ILX Parenting 5: I'm a big kid now

This morning K wanted banana. First, she rejected the whole banana, in the peel. Then she rejected the piece I broke off for her because it was not "big". Then I tried to give her what was left of the still-in-peel part. Also no good. So then I broke off a "big" piece and she said NO! So, almost ready to give up, I broke the "big" piece into two unequal pieces. Now she was happy.

The speed with which an upper respiratory ailment can travel from Ivy's daycare to my body is astounding.

xp, giving J bananas is the worst. there is a 1 in 10 chance he will actually eat it, 9 times out of 10 i have mushy, mashed banana that i can either throw it to waste or eat it. i don't like wasting food but i hate eating mashed bananas

I had banana rejection yesterday! She's normally a big banana eater, but I gave her one with a big brown spot on it and she flat-out refused. So I grabbed one from a newer bunch of bananas and she totally scrutinized it so that I'd have to bite off even the slightest discoloration that might resemble a brown spot. And she didn't like when I bit off a small spot from the side, so I ended up taking these huge bites. Oh well. At least she got some of it.

Oh and to cap it all off, about ten minutes later she apparently still had a bite of banana in her mouth, which she didn't want to swallow for whatever reason, so she spit it back up into my palm.

haha

the look michael throws at me when mashed banana is attempted is astounding. squash also appears to come across as a grave insult.

i did trick him into eating the aquash by eating my own bowl of orange mush (awesome orange much, shakshuka, not squash because i am not a gross animal). as a result i am considering sitting down with 2 spoons, a bowl of mashed banana for him, and a bowl of hummus for me. parenting appears to be a series of well-meaning lies.

well that series of typos and misspellings belies how much dude slept last night yikes

i love squash but shakshuka sounds fucking amazing, thanks dude

always on the lookout for good breakfasts, i make huevos rancheros and breakfast tacos a lot and shakshuka seems to have a similar vibe

oh man we eat it at least once a week, its the best

you have a good recipe?

my father in law makes a great shakshuka. TBH it tastes pretty different from huevos rancheros because it's so much more tomatoey and stewier.

ill dig up our recipe when i get home!

my vague memory is that you basically just simmer some canned tomatoes and a little olive oil and whatever else you want to put in (bell peppers, spices, etc.) and you drop in the eggs and just leave them to cook in the stew (don't stir them).

thanks jjj and hurting

you want to do it in a deep pan and with enough tomato and liquid that the eggs are really sitting in it, if that makes sense.

yea i was picturing a deep cast iron skillet

yeah we use a le creuset that we got from our registry

http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2010/04/shakshuka/

I prefer peppers with a little more firepower than in that recipe. Also, it is so bomb when eaten with Trader Joe's garlic naan.

that recipe looks delicious

Seems I make it to ILX once a week if not every ten days.

I am kept busy. I feel I need to read books. When I was pregnant I read everything I could about pregnancy and baby until age 2. August will be two in 24 days and I feel I need to read up on toddler stuff, like behavior, activities, all of that. I have stuff online and books in mind but no time to read. Been sleeping soundly these past few days, thanks to CS Sleepytime Tea (I swear) and the thought of staying up past my bedtime to catch up on reading and other projects just isn't appealing because I am loving how it feels in the morning after a great night of solid sleep. I don't know if I am sleep nursing, don't care.

estela:That story, geeeez, ugh!

joygoat: I guess you have a week or so left? Great to hear, congratulations!!!!

Made shakshuka for the family last night and it was a huge hit!

haha i made it for breakfast this morning and it was awesome

sweet!

I had only known this dish by the name "Eggs in Hell" -- not sure which I like better now.

So uh Michael has learned to whistle

I mean not well or anything, but it's super weird. I brought this on myself by using whistling songs at him to calm him down - freaked me out the first time he did it.

joygoat: I guess you have a week or so left? Great to hear, congratulations!!!!

