SAHD - Stay at home Dad: Week 2

Week 2 - Tuesday

New World Order

We had a bit more success in getting Ananda out of the door and to work on time this morning. We had quite a discussion over the weekend as to how our first week in our new roles went, and to be honest both of us felt that we were doing more than we had when our roles were reversed. Ananda still has to feed Francis through the night AND go to work the next day, and I still have most of the domestic chores to do AND look after Francis through the day. Obviously we’re still adjusting, and we’re talking about the difficulties we each have, and trying to find solutions.

This morning went smoother, and the only thing that suffered were our two dogs. Well I say suffered, but what it meant was they went out for their walk at about 8am instead of at 5:45am. I did this so I could spend more time in the house during Ananda’s getting ready for work, so that if Francis wakes up during mammy’s shower or whilst we are meditating I can take care of him. It worked well this morning, and the dogs did not seem that bothered, judging by the amount of sleeping they did during this time. Maybe they hate their 5:45am walks. It was funny watching them sleep with their legs crossed, though!

Food and Fasting.

Tuesday’s SPACE trip to the zoo was postponed due to inclement weather, so we all met at the St Andrew’s play centre instead. We did take a detour to Bunnings on the way there – well it is so close. I’m still learning people’s names and which baby belongs to whom, as they are all pretty much free range once there. It was fun watching them tackle the slip-slidy ramps, and make play-doh, although for this parent it was more of a hit with me than Francis. As usual Francis was off crawling around with as many things in his hands as possible, just occasionally checking in, to make sure I was okay. Thanks son. I’m going to have to change my fasting day away from a Tuesday as I miss out on cake. And with so many birthdays on the horizon I’d be silly not too!

Picture credit - Dianne.

On the subject of food Franics has been having a hit and miss time with food over the weekend. Pe-ana is now off the menu, and trying to find things for him to eat is becoming a challenge. He also tried beef for the first time as Mammy gave him a taste of her hamburger, on Monday night. I watched with a mixture of horror/fascination, as he did his slow motion tasting of it. I think it ended up as 50-50 mix of him swallowing some and spitting the rest out. I’m vegetarian, but I have no problem if he wants to eat meat. I’m not going to impose my views on him - (only when it comes to football teams he should support) - and will let him decide if he wants to eat it when he grows up. I was certainly relieved he did not guzzle it down and turn into a blood thirsty carnivore in front of my eyes, and attack the dogs with a knife and fork afterwards shouting “meat, meat, MEAT!”

Like Father like Son

Francis was very cranky after his nap, and I knew he was hungry. I was also cranky as well, as I was hungry too, so this afternoon felt really difficult, and I was watching the clock a lot, counting down the hours until Mammy came home. Like I said I knew he was hungry, but could I find anything to tempt and tantalise his tastes buds?

We tried rice crackers – fail; pe-ana- fail; cheese – fail, which was frankly devastating to me! I was failing in my task to keep my son nourished.

In desperation I went to the forbidden drawer (store bought baby foods) and grabbed a rice–rusk. He then proceeded to hoover two of them down and still demanded more. I knew he liked them right away as he started to do his little up and down hip-hop, gansta-rap dance. The ingredients list is not too bad i.e. I understand what all of the ingredients are, but some of those ingredients were sourced in China, which does have a poor history for the quality of some of their produce.

He was still hungry so I grabbed a corn-cracker - of course he wanted the largest bit....

Mam will probably like them as they tasted just like pop-corn!

We’re trying to make sure that Francis eats only wholesome foods, since so much manufactured food these days is filled with crap. I have some basic food rules; if I can’t pronounce it, or if I recognize it from my chemistry degree I ain’t ingesting it! But are we making a cross for ourselves to bear? Should we let Francis run amok through the McDonalds and KFC’s of the baby world – whatever that might be?

Partly I think we fallen into a trap of just giving F foods he really likes and not exploring more. It took him so long to figure our swallowing food was as much fun as just chewing it and then spitting it back out. We were so happy we just kept feeding it to him. So now when he gets bored of these we find ourselves in a self-imposed food desert - (or should that be dessert?). So if anyone reading this has any tips, please do share. It’s an area where we know we’re not doing very well in. Pretty sure if we could get a Mr Creosote like feed into him at nighttime, he might sleep better through the night – or he might need a bucket…….. “just a wafer thin meeent”.

*Epilogue - he chowed down his steamed spinach and lentil soup tonight along with some toast, so he had some healthy food!

Horlicks

We bought Francis some big legos a few months back, and until recently he only wanted to knock down the towers we built for him. Now that he’s learned how to pull them down and apart he’s moving onto learning how to stack them, and it’s really interesting watching him build one on top of another. He also likes to place them in his empty Horlicks jar, we buy the best toys for OUR son! He’s still trying to figure out why he can’t grab them in his hand and remove them through the narrow neck. Perhaps you’ll hear more about this in the future –accompanied with a tale of how we had to go to the A&E to get the jar removed from his arm!