Delicious food my #1 won't eat

In honor of my daughter's picky eating, I'll be occasionally posting recipes of food I make that we think she MAY be willing to try but either won't or doesn't like it. And in the end, she cries about it. Here's today's attempt. 

Michele's Creamy Spicy Mac 'N Cheese 

Takes about an hour, including prep. Serves 4-6. (Anything can be swapped for less fattening versions, and seasoning can be changed for other seasonings or omitted. For example, 2c low fat milk and soy sauce instead of whole milk/cream or Worcestershire sauce.)

2c pasta (elbows or lumachine)

1c whole milk 

1c heavy cream

4tbsp butter + a bit to rub on casserole dish

1/4c flour

4 shakes Worcestershire sauce (1/4tsp)

4 shakes mustard powder (1/4tsp)

10 shakes of salt (1/2 tsp)

4 turns of pepper (1/4tsp)

8oz white sharp cheddar (save 1/2 to 3/4 cup for topping)

Garlic clove, cut in half

Couple of shakes Cayenne & Paprika  (1/4tsp each)

Bread crumbs (1/2 c)

Rub garlic on inside of casserole dish

Rub butter on inside of casserole dish

Cook pasta. 

In large pot, about 3-4 qts:

Melt butter

Add flour, salt, pepper, mustard stir with whisk

Add Worcestershire. Whisk until smooth and bubbly. 

Add milk & cream. Whisk constantly until boil. Boil 1 minute. 

Add all cheese except 1/2c reserved for topping. Stir until melted. 

Add pasta to pot. Mix cheese into macaroni.

Put mixture in casserole dish. 

Mix remaining cheese with paprika, bread crumbs, and cayenne. Toss with hands until cheese is coated with seasonings.  Put evenly on top of mixture in casserole dish. 

Cook 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Uncovered. 

A fun day at the zoo and eating blueberries herself

Since Papa had to go to the office to get the mini harddrive her forgot on Friday night, we decided to all go to the Central Park Zoo this morning (sort of near his office). The Children's Zoo isn't a petting zoo as I recall it being years ago but Carolina had a great time at both zoos nonetheless.

She looked very serious in all the photos but in fact had fun. She had her "I'm checking this out first" face on. Then we went home to nap as it was too warm for her to relax and nap outside.

Then, tonight, she fed herself two bowls of frozen blueberries. She's doing more and more self feeding. I've never discouraged her nor forced her to. I've just presented it and knew when she was ready, she would. I've often fed her still sincebits easier than clean up but now she's asserting herself. So she does her own cereal with milk, yogurt, and blueberries.

And she loves to drink from a real cup but that's mostly met with her wearing a good amount. We make do and the Nalgene sippy cup is great. So whenever that works out...

Same with potty training. She's not QUITE ready but I see signs that tell me we are getting closer. Again, no pressure. I don't mind diapers that much. Never really have. Even the super-pooper ones.

Toddlers don't have a chance against Zombies

I've thought about this for a long while now and figured I'd write it down. I'm sure most people, let alone parents will think I'm nuts but here goes...

The reason you never see toddlers in zombie movies is because:

• They always start having a tantrum at the worst possible time to make any noise
• They talk almost constantly when awake
• They nap at the least convenient time for escaping
• They need to eat a lot but only when they want, and are so picky they'd just end up starving while on the run
• They start talking to strangers or screaming when one approaches. Either way, their little feet aren't quick enough to escape zombies.

So, the reason is, they'd never make it.

I mean, in a zombie chase do you think the single, adult male would have a better chance of escaping or the toddler who might try to make friends and/or just a lot of noise to attract the hive.

I think my toddler might survive, if I start to spike her milk AND have a constant rotation of Dora videos on hand. And a chupon (pacifier).  And blueberries. But still, the making noise thing at the wrong time would totally come up.

There ends my thoughts on toddlers and zombies.

Really, don't ask why. 


Back to reality, Miss C has been enjoying cupcakes and has been a very good girl the past few days. She's mostly good but the past 3-4 days has been a long streak. I think as long as we can go outside to the park or a playgroup at the local library (which I refer to as "baby chaos at the library"), things are better. That, and my willingness to give her what she wants to eat. Really, my willingness to figure out what she wants to eat. I wish she could tell me more, that would help. I think.

