We had a lovely night with friends and family under the stars and palm trees recently, where we happened to discuss weird things we’ve eaten, local specialties, and French butcher shops. As we laughed about seeing calves’ brains next to chicken breasts, it made me think about what it must be like to be Tess. Tess had raspberries for the first time, and made the funniest faces ever! Seriously, what hungry hunter/gatherer first stuffed a handful of hairy, squishy, slightly sour berries in their mouth? As I ate Tess’ rejects, I thought,
What a weird fruit!
Don’t get me wrong – raspberries are my favorite. Still, when you really think about them, they’re an odd choice!
So as we wandered through Italy and France and now Florida, feeding her chicken liver, eel and spinach, I couldn’t even imagine what she must think of food! Tess is an adventurous eater, and other than avocado and antibiotics, she’s game for everything. Still, I wish she could share her take on all of these new flavors.
As we weren’t planning to be in Florida right now, we came unprepared. Mom dealt with this by loading up on organic baby food and formula (magically all our favorite brands!), so we’ve been introducing even more new flavors! So far chicken liver, bread, polenta, squash and apples are at the front of the taste train. Peas, avocado, raspberries and peaches are questionable, and fish and meat delight. May the experimenting continue.
For our last night in Florida, we got together with the same group of friends and family. Unfortunately, there were a lot of stories about babies currently struggling with medical conditions. I’m always amazed by how many different maladies affect such little kids. 🙁 It makes me want to run around hugging everyone: parents, siblings, aunts and uncles and grandparents.
Tess has been coming down with something since we landed, and it erupted last night when everyone left. She was sobbing and drooly and snotty – to the point that I feared the newlyweds might get turned off having kids! We got some Tylenol and bottle in her, but that panic over
Is this a NICU thing? Should we be going to the hospital? Is this a normal thing that should not freak me out at all? Am I being the weird mom?
I was grateful mom was here to give us a read. She doesn’t know preemies, but she knows everything else about kids, so I figured she’s an expert by process of elimination. We tucked Tess back in and went to bed, but Dave and I slept pretty roughly as we kept straining to hear baby breathing/wheezing.
She seems better this morning, so we calmed down and enjoyed our last few minutes with Sabine and Sebastien before they left for the airport. We’re off this afternoon, home to the renovation, our jobs and snow. We’re eagerly anticipating Deuce’s arrival, and the lack of scared is delightful. A non-preemie! Whatever will we do?
