Look what I can do...

It is such a fun 'baby' stage with Mylo right now. After mastering rolling from back to front last week, this week has all been about 'bottoms up' - lifting his bottom up whilst on his tummy and trying to get his knees underneath him. There's some serious determination to want to move, but so far he just face plants his front half into the floor, or ends up sucking on his arm. He can move around in circles whilst on his back or tum, so is often not in the same place under his play gym if I come back to check on him after just a few minutes.

Bottoms Up!

He also loves grabbing his toes at every opportunity, and I have noticed his spatial awareness increasing as he tries to reach out for things to determine whether they are in fact within his grasp, or whether he can move himself closer in order to reach them.

Doing his daily dozens....

Mylo is bouncing in the jolly jumper with great vigour these days, I often put him there later in the afternoon which has the added interest for him of watching Murphy constantly wander backwards and forwards between lounge and hallway as he begs for food from about 2pm-5pm every day - which is not at all annoying! Sometimes I do wonder if it would be easier just to fill Murphy's bowl up so I'm not followed around the house the entire afternoon by a miaowing cat.

Mylo's also trying out new sounds, particularly in the bath at night - it must be the echoing of the bathroom that makes it so appealing to try them out at the top of his lungs. Last week's noises were blowing bubbles and a fake cough, very cute, but then NOT so cute that he decided that 2am was a good time to practice what he'd learnt some more, and I was up and down for an hour trying to get him to go back to sleep!

This week he had his 5 month injections - a necessary evil, but I hate how they make him so tetchy and his legs always seem to swell up something chronic afterwards - poor sausage. This time, he's also come down with a nasty phlegmy cough and he had a rough night on Wednesday night, and couldn't settle for bed for over 5 hours. Last night was much better, but he's still definitely off his food and milk. I think the phlegm just makes it uncomfortable to swallow, and he's just not interested in having much in one go. Thankfully that's the last of the jabs until 15 months!

Poor swollen leg :-(

We also visited Plunket for the 5 month check today, and Mylo's vital stats are very similar to Noah's at the same stage!

Weight 6.76 kg (Noah was 6.84) - this is on the 15th percentile so on the small but cute side of things!
Height 65 cm (Noah was the same)

Clearly he's decided that he's not going to be an All Black forward, but maybe he's planning on being an All White striker instead. Having said that, Noah is now around the 85th percentile for both height and weight at age 3.5, so he has obviously done a lot of growing through his toddler years! And with such a hearty appetite it's no wonder!

As for Mylo's appetite, I've been trying him on various pureed food for a couple of weeks now, and seems to have already decided that veges aren't his thing - how he knows this already though, I'd love to know! It has been a tad frustrating trying to encourage him, so far we've tried kumara, carrot and pumpkin, and I usually end up having to mix them with apple or pear to sweeten them so I can get them past him at all. Potato has been given the BIGGEST thumbs down, which I find strange as you'd think it would be a very bland flavour!

On the other hand, fruit seems to be readily accepted, the lips smacking together after each mouthful is a bit of a dead giveaway, compared to the vegetables which he mostly tries to poke back out of his mouth with his tongue, or blows raspberries at me with a mouthful so that I get showered with bits of food.

So it would appear he has a bit of a sweet tooth. Hopefully not the result of all the chocolate I scoffed after dinner most nights while he was growing inside me! Ah well, I shall try not to get too het up about it, and hope that it is just a matter of perseverance and time getting used to all the new tastes.  I'm not about to waste all the food I have frozen, so it will be eaten one way or another - even if I end up having to make some soup for us out of it! When I look at how well Noah eats now, and when I think back to a few blips we had with periods of fussiness from him along the way, must keep reminding myself to focus on the big picture, rather than getting bogged down with these day-to-day dramas methinks!

Books and being read to are another growing interest. Jackie gave us some beautiful books passed on from her mum with nursery rhymes and songs that have big, bold pictures. He particularly likes being sung 'Incy Wincy Spider' and 'Row Row Row Your Boat'.

Well that's a good place to end what ended up being a rather comprehensive 5-month update on Mr. M. It will be interesting to see how much he changes over the next month till his half-year birthday which we'll be celebrating with English Grandma being here with us too! 12 days and counting till her arrival! Exciting times.

Here's a couple of recent videos of Mylo (apologies for the silly mother noises in the background, but if I edited them out you wouldn't get to hear the cute giggles from him!)