Cherry Blossom Adventures

Dear Noah,

Happy half a year buddy! Where is the time going little man? You are six months old already- this time six months ago you were already here and I was probably holding you, or feeding you, or you might have been sleeping in your little bed in our hospital room. I am the mother of a six month old- when I say that out loud I just can`t believe it.

Here is you six months ago

And this is you now

Hard to believe that is the same little boy huh? Imagine how hard it is for ME to believe!!!

You are becoming more and more independent- you don`t like to be put to sleep, instead you much rather to go into your cot yourself and settle yourself. Even for naps, I might put you in your cot, and 20 minutes later you might still be playing and chatting to yourself, but you don`t cry, you just get yourself comfortable, settle down and go to sleep. Sometimes you wake up in the oddest positions though and at a complete different end of the cot to what I put you in. You also like to sit up to play now that you have beyond mastered the sitting thing. Although you can`t yet get yourself into a sitting position from your tummy (or back) yet so if you are on your tummy you will kick your legs letting me know you want to start sitting!

You also like to show your independence when you eat and this is the month we have started you on some vegetables and fruits. We did rice cereal only for awhile but have now moved on to some veggies and fruit- So far you have tried, in no particular order, pumpkin, carrots, spinach, sweet potato, avocado, brocolli, apples, banana, papaya and watermelon. I think that is all? So far you definitely like avocado, papaya and pumpkin the best. You don`t mind spinach either-especialy mixed in with carrots or pumpkin. You are a very messy eater though- and I let you touch your food (otherwise it may end in tears!) and you would love to be able to feed yourself. Due to your messy eating style though (and mama`s dislike of washing/soaking) you usually eat just in a nappy. Luckily the weather is hot now so it works out perfectly!

We tried some baby led weaning (where I put bigger pieces of food in front of you and you can play with them and suck on them or eat them if you wish) but you were not that thrilled with the idea after about a minute. You seem to prefer the purees for now- although that doesn`t stop you from trying to swipe my food. You did try a baby cracker though- which was extremely messy. But you loved it!

You enjoy seeing other kids and you even attempt to “play” with them- playgroup this month was great and you seem to have a nice time. There is a nice mix of ages but everyone seems to have fun- including the mummy`s!

You also have fun playing with other friends- we went on a picnic this month with some friends and also Leilah came to visit us too! You are usually the youngest so having Leilah around was nice for you as you got to be boss! I think she will be bossing YOU around in no time though!!!

You can get a get grumpy at times- I keep thinking your teeth must be close to coming in because you are constantly chewing on things and drooling but you have made it to six months with no teeth!

Yeah- this is proof that when you were six months old you also liked to chew on your own feet! Mama`s feet are fair game too it seems as sometimes you roll and your mouth lands on my feet and I have to pry you off (often ends in tears, you definitely have a temper!).

Most of the time you are a happy little boy and your smile is still as infectious as always. You have such a fantastic smile.

You love daddy- sometimes it is hard to get you to breastfeed if he is around and also hard to get you to concentrate on anything else as you follow him around the room instead with your eyes. You give him such big smiles when he plays with your or you see him in the mornings- it is lovely to watch you two developing your own bond. Daddy does some silly things with you.

He does a great job feeding you your solid food though- he can usually get you to eat more than I can (except for pumpkin or avocado- in that case you will take it from whoever you can get it from!). For your age though you are a pretty good eater already- some days are definitely easier than others and you much prefer your evening food than your morning food (which is rice cereal with breastmilk or rice cereal, breastmilk and mashed bananas or apple).

I am trying to recall other milestones you have reached this month but you were already sitting and rolling both ways before four months so I guess the next thing will be crawling. You do move around in circles on your belly a lot, to reach for different things (or attack mama`s feet!), you start to put your arms in the air if you want to be picked up and you have moved backwards along your tummy and forwards once or twice. No sign of actual crawling yet. Not really anyway.

Before you turn 7 months old you will have your first little cousin- Auntie Kazumi is due in early July meaning this time next month we should certainly have a photo of you and your first cousin. You like Kazumi and I get the feeling you know that she has a baby in her tummy but of course I am not sure. People do say babies are intuitive about these things though! You also love visiting the in-laws because that is where Holly the dog is- and you do like to harrass the dog!

We had our first official baby sign class this last month which was fun- I have been doing some baby signs with you or a couple of months but now I am trying to do about 20 or so (although sometimes I throw out some other ones, that said, you are not usually paying attention!)- the regulars include milk, hungry, finished, yummy, cat, dog, pick up, drink, water, more, ball, playing, daddy, mummy, nappy, read/book, eat, want, and I am sure there are others. No sign of you doing any back yet but you always laugh when I do “yummy” and you get quite interested and seem to know what “milk” means.

You are a little sneak sometimes- you look at me when you are doing something that I think you no you shouldn`t. I can only imagine that will get worse. Sometimes when you are rolling (and yes you do roll, then roll again sometimes to get where you want to go) you look at me as if to say “Did you see that mum? Did you see that?”.

You are a little chubber- weighing at least 7.5kg now! I can`t believe when I look back at older photos how much you have grown. It is amazing to see what you have developed from. Goma-chan, you have been here six months now. How are you liking it?

Love mama

Ps: Forgot to mention sleep. Such an important thing that it is. You usually take two naps a day, sometimes three if we are out part of the day because they will be shorter than usual. Night sleep- well you have gone from a baby that was waking up only once a night (between 7:30pm-7:30am) with the occasional twice a night wake up to waking up pretty much 2 or 3 times every night again. UGH, sleep regression! Just a warning- by the time you are 8 months, I will be only feeding you once during the night, if that, so get used to it buddy otherwise it will be water for you!!!

We also have moved you into the big bath and you LOVE it. You sit in there (with me, or daddy) play with your toys, smile and giggle and don`t complain about having spinach scrubbed out of your ears, nostrils, neck creases and what not. This is why you have your bath about half an hour after you finish your dinner- because you look like you need a hose down!!!

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