Tricks

Tom has been perfecting his scally-like antics. What with his crew cut and his raspberry blowing, his belching, stomping, farting and arm flapping, he has added this latest trick to his repertoire. He can now balance a beer mat on his head at the pub. Definitely one to impress the girls!

Walker

Tom reaches the 7 month mark this week and is turning into a very determined child. His legs are so strong and he just loves putting his weight on them so we got him a walker which he thinks is great. He moves himself across the room after things and people he wants to get hold of. His expressions in photos is always one of surprise -it seems impossible to catch that cheeky smile of his.

On the food front he is eating all sorts of everything although he as just begun to display his fussiness by smelling the food on the spoon and deciding then whether he will open his mouth or not. I'm also finding it hard to move towards 3 milk feeds a day - he is very vocal if he doesn't get it 4 hourly, so am going to start weening him onto the bottle.

Sleep is another issue still. Waking at 3-4 am has not stopped so perhaps with a bit of luck the formula may do the trick. Controlled crying worked to a point but I think he is going to be one of those kids who doesn't need the 12 hours.

Norway

Tom got his second stamp in his passport this week as we visited friends in Trondheim, Norway. Temps were in the minus region so we made sure he was wrapped up warm on our outings out.

The problem with all this layering though was the screaming. Tom HATES getting dressed at the best of times and trying to put on three layers both bottom and top and then a full on snow suit were not greeted with much enjoyment.

The plus side was though that by the time we got him togged up and in the back carrier for a walk in the snow, he was so exhausted that he immediately fell asleep up there.

Bathtime

Tom has really started to love the bath. He sits like a king in his bath seat and splashes his hands and feet. Just adores being in there with his big sister but I have to be careful as she insists on washing the poor mite to death.

Visiting

Well the lovely Tom has been around England visiting friends of mine and their family's. He has loved watching all the children come and go and has really started to 'play'. Mainly just grasping, holding and dropping, but at a very intent rate.

Bad news is that he is still not sleeping well in the night. Because of our visiting, I've had to keep feeding to keep him from waking the household, but as of this week we have embraced not only Gina Ford but also control crying. We are on day three and so far so good. Have decided to keep him to four breastfeeds a day (rather than Gina's 3) and to limit his daytime sleeps to 3hrs total. That's hard waking him up when he's asleep, but then he has no qualms about doing it to me (hehe). We have definitely had more sleep these last two nights, but I think we still have a bit to go.

Other than that he's on three full meals a day, trying new veggies and moving onto weetbix with milk for breakie. Still has the snuffles and the doc has given me this mini inhaler to give before bed to help him sleep. I have to put this mask over his face and attach the inhaler and he goes gosey eyed trying to focus on it.

The picture shows Tom in a 'bumbo' doing his helicopter impressions. He also loves blowing raspberries (particularly food flavoured ones) and trying to stand.

Sleep

Tom is now 5 and a half months and still hasn't 'got' the whole sleep thing! He goes to bed really well after a bath and a story with his big sis between 6.30 and 7pm. (The baby bath is now too small for him as he insists on standing up! So he is in his little bath seat but needs to be held or he'll slip thorugh the sides.) But he wakes constantly in the night. I try and limit the feeds to just once or twice if I'm shattered and deal with the the waking via the dummy or a bottle of water. But the hourly bursts are killing me.

In the daytime, he gets 3-4 sleeps in but each is only short, average of about half an hour. Every now and then though he will surprise me and have a 2hr daynap which is good.

He is also teething which doesn't help matters. There has been slobber galore for almost amonth now so hopefully we'll see a little peggie peeping through soon.

There are 2 places though where Tom loves to sleep and that is the pram and the car. Here you can see him in his snow suit. Not much (any) of that around but the suit is needed for cold winter walks.

Here's hoping that the magical 6mth mark brings a full nights sleep.

twinkle toes

This week Tom has discovered that trick of laying on his back, throwing his legs in the air, catching his feet and rolling around holding onto them. Very cute to watch. In fact in any position he loves to grab his toes, in the bath and while sitting (supported). He is also getting used to tummy time and did his first roll. But I think that was a fluke because I have't noticed another one yet.