PS I've been reading Trevor Corson's Secret Life of Lobsters. I like it but I really liked The Story of Sushi much better. Mostly because I don't care much about Lobsters but it's still a good read. I'm nearly done and can't wait to start the next book in my pile which is Through the Language Glass. Truly I should be working on my DM course syllabus, but I haven't. Bad, me.

15 month checkup

Rock 'n Roll t-shirt at the park

So far, so good. She's still about the same height (I forgot to ask exactly how tall, but my last attempt at measuring her she was about 29"). And has lost a little weight at 18.8lbs now. Apparently, this age is common to lose a little weight since they are so active.

The only concern was with her calcium levels. The doctor didn't measure anything but since Carolina has a bit of trouble with dairy, I haven't been giving her as much milk as other kids get. She does love ice cream, frozen yogurt, yogurt and cheese. I mostly give her cheese and some frozen stuff.

So they gave me a Vitamin D supplement, probiotics (again), and want me to get her a calcium supplement. Additionally, she's to eat ice cream pretty regularly -- if her belly can handle it. Her brain, as I knew, needs the fat. Apparently, ice cream is a good source of milk fat and calcium in the smallest possible "package".


If she can handle the gas and diarrhea, then I can give her more milk and cheese. I can deal with the super stinky poop cleanup if it means she's getting enough fat and calcium.

Otherwise, she's talking up a storm, basically running around and obsessed with stairs. I think it's fair to say she's pretty obsessed since, even if there is ONE stair, she'll go up and down it until you pull her away from it. Yeah...

I've started to read The True History of Chocolate (The True History of Chocolate, Second Edition) and it's pretty good. Made me really want chocolate every night, and so bought some Ben & Jerry's Chocolate (no other stuff, just the straight chocolate) ice cream. Man that's good stuff. I want to give Carolina some but Chocolate makes her crazy. I don't mean she gets hyper after, I mean she thinks it tastes so good she's a little crazy for it. I'll just leave it to her dad to deal with giving her chocolate ice cream when I'm not looking :)

What I learned in the book that I didn't know is the reason you're not supposed to give babies chocolate isn't the caffeine and sugar, which is bad, but dark chocolate is actually toxic to small animals (and human babies). It's only larger humans that can process it. It's something about the alkaloids. Yeah, I read but I don't remember all the details as well as I used to.

I know Carolina isn't a baby-baby anymore, but I'm still careful with the food she gets. Probably too careful.

I need to get a new recipe for zucchini bread-muffins. The one I have uses too much olive oil, which is weird anyway, and tastes too oily.

Today she said "mouth", and she keeps trying to say "shoes" by saying "sssssooo". When she wants to watch Dora, she'll sit in her little seat (a totally awesome 1970s Costco chair, which is a rip off of an Eames design) and she'll say "Doh-da", and sometimes also point to the bookshelf where we often leave the cable remote. Yup, she knows what she wants and isn't afraid to ask for it.

I love this. That she can tell me what she wants and needs. Awesome. I can put up with the tantrums occasionally so that we get this communication. Love it!

15 months and going...

It's been quite a while since I posted something. The summer was brutally hot and humid and we spent a lot of our days in the park or avoiding outside, depending on how the weather was.

We just returned from a week in Mexico visiting Abuelos y familia. It took her about 4 days to really get comfortable with the family since she hadn't seen them since March and, surprisingly, warmed up to Tio David pretty quickly. I guess since he was willing to hold her hands up and down the stairs (her favorite activity after watching Dora), he won that spot in her heart :) All considered, she was pretty good on the planes there with me and then on the way back with both of us.

I was recently talking with a friend of mine who has an 8 month old about what foods I was giving at that time. It made me realize I forgot and how quickly these little ones change. So I'm going to write down what we do now, for future reference:

She's on one nap a day and is usually from 11/12pm for 1-2 hours. She went to sleep at 10.30am on Tuesday (after the extra-long day on Monday getting home with a serious delay at Houston) and didn't get up until 2.30pm. Very unusual but expected. She's usually desperate for sleep by about 6.30/7pm, mostly since she's walking EVERYWHERE and loves going up and down stairs. While in Mexico I didn't force her to go to sleep at her usual time, in case she wanted to stay up to play with her cousins. Nope, she's like a clock... Was ready for bed at about 7pm CST.

