Golden Pig Tales

Tuesday night I sat down to feed Ezra his dinner of chicken casserole and peas with yogurt sauce. He was in his high chair and seemed fairly excited about eating. But I barely got two spoonfuls in his mouth and he was crying like there was no tomorrow. He didn’t want the chicken, he didn’t want peas, he didn’t want me putting that spoon anywhere near his mouth. I took him out of the chair and held him on my lap, because sometimes he just seems to prefer eating that way. But that didn’t seem to make him happy either. I put the bowl down on the table and he reached out for it. Then I decided to just see what he would do if he had access to the food. Ezra immediately, eagerly and happily, grabbed fistfulls of food and shoved them into his mouth, like some little caveman. He seems to have developed a profound desire to take charge of his food, but most strongly at dinner. I guess he’s growing up and this is what meal time might just look like for a while….I can’t wait to take this show on the road next week!

Ezra went to brunch with me and Auntie Darling on Saturday. I had biscuits and gravy (mmmmm…gravy), and Ezra had pancakes! His first pancakes! Ok, so it was actually just 2/3 of a smallish pancake, but he ate it in little bits that I fed to him. He seemed to very much enjoy it.

After brunch, we went to a park and sat on a blanket in the shade - it was a hot day! This was the first for Ezra as well! Ezra crawled around on the blanket, but only to the edge of the blanket. He would reach out and touch the grass, rubbing his hand on it a little, but wouldn’t put his hand down on the ground. Maybe he was afraid of getting dirty - the ground was sort of muddy.

It was a big, fun, exciting day with Ezra. Then this morning I woke up and thought it was Monday, and I was running around trying to get Ezra ready, wondering why Kalab was sitting around being all lazy.

Ezra is in infant 2 now, where everyone eats solid foods. The other day when I dropped off Ezra, I noted that there is a drawer full of baby food jars, and each jar has a name on it. I pulled out my breastmilk bottles and marked them with the bright red tags, and then took out my plastic container of pears for Ezra that I cut up that morning. When I put the pears in the fridge, I think I noticed one of the babies roll his eyes at me, like “oh, there’s Ezra’s crazy hippie mom who makes all of Ezra’s food.” Actually though, I just opened a can of pears and cut them up - not very hard. The can of pears is $1, and I can feed Ezra 3 times from that can. The little jar of baby food pears is $0.55, and only feeds Ezra once. But I do make a lot of Ezra’s baby food. It’s easy to bake or boil or steam vegetables and run them through the food processor. Then I use the ice cube method of storing the food in the freezer. It’s very handy! This weekend I took it one step further and made “Baby’s first chicken casserole” from the baby food cookbook. I guess it turned out OK, because Ezra doesn’t seem to mind eating it : )

I forgot Ezra’s Fussiness Discussion Chart which is still a discussion chart because I try to talk with Ezra about his fussiness. I forgot to ask and discuss the second question and topic Hunger.

I think I need to update the Fussiness Discussion Chart with Possible Ear Ache, Coughing, Snot Stuffing Noise, Need To Shit, Fall On Head, Fall And Tired, Hungry For Milk, Hungry For Food?

Tonight it was Hungry For Milk with Teething that woke him that we discussed. I only said fuck once during the entire discussion.

Ezra learned about the goodness that is cheese today! I gave him some good old Tillamook cheddar cut into little baby bite-sized pieces, and he had some of the pieces in between bites of sweet potato. He seemed to enjoy the cheese - and maybe even enjoyed the sweet potatoes a little more than usual…because he has already figured out that everything is better with a little cheese!

For the first time, I cooked breakfast for Ezra and -v- and me. Ezra was able to join in the breakfast fun by eating small piece of waffle fed to him by -v-. Ezra also had a side of apple sauce with his waffles while -v- and I had a side of two sausage links. Some day Ezra will be able to enjoy the taste of fat and meat of a hot sausage, but for now he will have to enjoy my waffles.

Potatoes! Ezra LOVES sweet potatoes.

Ezra likes sweet potatoes a little bit more than he likes avocado, but the kid does love him some creamy green stuff. A few more weeks and we can add some chopped up tomato and spices, and me and Kalab can sit on the couch with Ezra and eat chips and guac. Yummy! Here are Ezra’s food likes and dislikes thus far, 10 being favorite, 1 being yucky:

10. sweet potato

9. avocado

8. Cheetos Natural Puffs (oops!)

7.Bread Crusts

6. Peas

5. Banana

4. Papaya

3. Mango

2. Oatmeal

1. Rice Cereal

Ezra was like “no way!” on the oatmeal today, so I tried some banana. He did eat a little banana, but not much. I was hungry after trying to feed Ezra, so I made myself a turkey sandwich with cheese, which I ate while holding Ezra. He kept grabbing for my sandwich, so I held it up to him, and he took a bite of my sandwich! He really liked the crust of the bread. He got mad when I took it away, so I let him chew/suck on it, and when he finished it, he whined and grabbed at my sandwich until I gave him a little more. But he seemed to try and swallow chunks that were too big, too often, and he kind of gagged and threw up. But still wanted more bread. I am not sure what I should try and feed him tomorrow…

Ezra’s medication routine is getting more and more challenging. We’ve added amoxicillin to his daily regiment of Zantac and flouride, and top it off with a dose or two of Tylenol for his earache or tooth/gum aches. It’s like we’ve got an old person living with us what with all the prescription meds and droppers lying around the kitchen counter. If Ezra could talk, he could bond with his grandparents and great grandpa about all the medications they have to take every day and how it’s such a pain in the butt to keep track of all of them.

Ezra ate some avocado today and he was really excited about it. Combined with last night’s positive potato experience, and I am feeling better about the future of Ezra and solid foods.  But oatmeal is still not something he’s showing much excitement about.  Maybe he wants his grains as bread.

Ezra had his first taste of banana today. It was sort of like a banana milk shake without the shake. He seemed to enjoy the mashed up banana mixed with breast milk more than the rice pudding mixed with breast milk because after spitting out one mouth full he’d reach for the bowl and spoon and was happy to let another serving to be shoveled into mouth.

He did appear to eat some of the banana, but most of the banana did ooze from mouth.