Little gosling loves pizza 🙂 !
And pasta… pasta more, I think. Babies must be born Italians 😀 😀 :D. Anyway, I don’t remember when he first ate pizza, but by the time he was 13 months old, he was enjoying our whole wheat home made pizza. And today, pizza is our go-to home delivered food if we have to or the choice of restaurant for eating out (if fish and seafood are not available). We eat it quite regularly. I enjoy it with a bit of spicy oil or sauce on top and we always have some in the fridge.
Last time we had pizza at home, baby held out his hands to my spicy sauce. I explained it was very spicy (“ouf ouf”) and he would not enjoy it (some months ago, he managed to get a bite of a similarly spicy rice from my plate and he started crying instantly and pulling on his tongue out), but that for the next time, I would buy a sauce that was good for him. He accepted that. I subsequently completely forgot about it.
Today, his daddy made an incredibly tasty 5 cereal mix wheat pizza. As usual, I brought out the spicy sauce and spread some drops on a slice of pizza. Baby looks at me and I recite my usual explanation as to why he cannot have it. Without fighting it, he asked “buy sauce bebe?” And just then I remembered. I was half laughing half ashamed I had forgotten. So so amazed that he had recalled our conversation. He’s only 23 months old… I was so in awe of my little gosling. Daddy and I exchanged “wooow!” glances. I apologised to baby for having forgotten about his sauce (mind you, we could have even given him some of the tomato sauce with spices that we had used for the base, but we had just washed the bowl..) and promised again I would make sure we would have sauce for him the next time around. Daddy vouched for this, as a reinforcement. Baby accepted without discussion.
A couple of seconds later, baby looks at me with a serious face (as he had kept it throughout) and says “sad bebe”. More “wooow” glances exchanged. When did he get so self-conscious? When did he go from simple one or two syllable words to such a complex process, involving memory and emotional assertiveness? Once I got past my awe, I hugged him, gave him a loud kiss on his cheek (that is what we do when someone is sad), told him I understood that and that I was sorry.
I am so proud of my little gosling.. It is such an amazing journey to witness a baby’s development step by step, day by day. It makes one understand and appreciate things we take for granted. And it makes one so much more aware and mindful about own behaviours and reactions – we’ve become role models for a tiny human.
We have to be mindful now to have some sauce at hand on our next pizza day. We want baby to learn that we keep the promises we make and know that however big or small, we care about his needs and wishes.
