My Little Bobble-Head,
You are growing up so fast!
Milk to Mush
The move from just milk to mush and milk is supposed to be gradual and I did feel a bit of a beginner, because Georgie was pretty ill on and off between about four and seven months, which meant that weaning didn't really begin properly until she was at stage 2 (mushy, textured fruit, veg and protein).
So I decided to just offer you breakfast, lunch and dinner at the usual times, and keep your original milk schedule, and then just see how we went. And I have to say we went just fine! Well done you! You prefer fruit (who wouldn't, if I do say so myself, my fruit purees are delish!) but actually you're also fine with any number of mushed vegetables.
Sleeping Beauty
We still offer you a dream feed between about 10 and midnight and then you sleep right on through, often until 7. Sometimes you wake in the early hours but you are generally easily shushed back to sleep - it's one of the few times you'll take a dummy actually. When you wake up a bit too early, sometimes at 6 or 7, I bring you into the bed and, if I gently prevent you from flailing about and sucking my chin, you nod back off to sleep (until your sister comes bounding into the mix with demands for breakfast....)
Rejection of the Play Mats - Standing Tall
You used to love you playmats, you would lie on them and....well, play.
Then you wanted to sit in a bouncy chair on a play mat.
Or on a bumbo in front of a play table.
Then one day you were having none of it. Luckily your Nanny and Grandad had saved an acitivity centre that we used for Georgie.
It was in their garden and hence was dirty and covered in snails, but once it was cleaned and dried it was an instant hit. Then I was fortuante enough to find another one exactly like it for £1.50. They retail for about £60 new, so I was very very pleased to have one to put at Nanny and Grandad's house and one for here.
No More Silent Laughs
You are a very smiley baby - everyone says so.
And now you are a giggler, it's official!
You laugh a lot, a tickling, jumping, smiling and it's frickin' adorable!
Afternoons with Nanny, Grandad, Gran and Gramps
It used to be Georgie who was sent out to the loving and indulgent arms of the fabulous grandparents - that was before, when you were a sleepy, compliant baby. These days you are far more alert and a great deal less tolerant! You are no lover of busy environments, and your need for very warm milk, regular medicines and general calm made the switch a simple and obvious choice. It means that I can take Georgie on playdates, give the grandparents a break from the relentless demands of a toddler and let them get to know you. You seem cool with it. And the grandparents look a bit less harried these days....
A Walking Wonder
Not walking under your own power or anything (yet!) but Kerry and Tim kindly leant us Amy's walker (which Amy herself hated with a fiery passion, to the point that she would cry a river when she just glimpsed it), and you seem to love it. First you seemed to think it was jumping aparatus, like a door bouncer. You learned how to move it by jumping, and you still seem to think that leaping around is the key to movement. You go faster in the kitchen than on carpet, and Georgie loves nothing better than to roll you over to one end, stand at the other, call you over, as though you are an excitable puppy, and then send your rolling back and bouncing off the kitchen cabinets. We have very firmly prevented this, as whip lash is not something I want for my baby, now or in the future. So a modified, safer version of this game now persists in the kitchen, and so we are all back to wearing some kind of footwear at all times, lest you roll onto our feet and make us cry. It was the same when Georgie was in her walker too...
From Sleepwear to Daywear
I'm not really a believer in anything but vest and sleepsuits for little babies - it's hard to find clothes that are comfy for lying around, and for the first four to six months that's all babies can do. But now I feel perfectly within my rights, and yours, to pop you into regular clothes often, if not every single day. You soak through four or five outfits a day with all that drool (still no teeth and yet all these teething signs!) but hey....So check you out wearing actual clothes now you're six months old...!
So my dumpling, darling baby, another couple of months has passed us by, and we love you more than ever. Even Georgie still adores you, and despite her clumsy affections, or maybe even because of them, you clearly love her too.
Sleep tight O bobbled one, love from your Mummy xxx
And if you'd like to see what Georgie was like at these ages:
Month 5
Month 6
