While I’m sad about this phase of my life drawing to a close, I’m simultaneously really excited by the way baby is growing. Her first tooth emerged today! It’s a little crooked, but that tiny, hard, white bone has definitely arrived. She wasn’t even fussy in the lead up. I wonder if that one tooth needs to be brushed each day.
In the last few weeks, baby has learned to sit, eat, and she can even close her eyes before being dunked in the pool. Spoon feeding her mush is like torture for us both, but she’s not too bad with holding bits of broccoli and gnawing at it with her gums. I’m even noticing little hints of communication which makes me think my child is a genius! Although there’s always a lot of guesswork on my part to get the message.
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| Baby's reaction to pureed food |
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| But she loves holding food and eating it herself! Look at that cheeky grin! |
Last weekend our family celebrated (a belated) Chinese New Year. Mum put on an enormous spread of delicious, spicy dishes, including a big wok-full of acar (cucumber and carrot pickles in peanut sauce). Mum made everything from first principles so it was a huge effort. Growing up, we used to ‘help’ mum by shelling the peanuts and pounding them in a mortar and pestle. We also used to fight over the middle bits of the cucumber, the seeds, which get cut out before pickling. I have no idea what mum did with those bits this year :( .
Of course, Chinese New Year was another first for baby girl. As she is too little to wish everyone ‘Gong Xi Fa Cai’, we helped her give oranges to all our family instead and she got ‘lucky’ [read: cash] red envelopes in return.
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| Baby getting her first lucky envelope from Gong Gong and Poh Poh |
During the afternoon food coma, Dane and I left baby with her aunt and raced off to the movies. I finally got to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens! It was such a great film! So exciting! So intense! My favourite part was on the green planet, when they’re nearly overrun by stormtroopers, and then suddenly the screen is filled with rebel fighter planes swooping in to save the day. It made me grin.
I’m in a bit of a food funk at the moment. I just don’t know what I want to cook these days. I have taken to thumbing through cook books for inspiration, but I find I’m not being grabbed by anything. A few months ago I was right in the middle of a chorizo phase - breakfast, lunch, and dinner! I was throwing it into pastas, salads, sandwiches, fry ups, savoury tarts, whatever; and meal inspiration came really easily because it’s such a fun ingredient and so tasty! Chorizo is also super simple to cook and keeps well in the freezer so you can have some on hand whenever you want. Before chorizos, I had a serious obsession with chicken wings.
Has this happened to you? Can you tell me your last ingredient mania so I can steal your ideas? I just need to be seized by another yummy food-phase and I’m sure I’ll be off and running.
