Hashing It Out With a Little Fussnugget

Monday

Arthur woke up early - around 7:30 - but he was pretty happy just hanging out on my hip for a bit before his breakfast, as I got ready for the day. He ended up being a bit fussy during the morning, though, and I wonder if it’s because he got a bit less sleep than normal. 

Laughing slightly against his will in the bouncer

Sometimes when he’s tired, Arthur gets in this kind of drunk mood, where he alternates between fussing and giggling, and that seemed to be the case this morning. He grumbled in the stroller, but giggled  if I jerked it around. He whined in the bouncer, but cackled when I moved it with my foot. Shockingly, he fell asleep during the next nursing session. 

We started off Arthur's solid lunch with more parsnip purée, and once again, he liked it quite a bit, and had several spoonfuls. We followed it up with some pumpkin purée and his reaction was pretty much the same as yesterday: uncertainty and begrudging acceptance. Dessert was some egg scrambled with tomato in olive oil; I am determined to get him to like tomatoes, and this seemed to do the trick! It took him a minute (and a finger with some egg in his mouth) to get him to warm up to it, but once he realized it was mostly egg, he was on board.

And oh, as it turns out, dangerously on board. After his lunch, Arthur didn't have much of an appetite for breast milk. So during his late afternoon solid snack, I wanted to limit how much he consumed, so he'd drink properly afterwards. And to say that didn't go so well is putting it lightly. Maybe he was extra hungry because he hadn't eaten as much during the previous nursing session, but he went crazy for the scrambled egg. Whenever he didn't have egg in his mouth, he started fussing, and would only be pacified by another spoonful. After 5-6 spoons, I called it, and didn't give him anymore, and things escalated quickly. He basically went into a full-on tantrum, and I think I can safely call it that, because I wasn't able to sooth him in any of the usual ways (cuddling, stroking, shushing, etc.). It reminded me a lot of when he went through that phase when he'd get upset at slow milk flow, via boob or bottle. We'll see how this goes, but I believe we have an egg

Egged out

addict on our hands. I'm sure it didn't help that he barely slept today, though.

He fell asleep on me after that egg disaster, but began fussing again as soon as he woke up. I ended up cramming him full of more scrambled egg, and he sat in his bouncer in a daze until his papa came home. I think both of us were very relieved to see Miklós at that point.

Anyways, Arthur's Monday menu was:

• parsnip purée

• pumpkin purée

• egg

• tomato

• olive oil

Tuesday

Arthur woke up a little before 8, and he was hungry. He demolished his breakfast, and even though I was dripping milk, fussed whenever it wasn't coming quickly enough and pounded my chest. It was certainly one way to start the day.

It is kind of funny how active his top arm is when he nurses these days. It flails all over the place, grabbing on to whatever it can, whether it be my desk, my neck, my boob, my robe, my laptop...

But he was fussy and restless during the second and third feedings as well. I'm not sure if he's a bit sick or teething or what, but his Tuesday mood didn't seem much better than his Monday one. Hopefully he'll be a bit more easygoing later this week.

Our intrepid explorer sets out in the rain

He was a bit better at the shop; he smiled and giggled for much of the walk to Lidl and the first 10-15 minutes in the store. He got a bit restless towards the end, but I do have to say, I love the store attendants at Lidl. When she saw me pushing Arthur's stroller with one foot while scanning items at the self-scan, one of the women who work there jumped in to help. "I'll scan those for you," she told me. "You just take care of your baby." So she basically did everything for me while I tickled Arthur. What service!

Arthur only had two solid foods today, but one of them was a new one! We started snack time with a tried and true favorite: parsnip purée. Once again, he was very happy, and ate it with gusto. He's getting much more efficient at eating from the spoon, and this time even wanted to hold it! So I let him, and he was pretty good at it! I actually wonder if the reason he's been fussing during recent feedings is because he can get more food at once from the spoon, as opposed to the slower trickle from the nipple. It might basically be the bottle thing all over again. Maybe I should put less on the spoon at a time - I've just been so happy that he's eating solids well that I'm stuffing him up.

Spoon holding life

Anyways, the new food of the day was tahini! Sesame is a common allergen, so I figured it was a good idea to introduce it early. I mixed up some tahini with water and fed it to him. He ate it pretty well, but made a lot of strange faces while doing so, so I wouldn't exactly qualify it as his new favorite. Not that I blame him - I'm not a fan of plain tahini either. Still, it was one more allergen, and we'll try again tomorrow.

And that brings Arthur's Tuesday solid intake to:

• parsnip purée

• tahini (new food!)

I don’t usually cook much on Mondays (when Miklós is at the office all day and can’t help with Arthur) or Tuesdays (when I have a Zoom tutoring session right before dinner). But I do want to save some other recipes, so here’s one we’ve enjoyed a couple of times recently when Brussels sprouts were on sale. Inspiration came from this recipe.

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Happy Holiday Hash (serves 2)

Ingredients

• 1 medium Hokkaido squash (or pumpkin/butternut/other winter squash of similar size), chopped into bite-sized pieces

• 500g Brussels sprouts, halved

• ½ tbsp olive oil (I used truffle-infused because I’m bougie like that)

• 40 pieces/~80g pea/fava bean dehydrated protein chunks (or sub equivalent in soy curls)

• ½ cup walnuts, coarsely chopped

• The following, to taste:

  • soy sauce

  • MSG (optional)

  • salt

  • cinnamon 

  • syrup for my portion, hot sauce for M’s

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

2. Rehydrate protein chunks with boiling water, then drain and toss with soy sauce and MSG if using.

3. Toss squash and sprouts with olive oil, salt, and cinnamon, and bake on a parchment-lined cookie sheet for about half an hour.

4. While they are baking, air fry the protein chunks until they begin to brown.

5. Remove veggies from oven, distribute chunks over the tray, and sprinkle walnuts over the top.

6. Bake for another 10-20 minutes, until crispy on the edges.

7. Remove and top with syrup or hot sauce, depending on preference.