Yummy Pasta, Giggly Baby

Ok, scratch that last guess. Arthur woke up before I even made it to the bathroom this morning, at around 7:40. At least he's been in a pretty reasonable mood today. Miklós feels that nap-time is improving as well, although announced today that Arthur has a new talent: screaming while sleeping. Apparently today he had his eyes closed while fussing, and Miklós thinks he got a bunch of micro-naps in at that time. Naturally, he had a more proper nap on me during the post-nap feeding session.

Surveying his kingdom of bunnies

Arthur's been a bit of a gigglebug the past two days. It's super cute to see the various things that entertain him. Yesterday, my "bopping" him on the nose with my water bottle was a big hit, as was Miklós pulling the elastic of his pants back and forth. Today, the little booger got a big hit out of pulling my hair when I leaned down to kiss him in his crib, and the feeling of me tugging the diaper sticker off. He's a little weirdo.

As for his solids today, Arthur had a nice three-course lunch. Appetizer: parsnip purée. Once again well-received. Entrée: homemade whole-milk kefir. He made a number of faces with this one, but did eat it all, and seemed to want more after each serving. Dessert was his favorite: scrambled egg with tomato in olive oil. He happily ate several spoonfuls of this one, fussing between spoons. But I did cut it short after a number of spoons, because he had eaten quite a lot in one go. Unsurprisingly, he didn't have much of an appetite at the following nursing session.

I'm waaaaaiting for lunch!

So today, Arthur had:

• parsnip purée

• whole-milk kefir

• egg

• tomato

• olive oil

Tomorrow is going to be a long day, so I wanted to make something simple for dinner. I had previously tried this pasta recipe, and while the flavor was great, it got a bit burnt. So I wanted to try again. I made a couple of small tweaks to the recipe, adding an extra cup of water and keeping the heat low to prevent burning. I also added some additional seasonings and some leftover spinach that needed to get used up. And it turned out much better than the first time - I think this will be a repeat! Here's how I made it:

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Easy One-Pot "Yummy" Pasta (serves 2)

Ingredients

• 250g pasta of choice (I used pasta made from green split peas, cuz, you know, protein)

• 1 cup low-fat milk (I actually ended up using kefir this time)

• 350g tomato frito (I used olive-flavored)

• 2.5 cups water

• 1 tsp salt

• optional spices to taste: garlic powder, onion powder, MSG, dried basil, dried oregano

• a handful of spinach or some other greens (optional)

Instructions

1. Combine everything except the spinach in a large pot, and mix.

2. Heat to a low simmer (medium-high heat).

3. Reduce heat to medium-low, and cook while stirring frequently, until the sauce thickens and pasta is tender, about 20 minutes.

4. Add spinach if using, and mix it in, stirring for another 5 minutes or so until it is wilted.

5. Plate and serve warm.