but she said she was in heaven snuggling with him in the bed, so Arthur lucked out. I just hope he doesn’t learn from this and make it a habit.

Munching on Cheerios with Papa

He woke up a second time at 7:00, when Nagymama texted his pops to take over so she could use the toilet. In the hour before I got up, Arthur enjoyed half an avocado with Papa and Nagymama. Then it was a second breakfast on Mama, along with a nap, before we were off for a picnic! And by picnic, I mean a blanket by the side of the river and some wine for the adults.

The adults' version of Cheerios

We didn’t leave Arthur out though; as soon as he started trying to consume the flowers, I gave him a peach, which he ate pretty quickly. He spent most of the rest of the time there eating Cheerios we scattered one by one across the picnic mat and going after the mini wine bottles we were drinking from. I mean, they were just his size! At one point, when we were letting him play with the half-full bottle, he managed to get the lid off. Luckily, Nagymama was paying attention (unlike his tipsy parents), and grabbed the lid out of his mouth before he could swallow it. Still, it’s possible Arthur tasted a drop or two of wine - a new food?

We ended our picnic after an hour and a half or so, when it started sprinkling. We whisked Arthur out of the rain and into the bathtub - might as well keep the boy wet! He got pretty worked up when we were dressing him up post bath, and since I still had some alcohol in my system and couldn’t calm him on my breast, I opted to give him a baby food pouch to suck on instead. This one was a ready-made purée containing potato, peas, and zucchini, and it seemed to calm Arthur down! Then, once the savage beast was soothed, Nagymama and Papa took him to a restaurant, where they fed Arthur the rest of the pouch along with another avocado half, and a handful of Cheerios, while they ate their own lunch.

Arthur wants some, too!

Arthur was very ready for a nap afterwards, so that’s what he did as soon as he got to my boob at 3. Then it was another walk with Nagymama and Papa, some susu and a video chat with Oma, before Arthur’s parents left him alone to go on a hot date! We left him with Nagymama for nearly two hours while we had a quiet, adult-only dinner at a restaurant terrace. While we were gone, Arthur was remarkably sweet (according to his grandmother), taking a walk with her by the river, eating some of a forest fruit baby food purée, and then returning home to practice crawling. He wasn’t terribly hungry for susu when we got home, so after a few sips, it was off to bed for bonzo!

Which brings Arthur’s Sunday solids to:

• avocado

• Cheerios

• peach

• baby food purée (pea, zucchini, potato)

• baby food purée (apple, cherries, strawberries, plum)

  
  

As for the adults? Well, on Sunday, Miklós and I had a proper date night with just the two of us! But on Saturday night, I tried two new dishes: Turkish eggs and focaccia. And I have to say, the two complimented each other beautifully. They were both quite simple dishes, but made for an elegant display and tasted great! I'll post the eggs first - focaccia to come later! There are a bunch of recipes for Turkish eggs online, but this is the one I used as inspiration. It's not much of a recipe, to be honest - more of a general combination of things. For the three of us, I used 1kg of Greek yogurt, which I felt was a good amount for us, but I think a bit more or less would have been fine too, especially as it was accompanied by self-serve veggies and bread. So, here's a general outline of how to make a single portion. Just multiply it by however many you want to serve!

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Turkish Eggs (serves 1)

Ingredients

• 2 eggs

• vinegar, optional, for poaching

• 200-400g Greek yogurt/skyr/quark, depending on how hungry you are (I used 333g 2% Greek yogurt)

• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced (1-2 tsp)

• salt & pepper, to taste

• chopped parsley, optional, to taste

• sambal oelek/harissa/other hot sauce, to taste

• optional accompaniments (but highly recommended!):

  • veggies of choice (I served it with sliced cucumbers, but I bet tomatoes or roasted eggplant/zucchini/onions would also be awesome here!)

  • bread of choice (I served it with homemade focaccia)

Instructions

1. Mix the yogurt, garlic, salt & pepper, and parsley if using until thoroughly combined. Plate.

2. Poach the eggs by bringing water and optional vinegar to a simmer in a pot. When the water is simmering, create a whirlpool with a spoon or spatula.

3. Drop two eggs into the whirlpool and turn heat down to medium-high.

4. Keep the whirlpool going as necessary so eggs don't stick to the bottom.

5. When the eggs rise to the top and the whites are opaque, the eggs are done. Remove them from the pot with a slotted spoon/pasta server, and place them on top of the yogurt.

6. Drizzle with sambal or another hot sauce and serve!