Mama! Back to Maastricht + Cornbread Mug Muffin
- 5 days ago
- 6 min read
Tuesday
A 7:00 wakeup for a grumpy baby. It’s been over a day since Arthur pooped, so we’re a little concerned, but he’s eating alright. I think it may be the travel and the changes in his schedule impacting him - hopefully he poos soon!
Yet more visitors came to the house to see Arthur a bit before 10. He cheered up a bit when he saw them; the dude is a social butterfly (don’t ask me where he gets it from). The good mood didn’t last long, though, but luckily he fell asleep when I nursed him a bit after 10 - he clearly needed it!
The grandparents were very excited to show Arthur off, and so we had to have a display of his solid eating skills with a kiwi brunch. Arthur wasn’t terribly hungry at that point, but ate the kiwi alright.
Afterwards, though, Arthur was a little fussnugget. Given his mood, we decided it was best to skip any car trips today. Instead, Arthur’s grandparents took him for a long walk, during which he slept for nearly an hour while his parents enjoyed some special time. After his walk, Arthur had a nice long nursing session, and finally a poop! It was a big juicy one, too, to the delight of his nagymama.
Arthur was in a wonderful mood after his poop, and we had an afternoon snack together; Arthur got to taste a couple of pieces of cheese I was eating, both dairy and goat! He hadn’t had goat cheese before, but he seemed to really like it. I also gave him a mashed blueberry. Later while I was busy getting driving lessons from Nagypapa, Miklós kept Arthur distracted by feeding him a purée consisting of apple, butternut squash, and turkey, which he seemed to be fairly happy with. At dinner, he was extremely fussy and hungry (he had barely nursed during the previous feeding, using the time to nap instead), and devoured several spoonfuls more of the same purée as well as probably ½ cup or so of boiled sweet potato.
I’m kind of wondering (as I often do) whether Arthur is teething. The way he keeps rubbing spoons and fingers from one end of his mouth to the other is, according to the in-laws, a sure sign of it. And he’s been a bit fussy and off. Then again, it could also be a stomach thing. Whatever it is, I’m hoping he’ll be a happier dude on the trip back home.
Anyways, on Tuesday, Arthur ate:
kiwi
goat cheese (new food!)
dairy cheese
blueberry
turkey (new food!)
butternut squash
apple
sweet potato
Wednesday
Arthur woke up at 7:00 again. According to Miklós, who was feeding him some of the squash-apple-turkey purée when I walked downstairs just before 8:00, he wasn’t fussing much until I approached. Then he escalated to full-scale screaming. It would seem he knows I’m the parent to manipulate.
This was further illustrated when, after his first feeding when he was lying on the mat, Arthur finally said it: Mama! It was incredibly clear, and just the two syllables, while looking at me! Miklós, Jutka, and I all stared wide-eyed at each other: there was no mistaking what he had said! I was so so excited, and we spent quite a while trying to get him to repeat it, but to no avail. Still, I’m hoping he pulls it out again soon.
We also did some crawling practice with him. And, for the first time, Arthur was able to balance on his hands and knees for several seconds with no support! It was pretty exciting, but I think the poor guy got overstimulated, and was very ready for a nice long nap during his 10:00 nursing session.
Before leaving the grandparents’ house at 12:30, Arthur spent some time on a blanket in their garden outside (mixed feelings about nature) and getting a bath. Then it was off to the airport!
Arthur was clearly getting tired by that point, and fell asleep during the 15 minute car ride to the airport. But he was pretty good-natured at the airport itself, where he got a lot of attention from various airport employees. Hungary is super baby-friendly, and we were even able to go through the fast track at security simply due to his presence.
Like on the previous flight, I had to start nursing Arthur a bit before takeoff because he was getting restless, and by the time the plane actually got moving, he had fallen fast asleep. But he slept for a good 45 minutes, through the ascent, and was fairly content when he woke up. He probably spent another half hour playing with my water bottle and staring at our seat mates, a mom who kept pointing out to her school-aged son how “cuki” the neighbor baby was.
Arthur started getting restless again as we neared the end of our flight (his stinky diaper may have had something to do with it), but Miklós took him for 20 minutes or so before we started our descent, then was a real champion and changed Arthur’s very full diaper on the flight plane. The little guy was really hungry afterwards, which was great timing, as we were beginning to descend by that point. He nursed/dozed for the remaining half hour through landing. So, all in all, it was another very good traveling experience!
The dude was also very chill on the train ride back, during which he nursed for a bit and then just sat on my lap looking around him and playing with my necklace and his dad’s messenger bag. He remained remarkably good-natured through dinner, which consisted of frozen meals for his parents and a ready-made purée made of spelt pasta, carrot, fennel, and lentils for Arthur, which he liked as much as any other purée.
So, Arthur’s last travel day for (hopefully) a while involved the following solid snacks:
apple
squash
turkey
(spelt) pasta
fennel
carrot
lentils
Thursday
I was very happy that Arthur slept in on his first day back at home; he didn’t wake up until nearly 8:00, which gave me a good 20 minutes of Arthur free time in the morning! It was an office day for Papa, so Arthur and I were on our own.
Arthur spent most of the morning in the baby carrier helping me unpack and do laundry. Then we were off to Lidl, where an elderly gentleman was very besotted with Arthur, commenting over and over about how “well” he looked, and giving us his half-filled stamp pad so we could have a running start on saving up for a plush fruit. It was really sweet.
For his afternoon snack, Arthur had more of the purée from yesterday, thickened up with some formula powder to get in some iron and dairy. He didn’t seem terribly excited about it, but ate a decent amount. Much more appealing to him was the little cup of water I gave to him. He struggled to drink from it, but did give it several tries, and wanted to keep playing with the cup for quite a while!
We also did some more crawling practice, and he once again balanced on his hands and knees for 20-30 seconds! He seems to enjoy it, actually, and was enthusiastic about trying again and again! Arthur’s also getting really good at flipping onto his back, which is a relief to be honest. There was quite a bit more dadadada babbling, but unfortunately no mamas today, despite him doing it a few times yesterday. Miklós felt that his mamas were more intentional than his dadadadadas, which he does all the time - they seemed slightly more directed at me. But maybe that’s just him trying to console me or me looking for meaning.
Anyways, I wanted to get some allergens in for Arthur’s dinner, so I served up some scrambled egg cooked with garlic and onion powder in toasted sesame oil. Egg remains a big hit with the little dude, and he gobbled down the entire thing with gusto!
So, Arthur’s first round of solids back at home consisted of:
(spelt) pasta
carrot
fennel
lentils
formula powder (milk)
egg
toasted sesame oil
garlic powder
onion powder
Anyways, no dinner recipes today - the past two nights we had frozen meals and quick "yummy" pasta, but here's a recipe for a mug muffin I made today when I had a hankering for cornbread. It was quick and really tasty, and scratched that cornbread itch - I think this is gonna be a repeat recipe! Here's how I made it:
Healthier Cornbread Mug Muffin (serves 1)
Ingredients
1 tbsp flax meal/broken flax seeds/flax flour
2 tbsp cornmeal
2 tbsp flour (I used whole-wheat spelt)
½ tsp baking powder
¼ cup milk of choice (I used soy)
1 tbsp sugar/syrup/equivalent of preferred sweetener (I used a squirt of liquid sucralose)
Instructions
In a mug or ramekin, make a flax egg by mixing the flax meal with 3 tbsp water.
Add the remaining ingredients, mixing well.
Microwave for 2 minutes.
Enjoy!
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