Eijsden, Mortgage Approved + Oat Tortilla/Wrap
Monday
Arthur woke up bright and early on Monday - around 6:30. His papa, who had woken up 10 minutes before, was none too pleased. Nor did Arthur endear himself to his dad when he started purposefully dropping his solid breakfast, which consisted of poached chicken and tomatoes, over the side of his high chair tray. Miklós does not tolerate that behavior as much as I do, so once Arthur started pulling that move, his breakfast was over. Needless to say, he had a good appetite for his liquid breakfast at 8!
Arthur was in pretty good spirits for most of the morning, but was more than happy to take an hour-long nap when I nursed him at 10:00. When he awoke, we were off in the car for a trip: it was the seven year anniversary of his parents’ first date, and Miklós was taking the day off to spend it with his little family.
We opted to check out the nearby town of Eijsden, whose castle and gardens sounded intriguing. So we set off a little before noon. It was Arthur’s first time in his own car seat in quite a while, and I think he has PTSD; he started screaming as soon as we began lowering him into it. And on the way back, it only took my opening the car door for him to panic. The poor guy really hates it, even though it’s supposedly fine for his height and weight. Both times, though, I was able to quickly soothe him with some Cheerios - those things are lifesavers!
And the castle and town itself were quite lovely; the castle had some nice gardens, and the town featured cobblestones along with quaint shops and homes. It was a really hot day though, so we weren’t exactly in a walking around mood.
We stopped for cold drinks at a café, and I gave Arthur some more Cheerios, along with an entire baby fruit pouch, this one with pears, apricot, and yogurt. When we arrived home a bit after 2, Arthur continued his solid snacking with some more chicken and a cream cheese wedge. And water - lots of water!
It’s been a long time since Arthur took a nap during his 3:00 nursing session, but I wasn’t surprised when he did so today; he had seemed pretty tired right beforehand, with lots of eye rubbing. Maybe it’s because his morning nap was only an hour instead of one and a half, or maybe it’s the heat - it certainly tired me out! Either way, he slept another hour on me, and I was not complaining.
Later in the evening, we had a bit of a scare when Arthur, who has a thing for opening his mouth, gnawing on the bed corner, and then hitting his mouth against it, somehow banged his mouth or chin. There was a lot of crying and some blood, which was not fun to see, but it doesn’t seem to have impacted his teeth at all. We think he either bit his tongue or bumped his lip or something. But he seemed fine 15 minutes later, so that’s encouraging!
I tried to really fill Arthur up when it came to his solid dinner, because he wasn’t getting his usual liquid dessert - Mama was boozing up with dinner! We got the news in the evening that our mortgage application had been approved: we were getting that mortgage, and that house! Needless to say, we were pretty darn thrilled, and so had to toast the good news with dinner. It was a pretty good 7-years-from-our-first-date-anniversary gift (and quite a generous one, I must say!). Arthur, meanwhile, received no wine, but did get some more sesame oil-TVP crumbles and finished off his chia pudding. He also finished off his poached chicken, had a bite of avocado, and two wedges of cream cheese. I was really hoping that it would keep him full through the night!
So, on Monday, Arthur ate:
poached chicken
tomatoes
Cheerios
baby food fruit purée (apricot, pear, yogurt, oats)
sesame oil
TVP
chia pudding (homemade low-fat yogurt, chia seeds, flax seeds, shredded coconut)
a tiny piece of avocado
cream cheese
Tuesday
Arthur chose 6:45 as his Tuesday wakeup time, which, I suppose, was later than it could have been. Still, since Miklós had left for work by that point, I was a bit grumpy about it. Arthur’s always super clingy right after waking up, and wailed even when I set him right down by my feet as I peed. After his first liquid breakfast, however, he was in much sunnier spirits.
