Martha at 8 months

Hello again Martha followers,

This month has not produced pictures of the quality of last month unfortunately, but there are some of note I like to think. And here are some...


Well, OK it's not a great picture, but it's M eating part of a turkey on Thanksgiving Day.


On the bed being happy


This is the progress on the teeth, one of which was reported last month. There are two sharp little things now, but no signs of any more. Our fingers can no longer go inside her mouth without being nipped. As she only has two teeth at the bottom they can't be used to chew on anything, so she must wait for that.


Speaking of which, here's her food in our freezer. In here there are sweet potatoes; squash (roasted); turkey and squash; green beans; carrots; broccoli; and apple, all made into cubes and ready to be heated up. Martha also eats pear and banana. For lunch and dinner she usually has two cubes of veg with a bit of baby cereal mixed in, followed by two cubes of fruit. For dinner she also gets the treat of YoBaby yogurt for dessert--very yummy as it's made with whole milk.


Martha is now standing with some assistance and supports herself in a wobbly fashion. However, she does not turn herself over or crawl! She seems much more interested in standing than crawling, eagerly pulling herself up on things when the opportunity arises. We've heard that some babies walk before they crawl, though presumably eventually they will be able to do both.

We've been camping once more in Henry Coe State Park, and made an attempt to go camping at Lake Tahoe as well. When we realized how cold it was (-10C) we decided not to camp out. We did, however, go for a long walk in the mountains (see above) around the lake and Martha seemed to like this, despite the low temperatures. This backpack contraption works very well, though she's still a bit too small for it. It even has legs so we can put her on the ground.




She's taken a real fancy to Bagpuss, who always cheers her up.

And this month we have a new feature: the Martha age bar, a feature I copied from Mike and his baby's site, Sylvia's Journal, so you can have no excuse for not knowing how old she is.

Martha at 7 months

Hello all,

It has crossed my mind that I shall have to decide when to stop doing the blog one day, as I can't continue it into her teenage years, and 6months might be the time at which viewship will start to drop off, or indeed has dropped off, but I enjoy typing it in and selecting the finest pictures to upload and share with everyone so it will continue for now at the same regularity and length, unless there are calls for change from the public.

Although she started last month, the real change this month has been her eating food. Now she eats beans (see picture), courgette, sweet potato, apple, pear, avocado, carrot and yogurt (full fat only), as well as baby cereal. And she eats well and quickly too, but she still gets quite a bit of mother's milk. It's quite a messy business but she appears to love it.



Our spoon is worthy of note: it changes colour with the heat, and is supposed to indicate whether the food is too hot for her. Here it is coloured so is OK, but changes to white when not OK.

We've been eating out a few times. This is not difficult, and means we can go out for the day. Here she is in Berkeley with Grandma. Grandma came over for nearly 3 weeks to see her (and us maybe) so got to see a number of new things that she does and to take care of her a bit too.


No-hands feeding, a very useful skill.


Grandma and Martha outside the Ferry building in San Francisco


The first tooth has appeared. Here it is (the small ridge on her bottom gum) photographed after much difficulty. As of this weekend (5th Nov) I can feel hard bony bits have pierced the surface, but the thing hasn't come out by more than 1mm. There hasn't been any wailing or suffering yet (or gnashing of tooth), but we have one of those rattles that has water in it that can be cooled by putting it in the fridge, just in case.


She has a fascination with labels on everything and loves to chew on them for hours. She will tug at them until they will fit inside her mouth in a way that is quite violent sometimes. Here she's going for one of the favourites: the "Boppy" label. For those who don't know, the Boppy (the red pillow in the picture) is the thing that placed on ones lap for breast feeding support, like C-shaped pillow, but she knows there is not one but two labels on it.


Trolley in Safeways. Until now we have carried her ourselves in the supermarket, but now she can be pushed around inside one of the trollies in Safeways, propped up by bags and blankets. She quite enjoys this looking at the fruit as it goes past.


In other news, a mole has appeared on Martha's left little finger. This was not present when she was born, and to date its the only one that has shown up anywhere on her. I also have a mole in the same hand and finger - does this mean we are related? Or that we both have the sign of the devil?





Adrian