TANTRUM INSIGHT AND A NOTE ON MEAL PLANNING

I did have one epiphany the other day... The babeola gets angry when she gets hurt, which is what my husband does. He bumps his elbow and next thing I know he's on the war path. Me, I get sad and want comfort when I get hurt.

So this explains at least one aspect of the tantrum difficulties we're having-- the babeola is creating a positive feedback loop by hurting herself during tantrums, which makes it hard to calm her down. I also watched her attack a dresser with her head after I accidentally pinched her finger in the drawer--the tantrum just escalated from there and I spent literally hours trying to stave off a nuclear meltdown.

We've had several lovely days with only three head smacking incidents, all of which were minor and easily redirected.  The babeola has just been so freaking cute lately with lots of talking, I'm almost convinced I can handle another baby (which is pretty huge as, to date, I've been so overwhelmed with the babeola, having another kid sounded about as much fun as being a hostage to terrorists).

We also had our first real peer interaction with another little bean about a week younger than the babeola. This bean is at the low end of the growth charts whereas the babeola left those behind at around 5 months. So it was a bit like watching her play with her own personal mini-me. They were very adorable together and it was the first time I was able to really compare and contrast the babeola with kids of her age group.

Which was interesting. I don't really know what to think or say other than the babeola was running developmental circles around the other toddler. It made me feel as if maybe I am doing right by the babeola, except I suspect I have absolutely nothing to do with it, it's all her.

Anyway, I just wanted to make a note of the meal planning I did this week, because it worked out so marvelously well and kept me out of the kitchen about 90% of the time. And who wouldn't want to memorialize what they did to make homemade meals without all the drudgery of cooking in a hot kitchen?

I had the husband grill a bunch of kielbasa and some marinated chicken. From that we reheated the kielbasa for breakfast (we are E. European, kielbasa is a food group) and then had dinner one day pairing it with locally sourced asparagus. The chicken I used a day later to make a salad with goat cheese, dried cherries, pecans and balsamic dressing. The lettuce was also locally grown, picked minutes before I bought it and we're still eating it almost a week later--it's still amazingly fresh. We also had lunch meat on hand to make quick sandwiches, which I kept low glycemic by eating between lettuce leaves instead of bread.

Then I threw some frozen chicken breasts (with bone) in the crock pot, topped with water and spices. When it was done, I deboned the chicken and made; chicken divan, green bean casserole with shredded chicken, and chicken salad for sandwiches. This will carry us through until Thursday-ish I think. Although it's not exactly low sodium, but I didn't say it was healthy meal planning!

Plus, my mom is visiting and making a turkey meatball chicken soup with the stock from the slow cooker. So we are awash in food with a minimum of cooking. I am pleased!