Grumpy Baby + My Favorite Bean Salad

Wednesday

Arthur synced with his mama on Wednesday, getting up a bit before 8. He was in a pretty grumpy mood for most of the morning, throwing a flat-out tantrum when nursing because he wanted the other boob. I swear, he’s been starting to throw tantrums the last couple of weeks, screaming and kicking his legs when he’s upset about something. I thought we had a bit more time before that happened, but what can I say, Arthur’s a prodigy.

Unfortunately, Arthur didn’t nap for long at his 10:00 feeding session, despite having just had a bath beforehand. But he did enjoy some music afterwards! It was really cute; I think he was trying to dance or move to the music, because he kept turning his head side to side while it was playing, with a big smile on his face. I guess he likes country!

Alas, Arthur didn’t nap during his 1:00 nursing session at all, though I think he really needed it. He was restless and fussy; I’m not sure if something is going on with him or what. I ended up stripping him because I thought he might be hot, and then stripped myself as well, because I figured skin-on-skin couldn’t hurt. And he drank a decent amount, but I really wish he would have slept.

What the hell is this, Mom?!

Snack time afterwards was an interesting one: we tried something pretty different. I had picked up some of these baby corn puffs at the store the other day; they’re basically long, puffed sticks that are easy for babies to hold and dissolve quickly so as to present no choking hazard. I thought they would be a hit: the ingredients are corn flour, corn, rice flour, sunflower oil, and dried carrots, so how could they be offensive? But Arthur was not having it. I mean, he grabbed the stick right away, and knew to bring it to his mouth. But when he actually tried eating it? He made a horrified face, and refused subsequent offers of it.

So, I decided to take a break from it and try something more familiar: a ready-made purée. This was a new variety, containing beets, chickpeas, sweet potato, carrots, onions, garlic, and spelt flour. And Arthur liked it quite a lot! I was also able to use it as a sort of dipping sauce for the remaining bits of his corn puff, and was able to get him to eat it that way. But we’ll experiment more with those.

Afterwards, Arthur did a great job drinking from his cup, and was so happy and proud of himself when I praised him. It was stinking adorable. I think he's more motivated to drink from it than he is with other activities, because it's something he sees me do all the time, and he wants to be able to do the same. Which melts my heart a little bit. And he finally got a decent-length nap in during his 3:00 nursing session, so that was something!

Arthur had the same combination of corn puff and purée at dinner, and seemed somewhat more accepting of the puff this time, especially when dunked in the purée. So maybe there’s hope for these puffs yet!

Anyways, Arthur’s Wednesday solids were the same meal twice:

• corn sticks/puffs (new food!)

• carrot

• beet (new food!)

• chickpeas (new food!)

• spelt flour

• onion

• garlic

• sweet potato

Thursday

Thursday was an office day for Miklós, so I was not thrilled when Arthur awoke at 7 screaming. He was in a horrible mood until he had had his first breakfast, after which he was able to tolerate the hardship of waking life better.

A brief moment of cheerfulness

Arthur spent his long stretch of morning between nursing sessions doing crawling practice, playing on the play mat and with a plastic water bottle (that thing is a godsend) on his back, and having an extra snack to tide him over while Mama prepped some things in the kitchen. We had an overabundance of kefir, so I gave him some mixed with a bit of almond meal to thicken it up and get in some allergens. Arthur was pretty happy with it after making a few faces, and kept grunting, his gentle way of letting me know he wanted more.

Anyways, I was very relieved when Arthur crashed within 5 minutes of settling down for his 10:00 nursing session. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a very long nap, as my sneezing woke him up after about half an hour, and he didn’t go back to sleep. So he decided to accompany me to the store in the baby sling, losing a sock at some point along the way. It’s pretty hard to keep socks on this little dude’s feet, particularly when said socks are probably too small. He does have big feet.

Upon returning home, I strapped Arthur in the high chair and fed him half off a corn puff while I unpacked. I wanted to give him something low-mess so that I didn’t need to change his entire outfit - I knew that would come soon enough. Arthur made faces at the puff while squeezing it in his hands - he really does seem skeptical of the texture. But when I fed it to him by hand, he tolerated it fairly well. I think it will just take a few tries before he gets really on board with them.

I was very happy when Arthur took a nice, long, much needed nap at his 1:00 nursing session. Despite this, Arthur was in a pretty rotten mood during his afternoon snack, flat-out throwing tantrums when the food wasn’t delivered to his mouth fast enough. On the plus side, he finally caught on to the whole corn stick thing, and chowed down on them with gusto this time, eating several! I paired them with the same chickpea-beet-etc. purée from the previous day, which he polished off, mixed with some peanut butter. I dunno, maybe he was just hangry.

Or he just needed extra sleep after an early morning. He did take a third nap at his 5:00 nursing session, and I was pretty delighted about that. Afterwards, he was in a very reasonable mindset to have a solid dinner, which was a Weetabix porridge I had made containing Weetabix, kefir, and an apple-peach-mango purée. The combination was definitely up Arthur’s alley, and he ate quite a bit of it!

Which all brings Arthur's solid intake for the day to:

• kefir

• almond meal

• corn puffs

• carrot

• beet

• chickpeas

• spelt flour

• onion

• garlic

• sweet potato

• Weetabix

• apple

• peach

• mango

As for the adults, I prepped our favorite bean salad. I've been making this dish for nearly a year; actually, the first time I tried it was when Oma was visiting in preparation for Arthur's birth. But it was an instant hit, even with my bean-wary husband, so it's a nice go-to when the weather is a bit nicer and I want to have something ready in advance. It's based on this recipe, with minimal changes. Here's how I make it:

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Mediterranean Bean Salad (serves 2-3 as a main)

Ingredients

• 2 cans (400g, undrained) white beans (I like to use one can of lima and one can of cannellini, but any white beans are good!)

• 2 medium tomatoes/equivalent in cherry tomatoes

• 1 red onion, sliced

• 1 package (mine was 40g) fresh flat-leaf parsley, stemmed and chopped

• ⅓ cup pitted, sliced black olives

• salt + pepper to taste

• optional: quartered hard-boiled eggs for topping (I find this really nice, and usually top each portion with 2 eggs)

  
  

• Dressing:

  • 2 fat garlic cloves, minced

  • 2 tbsp tahini

  • 3 tbsp lemon juice

  • 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar (ACV)

  • ¼ cup warm water

  • 1 tsp ground cumin

  • salt, to taste

Instructions

1. Mix all of the salad ingredients (except the eggs if using) in a large bowl or pot.

2. Whisk the dressing ingredients quickly in a cup.

3. Drizzle the dressing over the salad, and mix well.

4. Put the salad in the refrigerator and let it cool and marinate for a bit. I find the longer it sits in there, the better!

5. When ready, portion onto plates and top with the hard-boiled eggs if using.

6. Devour cold.