Age = 7 months 13 days

Linus just got himself up onto his hands and knees for a few seconds – his first time. I wonder if he’ll be crawling in the next few weeks?!� (Exciting!!)

Age = 7 months 6 days

Improved Technique

After a month of being fairly lousy at getting any solids into his mouth, Bug finally seems to have worked it out. His last three solids meals have seen a dramatic transformation, and he now opens his mouth and lunges his head towards the spoon.

Unfortunately he doesn’t yet do these two moves at the same time, so eating is still a somewhat messy business!

The Menu

A month into solids, Bug’s diet so far has included (in roughly this order):

• kumara
• potato
• apple
• banana
• avocado
• carrot

I’m hoping that now he’s got the eating technique almost mastered I’ll be able to tell whether he actually likes specific foods or not. Until now he’s had the same disinterested attitude to everything.

The next foods I’m going to try him on are swede and parsnip, both of which I bought today at the local Farmers’ Market. And after that I imagine something green might be in order.

Age = 7 months

Linus has just discovered a new sound – squealing. It’s very cute, and not too loud (yet!). He’s also doing lots of experiments while on his tummy, sometimes trying to do push-ups or get his knees up off the ground, at other times taking all four limbs off the ground and balancing on his tummy. Not much progress yet, but I’m sure his brain is putting it all together.

And I’ve been absolutely fine for the past week and a half. Maybe the PND was just my imagination! (Maybe I can go off the meds – ha ha.)

Age = 6 months 23 days

I’m not comfortable omitting this from the record of my parenthood and Linus’s babyhood, but don’t feel like going into too much detail on here right now… As of Thursday I’m on anti-depressants for post-natal depression. It’s been affecting me since Linus was about five months old.

I feel better already – yesterday and today have been great. I don’t think it’s the drugs, I think it’s the hope.

Age = 6 months 23 days

Rellies

This past week Linus met not one but two new relatives (on my side).

Last week his great aunt JP was down for a few days from Wellington, and she visited us for lunch and a bit of shopping in the afternoon. A bug of her own meant she didn’t get any cuddles from our Bug unfortunately, but she got some photos to take home (although I am thoroughly disgusted that I didn’t manage to take any photos of JP’s visit!).

A few days later Nana took Linus and me to see his great-great uncle TP. Linus paid his respects by groping both Uncle TP’s face and his cane coffee table.

Both relatives acted suitably smitten with the beautiful child.

Physical Development

Linus is getting really good at sitting up – at times – with little support. He can often sit for seconds at a time, and visibly corrects his balance with his legs (although absolutely no sign of using his arms to balance yet).

He’s also rolling like crazy, but mainly in one direction, so he keeps ending up stuck under the coffee table or against a wall and needing to be “reset”.

First Holiday

I’ve wanted for a while to have a trip away with Linus to see how we manage away from home, but I didn’t really want to pay to stay anywhere or impose on anyone else (I’ll leave that to late October!).

It finally dawned on me a couple of weeks ago that, since the weather’s getting warmer, the Browns’ crib down at Taieri Mouth (40 minutes south on the coast) would be ideal. So last Friday night we spent an hour packing everything we own into our car and off we went.

We managed by complete fluke to have chosen a beautiful weekend to go for a beach holiday, so beautiful in fact that even I – a dedicated homebody and lazy-bum – ventured out of the house for a nice, long family walk around all of Taieri Mouth.

When we weren’t walking we were playing games, reading books (haven’t done that for ages!), and rolling around on the floor. It was a divinely relaxing weekend, helped greatly by the lack of computers and internet. I couldn’t live without these comforts, but (like children) a weekend away from them was wonderful!

First Illness

On Wednesday Linus woke up with a cough, and ever since has been coughing on and off throughout the day. He is also snotty. Amazingly snotty. No more cute little angel I’m afraid!

New Playgroup?

Encouraged by my Mum, who is interested in anthroposophy, we went to a Rudolf Steiner playgroup a couple of weeks ago, then earlier this week to a craft group at the same place.

The location is magical – it’s in Maia, and looks out over the beautiful Otago Harbour to the Peninsula.

The teacher at the playgroup, AE, seems really nice, and she has a beautiful five-month-old son (SE) who – I’m sorry to say – is cuter than Linus.

I’m not sure if I’ll be a regular or not yet… we’ll see what happens!

New Measurements

As of Wednesday, Little Linus weighed 7.74kg (17lb 1oz) and measured 70.5cm long – he’s still a long bubba.