Seven Months... And She's Off!!!

It's time to batten down the hatches - there's a little girl on the move! She's been heading this way for quite a while but now we have a determined young lady who sees what she's interested in and then makes her way over towards it. Being the daughter of Neil and Jenny, though, she doesn't crawl the normal way - that would be too obvious. Instead, the drag and pull method that she first hinted at a couple of months ago seems to be the transport method of choice. We're very proud that even from a very early age she's being her own person and not following others who crawl in the normal, fashionable way.

So the Sun has really come out over the last few weeks so we decided to make the most of it and hit the beach. Firstly we spent a couple of days in Weymouth, which is a very cute seaside town further West. In a year's time they're going to be hosting all the Olympic water events near Weymouth, so the hotels are starting to book up already. So next year when you're glued to your TV watching Olympic Sailing (what else would you be watching?) then you'll be able to say "Oh, we know where that is, that's Weymouth, with the great Pirate Mini Golf course." So here's Zafra with Mummy in Weymouth....

In the winter, many seaside towns do repairs to prepare for the summer. So we couldn't help taking this shot...

We also hit Bournemouth beach, of course....

Perhaps the highlight of this month, though, was the visit of Uncle Evan and Auntie Katrina. They flew over with seemingly three missions in mind - (1) see wild ponies, (2) drink British beer, (3) eat cheese. All three missions, we're pleased to say, were successful. They saw the New Forest, Bath, and lots of English pubs...

Evan and Katrina at the Curlew Pub.

Wild New Forest ponies. They roam in gangs like Hells Angels, beating up unsuspecting donkeys and if you honk your horn at them, they'll come up to your car and angrily poop on your bonnet.

Zafra decides that Mummy's sandwich is just too tempting.

Katrina, Jenny and Zafra in Bath.

Give me 5! Zafra actually plays this game with Daddy.

Zafra waits impatiently for her beer. In England it's legal for a parent to give alcohol to a child of 3 years old but you can't serve alcohol to anyone under 18. Zafra flashed a fake ID, though.

So Zafra and Parker are starting to set some mutual boundaries. At the moment the general rule seems to be that Parker is allowed to only touch his toys and Zafra is allowed to touch whatever she wants. But they're getting a little bit closer and Parker will tolerate a little more of a stroke from Zafra, even if he's still nervous of a hair-pull.

We also celebrated the festival of Purim recently. We went into the fancy dress shop on Thursday to see what they might be able to do for a family of three, including a little girl. Neil had a particular idea (we won't share because we'll use it in the future) and the shop attendant just kept saying "Poor girl!" In England there's rather an obsession with Health & Safety. For example, they recently put a fence around a village pond to stop people from falling in, even though the pond has been in that village for hundreds of years and no-one has ever fallen in. So, Health & Safety dictates that there aren't fancy dress costumes for Under-3s because of the risk of choking! So we were really stumped. We came back the next day and tried a few things on, but nothing was really working. Then, Neil noticed a costume that someone had recently tried on, Jenny suggested how Zafra could be involved and so we ended up with...

In England there's the Chief Rabbi. Now there's the Big Chief Rabbi.

Neil also joined the world of blogging this week with his new blog which you can find at www.rabbineil.com. Do have a look, become a follower and help him feel loved.

We'll leave you with some pics and a vid...

Sophie the Giraffe is Zafra's favourite toy!

Zafra loves riding on daddy for family walks. This one is a regular of ours, down to the Stour River from our house.

Remember, parents, that if you blow raspberries on your children, they might learn to do it to you...!

Six months: munching and moving!

Major milestones have been happening lately, and at such a pace it's been impossible to sit at the computer for long enough to do a new post before now! Zafra turned 6 months old and she's just as happy and smiley as ever. There were many discussions about how to mark her half birthday. Zafra had her heart set on sky-diving, but mummy's afraid of heights and daddy gets pretty travel sick in planes. So, we went with the next best thing: the first solid food! Here she is, in her amazing new combination high chair (it comes with a table that, when turned on its side, becomes the base of the high chair, thanks Grandma!), chomping happily away at her first food:

Some of you may be wondering where the puree and spoon are. We're doing what's called baby led weaning. It's where you skip out all the purees and mash and go straight to finger food. Zafra gets to play with her food, choose for herself what and when to eat and develop her mouth muscles at her own pace. At the moment, she can bite off bits of things (even without teeth those baby gums are strong!) and mush them around in her mouth, but it will take some practice to learn to move the food from the front to the back of her mouth for swallowing. In the meantime, most of what goes in comes back out. It's very fun and low key. And don't worry, she's still getting plenty of nutrients from mummy's milk. For this first meal she had some steamed carrot, baby corn, raw courgette (zucchini to the Americans) and rice cake. She's also had banana, apple, kiwi, pasta, hummus, scrambled egg, pepper and more. She makes a fantastic mess with it and loves having new toys to play with and taste! And we all get to eat the same meals at the same time. Parker is also a very big fan of this new eating style and we've had to train him to only pick up from around Zafra after she's finished her meal.

