Last Sunday, February 22, Allie was seven months old. I know I can’t believe how quickly time is flying by, and that it is already March 1st. How did that happen? It feels like we just celebrated the new year, no? And I don’t mean Chinese New Year, either. I mean Times Square, ball dropping, happy 2009! I am hardly even used to writing “09” on my checks (cheques to us Malaysians) and it is already March. 🙂
[[image:allie186a.jpg:Reaching for the camera:center:0]]
At any rate, Allie has progressed further in this last month. We are done with reading stories from the Crab Orchard Review at bedtime. Now we are reading another short story anthology (I forget what year the book covers but I know that Michael Chabon edited it). For the most part, Allie sleeps well – from her 8 PM bedtime to 6:30 AM, with usually only one night-time feeding. She loves to play, babbles and laughs at our silly antics, and is learning to kiss, having become a master hugger. The kisses are still kind of hit or miss though, usually wet and drooly. But she is attempting them! She rolls backwards and forwards effortlessly, and can stay sitting up without help for short periods of time. And of course, now she is an eater of solid foods! Here is a tally of foods that we have introduced to her to date (observing the 4-day rule in case of allergies) as well as Allie’s rating of them:
1. Rice cereal – Thumbs up
2. Sweet Potato Puree – Thumbs down
3. Carrot Puree – Thumbs down
4. Mashed bananas – Thumbs up
5. Yellow squash puree – Thumbs down
6. Yellow squash puree + mashed bananas – Thumbs up
7. Applesauce – Thumbs up
8. Pea puree – Thumbs up
Makan time is definitely not boring – it can be fun and fast with her reaching for the food (for the thumbs up items) or she may turn her head and try to run away and refuse to keep eating (for the thumbs down), but that is all part of growing up. We are making all of the food ourselves (rather than buying baby food in jars) except for the cereal of course. And this process is fun, and quite rewarding if Allie happily eats it up.
Here come the boatload of pictures, showing how Allie spent her 7 month birthday. As always, please mouse over the pictures for captions.
We start off the morning downstairs on the gymini while Mama and Papa worked.
[[image:allie169a.jpg:Hello, good morning!:center:0]]
[[image:allie170a.jpg:What’s over there?:center:0]]
[[image:allie172a.jpg:Alphabets can be yummy to chew on:center:0]]
[[image:allie171a.jpg:Muahahaha!:center:0]]
[[image:allie174a.jpg:Come and play with me:center:0]]
Then it was time to change out of her pyjamas and put on her new striped onesie:
[[image:allie175a.jpg:Like my baju?:center:0]]
[[image:allie176a.jpg:Pulling off the Wonder Woman socks:center:0]]
Then it was time for lunch (we still haven’t gotten around to buying a high chair but the vibrating chair works well). Today’s lunch: squash puree + mashed banana.
[[image:allie177a.jpg:See my culotte styled onesie?:center:0]]
[[image:allie178a.jpg:Bibbed:center:0]]
[[image:allie179a.jpg:Yummy! Squash and banana rocks!:center:0]]
[[image:allie180a.jpg:Here comes the spoon!:center:0]]
[[image:allie181a.jpg:Oh, Papa, are you still taking pictures?:center:0]]
Allie had her usual naps, and when she woke up she was full of beans!
[[image:allie182a.jpg:Singing to Mama:center:0]]
[[image:allie183a.jpg:I see my reflection:center:0]]
[[image:allie184a.jpg:Cheeese!:center:0]]
[[image:allie185a.jpg:Wait, don’t disturb me:center:0]]
Then it was dinner time (rice cereal):
[[image:allie189a.jpg:Yummy yummy:center:0]]
And a little more playtime:
[[image:allie188a.jpg:Sitting and reading on her own:center:0]]
[[image:allie187a.jpg:Papa! Papa!!!!:center:0]]
After another action-packed day, Allie took a bath and went to bed. Her parents followed soon after – we are always exhausted by bedtime! But it’s definitely an amazing time and I can’t believe Allie has come so far. I was looking back at pictures of her from when she was born, and she looked so tiny! Anyway, we look forward to more culinary and other developments in the coming months (crawling, perhaps?). To close this entry, one of my favorite pictures of the day, taken in the morning when she was playing on the gymini:
[[image:allie173a.jpg:Happy on the gymini:center:0]]