She has gotten much pickier about her food and likes more variety in her diet, and more sweets. She's crazy about pizzelle that my mom makes. Since the past few weeks she's been super-hungry, I was feeding her more since she's just finished a growth spurt. But it's mostly like this:

Get up for breakfast. Cereal with milk, toast, eggs (with cheese usually)
Go to the park, snack (like "healthy" cookies or crackers like Hot Kid Organic Baby Mum-Mum Original Rice Rusks) on the way back or substantial snack (more like lunch #1) like grapes, peaches, grape tomatoes, blueberries once we're home.
Nap
Lunch #2. Usually largest meal of the day includes some kind of meat, veg or fruit and pasta or rice. Cheese, sometimes. Sometimes it's just cheese, and sometimes it's just an endless array of fruit. Other days it's more balanced. I've learned to go with it and fight her less. Much easier on us both.
Park.
Snack on way home
Dinner. Like lunch but smaller, unless she's really hungry that day.
Bath, Dora, book, bottle, bed.

My mother-in-law insisted that I give her 3 bottles a day, maybe 4. She said the baby needs it. I said I don't think so and that eating real food is more filling. I gave it a try mid-week while in Mexico, to be polite while we were there, but she was waking up early in the morning and crying out more at night. I'm really really not sure why the change but we fed her a bottle when she did get up at 4am. That didn't help her go back to sleep right away, but she would finish it. I'm doubtful it was waking up because she was hungry but I went back to our normal routine when we came home just the same. I think it was more anxiety that she was waking up with. Her cries were more like scared/stressed than hungry.

While teething, as I've mentioned before, she's been a blueberry-a-holic. This week, since her 4th molar finally broke through. She's less obsessed with frozen blueberries. She wouldn't eat a frozen one since Monday when it broke through. Yesterday I got her to have some but only after I defrosted them a little.

This is good news as although it means frozen blueberries might be off the go-to list for a while, at least she's been less cranky from the teething. Phew!

So now she has 12 teeth: four top/front, four bottom/front, four molars. I don't know when the others are supposed to come in but I don't care. She's happy, I'm happy.

She's also started to be more shy around strangers. And is less willing to go in the park without me if other kids are around. Just the past 2 weeks, around when she turned 15 months. Something clicked in her head and something changed. I'm assuming this is a new change that is part of the growing cycle. It's curious. she's also having temper tantrums. They're not terrible and not very often, but they're there and they are definite. I ignore her for the most part -- just make sure she doesn't smack her head on the floor or ground as she's doing it. And then when it's done, I go "all done?" And she gets up and we move on.

I've wanted to get her into more classes, the Gymboree ones are great and the equipment is really super. But they're very, very expensive. So, we go to the public park. Not the nice, private one with the grass -- the city ones with the rubber "floors" and sprinklers and slides and stairs and swings. They do the trick. It gets a bit boring but at least we have 2 to choose from that are within 10-15 blocks of the apartment.

Ready to walk? Oh, yes indeedy!

This week she has taken a few more steps everyday. Culminating to this evening when she walked the entire length of my parents' apartment (ok, maybe like 20 feet) straight. And then in and out of all the rooms. Closed a door, even. For about 45 minutes she was getting up (or being helped by a hand) and walking. Sometimes many, many steps and other times just a few. There was lots of "Very good, Carolina" and clapping. Both by Carolina and the three of us.

She is very proud of herself and I expect this means there is only more walking in the coming days. Hooray and I should be worried.

Since we were at the mall, yes really, I didn't give her a snack between lunch at about 2.30 and dinner at about 6.30. Actually I tried but the teething and whining (boredom. Wanted to crawl around and one-leg walk instead of stay in the stroller) she didn't want the rice cracker I offered her. Maybe gums were too sore?

But she ate a great dinner of chicken, ravioli and some bread. Finished her whole bottle, too. I think she wanted more dinner but seemed really frustrated. Again, maybe sore gums and chewing hurt.

