The First Lesson in Making Dumplings

GoatSpawn Calls Customer Service

Press 1 for a diaper change, 2 for a song, 3 for hunger issues ...
[beep]
Ladygoat: Hello, this is Ladygoat, mama to GoatSpawn. How can I assist you today?
GoatSpawn: I don't know if you've noticed, but I've been awfully hungry lately.
Ladygoat: I'm aware of the issue, and I am already taking steps to take care of it.
GoatSpawn: You are?
Ladygoat: Yes. I first noticed it a few days ago. Are you waking up a lot at night again?
GoatSpawn: Why, yes, I am.
Ladygoat: And how do your clothes fit?
GoatSpawn: Not so good anymore.
Ladygoat: I thought so. We think you're going through a growth spurt.
GoatSpawn: Can I get more avocados and sweet potatoes now?
Ladygoat: Yes, of course, but only after you've have a good serving of Ladygoat milk. You are still supposed to get most of your nutrients and calories from milk, not food. The milk is more suited to your nutritional needs than any food.
GoatSpawn: Well then, I was wondering if you could boost the milk production a bit?
Ladygoat: Sure. It's being worked on. It responds to supply and demand, and since you're demanding more, supply is more too.
GoatSpawn: Isn't there anything else you are doing to speed things up a bit?
Ladygoat: Yes - oatmeal. I eat a giant bowl of oatmeal in the morning. It actually works for me - once, I got 40% more milk on the day I had oatmeal.
GoatSpawn: How about beer?
Ladygoat: I haven't tried beer, but since Foodgoat always has beer around, maybe I will.
GoatSpawn: And fenugreek?
Ladygoat: I hear it works really well, but since it's in the same family as peanuts, and I'm deathly allergic to peanuts, I'm sticking to oatmeal just in case (although chickpeas are also in the same family, and I can eat them).
GoatSpawn: What else are you doing?
Ladygoat: Staying hydrated helps a lot, pumping more helps, as does not getting too stressed out.
GoatSpawn: When I am stressed out, I like to cry and suck on my fingers. Have you tried that?
Ladygoat: Yes, but it doesn't go over too well at work. Is there anything else I can help with?
GoatSpawn: No, thank you. When can I expect to see more milk?
Ladygoat: Right away!
GoatSpawn: Great! While I've got you on the line, can you do something about the green turtle on my play center? I like the yellow duck but that green turtle never listens to me.
Ladygoat: I'll see what I can do.

GoatSpawn Eats, Take Two

GoatSpawn's second food: Sweet potato!

Sweet potato, like avocado, is an increasingly popular first food for babies. Makes sense - they're nutritious, sweet-tasting, and easy to digest.


Sweet potato required a bit more preparation than the avocado to be GoatSpawn ready: boil chunks of sweet potato in water until tender, then puree until smooth, and thin out with a bit of liquid if you need to.

Foodgoat's philsophy: involve kids in cooking early on!

The verdict: GoatSpawn seems to like sweet potato better than avocado! She was grabbing at the spoon and putting it in her mouth.

I still don't think much of it gets swallowed, but she seems to be getting the idea.

Happy 6 Months GoatSpawn!

We celebrated her half year birthday by eating her cupcake (she would have wanted it that way). It was an especially delicious mocha flavored cupcake from the West Side Market.

GoatSpawn May Be Hungry

GoatSpawn is a few weeks shy of 6 months (!), so we have been closely monitoring her to see if she has any interest in food. Up until she was 5 months old, she didn't seem at interested in having anything beside the Ladygoat milk.

Then, on the plane ride back from California, she kept taking a swipe at the cheeseburger they served for lunch. Since it was an airplane cheeseburger, I could not imagine that she would really be compelled to eat that before anything else.

Then last week she tried to grab my bagel and cream cheese, and she stuck out her tongue.

But yesterday she tried to eat my cell phone, so I figured bagel and cheeseburger might just be flukes.

And then tonight this happened:


GoatSpawn tried to help herself (more than once I might add) to Foodgoat's beer.

It may be time to introduce GoatSpawn to other things to eat.

How GoatSpawn Changes Meals

GoatSpawn was born two days after my mother arrived in town, and it has now been four days since she went back home, leaving Foodgoat and I to go it alone with GoatSpawn. One thing we have discovered: we have to eat a lot quicker. We sit down to eat, and inevitably she'll wake up and say, hey, I think I need to eat too. So I scramble to finish my food, or Foodgoat scrambles to finish his food, so that GoatSpawn can get her meal. And we have to be more efficient in preparing meals too - it seems like there is just less time that we can spend fixing dinner, or one less person who can help, so convenience has emerged as a more important factor in deciding what to make for dinner.

MilkBreath Meets BeerBreath

I am now 5 weeks old, and it's been a marathon of eating and sleeping and trying to tell Foodgoat and Ladygoat what exactly it is I need. It's always been Ladygoat who takes care of my eating needs, but one night, it was Foodgoat who took me aside at dinner time. Being hungry, I wasn't too pleased that Ladygoat was nowhere to be seen.

But then Foodgoat produced something he called a "bottle" and lo and behold, it was full of milk! I was completely astounded. All this time, and it turns out he too has the power to feed me too! I looked at him with surprise the whole time: Why didn't you do this before, Poppy?

GoatSpawn is Here!

After a long, long wait, I, GoatSpawn, have finally arrived!

