Okay, now I'll try to lift the mood with some cute pictures of Béla. I still find the extra time and processing of the videos a bit daunting, so I'm going ahead with just a few pictures, and I'll leave the videos for another day. I'm also not doing one giant post with all the latest stuff, but rather just the stuff up to about his 7 month birthday at the end of March. There's big news coming after that (he can crawl! and pull himself up on his crib and on the couch!), but these feats are better served by video, so I'll stick to a nice easy post for now, which somehow involves a lot of pictures of him eating. He does eat a lot, but I think it's also because it's an easy time to take a picture of him, as he's confined to a chair and basically stationary.
The first couple pictures are from his first supper of spaghetti bolognese. It wasn't actually spaghetti, but rather a thicker, wavy-edged noodle, that I thought (rightly) would be easier for him to manage. On websites of people practicing baby-led weaning (the idea of giving babies regular food instead of spoon-feeding them purées), photos of babies eating spaghetti are pretty well compulsory, just because it can be so very messy. Many advocate letting them eat in just a diaper, so it's easier to clean up, which we tried...
...until he got goosebumps, so we threw on a dark-coloured shirt to keep him warm. (Now we have a couple of bib-shirts, so it's not such a problem.) And yes, it was messy, but not as ridiculous as I'd expected. Maybe if we'd given it to him his first week, but now his skills are such that most things do make it at least close to his mouth.
The Thursday of this week (a week before Maundy Thursday) was incredibly warm and beautiful, so everyone was out in the city. I'd met up with some women from my prenatal class, who meet up weekly to let the babies play together, and we took a walk by the river to enjoy the sunshine. Afterwards, I wasn't ready to go inside yet, so I met Jeremi at work for a drink on the market square before I had yoga at 6:45. The plan was to hang out with him, and then pass Béla off so they could go home and I could go to yoga. But then we met up with our friends Calin and Susanne. Susanne was waiting to get her haircut, so Calin joined us for a drink, and then we all went out for supper at a new-ish Italian place we hadn't tried yet. The waitress loved Béla and wanted to take him home, and he was very spoiled with childrens' books in Italian, and his very own plate of watermelon for dessert. They were very impressed with the way he ate too. Here he is, going after some spinach pizza:
...until he got goosebumps, so we threw on a dark-coloured shirt to keep him warm. (Now we have a couple of bib-shirts, so it's not such a problem.) And yes, it was messy, but not as ridiculous as I'd expected. Maybe if we'd given it to him his first week, but now his skills are such that most things do make it at least close to his mouth.
The Thursday of this week (a week before Maundy Thursday) was incredibly warm and beautiful, so everyone was out in the city. I'd met up with some women from my prenatal class, who meet up weekly to let the babies play together, and we took a walk by the river to enjoy the sunshine. Afterwards, I wasn't ready to go inside yet, so I met Jeremi at work for a drink on the market square before I had yoga at 6:45. The plan was to hang out with him, and then pass Béla off so they could go home and I could go to yoga. But then we met up with our friends Calin and Susanne. Susanne was waiting to get her haircut, so Calin joined us for a drink, and then we all went out for supper at a new-ish Italian place we hadn't tried yet. The waitress loved Béla and wanted to take him home, and he was very spoiled with childrens' books in Italian, and his very own plate of watermelon for dessert. They were very impressed with the way he ate too. Here he is, going after some spinach pizza:
...and here I am, recounting how Béla grabbed another baby's head with both his hands and tried to bite it, like one would an apple, at the play group. Yup, he really does love to eat. (As an aside, I was out in the park with another mom and her daughter yesterday, and he pulled the same move on her, but settled for just chewing on her hat.)
Here we all are, enjoying our meal. We also went up to Calin and Susanne's place that Saturday for Calin's birthday, which was really fun. They made a pork loin wrapped in seasoned ground pork wrapped in puff pastry. It was fabulous. Unfortunately they're going to be leaving here soon, moving back to Copenhagen at the end of June, which is sad for us. At least now we'll have an extra-good reason to visit Copenhagen!
The day after the Italian restaurant was even warmer and sunnier, so before I met up with some other moms downtown for lunch, I went shopping to buy Béla a sun hat. (Oh, and before that, I brought in a sample of his urine for analysis, because it was two days after he'd finished his antibiotics, and he got the all clear. Hooray!) Unfortunately when I got to the store Béla was fast asleep in the carrier, so I couldn't exactly try the hats on him. Luckily they were all sized by head circumference, and his head had been measured two weeks before at the doctor's, so I had a rough idea of what size I needed. Of course, his head is so giant, that of the 10 or so varieties of summer hats they had at the store I went to, only one came in his size. And so, by process of elimination, here's his adorable new sun hat!
Okay, so the hat itself isn't really that cute, it's really the baby wearing it. (The hat's okay, but when the brim is folded down he looks like an old man out playing golf.)And finally, on the Sunday of that weekend, we had another French brunch at our place, with the theme of eggs. Unfortunately not many people were able to make it, so it was only four of us (plus Béla), but the food was incredible! Here Béla's playing with me and Julia on the couch.
The spread on the side board, with (starting from bottom left, and skipping the blatently obvious things) a baked apple pancake, raisin buns disguised with mascarpone and apricots to look like eggs, two flavoured butters (one with corn and chili, the other with zucchini and garlic), some cheeses, and Grüne Soße, or green sauce, a mixture of several herbs, hard boiled eggs, and some combination of yogurt and/or quark. Julia brought this, as it's a traditional food on Maundy Thursday in her region of Germany (near Frankfurt).
And the spread on the table, with fruit salad inside a melon cut to look like a cracked egg, and marinated eggplant. Not pictured was two cheese souflés, a few baguettes, and crêmes brûlées for dessert. All in all, the food was ridiculously good, and we ate far too much, for both brunch and supper.
Here's Béla tucking into the grüne Soße with some baguette for supper. It looks like he loves it as much as his mom does!
The spread on the side board, with (starting from bottom left, and skipping the blatently obvious things) a baked apple pancake, raisin buns disguised with mascarpone and apricots to look like eggs, two flavoured butters (one with corn and chili, the other with zucchini and garlic), some cheeses, and Grüne Soße, or green sauce, a mixture of several herbs, hard boiled eggs, and some combination of yogurt and/or quark. Julia brought this, as it's a traditional food on Maundy Thursday in her region of Germany (near Frankfurt).
And the spread on the table, with fruit salad inside a melon cut to look like a cracked egg, and marinated eggplant. Not pictured was two cheese souflés, a few baguettes, and crêmes brûlées for dessert. All in all, the food was ridiculously good, and we ate far too much, for both brunch and supper.
Here's Béla tucking into the grüne Soße with some baguette for supper. It looks like he loves it as much as his mom does!
1 comment:
Hi Guys, so sorry to hear about your grandmother Julia. Enjoy your time with family - every day I am reminded just how precious our time is with those we love! Safe travels.
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