mychouchou.com

Chef’s Special for this Week

1. Pasta with Tomato Meat Sauce
2. Chicken Corn Chowder
3. Salmon with Rice and Carrot

Recipes to follow shortly…need a break after 2 hours of chopping, cooking and purée-ing!

and he’s going places

Last night, Jason and I put Christian in his walker, as usual, thinking that he’s just sit there and play. Boy were we wrong! Up until yesterday, he only knew how to go backwards in his walker. But somehow, last night, he figured out how to go forward…and he’s been unstoppable since, though he walks like a drunken dork (thanks to his bowl-cut) on tippy-toes.

The walker has been the place to put him while I cook dinner – a place where I know he’d stay there for at least 20-30 minutes, playing happily…I guess I’ll have to find somewhere else to put him now.

Update on the feeding situation

And update on the feeding situation: Because we don’t want to make eating/feeding a negative experience for Christian, we’ve decided not to “force” him to finish his milk and will give him as much solids as we think he needs (6 tbsp max per meal at this time). Surely, meal-times is once again a happy giggly experience for all of us. But, because he’s drinking way less milk during the day, he’s been walking up at 3am for an extra feeding…what’s a mom to do, right?

Thank you, Sonia, for your email. I’ve now started Christian on yogurt for breakfast and for dessert (frozen blueberries and yogurt)…and he loves it! I’ll start him on tofu soon to sneak extra calcium in him.

Resisting the Urge…

to force-feed Christian. He’s not taking in enough and I am seriously getting worried. I’ve been reading articles online and talking to the nurses at the health clinic and I’m getting mixed information.

Here’s his usual daily intake:

7:30/8:00 – 5 oz formula

9:30/10:00 – breakfast (1 tbsp rice cereal, 1 oz formula and fruit, for a total of 4 tbsp)

11:30/12:00 – lunch (2 tbsp mixed grain cereal, 2 oz formula, 1 tbsp meat+veggie puree, 2 tbsp veggie puree, for a total of 6 tbsp)

2:30/3:00 – 4-5 oz formula

5:00/5:30 – dinner (2 tbsp mixed grain cereal, 2 oz formula, 1 tbsp meat+veggie puree, 2 tbsp veggie puree, for a total of 6 tbsp)

7:00 – 4-5 oz formula

7:30/8:00 – dessert (1 oz formula and frozen fruit, for a total of 3 tbsp)

9:30 – anywhere from 5 to 7 oz formula

So, on a good day, he takes in about 27 oz of formula. But lately, he’s been taking in only 20-23 oz. According to his nurses and the online articles, he should be taking in around 30-32 oz of formula. So, we are at least a bottle short on a good day and a couple on his bad days.

Jason keeps telling me I am stressing out too much over nothing. Maybe it IS as simple as “teething”. By the way, his right front tooth finally pierced through the gums. We’re just waiting for the left one now. It’s true that babies won’t starve themselves and if he’s hungry he’ll let me know. He is sleeping through the night and he’s very happy and active when he’s awake…

Mom’s advice is not much better either: give him less food and he’ll eventually drink more formula. Mom also blamed it on my food – that the gourmet homemade baby food I am making is too good that it ruined his appetite for formula. So, I’ve tried giving him less, but he got very upset with me when I refused to give him more food. I’ve tried to “skip” a meal altogether, but that didn’t increase his formula intake and it made me even more upset since not only is he not drinking enough, he’s also not eating enough.

So, what to do? Should I force more formula in him? If yes, how? Or should I just give him as much food as he wants and treat formula as a “drink”?

I am honestly more sleep-deprived now than I was when he was still on a 2-3 hour around the clock feeding schedule…

Christian’s First Haircut – 仔,覺得點呀?

Christian’s hair was getting a bit too long, it was almost poking into his eyes so Jason and I decided to give him a haircut ourselves. Jason did the cut and I just hid behind the door to secretly film him. The haircut went well, according to Jason, my cutie-pie is still very cute, but now with a dorky bowl cut.

It began with…

and at the end, we got…

Jason: 仔,覺得點呀?

Christian: 真係好唔掂喎! 你仲好意思問我收錢! Wait till Grandma sees this! You’re so in trouble, Mister!

Vegetable Beef Stew

• 1 sirlion steak, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• 3 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 medium potato, peeled and diced
• 1/4 small onion, thinly sliced
• 1 tbsp unsalted butter

1. Melt butter in pan, add onion and saute.

2. Add carrots and potatoes and cook for 1 minute.

3. Add beef and cook until beef is no longer pink.

4. Add 1 cup water and bring to a boil.

5. Add frozen peas. Reduce to simmer. Cover pot and cook until potatoes and carrots are tender.

6. Remove from heat and set aside for 15-20 minutes.

7. Puree and freeze in ice-cube trays.

*made and served to Christian at 7-months*

Salmon with Broccoli and Cheese

• 1 salmon filet (a bit bigger than the size of one palm)
• 1 head of broccoli (florets only)
• 1/3 cup grated cheddar cheese
• 1 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1/4 small onion, thinly sliced
• 1 oz. apple juice
• 1 tbsp orange juice

1. Melt butter in hot pan and add onions, saute.

2. Add salmon to pan. Add apple juice and orange juice. Bring to a boil and reduce to simmer.

3. Add broccoli and cook until fish is done and broccoli is tender.

4. Remove from heat. Place broccoli and onions in one bowl and salmon in another.

5. Flake salmon with fork.

6. Puree broccoli with the cooking liquid.

7. Stir in salmon flakes to broccoli puree.

8. Add grated cheese and mix well.

9. Freeze in ice-cube trays.

*made and served to Christian at 7-months*