Seven Months and One week – weekly photo

Araminta is a very lovely and relaxed child, and for that we feel very blessed. Her weekly photos this week show her sitting up (she’s getting much better at getting herself out of a sitting position now) and helping Mummy.

She’s drawing names out of a bowl for a competition Ruth had.

She thought it was great fun

This morning she had rice cereal with breast-milk for the first time, and she enjoyed that quite a lot, so we’ll use that again.

Next week we have three public holidays so we are going to take her camping in the tent. Pictures when we get back.

Seven Months – and it’s cold outside

Araminta is now seven months old, and she is seriously mobile. We are wanting to light the fire in our fireplace, but we need to investigate some ways to child-proof it first.

This week has been quite cold, for her weekly photo Araminta got to wear a hat and a jumper that Ruth made.

The hat is still a little bit too big.

On Saturday it was very cold and wet, so we dressed her very warmly in an outfit that Aunty Kerin sent. This outfit was hand-delivered by Kerin’s boss.

Unfortunately, I cut the feet off in the picture, so you can’t see the cute little bunny slippers that match it.

For those of you who haven’t heard; Ruth started a new job this week as a customer support agent for an internet start-up company. I’m able to work remotely (from home) so I can still watch and feed Araminta. The contract is until the end of July, but I’m hoping it will be renewed, so we will be able to save some money and get home to Australia for Christmas.

In the food stakes Araminta has now tried carrot (not so good), butternut pumpkin (not so keen), avocado (took that reasonably well much to Jeff’s disgust) and banana, which is a bit of a hit. I’m going to stew up another apple for her when all the banana’s are gone.

Both Jeff and I have had the flu in the last week. We tag teamed, so Jeff got well just as I got sick. I’ve still got a runny nose and a cough, but I’m feeling much better.

Playing and eating…

Kerin recently sent a bear and some other goodies over for Araminta. The bear laughs when you press his hand, and although she was a little unsure of him at first he is now a firm favourite at play time.

Examining bear closely.

Hugging bear while posing for Mummy. I love how serious she is in this picture.

She’s sitting quite well on her own now.

Here, she really starts to play with bear

and loses her balance…

Araminta has quite an independent streak, here she is wiping her own face after dinner.

Six months three weeks

This week I thought Araminta’s weekly photo could reflect the milestone of eating solid food. I’m still not sure that she realises it is actually food we are giving her, but she thinks it’s great fun and is eating happily. At this stage all she’s had is stewed apple. We’ll start with carrots next week.

Every few bites I relent and give her the spoon so that she can ‘feed’ herself.

In sleeping news, last night we made it through with only two feeds so we got a stretch of a couple of hours of sleep which was very nice.

A belated weekly update – 6 months and two weeks

It’s nearly time for her six months and three weeks update, but life has gotten away from us a little this week.

Araminta is now able to sit on her own if we put her in a sitting position. We can’t quite walk away and leave her though, as she has some trouble getting back down again – there’s been a few bumped heads, and they have all been on Ruth’s watch.

Here she is sitting up by herself.

And this is the progression downwards.

Finally, sitting time is over.

The jumper she is wearing was knitted by Ruth, it’s a little big, at the moment, but she’s so cute in it.

In other news Araminta had her first taste of solid food on Sunday. We stewed up and then pureed an apple for her. She was a bit reluctant at first, but is slowly coming around to the idea. At the moment we are just giving her tastes of food and not worrying too much about getting a full meal from it. I’ve got another apple to stew up and then we’ll move onto carrots next week.

Finally, here’s a picture of Araminta and Mummy, wearing the pink cardigan Ruth knitted and the fluffy bunny slippers from Kerin.

Araminta has discovered the cat

Araminta is much more mobile now, and has started to take an interest in the cat.

It began Saturday morning when she crawled across our bed to ‘pat’ him.

Since then she has taken to chasing him around the room every chance she gets. He hardly has a chance to lie down before she is scooting across the carpet towards him.

He’s been pretty good about the attention really, most of the time he actually purrs, but there have been a few occasions where she has pulled a little hard eliciting a miao, but he is very gentle with her.

Here he is purring while being petted.

She’s wearing her Koala bear outfit from her Sydney cousins (don’t know if you guys want your names used or not), but I think this will be the last time as it’s pretty tight now.

Araminta has turned into a little wriggle worm and getting a nappy on is now extremely difficult. But she’s a very happy little thing who always has a smile for you.