Because I’m The Mommy
Mike asked me a few weeks ago what I wanted to do for Mother’s Day, and to be honest, I hadn’t really thought about it. I’ve been so focused on other things, and in some weird way, it hadn’t even occurred to me that we would do anything for it. But I’m a mommy now, so he finally convinced me that we should mark this Mother’s Day, my first, in some special manner.
So we decided to focus on the food, like we always do for holidays and other special occasions.
Somebody really liked the smoked herring spread.
I had also mentioned that I wouldn’t mind some pretty spring flowers.
The boys may have gone a little overboard here, but Mike keeps reminding me that I’ll never have a first Mother’s Day again.
Right now my best gift of all is sleeping off his breakfast in the other room. His daddy is washing up in the kitchen, and I’m taking advantage of this time to write a little. Time is something I’ve had far too little of, lately, with everything that’s going on in our lives.
We’re weeks away from a big upheaval. Balls are still in the air, and I have no idea yet where they – or we – are going to land. It’s incredibly stressful, but I’m trying to remember to breathe, and to cherish these little moments and memories. I took a huge leap of faith for the good of our little family, and I’m trying to trust that the universe will lead us to the right place, to where we’re supposed to be.
I’m the mommy, after all, and mommies do what’s best for their families, whatever it takes.
To all the other mommies out there, I hope your day is everything you want it to be.
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First Foods: Asparagus
We haven’t made it to our local indoor farmers market nearly as often this year as we have in years past, but when we heard a rumor that we might find the season’s first asparagus there today, we woke early and headed on over. We were rewarded with all this:
Two little bundles of spears of varying length and thickness, plus wee radishes, a dozen gorgeous eggs, and a bunch of tiny carrots. I removed the tips from the two fattest asparagus stalks and cooked them in a bit of browned butter, showering them with a bit of salty Pecorino, and when they were cool enough to touch, I gave them to the boy.
I think our little locavore is off to a great start.
I shaved the rest of those two stalks into thin ribbons and tossed them with a mustardy vinaigrette, then piled them on top of some watercress, adding crumbles of soft goat cheese, snipped chive blossoms, and a couple of beautiful pastured eggs fried in that same browned butter.
Parents gotta eat too, you know.
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First Foods: Strawberries
Somebody went to town on some frozen strawberries. Tasty *and* soothing to sore gums.
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First Foods: Bananas
Apparently, bananas are serious business.
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The yolk’s on you!
Poor kid’s got egg on his face. At least he had fun with it.
Julian vs. apple
He can’t really eat an apple slice yet — no teeth. But he can play with it, learn how it feels, manipulate it with his hands, smell it, and taste its juice on his tongue.
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First Foods: Carrots!
The carrots were braised along with some lamb necks we got from the butcher. I fished them out of the pot and mashed them, letting J help himself once they were cool enough to touch. He loved them.
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6 Months
This past Wednesday was Julian’s half-birthday. He’s six months old! And those months have absolutely flown by… I still can’t believe that the tiny, sleepy, squinty little bundle we brought home in September is now this joyful little person who spends much of his time trying to crawl around the apartment. Today we took him in for his six month checkup, and his growth is right on track: he measured 27 inches long, weighed 17 lbs. 4 oz., and his head measured 17 1/4 inches. He’s strong and healthy and developing exactly as he should be, and Mike and I are so, so grateful for that.
On a related note, Julian and I have now made it through six months of breastfeeding, which I am really proud of. Nursing and pumping has been one of the most challenging things I’ve done in life, but it has also been one of the most rewarding. We’re not done yet, but I feel like we’ve passed a big milestone, and met the goal I had set for myself at the start.
As I mentioned after his four month checkup, today’s visit was when we were set to discuss starting solids with his doctor, but things didn’t go quite as I had expected. In fact, it wasn’t much of a discussion at all… after Julian’s exam and immunizations, and a conversation about his surgery next month (more on that in a minute), the doc said simply, “you can start him on solids.”
I blurted out that for the last few weeks, we had been giving him tiny fingertip-tastes of whatever we were eating when he showed interest, everything from avocado to chile-braised goat tacos to anchovies, and she chuckled and said “you should probably start slow, fruits and vegetables, cereals, keep things simple,” and that was the end of it. I had two copies of the six page Google doc I had compiled over the last few months right there in my bag, with all my notes and research outlined on it, and I didn’t even pull them out. I was a little disappointed, but on the other hand, I suppose her lack of super-specific instruction or guidelines means that she trusts us enough not to do anything stupid, to figure it out and do what works for the three of us. I guess we’ll find out – we’ve got his brand new high chair in place and we’re ready to go.
So about that surgery. Julian’s scheduled to go in for an outpatient procedure on April 6th to correct a congenital defect (Mike and I have discussed at great length how much of Julian’s life and health we want to discuss in any public forum, and for his privacy, we’re not going to go into any more detail than this). The specialist who will be performing the procedure has great credentials, and assures us that the procedure is relatively routine and that Julian should come through it just fine. He will be put under general anesthesia, which I find to be the scariest part, and we’re set to meet with the pediatric anesthesiology team on Monday to go over everything and address any questions we have. We feel very good about his doctors and are confident that he’ll be in great hands, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t dreading the whole thing. I’m scared, but trying to keep a cool head and positive attitude.
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