Better Mornings + Irish Leek Soup

Tuesday

Arthur synced with me again on Tuesday morning; he woke up around 7:40 while I was waking up in the bathroom. I really hope he's getting back to his previous schedule, and the days of 6:30 wake-ups are beyond us.

We had a lovely morning dancing together; he seems to really enjoy Shakira and Pitbull. He was also having fun experimenting with new babbles - it seemed to be variations on dih-dih-dih and uh-buh-buh this morning. Arthur got a nap in at 10:00, but a short one, and it showed. He was a bit grumpy at Albert Heijn, and a bit fussy through the snack I gave him when we got home (spinach-parsnip-chicken purée mixed with rice porridge powder). I used the regular bouncer technique to take my shower, and he wasn't as cheerful as he usually is during it. But I was able to get him to calm down and smile when I sang Mamma Mia to him, so I think that maybe my attempts to hook him on the song were successful.

Our little bookworm just devours books

Luckily, Arthur got another nap in during his 1:00 nursing session (though still not as long as I would have liked) and was in a better mood for his afternoon snack. I was cooking leeks for our own dinner, so decided to save a bit for Arthur. I cooked up small pieces in olive oil, then added them to some egg that I scrambled in ghee and seasoned with garam masala. I first gave him a couple of pieces of leek on their own (he seemed pretty neutral about them, but they were quite small pieces), and then gave him some of the egg, which, despite the new seasonings, he still devoured happily. And, to the huge relief of his mama, Arthur napped for a very long time during his 3:00 nursing session.

Later in the afternoon, I gave him something bigger: chunks of zucchini! I was using some for a recipe and had extra, so I sliced it into strips with the skin on and gave Arthur a couple. He was still a bit unsure about this method of eating, but did get more interested in it after a few tries. He seemed to like the zucchini, and even tried to grab some pieces himself, but then ended up just pulling my hand holding the zucchini to his mouth - I guess it was a good shortcut. He ended up eating a reasonable amount, despite the larger size of the chunks with skin, though he did end up gagging a bit and doing a bit of a zucchini spit-up towards the end. I read that gagging practice is good for babies, though, so that's not necessarily a bad thing. And I'm encouraged by this - we'll keep trying! At dinner time, however, we stuck to something easy: Weetabix mixed with both breast milk and soy milk (allergen exposure!). Arthur was really fussy at that point, and demolished the entire biscuit while screaming.

So, on Tuesday, Arthur ate:

• spinach

• parsnip

• chicken

• rice porridge

• milk powder

• egg

• olive oil

• ghee

• leek (new food!)

• garam masala (new food!)

• zucchini spears

• Weetabix

• soy milk

Wednesday

Another glorious morning - Arthur slept in until just after 8 (after a brief 5:00 wakeup). He was in a pretty good mood throughout the morning, despite not getting much sleep on. However, he proved invaluable company accompanying us to the bookstore. I might even read to him from the copy of The Secret Garden that I came home with.

Mama shower

At afternoon snack time, I gave Arthur some more pieces of zucchini. He was pretty enthusiastic about them, and I think is getting a bit better at grabbing the pieces and bringing them to his mouth. That being said, he still has a long ways to go with that. Still, progress is progress! Once again, however, he gagged on some of it and did a big spit-up. I think it freaked him out a bit, and he started crying. Luckily he calmed down almost immediately in my arms (secure attachment? Let's hope so!) I decided to end his snack there.

Playing a board game with Arthur proved challenging; despite him having a decent mid-afternoon nap, his overall sleep quantity to that point had been pretty lacking. Later, he got into his "so tired I'm giggly" mood and was chuckling away while sitting upright in the downstairs crib with Sonja. He was surprisingly cheerful at dinner as well, where he gobbled down the rest of the scrambled egg dish from the previous day, followed by a few spoonfuls of soy yogurt.

Which brings Arthur's Wednesday solid intake to:

• zucchini

• spinach

• parsnip

• chicken

• leek

• garam masala

• rice porridge

• milk powder

• egg

• olive oil

• ghee

• soy yogurt

We had originally planned to go to Den Bosch on Wednesday for a house viewing; however, the viewing was cancelled on Monday because a buyer had already been found. It was, we figured, our karma for withdrawing that bid we had won. Anyways, I had already picked up frozen meals for Wednesday's dinner, so only cooked on Tuesday. I tried a new recipe for an Irish leek soup. What I really liked about this recipe was that it was so protein-heavy, and incorporated unflavored protein powder; I had picked up some on sale the other day, and this was a good way to use it and sneak in a ton of protein at dinner. I mostly followed the recipe, although, since we're far from keto, served it with bread. I think Miklós had mixed feelings about the dish, but I thought it was pretty good! I mean, you could kind of taste the protein powder in it, but for something with 61g of protein a serving, I certainly wasn't complaining. Anyways, here's how I made it:

---

Irish Protein Leek Soup (serves 2 hungry people as a main with bread)

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp ghee

• 1 small onion, minced

• 284 g chopped leek only the white and light green parts (about 3 small or 2 medium leeks)

• 454 g zucchini chopped (about 3 medium zucchini - you don’t need to peel them)

• 4 cups water

• 2 bouillon cubes (I used one beef cube and one mushroom one)

• 2 bay leaves

• ½ teaspoon dried thyme or fresh

• ½ tsp pepper (+ more to taste)

• 4 scoops pea protein powder

• optional additions: salt, MSG, to taste

Instructions

1. Melt the ghee in a medium pot. Add the onion and leeks, and sauté until soft and starting to slightly brown.

2. Mix in the chopped zucchini and sauté until golden.

3. Add in the water, the bouillon cubes, bay leaves, thyme, pepper, and MSG if using.

4. Bring to a boil and let it simmer until the zucchini is very tender. It will take about 15 minutes if it's chopped in small pieces.

5. Remove soup from heat and stir in the protein powder.

6. Use an immersion blender to purée the soup until it's creamy and there are no chunks remaining.

7. Taste and add additional salt and pepper as needed (I didn't add any).