Pancit, Baby! The Joy of Feeding AR...

Raising a bicultural/bilingual baby is more challenging than I originally thought. Heck, raising a kid is challenging enough without adding more ingredients to the mix.

One of the best words of advice that I recieved when I was pregnant with AR came from a dear high school friend who has 3 of his own. He must know what he's talking about. I have these words permanently engraved in my head: "You will receive a lot of advice from a lot of people. The only advice that I will give you is to follow your instincts and you will be fine".

Since then, I have listened to advice from my American friends, Spanish friends, my mother, my suegra, a couple of pediatricians, lab technicians etc. Sometimes I wonder if my instincts are right!

If that weren't enough, we have this wonderful invention called the internet which allows me to see what the trends are in the States as far as feeding baby and can compare them to trends here in Spain.

Mom was really surprised when AR's first solid meal (after cereal) was a puree of carrots, potatoes, leeks, zucchini, pumpkin and chicken. Here they follow the sink or swim protocol of feeding baby. All or nothing. None of this test each food separately, keeping a diary. After reading so many (American) magazines and websites, you can bet that I was just a bit uncertain. Heck this is all new to me. What do I know? I really wanted to follow the American trends, but then decided on the Spanish since our pediatrician is Spanish.

Moving to the solid food stage has been a real trial. And, as some of you know, there are the ongoing digestive/growth concerns as AR is very small for his age (yet very agile). We are currently undergoing many different tests and analyses to check for intolerance to gluten and/or lactose. Cereal still remains one of the most challenging foods to give him.

However, we are pleased to see that our little guy eats just about everything else! His initial favorites were chicken and rice and peas and ham. He has now matured to more complex tastes such as mommy's lentils with garlic and chorizo or hake with bechamel sauce (all purees, of course).

The other day when I was feeding him lunch, a puree of chicken and rice, he seemed far more interested with what was on my plate. I had just gotten ahold of Dad's pancit recipe the night before and had made batch of it that morning. Why not? I thought. I mean, what do babies in the Philippines eat, if not one of their national dishes?? So, I gave AR a long noodle appropriately seasoned with a bit of green onion, garlic and fish sauce. He didn't know what to do with it at first, but then copied me as I showed him how to shove it in his mouth. After that he continued to ask for more noodles!

Last week was full of new tastes for our growing explorer. First, papá Angel took him to a restaurant and invited him to a squid ring while he had a cup of coffee. Apparently AR loved gnoshing on that squid ring. Then, last weekend Angel made a rice curry with chicken and I pureed some of it a blender. AR scarfed that down as well!

Well, now it seems to be it was a lost cause. No going back to plain old chicken and rice for him! We have unintentionally converted him into a bonafide sybarite! What next? Bento boxes for daycare?

The Great Easter Egg Hunt

Well, it seems that this was not my year for introducing Easter egg dyeing to AR. Yesterday we took a jaunt up to San Sebastian de Los Reyes to visit one of our favorite stores, IKEA! As some of you know, my entire office was practically furnished at IKEA and a good percentage of our home has been too.

After IKEA, it was time to do our weekly shopping and this time I won out. We avoided the hypermarkets and went to a traditional supermarket. Bad move. They were completely sold out of eggs. I don't even know what color eggs they had. All I knew is that there were none left to buy. The only other time that that had happened to me was right around Christmas time in the States when it was time to bake the Christmas cookies and ACME had it's famous BOGO (buy one get one) offers on a dozen eggs.

Seeing as we went to the supermarket right before 2pm (and everything closes from 2-4pm for the siesta time) there was no chance of making it to another one. Besides, we had to get home to prepare lunch for Angel's mother and sister who were coming over for lunch. So, unfortunately AR will have to wait another year to break in Dudley and the egg coloring kit!

When in Rome...

With Easter right around the corner I thought it would be fun to dye Easter eggs with AR and possibly with all his friends in Northern Stars. His ever-doting grandparents* lovingly sent him an Easter package which contained a Dudley the Rabbit Egg Coloring kit....certainly brought back childhood memories!

Last week just prior to our weekly marathon food shopping trip I made sure to include an extra dozen eggs on the list. What was I thinking? Have I really been living here so long that I have forgotten some of the basic differences in the food category? We went to one of the overrated hypermarkets which I so completely despise. You need two hours to walk 5 kilometers down immense aisles of products just to finish your weekly grocery shopping which would have taken all of half an hour in a conventional supermarket. One would think that with such variety and choice it would have been no problem to find a dozen white eggs. Well, no such luck. Eggs here are brown. Once in a very great while you can find a dozen white eggs. Last weekend was not one of those great whiles. No problem finding small, medium, large and extra-large brown eggs... in half dozen, 10-egg, dozen and 18-egg and 3 dozen flats. Even quail eggs abounded. But no white eggs. It would have been really cool to find white quail eggs...that way they would be baby-sized to color for Easter. I know, I am asking for the impossible.

So, I am holding out for tomorrow when we brave the crowds and do our weekly shopping yet again. Maybe I can convince Angel that it really is worth it to go to a normal supermarket...maybe just maybe they will have white eggs...

*his grandparents are, of course, my parents. His abuelos are Ángel´s parents. The change in language is an easy way to distiguish the two sets of proud grandparents! :)