So yeah this isn't going to happen. Long story, all makes sense on some level, could have been much worse (say, if the kid had already been born), but it still sucks.

Time wise it is actually kind of a mixed blessing and it will happen sometime in the next 12 months, hopefully.

Damn, sorry to hear that dude.

jjj, that's pretty amazing actually.

I'm sorry, jg. That's so disappointing. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you.

We switched to a Beco Gemini carrier and it's like a million times better than the Ergo we had. This could be life changing.

That's the one we used and we were pretty happy with it. Admittedly, I favored it for kind of stupid vain reasons -- we bought it before the kid was born and I didn't like all these crunchy looking baby slings they were pushing on us, and the gemini was black and looked like a flak jacket. Seems stupid in restrospect.

Ha! When Jeff first put it on I said it looked like a flak jacket!

"Ok Ivy we're going in. Watch my six, we're gonna be taking heavy fire."

lol

Not that you all would have any reason to know this, but K and I are very different heights, so we bought a different carrier than the ergo for her (lots of peeps saying that if you are under 5'4" the ergo just doesnt fit right).

ergo worked great for us for a long period when J would pretty much only nap while in motion. we took a lot of walks and having him face inward in the ergo worked pretty well. now that he's older and has been napping a crib for a while, we don't really use it. it would be nice to have a carrier that would allow him to also face outward. (though he's also walking now anyways)

I like the beco because of the flak-jacketitude of it, of course. It just has more structure and less floppy than the other ones. Also not having to latch a buckle below my neck is much much better with a coat on. Head support is better. Can do front facing. Only annoying thing is you can't one handed unsnap the buckles. Now I just need to get some bad ass drool pads for the arm straps.

Carrier is pretty much my only option for transit. We're going to have to use it as long as possible, at least until she can move herself around and sit in a bus seat. I refuse to take a stroller on the bus.

We've only used our Ergo a couple of times because the ankle I fractured before Christmas still aches if I carry extra weight. So I have to take the pushchair on the bus, and Stet prefers to use a ring sling. The Ergo will end up on Ebay at this rate :(

We really didn't use the carrier a lot because K got so big so fast. I'm only 5'9 and H is 5'3", so it became difficult quickly -- not only her weight, but her length -- those long kicky legs were dangerous.

I know not many of your are in the DC area, but if so, I just learned that the dinosaur/fossil exhibit at the Smithsonian will be closed for the next 5 YEARS for renovations. So if you're around here in the next couple weeks and your kid loves dinos (as my little girl does), now's the time.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/smithsonian-dinosaur-hall-to-close-april-28-for-five-year-renovation/2014/01/17/acba089e-7f3d-11e3-95c6-0a7aa80874bc_story.html

Can we talk for a second about how formula poop smells like nutty death?

It's the only kind of baby poop I've known.

Trust me, it'll get much worse when they're older and start laying down real poops!

Enjoy!

Breast milk poop has proven to be pretty benign for the most part, although this baby can rip a fart that will bring tears to your eyes. I'm not looking forward to how things change once she starts eating solid food in another month or so.

Speaking of poop, Ivy has suddenly gone from pooping basically all the time, between every diaper change, to pooping once a day. She's as jolly as ever and her stomach isn't hard or anything so I guess this is just a thing that happens?

know not many of your are in the DC area, but if so, I just learned that the dinosaur/fossil exhibit at the Smithsonian will be closed for the next 5 YEARS for renovations. So if you're around here in the next couple weeks and your kid loves dinos (as my little girl does), now's the time.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/smithsonian-dinosaur-hall-to-close-april-28-for-five-year-renovation/2014/01/17/acba089e-7f3d-11e3-95c6-0a7aa80874bc_story.html

― take a piece of mr. baxter's hand (how's life), Wednesday, April 9, 2014 2:17 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Good tip, we'll be in DC this weekend! We have to go.

BTW K used to projectile poop in the early days of breastfeeding -- she could spray it at least several feet and hit the wall from her changing table. All that gas buildup I guess.