Two Sundays ago, Church started small groups. They provide childcare so I dropped Luna off there. We're in the room that contains the childcare room so I can hear Luna if she decides to wail. Being that this was the FIRST TIME that I've ever left her with anyone else besides Daddy or Grandma, I was a little nervous and super distracted during small groups. After about 40 minutes, Luna started crying (and I would have been sad if she actually went the whole two hours without missing me) so I got in to console and whatnot. The problem is, since that day, she's been super clingy and she won't let me out of her sight! I can't even go to the toilet without her getting whiny. Maybe I've traumatized her? oi...
Also, she's been apprehensive about strangers getting near her. When we went to the baby cafe last weekend for a birthday party, I pushed the stroller there because it was way too hot. When we got there, I moved her from the stroller to the cafe playground first so that I can bring in our stuff without having to worry about leaving Luna outside while I move the stuff. Chloe, the birthday girl, got up in her face to play and Luna just started wailing! awww....she did not like playing with anyone else. Luna didn't want to share, Luna didn't want people to touch her, or anything! Really...maybe I've traumatized her? baaahhhhh
On a brighter note, LUNA IS CRAWLING! yay? haha Now I need to start cleaning the floors and every nook and cranny because she likes to crawl into spaces that I DID NOT clean. ugh.. Luna likes to play with the electrical cords, which drives me nuts! Why?!? WHY CORDS!?! IT'S SO DANGEROUS!! sigh. and of course, that's where all the cobwebs and dust bunnies are and they all stick to Luna's clammy hands. Like three days after she started belly crawling, she started getting up on her hands and knees. She doesn't crawl on her knees yet, but I can see that coming real soon too. Also, she can sit herself when she's reclined at about 135 degrees. She can't get up if she's flat on the floor, but she can if she's just reclined.
Isn't she so darn cute with that shirt?! She can't stay still for photos anymore.
She loves eating clothes.
mmm...I'm thinking..
She won't stay still for these pictures either!
She also loves eating paper.
Like I said, she won't stay still! But I love her hair!!
Now time for living with babies in Korea.
When it comes to immunizations in Korea, there are a couple of things that people here get that we don't get in the States. For example, the tuberculosis vaccination called BCG and the Japanese encephalitis. We're not at the stage for Japanese encephalitis yet so I don't know much about it, however the BCG is another story. The BCG is the one that is given in the deltoids and leaves a scar. It's what people in California call the FOB mark. haha I remember Paul, my brother, talking about the FOB mark. the convo went something like this:
me: what the heck is a FOB mark?
Paul: it's the one from the shot and all the fobs have it...
me: Paul,you have a FOB mark too.
Paul: what?!?! where?!
me: It's back here [as I'm pointing it out to him]
Paul: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
HAHAHA
Anyways, the old school BCG literally translated is called "fire shot." I don't know why it's called fire shot, but as a kid, I've always imagined that they would dip the needle into some sort of solution and then light it up with fire and then insert that into the skin. O.O I still don't know why it's called a fire shot but if you get it at the clinic, it's free of charge. However, now a days, the pediatrics have another version of the BCG that parents like to refer to as the "stamp style" BCG where they will literally stamp the skin with a stamp of 9 needles (3 by 3), twice! It must not hurt too much since Luna didn't cry through that one at all. She cringed but that was about it. This "stamp style" costs 70,000 won and is supposed to leave a SMALLER SCAR. Most people think that it won't leave a scar at all. That is not true; you are paying money to get a smaller scar. Initially, for the first two weeks after the shot, you don't see it, but after a while, it starts to get red, then crusty, and just plain ugly. You can see all the 18 dots from the stamp and it really is just really really ugly. As the baby grows and the skin stretches out, the space between the dots are supposed to widen and the dots are supposed to get smaller and smaller. I saw a 15 month old baby two weeks ago, and I could tell right away that the girl had paid for her BCG. I was so shocked because I thought that it would be less visible by then... I can't imagine how big and ugly the OG BCG shot would look on a baby. I'm definitely glad that I paid the 70,000 won but I know many foreigners don't get the BCG for their kids at all. Apparently the army brats don't get them because the army doctors don't think it necessary.
Now, onto the baby food making.
Luna's pediatrician recommended this book:
Apparently, it's like the bible of baby food making here in Korea. I read it religiously for the first month and I swear I read it word for word up until the middle stage food making for 6-8 month olds. I've also read up on the Korean blogs on baby food making too and follow Wholesome baby food a bit. I don't know too much about baby led weaning but from what I know, I decided that it isn't really for me entirely.
The book says that you need a couple of tools, one of which is a food making kit which would include a mortar&pestle, juicer, grater, and a sieve. This is a ceramic kit I saw at Homeplus and there's still one left in the clearance section here in Jamsil. I think it's like 20,000 won or something like that. This kit doesn't have the sieve though.
What I did do is use the regular sized brand new mortar and pestle and buy a little bean paste sieve. I decided that I'll probably not juice for a while and after reading the recipes that call for a grater, I wouldn't be using a grater for those things anyways.
