Sophie at 6.5 months

One of the milestones for Sophie at 6 months was to learn how to sit on her own. She used to sit unassisted for less than 5 seconds before toppling over to one side. What encouraged her to sit longer was probably the bumbo chair as it gave her enough support at the back while still requiring her to support herself. We also gave her more time to 'practice' sitting up on her own by leaning her against the pillow or cushion.

Sophie in her naughty corner

Now she pretty much prefers to sit up instead of lying down as the view is so different. So when she's in the pram she wants to be sitting up and makes sure that we know that when she starts making noise.

Shots of Sophie in the bumbo chair

Smiling for the camera

Sophie is enjoying her food since she started on solids. So far, she has tried fruits like apple, pear, banana and vegetables like carrots, pumpkin, broccoli. And yes she's still very anxious when she sees her food and will hurry you to feed her. With the introduction of solids, she's been pooping lesser, with the exception of pear day when she pooped 3 times. Little did I know pears are supposedly good for constipation!

She's also been trying to crawl. But as her arms are now stronger than her legs, she ends up going into "reverse gear", which makes her frustrated when she's getting further rather than nearer where she wants to go. Guess she'll soon master crawling by the 7 month, which is just a week away!

Sophie celebrates her first Chinese New Year

This first day of the Chinese Lunar New Year falls on a Saturday, so Monday and Tuesday were also public holidays. Since it was a long break, we decided to start Sophie on baby cereal as she's already 6 months old. I bought the Bellamy's organic baby rice for her first taste of food besides milk. On Saturday, I started her on two teaspoons mixed with 30ml of breastmilk.

When the spoon was placed in front of her, she licked it cautiously, probably wondering what mummy was feeding her. After a few mouthful she was eager for more!

Trying to pull my hands towards her to get to her food

I'll probably start introducing fruits and vegetables for her to try by this weekend and see what she likes. So conclusion on the start to solids, SUCCESS!

Cleaned up her first bowl of rice cereal

On the first day of CNY, Sophie was all decked out in bright red. Red flower top from Mothercare, pink checkered 3 quarters and red socks that resembles shoes! She throughly enjoyed her going from house to house collecting ang pows and charming everyone with her wide smiles. Though she probably think they're just red pieces of paper, but Daddy is going to deposit all the ang pows she collected into her Mighty Young Saver Account to save up for her university funds.

She really brings joy to so many people and I don't think I'm bias when I say that she's possibly one of the friendliest and cheerful baby. I'm so proud to be her mummy and daddy nods in agreement too.

Family photo

Sophie does a "Hello who called my handphone" pose :)

Sophie goes swimming

Been meaning to bring Sophie for a swim since she enjoys her bath very much. When she is in a good mood for her bath, mummy never leaves the bathroom dry as little Sophie will kick her legs and wave her arms excitedly. I call them her torando waves.

So after getting the essentials,

• swimsuit - check
• swim diapers - check
• baby float - check
• sun block - check

Its off to the pool we go!

Sophie can sit unsupported on the sofa

Sophie doing a dry swim on the sofa

We were afraid that the water might be too cold so we went to Tampines swimming pool at 4pm when the sun was still up but not scorching hot.

Sophie didn't take to her first swim like a duck to water. There was a slight apprehension in her face initially but thankfully no tears. But her reaction was a little milder than I expected. She didn't create her usual torando waves and just splashed about a bit.

So shoik in her baby float!

I'm still convinced that Sophie will be a water baby, so we'll bring her for another swim after Chinese New Year. Maybe she'll like it when she can sit fully unsupported in her baby float.

Flipping Sophie

Dear baby Sophie has mastered how to flip when she turned 5 month and two weeks!

The first time it happened was really quite funny and I think it took her by surprise. But before that faithful night (Mummy forgot to note down the date), we've been trying to "teach" her how to flip by raising her arm so that it will be positioned nicely in front of her when she turns. We also helped her get her momentum to flip by swaying her body from side to side before we give her a slight nudge so that she'll understand how she can flip. We tried this for about 2, 3 weeks before she turned 5 months as learning how to flip is one of the key milestones for that stage.

So on that faithful night, Sophie was lying on our bed when she just arched her body and then turned on her side and finally landed on her tummy! This Mummy was so happy, amused that I just laughed and laughed. I don't know if she was taken aback by my reaction or that she was suddenly not facing the ceiling but on all fours, she looked so blur that it made me laugh even louder.

Arching her back, preparing for the turn...

And she's up!

Since then she's been trying to turn whenever she cans.

Put her down on the playmat, flip goes Sophie.

Put her down on the changing mat, flip goes Sophie.

Put her down on her cot, flip goes Sophie.

Even when she's sitting in her swing, she'll attempt to turn by arching her back and leaning to one side.

Flipping Sophie in action

The next step, is for her to learn how to flip back on her back so that she'll not get stuck. She gets awfully frustrated when she cant get back on her back or crawl forward so she'll do a "nose dive" like she's trying to bury her head into the mattress. Needless to say, it will be accompanied by a lot of whining and complaining as she cries out for help.

The nose dive position

And for the first time last night, I found her on her tummy in the cot in the middle of the night. Well not so much middle of the night since it was 4am. But I have a feeling that this will be the first of many nights ahead when she'll flip and flip in her sleep too! And the best part was even when I put her down after feeding her, she still wanted to flip on her tummy! So I had to pick her up again and "guan zui" her with milk.

Looking back, I'm just so amazed by the development and growth of a 5 months, 3 weeks baby. Like Alexis says, there's no hurry what a baby can do, because at the right time, Sophie will automatically learn how to flip. And I know that goes the same for other things like sitting, crawling, walking, talking too. So I'll just be an encouraging mummy and not get too stress comparing Sophie's development with other babies and enjoy each of her growing up milestones with her.