I'm a tiny little girl and just 10 days old today, but my proud parents, Foodgoat and Ladygoat, think I absolutely overflow with cuteness. And they're getting even more infatuated with each passing day.

Me, I have been excited to be introduced to this whole "eating" thing. Previous to my official arrival, I used an automatic nutrient supply system, but now I use this fascinating two-tap system. I have found that if it magically makes itself available if I furiously twist my head from side to side with my mouth wide open. Alternatively, a high pitched wail suffused with epic suffering also seems to work.

Unfortunately for the rest of the Goats, the three-a-day meal schedule just isn't doing it for me. I have a tiny stomach and it can't hold much, so in that long stretch of nighttime when they like to sleep soundly and contentedly, I like to have a couple of meals. Maybe a snack or two. It's around these times when it really helps that I'm adorable.

GoatSpawn Blogs Again

Nine weeks to go, and the big question is: am I a boy or a girl? Nobody knows!

Some people thought it was a good idea to keep my gender a surprise, and some people seem to be annoyed and frustrated by the suspense. Some have strong convictions of one side or the other, but an informal poll is pretty evenly split.

Did diet have anything to do with this? According to old wives tales, women who eat more meat and salty foods get a boy, while those who eat more sweets and desserts get a girl. New research also suggests that a higher calorie intake around the time of conception, with its higher quantity and wider range of nutrients, is linked to boys. There was also a strong correlation between women eating breakfast cereals and sons.

So what was Ladygoat eating around January?

In other news, to pass the time, I've been trolling the web. Here's some stuff I found:

from I Can Haz A Cheezburger, courtesy of my soon to be uncle PJ ...




and an alarm clock that wakes you up with the smell of bacon ... by actually cooking a piece of bacon by two halogen lamps. Delicious!

GoatSpawn Exposed

GoatSpawn here, checking in with the world.

When I'm not busy growing all the necessary parts for human life (which takes a lot more time than you would think), I'm already contemplating this food thing. So far, I only get to see the food after some processing by Ladygoat, but I've found when she eats, I have the energy to begin another round of trying to beat my way out of this place. Especially since she has continued to insist upon a daily cup of coffee. (My current digs are quite comfortable, except that every once in a while, this loud booming voice announces, "Spawn ... I am your ... Father." )

Indeed, Ladygoat has continued to eat a lot of things since I've been around. While some women get puritanical every little thing that passes into their system, Ladygoat has tried to forestall pregnancy paranoia. Fortunately, her doctor seems to follow the same philosophy, since, when asked about diet, he just shrugged and said, "Everything in moderation."

Among the foods I've already be exposed to:

• Soft cheeses, including mozzarella, feta, bleu cheese, and brie: Puh-leeze, as if Ladygoat could go nine months without cheese. And the risk of food poisoning, specifically listeriosis? Ladygoat's never, ever gotten food poisoning from her cheese sources.
• Deli meats: What would Foodgoat make for lunches without deli meats? The alleged problem is risk of food poisoning, listeriosis again. And like the cheese, Foodgoat's preferred deli meat sources have never steered him into food poisoning.
  
• Liver: Ladygoat loves liver. And the fact that it's high in Vitamin A sounds like a good thing. Unless, maybe, you eat liver and have a vitamin A-packed supplement. But if you have a choice between the nutrient-rich food and the nutrient-rich pill, don't you always take the food? Especially if it comes with fried onions?
  
• Bacon and hot dogs: They may be high in nitrates. But they're also very high in tastiness. And, the research is skimpy and inconclusive (nitrates in well water as a result of contamination is probably far more problematic than the occasional, but oh so delicious! slice of bacon). And Ladygoat must ... have ... bacon.
  
• Fish: The whole mercury thing has made fish a complicated ingredient to monitor. Just keeping track of all the different types of fish and the various suggested frequencies made Ladygoat's brain hurt. She resorted to the general philosophy that some fish was better than no fish.
  
• Uncooked foods like sushi: Ladygoat specifically asked her doctor about sushi, who assured her that as long as it was prepared properly, sushi was fine. They had a long discussion about the merits of particular sushi restaurants, and Ladygoat's favorite was deemed safe. So sushi she did. Very happily.
  
• Alcohol: While it's pretty clear that more than 3 - 4 drinks daily during pregnancy isn't such a great idea, what risks (if any) light to moderate drinking have are much fuzzier. There may even be benefits (which makes sense, since pregnant women have had wine in Europe for time immemorial, which has not seemed to cause a collapse in civilization). Ladygoat's doctor said she could have the occasional glass of wine with dinner, so she has had the occasional sips of wine and beer. Foodgoat has responded by drinking twice as much.
  

Well, I see that it's getting late, so I will now wait 'til things quiet down around here, so as to begin yet again to try to kick my way out. I'll bust out of here eventually!

A New Blogger

Hello readers ... there's a new blogger in town!

Well, maybe not quite in town just yet. But I thought I'd jump on this blogging thing, so as to build up the buzz for the big debut in a few months.

Guess where I'm staying until then?

One of these is the GoatSpawn belly, and one is the beer belly!


So far, I haven't made many food demands. Well, except for that one part in the beginning when saltines were the only thing that tasted really good. But other than that, I have sent no food craving signals to the surface.

Just you wait, though, Foodgoat ... one night soon, Ladygoat may suddenly "suggest" that you go get her a bucket of KFC chicken. With some lemon ice.