Water Baby

Ollie went for his second swim today! We are thinking about enroling him in water baby swim classes... but it seems quite silly to take a seven month old baby to swimming lessons! Most of my ante-natal coffee group have gone and really enjoyed it (Ollie was too young to join in with their groups). Another friend said babies that do these classes end up like fish in the water. I was a great swimmer as a kid (we did have a swimming pool which definitely helped). Not such a great swimmer now, I tend to react to the chlorinated water in the public pools. I'd like to get back into it though... (got to fit into my togs first!) Perhaps I should sign up for some kind of aqua jogging... good weightloss apparently!

Anyway, on with the photos

Even a chance for a go on the swings at the end!

we have a meat-a-saurus in our midst

We're still moseying along with our baby led solids journey. It has been going fantastically. We are having a ball! Who said kids shouldn't play with their food?! We're learning about food and textures, and not worrying about swallowing. It is amazing how far he has come already! I gave him a banana a few days ago and he struggled to hold on to it, finding it too soft and slippery. Today I gave him a peeled banana half and he easily picked it up and put it in his mouth! He is learning how much pressure to apply to foods, and while he still loves to smoosh things, he is bringing everything to his mouth like a pro. Same applies to pear - too slippery a few days ago, straight into his mouth today.

I've been reading the original "Baby Led Weaning" book by Gill Rapley which the NZ study was founded on. Gill's approach is quite different, and focuses on including baby in all meals and let them choose what they want to eat, meaning all meals need to be baby friendly. So with that in mind, we've altered Ollie's bedtime routine (and our dinner time!) to include him.

Dinner last night was our usual staple of stir fry, it was Ollie's first go at meat (thin strips of beef). He absolutely loved it! It barely came out of his mouth - in fact it hung there while he picked up his veges! Our cheeky little boy is indeed a carnivore (at the least an omnivore).

I'm also trying to interact with him less while he eats, and let him at his food. This unfortunately means less photos. Tonight we had steak and steamed veges and I would have LOVED to get a video of Ollie attacking (!) his steak! He really got into it, chewing it and sucking all the juices out and even ripped it into two.

I have to think a bit harder about what I'm going to have for lunch in order to make it baby friendly, but that can only be a good thing - as it means we'll always be eating fresh healthy food. Hopefully that will help to kick start my (much needed) weight loss.