Parker realising that there's food at his height

If she would only bring it a little closer ...

Zafra eating in peace

Six months has seen another first - crawling! We never managed to capture the hands and knees rocking, but we were videoing her one day and captured her first proper crawl on camera! First, daddy was playing with her, rolling a ball towards her so that it would leap back away, which she thought was the funniest thing ever:

As you can see at the end of that video, she kept getting up on her hands and knees, but nothing came of it. After a few attempts, we got this. At first her toy is out of reach ...

She moved forward!!! Her first crawl, preserved forever in a tiny digital video. Since then, she has gotten better and better at it, and she can cover a couple of feet at a time when she wants. It's developed into an inchworm kind of crawl, bum in the air on tip toes, then pushing her hands out, then drawing the bum up and toes in, hands out, and so on. Clever girl! Can't turn our backs on her for a moment.

And it's not just land she's cruising on. She had her first swimming lesson last Thursday morning. Since it was the first lesson, we both got in the pool with her, but this class is going to be a special daddy-daughter class, as Neil doesn't get too many chances to join in all the fun classes and groups during the week. As we expected, she was a brilliant little water baby, splashing away and loving every minute, especially at the end when the teacher dunked her fully underwater! We were warned that the babies might cry after their underwater swim, but Zafra came up with a huge smile on her face.

Her play is also developing. She's no longer content just to play with the toys that are out that she can see. There's more fun to be had in tipping over the basket that holds her toys and choosing for herself! In and out seem to be concepts that are starting to make sense for her.

What toys are hiding in here?

She's also learning that she can use her hands to make noises! Some of her toys make noise, but the most noise comes from the piano. It is hungry work, though, as you can see ...

And, for those moments when there isn't a toy close enough to hand ...

As the weather is picking up we've been getting out more and more to new places for nature walks. Mummy is part of a Green Parent group, which is an online forum of mums and dads who are trying to raise their children in more sustainable and eco-friendly ways and share ideas, advice and concerns. It happens that a lot of them are into attachment parenting as well, so there's lots of discussions on baby-wearing, co-sleeping, full term breastfeeding, gentle parenting, etc. A number of parents are relatively local, and we get together in a pretty place, put the babies in their wraps and slings and carriers, and wander the great outdoors for a while, stopping for a picnic along the way. Zafra loves exploring in the Ergo on Mummy's back, and Mummy is making some lovely friends!

No, Zafra's not grown a snail shell on her bum, it's the backpack that attaches to the Ergo!

Lots of wonderful plans coming up, including a visit from Uncle Evan and Auntie Katrina! In the meantime, here are your miscellaneous photos.

She's just so cute in her ball pit!

Sitting pretty in her sun hat

Hello!

Rainbows and ponies

No, this isn't Zafra's 6 month (!) birthday wish list but some of what we saw this week. Monday was a lovely day in the midst of lots of grey, rainy English days, so we put on our wellies and headed out to the New Forest. To be more accurate, I put on my wellies. Neil's canvas shoes have now been pushed over the edge to oblivion. After a lovely pub lunch in Burley, we followed a route in one of our little books which took us over the hills, through the heathland and along some of the old railway line. It was brisk, gorgeous and just a little muddy! Neil's been working extra-hard lately, so he got to wear Zafra for more attached parent bonding.

Don't be fooled - this was one of the few dry spots! Parker was covered in mud by the end.

Zafra was bundled up and fell asleep soon after this photo.

About 3/4 of the way through our walk, it drizzled for about 5 minutes, not long enough to get us wet but just long enough to produce Zafra's first rainbow!

Happy First Valentine's Day Zafra!

As we made our way back to the car to head home, we found a few New Forest ponies hanging around the cars trying to hitch a ride. We had to politely refuse them, as the car seat doesn't leave enough room for a pony.

Going my way?