She's been grabbing her ears and sticking her fingers in them, particularly her left ear, all week. There was a LOT of that today. I hope these damn molars come in soon. She's suffered enough and I like her better when she's not so terribly irritable and will let me put her down. It was like having a little monkey on me today. A very cute, good smelling monkey.

Bedtime was about 8. I think there was some headbanging --as to be expected. The foam columns my dad and I came up with for the metal rods on each corner are working well. Actually it was my therapist's idea but we implemented it nicely. Ok, dad did. Ha!

But she's resting well now. Phew. What a day, kiddo! Good job!!!

She's a great dancer, and likes to play with other kids

Two things I learned about Carolina this week are:
1. She likes to dance, and has a good sense of rhythm. She prefers music with a Latin beat. Seriously. (Our first indication was a trip to Vallarta in Feb 2009 before she was born, and we were in the Cuban restaurant where they play really great music. She was kicking me like never before. She was our 'tiny dancer'.) She was rocking out to a Ricky Martin song today at the local Gymboree.

2. She likes to play with other kids. Now I knew this already but I had no idea how much now. We've just started a discount/trial month at a Gymboree on the UES (got it through groupon.com. She's in a play/movement class once a week on an afternoon and we go to the gym when they have 'open' sessions twice a week in the early morning. During today's open gym, she was so very very disappointed when we had to leave. She was playing 'catch' with an older boy by rolling the ball between them. She was very interested in playing with a 4-year-old girl who was running around, throwing herself on the mats, and jumping up and down. Carolina tried to keep up with her for a bit, then looked at me a little confused. I smiled and said "Go ahead. Keep going." And she smiled and kept trying to keep up, but she couldn't.

She climbed on everything and was seemingly very proud of herself for being so independent. I have to say, I was impressed. I try to usually keep back and let her do her own thing when I can. She almost didn't need me at all. Woo hoo!

Food, these days, is another matter. Her pickiness continues. I've been given some very helpful advice to give her what she likes and wants, instead of what I want her to eat. This has turned out to be surprisingly healthy, for the most part. Yesterday she ate her first (whole) navel orange, and today her first (entire) peach.

Today at lunch after her nap was pretty funny. She took a few bites of the cod I was eating, then didn't want that. I gave her a bunch of peeled grapes cut up from her snack before nap and after about 10 of those, she was done. So she was pointing to the blueberry muffins on the table, which are next to the peaches I just bought yesterday. I decided to give her a peach instead of the muffin she wanted. She cried, very loudly, with tears when I put a few small cut up pieces of peach on her high chair tray. Carried on like it was the end of her little life.

At one point she threw her head back and opened her mouth widely while wailing, and I put a piece of peach in there. She closed her mouth as she brought her head down and had no choice but to taste the peach. She stopped crying immediately, made a few contentious noises and then ate it. And grabbed the rest on the tray with gusto. She then pointed to the counter where the rest of the peach was and started to make a fuss that she wanted more. This resulted in her eating the ENTIRE peach.

The crying and carrying on is exhausting for me to listen to but, really, I'm glad we now have more food on her "approved" list, which includes:

1. blueberries
2. hummus
3. spanakopita (Greek spinach pie)
4. raspberries
5. peaches
6. grapes, green ones
7. cherry/grape tomatoes (although they frustrate her since she can't eat the skin but she loves the taste and that they are juicy in her mouth.)
8. rice crackers (the Mum Mum kind)
9. Graham crackers
10. broccoli (sometimes)
11. caesar salad dressing (not a meal but as a topping. I hate giving her this one since it's so salt/fatty so I don't unless I'm desperate.)
12. squash/zucchini (sometimes, and only with something else like spanakopita or hummus)
13. navel oranges
14. strawberries (but they seem to give her less than a handful of  little pimples on her face every time)
15. Berry flavored "fiddlesticks" (rice crackers in a stick form she can easily hold)
16. Cheerios cereal
17. Life cereal


Of course there's cake and apple/cherry/blueberry/orange juices on the list but above is what I can get her to eat. MOSTLY without fuss.

