Good night soup

Since Wednesday, Dex has been waking up at 2 am screaming for Mommy and Daddy. At first I thought it was because we have disrupted the order of the universe (Jon left for an out-of-town conference that same day), and then I thought it was the ear infection (yup, ear infection #5 in 20 months), or the other set of molars coming in, but in the end, I decided it must be a combination of the three. And, because I was rewarding him by taking him to bed with me instead of settling him back in his crib (how can I not take that warm little body in bed with me when he's upset), he figured he had a good thing going.

But last night, I decided to deal with the mid-night waking by concocting my magic sleep potion: chicken meatball soup with pasta. Carmen from the butcher shop told me this is what she made for her kids once they started eating solids. It goes something like this:

- Boil a bit of pasta. I use the tiny ones, acini de pepe or stellini, just enough to fit the bottom of my cupped palm -- not too much because pasta expands a lot.
- Then I add my chopped vegetables: carrots, mushrooms, peas, celery, potato, zucchini -- whatever I have in the fridge.
- Then I add my meatballs. I now make a big batch of chicken meatballs, freeze them, then take out a half dozen or so for each soup serving.
- Add a little bit of herbs: basil, tarragon, parsley, whatever I have on hand.
- Then just before it's ready, I stir in a beaten egg.
- To serve, I grate some parmesan cheese and stir it in. That's it.

Dex loves this soup. It turns out a little differently each time. Last night's version was more risotto-y in consistency than soup, but that was just fine for Dex. He ate six meatballs plus the pasta and all the vegetables.

And for the first time in a week, he slept through the night again, a full 11 hours! Amazing.

Before I went to bed last night, I checked in on him. There was my beautiful little boy in a Jesus pose in his crib, perspiring a little as he digested his meal. Georgeous thing.