Nap Shifts + Noochy Butter Beans

Thursday

Arthur woke up a bit before 7:30. He was pretty grumpy all morning, something exacerbated by his refusal to nap at mid-day. And he was extremely fussy during his 1:00 nursing session; I have no idea why. Maybe he was exhausted and so hungry that the slow flow of milk frustrated him? He was definitely tired; when I would knead my boob to speed up the flow, he started giggling. And he would often fuss for two seconds, and look at me to gauge my reaction, although I wasn't sure what he wanted. Whatever was going on, he didn't really sleep or drink much during that session. So I gave up after 45 minutes or so of that.

Feeling smug after Papa rescued him from a failed nursing session

I was hoping after having an afternoon solid snack, he'd be less hungry, and maybe sleep more at the next nursing session. And he certainly had a big appetite for his snack! We started out with soy yogurt, because it was quick and easy. It took him a bit to get into it, but then he was grunting for more and more and more. When he finished the serving, I gave him some more pieces of zucchini, and he did pretty well with them, not even gagging or spitting them up! I wanted to keep it that way, so when he finished a few pieces, I followed it up with some watered-down peanut butter, to keep that allergen in rotation. And naturally, he demolished that as well. He was pretty impatient, grunting every time there wasn't food in his mouth, and even reaching for the cup of his food to try to remedy matters on his own. Clearly, the dude was a bottomless pit. And when I tried to give him some water from the cup afterwards, he did pretty well with it, taking a few sips without spitting it back out. I was very very relieved when, at the next nursing session, he finally took the much-needed nap, falling asleep almost immediately upon latching.

At dinner, the lucky bugger got to try a new food: grits! I was excited to find cornmeal at Albert Heijn, as I love grits and ate them a lot in high school and college. And I figured they were a good food for babies as well - the perfect consistency! I cooked some up with a bit of soy milk and ghee, and served it to him from the spoon. My suspicion proved correct - Arthur didn't even need time to warm up to the grits; they were an immediate hit, and he wolfed them down.

So, on Thursday, Arthur's consumption of solids consisted of:

• soy yogurt

• zucchini

• peanut butter

• ghee

• soy milk

• corn grits (new food!)

Friday

Before the morning grumps began...

Arthur woke up at 7:40, almost syncing with his mama. He was pretty grumpy for most of the morning, being appeased for a few minutes by one random change of position or activity or another before fussing again and needing to be entertained another way. At one moment, he was calmed down for quite a while by my simply placing my hand over his eyes. He was in a better mood after a morning nap, enough so to catch the admiration of a middle-aged gentleman at Kruidvat, who doted over his smiles and "inquisitiveness."

Arthur had a big appetite for his afternoon snack. We started off with several zucchini spears, which once again, he's been doing a lot better with; no spit-ups and he was able to reach for pieces I left on his high chair table all on his own. We followed that up with the rest of the soy yogurt, in a couple of batches. First, plain yogurt - a hit. Next, mixed with some walnut oil - still a hit. Finally, with some tahini and cinnamon added in, and, you guessed it - a hit. He kept grunting for more and more, fussing when he didn't have a mouthful of the stuff, and reaching for the cup containing it. When I gave him the cup to see what he would do with it, he slurped greedily at the rims, disappointed, I think, that the yogurt wasn't readily available that way.

Afterwards, the little guy was a bit dazed - I think it was a food coma. Like the previous day, he chose to nap on me during the 3:00 feeding instead of during his 12:00 walk or 1:00 nursing session. It's kind of cool having him nap during nursing sessions or walks, because it gives him so many opportunities for naps, that he can either take or leave. So he kind of gets to choose his own nap time. I wonder if this shift to a later afternoon nap will continue, or if it's just these past couple of days. It will be interesting to see, but the pattern at the moment seems to be a 10:00 nap and a 3:00 nap, which seems like pretty solid spacing, honestly.

I like to give easier and less messy foods at dinnertime, when I'm trying to have a meal at the same time, so it was more of the grits from the previous day then. He was again fussy at dinner, but very enthusiastic about his meal. And I think the grits make much pleasanter poops than the zucchini, for instance, which resulted in big chunks of peel interspersed throughout dark and stinky poops.

Which brings Arthur's Friday solid intake to:

• zucchini

• soy yogurt

• walnut oil

• tahini

• cinnamon

• corn grits

• ghee

• soy milk

Fridays we always go with takeout or frozen meals for dinner, so I didn't cook then, but I did try a new way to prepare beans on Thursday. Jacob King always posts beautiful vegan dishes, so I decided to use this post as inspiration to make some noochy butter beans, which, to up the bean factor, I served with a side of green beans. They were pretty darn tasty! Ok, butter beans are like crack to me, so I think any sauce would work with them, but this was a nice one. Here's how I made them:

---

Noochy Brothy Butter Beans (serves 2)

Ingredients

• Beans:

  • 8 garlic cloves, minced

  • 2 onions, minced

  • olive oil, for cooking

  • 1 cup broth (I used 1 mushroom bouillon cube + 1 cup water)

  • 6 tbsp nutritional yeast

  • 1 tsp miso paste

  • 2 cans butter/lima beans (mine were 250g drained)

  • black pepper, to taste

  • optional: MSG, to taste

• Tofu:

  • 1 block extra firm tofu (mine was 180g)

  • ½ tsp garlic powder

  • ½ tsp onion powder

  • ½ tsp paprika

  • 1 tbsp soy sauce

  • ½ tsp miso paste

Instructions

1. Fry up the minced garlic and onion until they start to brown.

2. Add the remaining ingredients, then keep mixture simmering to reduce.

3. Use your fingers to crumble the tofu into large chunks, and toss in the seasonings.

4. Fry in the air fryer at 200 degrees Celsius and bake until crispy.

5. Mix into the beans, and enjoy!