7 Month old Olive gets a new room

Wow Olive is seven months old. Where did the time go? Isn't it funny how the memories of her arrival into this world have faded? I think we can thank the hormones for that one. It truly feels like years ago that we were new parents taking our little Olive home from the hospital. Okay I'll get a grip, she has only just turned 7 months not 7 years! So what has our little livy, twiggy, peach or freckle/ noodle bum been up to in the past 3 months. 

This little piggy had roast beef

At five months she had grown some little teethy pegs! We didn't even know they were coming, Olive happened to be biting Dad and the gums were a little sharper than normal! That may explain the 2 hour wake ups during the night for a few weeks! It just so happened her two bottom teeth arrived just in time for her introduction to solids, or as adults like to call food. I managed to go to Plunket's Solid Stage 1 meeting and walked away thinking, now that was a bit pointless. We had been tossing up about doing Baby led weaning, which is basically letting your baby explore food the way it comes! So skipping the puree stage. For the first few weeks after she had turned 5 months we just sat her up at the table while we ate, it did feel a bit mean since she was watching us (which was a good sign or interest in food!) we then introduced soft fruit and vege, like banana, avocado, apple, carrot, potato and cut it to fit Olive's little hands. We were surprised how coordinated she was to start with. It took her a few weeks to get the food into her hands (us helping to start with) but once there was a piece in her hand it went straight to the mouth, chew and then most of it came back out again, with some crazy facial expression. Like what on earth was that! 

It has been lovely having Olive at the dinner table for our meal times. She seems to enjoy the act of eating and is up for trying everything on offer. Her favourite food to date is yoghurt and banana, with a slice of pear on the side. Pumpkin is a hit but the chicken drumstick takes the prize. Over the past two months we have watched her motor skills improve and she now slaps the table with anticipation.

Olive now has a new cousin, a girl for a change! Cousin Violet and another girlfriend little Lucy Harris. 

Sleeping, what a topic.

It has pretty much stayed the same, she is a 45min cat napper which I have come to accept with the occasional 2 hour nap to throw you off the trail. She is still very unpredictable if she will settle for a day nap, the buggy walk still works if things go to pot on the sleep front as is the car capsule. Around six months we hit a bad patch with putting her down at night, where I would spend close to an hour and a half feeding in the darkness of her room, attempting to put her down after she fell asleep feeding. But one night I just tested the waters to see if she could settle by herself. The first night it took close to 45 mins for her to wind down with me going in at set intervals and to fall asleep only to wake after 45 mins for round two. The second night, it took 20mins and by the third she was really happy to be placed into cot and turned her head to one side and went to sleep. It wasn't as scary as I thought it would be and it meant I got some down time in the evenings.

So they all rolled over and one fell out

At six and half months Olive decided to roll over. Which was lovely, she doesn't do it a lot only if she really wants a toy out of reach. We were amazed by how much she uses her feet, and how much she still loves watching her hands and playing with her feet. Her toys are getting a lot more action as her attention span is a little longer and her interest grows. She loves shadows, mostly her own and her giraffe Sophies. She has managed to use the mirror on her gym to reflect the sun onto the walls since the early morning sun has been shining into our lounge.

We bought a portacot as we were going away for a weekend with seven couples and seven babies/ toddlers to Ramatai Beach. It wasn't as crazy as we had all thought. We got up to a bit of board game action and got to hang out with all the other kids. We tested the waters with the portacot a week before hand as we did up her room, we painted, wallpapered and sewed her curtains. After 10 days we had completed her room.

Humpy Dumpty sat on a wall

At seven months her latest trick is sitting up by herself, it only took about a week from being really wobbly to sitting confidently reaching for toys, so now she can happily sit and pull lots of toys out of the basket all by herself, so proud.

G