As usual, Arthur and I did a shopping round in the morning. While I unpacked groceries, I fed Arthur a second, solid breakfast, as he missed his usual one with his pops. I tried giving him slices of gouda cheese, but he really was not interested, and absolutely refused to eat them. Instead, he repeatedly dropped them over the side of his high chair. Cute. So I moved on to flatbread, and this he happily devoured. I figured I’d try to sneak those cheese slices into him a different way, and melted them onto the flatbread, before cutting it into thin strips. Now this was very acceptable to Arthur - I mean, it’s basically cheese bread so how can you go wrong with that? He ate quite a bit, but still had an appetite for another liquid breakfast afterwards!
Arthur got a bit of a nap in at his 10:00 nursing session, but was woken up after 45 minutes by my phone ringing - it was someone from the bank calling to arrange home insurance for us! So he didn’t get the hour and a half nap he’s been going for the past couple of days, but he still woke up in cheery spirits. The poor guy is pretty impacted by the heat, though, and was pretty sweaty when he awoke.
Still, like I said, Arthur was a total sweetie post-nap. He has plenty of reason to fuss, though - turns out he’s got four teeth coming in upstairs: the two middle ones and the two on each side. So the poor guy is teething up a storm! But we spent the early afternoon happily reading (he’s super motivated to stand these days, so he was wobbling around on his feet while looking at the pictures in the book), hugging (he really initiates hugs these days, which is adorable), and rolling Arthur’s O-ball back and forth. I also fed him an extra snack while I did a few things in the kitchen: Cheerios and more sesame-oil soaked TVP.
Arthur still had his usual mid-afternoon snack afterwards, though! Today, it was the rest of the flatbread from the morning and some avocado. After finishing that, I gave him nearly half a jar of a new rice-veggie baby food purée, mixed with a generous spoonful of peanut butter and the remainder of the sesame oil TVP. When he finished that, he got a wedge of cream cheese. And by that point, he was full and fading.
I was really hoping Arthur would nap during his 3:00 nursing session; I know that hasn’t been his pattern lately, but his morning nap had been cut short, and he was clearly tired. But no luck there; instead, Arthur become progressively more tired and fussy as the afternoon wore on.
Luckily the dude crashed almost instantly when I nursed him at 5:00 - he didn’t even need the nipple in his mouth to fall asleep. He slept for a good 45 minutes or so, which I was very happy about, and was in much higher spirits to greet his dad when he got home.
Arthur’s dinner was a fresh new batch of cream of wheat. As usual, I cooked it with yellow bell pepper purée for the vitamin C, along with some cinnamon. I also mixed in a bit of almond butter (allergens!) and flax seeds (omega 3’s!) What did Arthur think of his very healthy dinner? He was, unsurprisingly, a fan, and quite pleasant dinner company!
Which means Arthur’s Tuesday eats were:
gouda cheese
flatbread (wheat flour, wheat gluten, canola oil, yeast, rice flour, vinegar)
Cheerios
sesame oil
TVP
avocado
rice-veggie baby food purée (carrots, whole-grain rice, milk, peas, mushrooms, leek, cream, canola oil)
peanut butter
cream cheese
cream of wheat
yellow bell pepper purée
cinnamon
almond butter
flax seeds
Wednesday
Arthur woke up a little after 7:00 on Wednesday. It was also a little after when Mama woke up, and I was actually able to go get him before he escalated to crying; I heard some babbling coming from there, cracked open the door, and saw the little guy lying there contentedly. I wonder how long he generally spends awake before he starts crying for company. Either way, I was happy to have caught him beforehand.
The dude was hungry this morning, half an hour after his first susu breakfast, he wanted another one, followed by a pretty big solid breakfast: the rest of the cream of wheat and some Cheerios. At breakfast #4, he fell asleep, and I think he needed it at that point.
Arthur only napped for about 45 minutes or so, and woke up with an appetite! While I worked on steaming and puréeing some more yellow bell pepper for him, Arthur ate more Cheerios, another portion of the rice-veggie baby food purée, and two small slices of gouda. Once again, he really didn't seem interested in the cheese - maybe it's the texture? So I used the peanut butter trick to get him to eat this as well, coating the slices in a thin veneer of the stuff. A bit of a strange combination in my opinion, but it did the trick for Arthur Newt!
