Food, Glorious Food!

The preferred foods so far are rice, sweet potato, chicken, and beef -- and, apparently, high-chair tray. I'm beginning to feel even more like I'm raising a very slow-growing puppy.

We went to the pediatrician this morning for shots. Doc says he's doing great, 50th percentile for weight and head size but 90th plus for length! Apparently he takes after his daddy. In the waiting room I gave Mowgli a few blocks to pull apart and fiddle with. He was particularly entranced with a green one which almost matched the pull-ring on one of his travel-seat toys. He'd hold the block beside the ring and look from one to the other with an expression of profound thought. I don't know if he was intrigued by the colors being so close or offended that they didn't match. Either way, the nurse and doctor thought it remarkable.

After shots and a good long consoling nursing session, we went to the market. I'd intended to restock my dried apricot supply, but ended up shopping for veggies and fruits as well. The goal: making Mommy a good cow without making Mommy the size of a cow. Lunch was zucchini, summer squash, and snow peas with rosemary and a little omega-3 enriched margarine-stuff, along with a low-fat carrot cornbread from a mix plus other goodies. I like using cornbread as a foundation for pumpkin or carrot breads, and seeing the market's excellent but fattening muffins had put me in the mood for cinnamon, walnuts, and raisins with my carrots. It was quite good, but now I'm jonesing for another piece.

Mowgli likes the market -- nifty flags on the ceilings, pretty-colored things in the bins, and lots of people to fuss over him. He's now been chatted to by women of pretty much every possible color, shape, size, and nation of origin on one trip or another.

Milk Proteins, Colic, and The Joy of Soy

When Mowgli was a month or so old, he began to have screaming fits every evening until just about five minutes shy of the "Okay, we're calling the emergency room" point. Sometimes these fits were combined with cold, clammy skin and shivers, and we felt like terrible parents for letting him get a chill.

I called the pediatrician, of course, and the nurse told me colic was perfectly normal. We should tough it out. It would go away and he'd turn loveable again. I read books. Most of them said the same thing.

Then I happened to have an unusual day in my life and didn't have milk, or cheese, or anything of that sort. Mind you, this is a rare thing. I am a cheese fiend. Mowgli spent an evening cooing, nursing, and going to bed early. Aha, I thought. Sure enough, dairy led to screams and chills the next time I had some.

With the exception of one slip, that's the last time I had some. Now I'm reading labels ardently and skipping a lot of foods one might not expect to contain whey, casein, or other such extracts. Soymilk, however, seems to be fine, as is soy-based yogurt. Thank heavens! Otherwise I'd starve, and then so would my breast-fed little boy. Now, though, no more chills, no more screams, and no more of that mysterious emerald-green grass-clipping-looking stuff in the diaper either. (TMI?)

Since then, I finally hit a book that said something like "Actually this is common." There are medical studies out. Apparently more babies than anyone used to think are sensitive to milk proteins, and getting rid of those might just solve the colic problem for other people, too. Besides, soybeans are supposed to be good for women. I can't vouch for any objective facts about myself to go with that, but without the dairy, I do feel better in some diffuse and puzzling way. Maybe it's just a sense of lowered guilt. It's difficult being a cow; soybeans just hang out in the sunshine, making really wonderful shade for a kid willing to lie between the rows, until they get harvested.

Mommy's Ridiculously Healthy Rice Pudding

1/2 cup wild rice
1 1/2 cup water
1/4 tsp each cinnamon, ginger, cardamom
1/8 tsp allspice
small dash black pepper

Simmer together until rice is fluffy and water has vanished.

Add:
2 cups DHA-fortified soymilk
8 chopped dried sulphite-free apricots
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tbsp honey

Simmer together until thickish, then chill.

Hmm. Now I have to go have a helping. This wasn't for Mowgli, as you could tell from the honey, but for his poor run-down mother who needs her minerals. This should be rich in zinc, iron, calcium and a whole bunch of rarer and more exotic goodies, as well as having that dab of locally-grown honey to help me combat the extra drag of local allergens. Besides, there's something about rice pudding that's extra-pampering, even if you make it for yourself.

What Counts as a Word?

Mowgli is now five months old and making syllables like mad. Some of them are consistent: "Muh" noises, once or several times, indicate distress or hunger; "Da" syllables are attention-seekers; "Bub-bub-bub" seems to mean an uncomfortable diaper. I'm getting a little better at catching these.

Last night, however, he was yanking the ladybug on his bouncy chair and playing "If You're Happy and You Know It" 4,723 times. "Are you enjoying that ladybug?" I asked.

"Lah-dah-bah," he answered in contented tones.

He wouldn't say it again, though. Probably it was simple parroting. He's a chatty little soul. I'm looking forward to the real conversations, as he seems to have a great deal to say.

Stroller Time

Is winter over yet?