Married Two Years + Lima Bean Curry

Monday

Monday was Miklós and my two-year wedding anniversary. Arthur helped us celebrate by waking up at 6:15, and being in a terrible mood for most of the morning. He did nap a bit during his first nursing session, something he almost never does, though it was only for 20 minutes or so.

Getting familiar with Starbucks from a young age

Luckily, he got a proper nap in at his 10:00 nursing session, and was pleasant company for his parents, who took him to Starbucks to celebrate their anniversary in the best way new parents can: with caffeine! He was ready for his third nap of the day when we got back, and I wasn’t going to stop him. He slept for a verrrrrrrrry long time at this point, waking up briefly to chug some more milk before falling right back asleep.

It was interesting to observe him on the play mat afterwards. He seems to have figured out that I’m the sucker in this parental relationship. While he was alone on the mat with Miklós, he was pretty quiet, but when I entered the room, he started fussing. He would specifically look at me out of the corner of his eyes to see if he could get a reaction, rather than his dad. Clearly, he knows who to turn his appeal to. He also has started doing hip thrusts when he throws tantrums; it’s really cute. On a more positive note, however, he did purposefully flip from his back onto his belly, which I don’t think I’ve seen him intentionally do in the past, so that’s some sort of progress!

To continue our celebration and continue to survive our offspring, Miklós and I had an afternoon glass of wine while feeding Arthur a very big solid snack to last him until the wine got out of my system and boobs. He got a bit of soy yogurt, followed by the same combination of orzo and fish-veggie-rice purée that he had the previous day. Arthur was quite hungry at this point, and kept demanding more, while Miklós and I kept our nostrils as closed as we could. The alcohol helped.

Arthur fell asleep again during his 4pm walk with his dad - I don’t know what’s going on with him today, but he’s definitely a sleepy boy. Of course, this meant he didn’t end up napping on me during his 5:00 feeding like he probably should have, and he gradually got more and more worked up over the course of the evening. Since it was our anniversary, I wanted to keep Arthur’s dinner a bit less stinky and mess-free, so I opted to just give him some kidney beans mixed with formula powder and tomato paste (for the vitamin C to boost the iron absorption) while Miklós and I had our takeout. He was getting pretty tired and worked up by that point, by I think he liked his “meal” itself.

Which means that Arthur spent his parents’ anniversary eating:

• soy yogurt

• whole wheat orzo

• white fish

• spinach

• green beans

• peas

• parsnip

• rice

• kidney beans

• formula powder (milk)

• tomato paste

Tuesday

Arthur got up around 7 on Tuesday. It was an office day for Miklós, so I was on my own with him for most of the day. I have to say, his separation anxiety is definitely getting worse. After his first breakfast, I changed him and put him on the play mat so I could use the bathroom and wash my hands. As soon a

s I started lowering him, he scrunched up his little face and started wailing. I don’t think he was terribly upset, because when I left the room, he turned it down. But still - it’s getting harder and harder to leave him on his own.

Luckily he was more relaxed downstairs, and was content to sit in the crib there for a while and watch me while I prepared some things in the kitchen. We spent a while on the mat afterwards, in various positions. He’s becoming less motivated in spending time on his hands and knees, I have to say. On the flip side (harhar) he is pretty calmly doing something about it when he’s tired of the position: lowering his head to the mat and flipping onto his back. So there’s that.

Arthur got the nap I was hoping he’d get at his 10:00 breakfast, and was ready for an Albert Heijn trip afterwards! While I unpacked the groceries, I fed Arthur the rest of the orzo, which he seemed happy enough to finish off. Then it was our usual shower routine with Arthur in the bouncer, and another nursing session and, blessedly, another very substantial nap.

For his usual afternoon snack, I thought I’d have Arthur make some work on the fish purée of doom. Miklós really ought to consider it an act of love that I did it while he was away. This time, I thickened and diluted it with some warmed peanut butter, which also probably made it that much more palatable to Arthur Newt. He certainly seemed enthusiastic about it. When he finished off that batch, I mixed the rest of the purée with mashed kidney beans. He started getting pretty darn fussy at this point, though he kept eating more. I’m not sure if he was pissed that it wasn’t the peanut butter version or what. Either way, he did finish off the nasty fish slop, so that was a relief.

The drool of a hard afternoon spent blowing raspberries

Afterwards, we had a lot of fun blowing raspberries at each other, and my rabid baby managed to completely drench his chin in foamy drool. He also did quite a bit of flipping around, and at one point, seemed to be moving his leg forward while on his hands and knees - I thought he might actually be trying to crawl, but he ended up just flopping onto his back again. Ah well, I'll enjoy his immobility while it lasts!

After another extended nap during his 5:00 nursing session, Arthur’s dinner, again, was the inoffensive beans. Well, in offensive in terms of smell, anyways. They do seem to have made him poop a bit more than normal, but that’s ok. I’m a bean fanatic, so I expect my child to be the same. I mixed them with a bit of pumpkin purée for added vitamins (hopefully including a decent amount of vitamin C) and a smoother consistency. Two of my favorite foods combined - lucky boy! Arthur did seem to like the meal quite a bit.

So, Arthur’s Tuesday solid meals were:

• whole wheat orzo

• white fish

• spinach

• green beans

• peas

• parsnip

• rice

• peanut butter

• kidney beans

• pumpkin

Miklós and I, meanwhile, also had beans for dinner, in the form of a lima bean curry. I love me some butter beans, and they were on sale this week, so I decided to make a variation of this recipe that popped up on my Instagram feed. It looked delicious, was Indian-inspired (pleasing Miklós), beany (pleasing me) and had lots of protein, so win-win-win, right? And it was definitely tasty - my type of curry! Here's how I made it:

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Butter Bean Curry in a Hurry (serves 2 hungry people)

Ingredients

• 1 can lima/butter beans (mine was 250g drained)

• 1 cup Greek yogurt

• 1 can diced tomatoes

• 1 onion, minced

• 4 garlic cloves, minced

• thumb-sized piece of ginger, finely grated

• olive oil, for cooking

• 4 cups spinach

• 200 ml water

• 2 tbsp lemon juice

• 2 tsp cumin

• 1 tsp turmeric

• 1 tsp chili powder

• salt & pepper, to taste

• optional spices, to taste: curry powder, fenugreek, MSG, a pinch of cayenne pepper

• cooked rice, to serve

Instructions

1. Heat the olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes or so.

2. Add the ginger and garlic, and cook for another minute.

3. Add a pinch of salt, along with the canned diced tomatoes, butter beans, water, and rest of the spices. Simmer 5-6 minutes.

4. Add the spinach and cook another 2-3 minutes.

5. Remove from heat and stir in the yogurt, lemon, and additional salt & pepper as needed.

6. Serve warm with rice!