Food for Thought

Last night we had a memorable beginning to our Memorial Day. In typical hubris-laden fashion, I decided that Domi could eat what we were eating at a restaurant yesterday. I mean, it was nothing he hadn't tried before, avocados, beans, rice; all these things, he's had at home, and he hasn't ever had a bad food reaction, so I was like, "why not?". Oh my, let me tell you why not.
I've been slightly blase about the whole- only one new food at a time, for two weeks, then and only then try something new- dogma. I will admit there have been times when I've made something and have given Domingo a little bit, nothing from the "thou shalt not before X age" list, but still: waffles, bread, yogurt, cheese. Usually it's just the tiniest little taste, but sometimes it's a few decent sized bites. Such was the case yesterday, pretty much all day. He had about a tablespoon of mashed-up waffles for breakfast, which he fed to himself, he's gotten really good at it! Then a few hours later he had a few little flakes from a flour tortilla. Then right before we left to meet tia Hez he had probably a tablespoon, maybe two, of banana. He hadn't eaten any vegetables all day, he was acting like he wanted to eat, so I said what the hey, here's some guacamole. It wasn't spicy at all, and like I said, Domingo has had avocado before without much ado.
Domingo is a real social eater. He sees you eating, and he wants to join in the fun. And it's what YOU'RE eating that he wants to try. So I figured I should encourage this gastronomic adventurousness before it's all, "just hot dogs and chick fingers for me please". Can you see I'm desperately trying to justify my actions here?
So after two saltines and a half teaspoon of pretty tasty guacamole, I said why not give him some of these tasty refried beans? They probably are only made with LARD and lord knows what else, but they taste darn good, so why not? Oh, and here's some carrots, and a little bit of rice. Yeah, I'm an idiot.
No problems, no rashes, no fussiness, nothing. Flash forward to 11:30 p.m. all three of us sleeping soundly when I hear some teeny tiny retching sounds. I woke up in a panic and grabbed Domi, who wasn't crying, just throwing up the disgusting carnival of yuckiness I had ladled into him a few hours before- in our bed, and all over my shirt. It wasn't that much baby spew really, but holding Domi and feeling his little body heave was enough to make me loose my mind. Thoughts of E. coli, or salmonella raced through my head, I thought we should take him to the ER to pump his stomach, or to check for neurological damage- that would be more appropriate for mom rather than baby. Earlier that day Domi woke up from his nap in a puddle of drool, I instantly thought, maybe that was vomit and I didn't realize it, maybe there is something horribly horribly wrong? Or maybe, just maybe, this baby who doesn't normally eat much solid food, had a bunch of things he's never had and it gave him an upset stomach?
Thank goodness cooler heads prevailed. Chris said, "huh, must have a tummy ache", cleaned up the mess, and went back to sleep.
Domingo, once again, never ceases to amaze. He didn't even cry, but exhibited an almost tia Leticia-esque ability to puke and return instantly back to normal. He fell asleep pretty much the second after we cleaned him up. And woke up this morning totally fine, probably not even leery of all things re-fried. But it's the all white diet for the next few days for little D- all milk all the time, maybe some pears, maybe. We'll see how long it takes for mommy to get over her night terrors of Domingo having eaten some kind of flesh eating bacteria, then we can start back with the more exciting fare.

Lämplig Barn

Isn't it amazing what you can learn on the internet? Here's my little Lämplig Barn (Good Baby) getting in touch with his Scandanavian roots. Although he's only 3/16ths Swedish, he adores all things IKEA. That's my boy.

Confessions of a Blog Delinquent

I know it's been awhile. But I figure most people who read this blog actually take part in the activities I describe, so we're all right!
A bunch has happened since my last post.
Last weekend was the best first mother's day a lady could ask for. Tia Leticia and I ran another 8k and finished 4 minutes faster than the last one, on a much hillier course. It felt really good, and I think, even though this week I've been sick with Domi's miserable cold and haven't run at all, that I've turned a corner with my running. It feels really good and easy to go out for a 4 mile run three days a week. Instead of feeling like a chore, and dreading it, I really look forward to it again. Then we went to Oak Park for Freya's birthday party, which was great. Then it was BACK to Morris for our Mother's day celebration.
The weekend before last we celebrated Tio Gustavo's and Abuela's birthdays. Domi was such a good baby at the restaurant, he was so mellow and eventually just fell asleep in Abuela's arms. That was his birthday present to her!