With fuss, recently, there's chicken, fish, beef. I'm working on getting eggs into the list and watching her face breakout/not since earlier in the year she loved eggs but they gave her the same thing that strawberries seemed to. I'll try it again.

And in terms of naps, she's almost solidly a 12pm-2pm girl. Sometimes takes until closer to 12.30 and sometimes only until 1.30pm but I can mostly get her to take her nap on schedule, which is nice. For me.

A few things about living with Carolina

I've been so preoccupied with Carolina's molars coming in, and they still haven't, that I completely missed a third front/bottom tooth was en route. It appeared Friday morning. She has been on frozen blueberry overload these past two weeks.

Gratefully she's sleeping through the night and the earliest she got up has been 6am, but still she's got some pain that goes into her ears or the back of her head -- from where I can see her grabbing. I know I've said this before, but I'll be glad when this latest round of teeth come in and we get a few days (ojalá que sí) rest from teething.

For some reason, and it might be totally standard and I just don't know better, the past week to two weeks she's been very, very picky about her food. She's no longer content to have the same mix of food day in and day out. I used to change it up a little but mostly some combination of: meat, veg, starch. And breakfast was rice cereal, apples/pears, prunes and her vitamin mixed in.

No more. She takes food out of her mouth and throws it on the floor, and also just uses her tongue to forcefully push it out of  her mouth and will not let it back in. So it has to be all nice and interesting food all the time, or there's a crying fit. And I always lose, unless I'm willing to let her go hungry. She's interested in snacks (toddler crackers, cookies), blueberries and hummus. Sometimes I can get her to eat by covering the bowl of food in hummus or tomato sauce.

I constantly worry I'm on the wrong side of spoiling her, but most of the time I am worn down by the whining and crying and just want to her to eat. I still won't give her cookies or crackers as a meal but some days, really, it's been almost exclusively blueberries for dinner.

Here are her top 3 hits:
1. The swings at the park (Regardless how hot it is and how much heat rash she's itching.)
2. Blueberries, most recently prefers frozen over all other types. (Made her blueberry muffins yesterday and only wants the part of the muffin with the blueberries.)
3. Dora (Knows which TV has the DVD player with Dora disc in it, and which one has it on the DVR list and knows how to use the TV remote, more or less, to try to get to what she wants.)
4. Music and dancing. (Often asking us to put on the iPod stereo and has a sense of rythmn I can vouch for!)

She's even taught me some features that my iPhone can do that  (A) I had no idea about and (B) would never have found on my own. Additionally, she showed us how to change the "source" on our TV without using the TV remote, just from the cable remote. So now we only need the 1 remote. Thanks, baby!

So now that she's getting along with the babysitter and I find that I enjoy not being at home every day, I'm starting to look for some work. I realized I have no interest in going back to an office full time and would have to make a butt-load of cash in order to cover the babysitter AND taxes. I'm not ready to put her into daycare, which would overall be a cheaper option than sitter or shared nanny. So maybe a 1-2 day/week job. Maybe freelance so I don't have to be in an office. Maybe nothing. But the extra income would be much nicer. Anyway, time for bed!

Things recently

Recently we've made a habit of going to the park after nap #2, which generally ends about 3pm. So the moms and babies in our "group" have a standing meeting time at the park from 3-5pm, and Carolina has decided that she loves the slide. I haven't been brave enough to trust her balance ability to go down herself but she likes it when we slide down together.

And as long as she has some kind of shoes on, I let her "walk" wherever she wants. Much to the pain of my lower back. I just hold her hands and she walks quickly up and down the steps to the slide.

I've also gone out for a mommy-drink night, which was fun. Some of the moms I like best are about to move out of the neighborhood. Ah, well, what can you do...

I think Carolina is going to be walking by the time she's 13 months old.

Her birthday is in 2 weeks and I'm happily preparing her first birthday party. It's going to be a riff off the traditional korean first birthday celebration, with American and Mexican touches to make it our own -- featuring Dora the Explorer since Carolina claps and smiles when she's on TV. Cute!

I'm still immensely grateful she sleeps through the night now and only gets up before 6am on the rare occasion. I do my best to fill her with food all day long so she doesn't get up early from hunger.

