Feb +

The February Calendar Page

It's February! And there's snow - the first to stick! And I think it's only the second snow of the season here in Trento... though I may be wrong. So, instead of heading up to Merano - wait, instead of escaping up to Merano to go shopping - by myself - (there's an H&M and Zara there, and my clothing situation is desperate... desperate!), we bundled our boy up a la A Christmas Story and went out to play in the snow, for the very first time. He was interested, but not fascinated or anything, and wasn't as into lying in the snow as he was interested in lying in the leaves or on the cold grass, but that might be because he couldn't really get up on his own. Like I said, he was bundled. We built a snowman and Steve threw snowballs at me and ? you know, did the usual snowy things. And we would have come in for hot chocolate and treats, but we'd just finished breakfast and hmm... why didn't we have hot chocs and treats? Not so sure. Anyways, it was a fun morning in the fresh white yard, and hopefully I can make my escape tomorrow morning.

snow-covered Calicantus flowers and my two boys

I have a whole bunch of food pictures to post because for the past week or so I've been meaning to document a day of Hendrik's food - breakfast, lunch and dinner (+ snacks). And of course I forgot here and there, so the following is a glimpse into his life as an eater - over the course of a few days:

BREAKFAST: The usual is oatmeal with yogurt and fruit... or pancakes. And Dad's pancakes... or our food. If we happen to have something different, then of course that's what he wants. Come summer time, I'm not sure what we'll feed him, and even now I feel like I need some new ideas.... anyone?

stealing Dad's last bites of pancakes - and his first taste of maple syrup... yums!

my breakfast of choice these days too :)

LUNCH: Lunch is varied - sometimes it's pasta or leftovers, and oftentimes it's this that and the other (something my mom would say) + fruit. Today we tried to give him leftover chicken fajitas and he had none of it, so it was peas, garbanzo beans (a fave of his), cheese (asiago - he LOVES cheese) and hmm... there was more. Anyways, as long as we hit all the food groups and he eats, everyone is happy!

DINNER: These days he usually eats whatever we eat, but is often a day behind. Steve gets home too late from practice for the three of us to eat together, and I usually cook our dinner while he is eating his.

chicken, potatoes and avocado

tortilla-pizza... a go-to meal for me (for him)!

His go-to snacks are fruit, breadsticks (grisini) and yogurt, and cookies are crackers are maybe the most requested snacks. He'll point to the cupboard and say something that sounds like cookie ("cack"), but is happy enough if I give him a cracker... we'll see how long that lasts for.

Yesterday morning I knocked a block off of my to-do list, and made a side trip into a foreign foods store - Thai! Asia Foods! - and came away with the above things: an african potato (we'll see what that's all about), brown sugar, coconut milk, ginger, a lime, seasoning sauce, basmati rice, peanut butter and green curry paste. I also bought a bag of cracker peanuts - is that what they're called? Peanuts encased in a crunchy cracker type shell... they are gooooood. And since Steve was home last night from his five zillion day road trip (wow, that would be one looooong trip - so fine, it was just five days) I made fajitas, complete with homemade tortillas... they were so so oh so good. When I told him that there was no possible way that I could do this on a regular basis - without him around to help right before dinner - he immediately found a solution: you could make them while he naps. Oh yes mmhm, I could, thank you Steve for such an easy and obvious solution! It made both of us laugh.

And Hendrik has a few new skills: the sitting down you've seen, but the hugging - we have yet to capture that on tape. It is the best feeling having him wrap his arms around me and squeeeeeze... heart-melting. He also hugs his teddy bears and gives them kisses. I love it! Love love love it. And I'm hearing the mama-call from the room... time to go!