There were more playdates and fun times with friends. Here's Zafra at her friend Imogen's flat.

Imogen kindly let Zafra share her playmat. They were holding hands, but stopped just as the camera came out!

Zafra trying out Imogen's babypod

Zafra's laughter comes fast and easy these days. There are so many things that make her laugh, sometimes as simple as a sideways glance. One particularly fabulous development is that Parker now makes her laugh. Often, all he has to do is walk in the room for her to descend in fits of giggles. Here, though, was a brave moment in which he licked her hand. Not only is it funny because he's just Parker, but it tickles as well! As you can see, she tends to flail her arms when she giggles, so any sniff or lick risks him getting smacked in the face, but he doesn't mind it too much.

Another incredibly cute discovery was realising that kissing her cheeks really fast also causes a giggle fest!

Zafra loves kisses and she gets so many of them that she's starting to learn to give them, sometimes slobbery cheek kisses and sometimes sweet kisses on the lips.

But she does still love a good chew on someones nose!

 We're hoping that we'll be able to capture the elusive hands and knees rocking on video for the next post, but no promises! Until then, here they are, your miscellanous photos.

No autographs, please

Zafra wearing a hand-me-down from her cousin Lucie. I love this dress because the pleats make her look like a cupcake!

Zafra had actually fallen asleep sitting on my lap and stayed asleep while I moved her. She started to stir and only settled back down with her head on my leg. She's so sweet when she's asleep!

Busy baby means less blogging

As she nears the 6 month mark, Zafra seems to be dipping into the well of endless baby energy! Crawling isn't quite happening, but she's figured out an interesting and effective combination of rolling and turning that can get her short distances. Exploration keeps her entertained, especially when her toys are a bit spread out. Although it does mean that she is on her playmat less and less which means baby spit on the carpet more and more. Thankfully, Parker enjoys cleaning up after her. Helpful, if a bit gross [Neil adds: Don't tell people about this - it really is unbelievably gross!]. It does mean slightly longer gaps between blog posts, however, as she doesn't like me devoting too much attention to the computer when she's around (except video chatting - she loves the interactive faces on the computer!). So, I'm nabbing a bit of daddy/daughter time to get one done!

Sometimes, as we all do, she gets a bit bored. We got some good use out of her silver mat, but these days, all she seems to want to do is stuff it in her mouth. Cute, yes, but not entirely safe! So we've been trying out some new toys and some things that we've had around the house.

In the 'new' toy camp, we recently picked up a used pop-up ball pit complete with balls on freecycle, such an amazing find! She's only been spending small amounts of time in it at the moment, figuring out how it feels and sounds, but it seems like a fantastic freecycle catch already!

Look at my new toy!

Hmmm, what does green taste like?

On the side of using things we already have is the mini trampoline. We had moved it from its hiding place to tidy up behind it, and on a whim put Zafra on top of it. She loved the feel on her tummy and the sound it made when she scratched it (a new way she explores most things now).

Trampoline tummy time

We haven't quite got to weaning yet, but Zafra's been really interested in food and meal times. So we found her a lovely wooden high chair and she now joins in meals. Not with food, but with an array of spoons. As long as she has something to put in her mouth, she feels part of the fun!

Zafra sitting in a chair for the first time

Chewing on a spoon

Yummy spoon

We've had lots of playdates and social time at groups and cafes and on walks. She loves other babies, and is at that stage where she's trying to grab their hair and eyeballs. Since most of the babies are around the same age, all the mums are on constant watch for roaming fingers! Zafra also got to experience the best of what our neighbourhood has to offer. Our house had a white picket fence when we moved in, which we have come to realise was not a good fence and was, in fact, made of pretty rotten wood that has been rapidly disintigrating lately. Not so nice for the neighbours, a bit of an eyesore really. So one recent afternoon, a number of the neighbours came round and helped turn this

into the beginnings of a hedge

At the moment, it just looks like a row of sticks, but in a couple of years it will be lovely!

It hasn't been all play and work, though. There have been lovely moments of calm. Daytime naps are often taken on the lounge floor on a wonderfully soft blanket.

And those lovely times when a bedtime story

.
leads to a sleepy baby on the bed.

This sleepsuit makes her bottom look amazingly cute!!

 We're off to have some play time. Here's some more photos:

Zafra models her new vest. It says 'Brooklyn', where lots of her family live! (Thanks E&K!)

Zafra likes the taste of her fingers so much, she wanted to share with her mummy!

They ARE tasty!!!