We read her Tigger's Breakfast book when she's not very hungry and won't take more food but I know she's hungry enough to eat more if I distract her. And when all else fails, put frozen blueberries in it and clap and smile and say "Yeaaaaay, Carolina, Yeaaaaaay!" She smiles, claps and eats. Too funny.

A working mom, injured

Earlier this week I threw out my neck. It's a super old injury that just never goes away and occasionally pops up to haunt me when I've either been stressed, curling my hair too much, or holding my shoulders/neck wrong. Usually because of too much work, late into the night. That was this week and last week. Part time freelance, you'd think I could handle that without throwing myself into a tizzy.

Thought I was doing so well, and the last two days my mom had to come over to help me with Carolina since it was impossible for me to lift her up, carry her or even stand up on the first day.

Today I'm much better. Carolina, on the other hand, has refused to take her afternoon naps for the 'full amount'. I think the last two days she was worried why I wasn't carrying her around.

But very interestingly, last night at about 5pm we started to give her dinner. A little bit of chicken and filling from a spinach pie. She scarfed it down! Was crying for more! Unheard of. So I hurried up to make her more. Same thing. Cried for more! So we went on to: apples, blueberries semi frozen, yogurt snacks, rice cracker snack, and something else I can't remember.

She ate for about 50 minutes. Not every second of it, of course, but a damn lot of the time.

I think she finally realized that it was the last stop on the train before bedtime and a bottle. Last night was the first night she didn't make a peep between 7pm and 7am.

She's now getting used to not having a bottle before her afternoon nap. I think that's a lot to do with why she's not doing the afternoon nap so well. She's tired, trust me. But not so much on being able to relax. I'm still working out what her 'routine' should be. Right now I'm trying to hold her sideways, sing her the bedtime song we have, with the chupon in her mouth. It sort of works, until she feels the crib mattress under her and then it's all crying.

Day 3, so far still working it out.

Any suggestions?

In the meantime, I'm still assessing my ability to keep better boundaries between work and home and considering if I should have any work at all. The income will be nice. I'll be calling a babysitter based on a mom-friend recommendation. I'm going to try having someone come over once or twice a week for like 2-3 hours to take Carolina out for a walk, park, whatever.

She can handle being away from me if I'm not there. If I'm in the apartment, I must be playing with her at some point. I can't work while she entertains herself with someone else. Sang proved that to be true!

9 month checkup: healthy, happy nap-misser

Well, today was a "fun" day of missing out on an otherwise stalwart first, morning nap. So without that, I got Carolina and went on the subway to her pediatrician's office for a 10am checkup. At nine months old she is:
16lbs 3oz (bottom 8%)
27.25" long (bottom 25%)
and I forget her head circumference but it's the bottom 25% also

So, par for the course. Her ezcema on her arms is okay, but hasn't gone away and she has a new little one on her left leg. It doesn't seem to bother her, and her pediatrician gave me some probiotics for her and recommended I also try fish oil.

Her doctor also was surprised at how slowly I've been going with introducing more food. So she was very encouraging for me to give Carolina ALL the veggies we normally eat and introduce a lot more protein. That's probably why she's waking up 3x a night, sucking down 6oz of formula, which is a lot for her. She's growing, she's more active during the day, and she's hungry. And whatever I've been giving her, isn't substantial enough even though it fills her belly.

So far she likes turkey if there's plenty of carrots and squash mixed in. Is not a fan of pork or beef, but I should try to mix in more veggies.

We'll be leaving for Mexico on Thursday. I'm sure her Abuelos will be pleased as punch to see her, and feed her new foods. She loves, loves chayote -- and I haven't bought any here and steamed and mashed it up. But they have it in the Gerber jars there. We'll probably give her some meats while we're there. Plus her Abuela stocked up, as usual, on her favorite foods and diapers. So very grateful we don't have to carry all of that with us!

Today, I also took Carolina to the park to meet up with some of the other babies. She was very happy to be there. When we left, she was hiccuping on the way home. So I fed her the bottle and she passed out asleep. I have to go to a funeral tonight, so when Ismael gets home he'll wake her up and get her ready for bed. Should be any minute now...

Gotta go get ready in appropriate clothes!