Later on, for his afternoon snack, Arthur finished off that baby food purée, with the rest of the gouda sliced into tiny cubes and mixed in. I can't believe I have to sneak cheese into my son. He was still hungry afterwards, so I gave him a couple of slices of an omelette I had just cooked up for him, filled with the same baby food purée and hemp hearts. He liked it fine, i guess. I also gave him several spoonfuls of a homemade soy milk "ricotta" I had made the previous day. You can definitely taste the vinegar in it, so I wasn't sure what he'd think, but after making a face when he first tasted it, Arthur seemed pretty enthusiastic about it! He really is a soy boy.
Once again, Arthur wasn't in the mood to nap at 3:00, so we spent much of the afternoon playing upstairs, with Arthur enjoying a witty repartee with me from across the bed. A new activity he discovered he loves today is hitting the mattress with one hand, and having me do the same. That kept him entertained for quite some time. He also had fun sticking his head into the cloth basket we have upstairs to play peek-a-boo with me.
At one point, though, he had a bit of a repeat of Monday's incident, where he bumped his head on the bed and there was a bit of blood around his mouth. Less blood than Monday, though - barely any - and once again I couldn't see any damage. Still, I don't like that he's had two accidents so close together - it's not exactly a trend I like.
Arthur didn't nap at 5:00 either, but instead progressively more restless as the evening wore on. I wasn't surprised; the guy had gotten a grand total of 45 minutes of sleep and had been up since 7. By the time dinner rolled around, he was really starting to lose it. He ate a decent amount of the chia pudding I served him, but also spent plenty of time fussing and doing everything with the pudding but eating it; he made sure his parents had plenty to clean up afterwards!
So, Arthur's Wednesday eats consisted of:
cream of wheat
yellow bell pepper purée
cinnamon
almond butter
flax seeds
Cheerios
rice-veggie baby food purée (carrots, whole-grain rice, milk, peas, mushrooms, leek, cream, canola oil)
gouda cheese
peanut butter
Mamalette (egg, onion powder, turmeric, paprika, garlic-infused olive oil, hemp hearts, rice-veggie baby food purée)
homemade vegan ricotta (soy milk, apple cider vinegar, salt)
chia pudding (homemade low-fat yogurt, chia seeds, flax seeds, shredded coconut)
As for Mama and Papa? Monday was a ready-made dinner, Tuesday was Korean "beef" bowls, and Wednesday was smashed sweet potato pizzas, though this time with pizza sauce and olives instead of the BBQ version. So no new dinner recipes, but lately I've been making a simple tortilla/wrap and loving it! I really prefer my bready products freshly made; they are just so much better this way, so when I stumbled upon this oat wrap recipe, I was excited to try it out. I love love love oats, so something super easy, cheap, and with an oaty flavor? Sounded like a win! And it was - I love the slightly crispy taste it gets from cooking it in the pan, too. It's honestly good enough to eat plain, but also nice to actually use as a wrap and fill with something! Here's how I make it:
Easy Oat Tortilla/Wrap (makes one wrap)
Ingredients
⅓ cup oats (I used quick oats, but I don't think it matters)
½ cup water
¼ tsp salt
oil or oil spray, for cooking (I used olive oil spray)
Instructions
Blend the first three ingredients in a blender for a minute or two until you get a batter.
Using oil spray or oil, generously grease a nonstick pan or skillet over medium-high heat (like level 7 out of 10).
Once the oil is hot, pour the batter into the pan, tilting the pan so it evenly spreads to the edges.
Cook for 3-4 minutes, shaking a couple of times while cooking so it doesn't stick to the pan.
Flip and cook on the other side for another 2-3 minutes, until it's as charred as you want it.
Let cool (or not) and enjoy!
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