This weekend we had some visitors. The twins and tia Leticia came up and we had such a wonderful time.


It was such a beautiful weekend, we had a picnic at the zoo, tried to take a bath together (but Domi was a little overwhelmed) breakfast at our favorite brunch place, back to the zoo, listened to the Cubs beat the Sox, AGAIN!! and we still have a whole day of weekend left!




As much as I love going to Morris to hang out with the Abuelos, there is something really nice and relaxing about staying home. While they are in Paraguay I think we'll really take advantage of being in the city, and really on a day like today, there's just no better place to be!

Eight Months!

Happy month day little one! It's that time again already, I can't believe it, the month in review. Time seems to just fly by. The milk supply crisis/nursing strike is over, now it seems the happiest place on earth is not Disney world, but under my shirt. Oh well, I'm actually very relieved, we can hopefully go at least another month without any supplements, as my freezer stash is back up to snuff.
You continue to be just the sweetest boy there is. You got sick yesterday and you were such a trooper. You had a pretty high fever, and if everyone and my mother wasn't a doctor, I'd probably have taken you in to see your pediatrician today, not a fun way to spend your month-day! Although it's extremely stressful that you have a temperature, you are not acting sick at all, you're just your usually good natured self, just a little less energetic. So we'll wait another day and if it doesn't go away on it's own, we'll be back at the doc's a little earlier than originally planned.
Your two "eye" teeth are just about poking through, and hopefully that will give us a short hiatus from the painful teething, until the next round of course. You don't really fuss or cry but I can tell it bothers you because you bite anything that's close by and have been waking up a bit more than usual just to gnaw on whatever happens to be around, my elbow, a pacifier, Oslo.
You've learned a bunch of new things, the cutest of which is the "old man face", at least that's what Ana calls it. You scrunch up your nose and eyes and smile this big gummy grin, it's really a hoot. At first I thought maybe it was your eye sight and that you couldn't see well, so were squinting, but you kept doing it over and over and laughing, so it must be a new game you've made up. You started waving hello and bye-bye and some times wave for no discernible reason at all. You also started making "tortitas para mama" and clapping your hands together. So I think tia Leticia may be right, that it's time for signs!! Because one thing is for sure, you definitely have an opinion about everything, and know what you want, and woe to the person who can't figure out what it is. That person is usually me, so for my own sanity, we're starting to teach you some signs for things that you seem interested in, like "dog", "duck", "light", and "fan" (oh how you love the ceiling fan!) and some signs that would make our lives easier, like "more", "sleep" and "eat". It's a fascinating concept, and I'm sure it works, because the twins did great with the signs before they could speak, which seems like ages ago now! The book I have said that babies as young as 6 months can start signing, I'm somewhat skeptical (about the age thing only), and definitely don't want to put any pressure on you to do it, so we'll keep trying and if you seem interested then terrific, if not, then no big deal. For now I show you a sign and any time you do anything with your hands in response, I have a giant celebration for your inadvertent hand flapping. You seem pretty amused, but have yet to put it all together.
Your "real" talking is taking off too, you babble, sing and scream non-stop these days, that is until you see the twins and then you are content to just watch their hijinx from the relative safety of mommy's lap. You're favorites are "dadada" and "si", to your father's delight. A few days ago I said something like "Domingo, tienes sueno?" and you said right on cue "SI" in a very loud tragic sounding voice, it was pretty funny.
The weather really is getting nicer, and we are spending more and more time outside. It's wonderful. Each month that goes by gets better than the one before, and I love you more each day, even though it doesn't seem humanly possible. You continue to amaze me my darling boy.

Fun in the sun...

More pictures from this weekend! Here's the pinata that Domi found a little disturbing. Once the kids started beating the weird orange cat-bear, Domi started to cry. He's such a sensitive new age guy.



















See:



















And finally the two Domis. They have more than just names in common, sometimes their bellies don't let their shirts button!!