(The book says to grate apples and cucumbers to feed to the baby but then I decided that I should make apple sauce instead and use the baby led weaning method for the cucumber. It's just too much work already!)
Luna's first menu? Rice and cabbage. I steamed the cabbage instead of boiling them. Then, I put it into the mini mixer (bullet blender) with a little bit of water. The longer you puree it, the fluffier it gets. You're probably wondering how it gets fluffy, but I can't explain it. You'll see if you do it. As for how much water. I literally put in so little. Just enough for the blender to blend. It's usually like a shot glass of water.
Then, I started doing Korean/Mexican zucchinis, broccoli, carrots, and peas. I don't give carrots too often because it apparently constipates. I also cut out the rice altogether because it constipates. However, if you are to do rice, you take one tablespoon of rice and let it sit in water for an hour. Then you blend it in the blender with just enough water for it to blend. Then you add water ten times the amount of rice and cook it on high heat until it started bubbling. Lower the heat and let it simmer for 5 minutes while stirring. If you decide that it's still too dry, you can add more water and mix. No need to cook it again. I usually cooked it with much less water to the point where it was like a ball of rice. I put it in the fridge and took out just enough to feed Luna and added water. That way, I wasn't making rice every day, just every other other day. But, like I said, I cut it out altogether so I don't make rice anymore (weeee~!)
As for the veggies, I steam everything except the zucchini. I boil the zucchini with very little water, or just enough to cover the zucchini. Then I push everything (including the rice) through the sieve so that there are no chunks. The peas...I've only done canned peas because I can't seem to find fresh peas. I blend it and blend it well because it has the peels. A word of caution: it smells really really bad. Maybe because it's been canned?
Starting solids at 6 months, you need to feed red meat right away for iron supplements. I buy the best cut of beef, which is the one with the least fat content, cut it into very thin slices. I let it sit in cold water to draw out the blood and dump that water.
Then I cook it in the saucepan with just enough water to cover.
When it's been cooked (and it only takes a few minutes because it's so thin), I pound the living bejeebies out of it in the mortar. You only want to fish out (or cow out?) the meat, otherwise, you'll splash all the water all over you when you pound.
If you were to chew and suck out all the meat and spit it back out, that's what it would look like after pounding. haha.
All that work, and it only amounts to a heaping tablespoon after you pound it.
I leave the water in the pan and when I've pounded it like no other, I put it back in the pan and let it simmer just a little more (like literally 3 seconds) so that the juices can get in the smushed meat. Otherwise, it's really dry.
Again, I will keep it in the fridge and take out just enough to feed Luna at one sitting. That way, I'm not doing this every "meal" every day. Normally, I make enough to last 3 days in the fridge for any food since anything past three days is just questionable. This only came out to be about 50 mL with water so it won't last three days unless I don't feed it to her.
I don't push the meat through the sieve because 1) it won't go through the sieve and 2) if you pound it enough, it shouldn't be a problem.
As for all the veggies, I freeze them in the ice tray. Which reminds me, there are these ice trays with silicone bottoms so that you can push out the cubes from the bottom instead of trying to twist and turn the old school ice trays trying to get the stupid cubes out. But of course, you can always buy the silicone ice trays.
I prepare Luna's food once a week and from the time I spent washing all the veggies to putting the ice trays into the freezer, I want to say that it takes about an hour, depending on how diligent I am and whether I'm watching TV as I push through the sieve.
Maybe I'll put up pictures of the rice making, but it won't be a while since Luna still isn't pooing regularly despite all the fiber from the veggies and the prunes I give her. Perhaps I'll try baby yogurt and sweet potatoes next since that's supposed to help her go.
I know that the food pouches are the thing now a days, but I want to teach her to use the spoon. Maybe it's because I only have one baby to worry about so I can spend the time making and feeding her but it's what I prefer at the moment. I really like her Corelle bowl, which I bought for about 6000 won, and the little plastic containers I use to contain her food in the fridge. Although I do have plastic baby bowls, I feel like it's too big for the amount of food that she's eating. She will use those when she can feed herself since they have the suction cups on the bottom of the bowls. I also really like the ice tray with the silicone bottoms. I'm sure I'll really like the silicone ice trays too, but they're just ridiculously expensive here in Korea. Sometimes I make too much at once where I can't freeze everything on one tray. So, I freeze what I can, put the rest in the fridge, and when the contents are mostly frozen, I'll pop them into ziplock bags and freeze the rest. Depending on how much water you mixed into the blender, the food freezes differently. More water, more rock solid. You know how grapes don't freeze hard, it's like that.
Alright, this took me two days to write this so I'm sure this post is really long. Thanks for reading anyways.
TTFN!
P.S. For apple sauce, I use the recipe from allrecipes but cut out the sugar and cinnamon. Even without the sugar, it's plenty sweet. I use Fuji apples and just enough water to cover the apples.
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