Food for thought

Well, this blog has been on a bit of a hiatus. I would love to say I have some really cool reason for this, but in reality, once Ethan goes to bed I usually lose myself in a vortex of watching basketball, surfing Instagram and reading 20 pages of a book just to say I did. I just yawned reading that back to myself, but yeah-- mama's boring (and tired).

So here's a quick update on the last 2 and a half months: Ethan rolls around everywhere, laughs all the time, loves his Ergobaby, has been on vacation and even cut two teeth. And...*drumroll please* he eats actual, solid, big people food!

I was dreading starting solids to the point where I'm pretty sure I was annoying Dave even more than usual with all my musings on what to start with, and when, and what high chair to get, and did we get the right high chair, and oh our high chair was broken when it shipped so we have to get a different one, and am I bad mother because I bought some of those baby food pouches? I could continue, but in short, it was stressful.

A lot of moms get really excited about starting solids, but let me list a few reasons why I am not one of them. First of all, I don't cook a ton (read: hardly ever). No, I do not eat cheeseburgers every day (and thus you do not have permission to hate me for being thin), but we do enjoy a reasonable amount of takeout and a lot of nights I just heat up a bowl of soup so as not to waste valuable Instagram time. We have a small kitchen with no dishwasher and I honestly just find cooking so tiring-- you know, on top of looking after an active baby all day, doing the things that don't even leave me with enough gusto to regularly satisfy this blog's vast readership (ha ha).  However, I would at least like to make an attempt to feed my child homemade(ish) meals and not let him think that Swiss Chalet is one of the major food groups, and therefore I have had to shift my mindset (and my priorities). Life changes are a handful!

Eggy Ethan

Here's another thing. I am legitimately the world's pickiest eater, so giving Ethan a variety of foods does not come naturally to me. I could name all the foods I don't like but that would take all day, so here's a summary: Eggs, pork, most seafood (except shrimp and expensive scallops), dark meat of any kind, most root vegetables, brie, avocado, and so on and so on. I am also a little weird about how meals are made and the circumstances in which I eat them-- I am absolutely that asshole that asks a lot of questions in restaurants, as well as that even bigger asshole who holds up the Tim Horton's line by making sure they don't cut my sandwich with a dirty knife. Irritated yet? I also will never give you a bite of anything because I don't like other people's saliva on my food. Ick.

But alas, I'm not exactly setting out to raise a neurotic child, which means my weird preferences will take a backseat to his needs and his appetite and I'll have to accept that mealtimes will just be kind of gross for the foreseeable future. So, for past month or so I have been giving Ethan different types of food, pretending I think it's all delicious. Yes, I do feed him those bad mom pouches sometimes, but I also attended a workshop, I check labels to make sure there is no added salt or sugar and I went shopping specifically for organic produce. I even made my own hummus, which basically means I'm Martha Stewart and probably grants me a lifetime exemption from all future shaming from the Momiverse (ha ha again). 

And, guess what? So far, Ethan loves everything. I'm not saying he's perfect (except that he is), but the fact that a kid that grew in my body eats whatever I put in front of him-- with unparalleled enthusiasm--is nothing short of a miracle. I won't lie-- avocado stains are no picnic and picking pieces of egg out of his neck folds is revolting, but I'm playing a long game here and I am super proud that my little guy has an amazing attitude towards food. Who knows, maybe it will even encourage me to add a few more meals to my own rotation and expand my horizons. Or maybe Ethan will love food and cooking so much that he'll make my meals too? Here's hoping!