Zoe is 5 months old today!

Zoe has been a wonderful addition to our lives, she has kept us busy and pre-occupied and sometimes a little insane - but it's been great!

• We have had a few rolls from tummy to back this month, all of which daddy has missed!
• Zoe has her next Plunket visit and weigh in next week, and at last weigh was about 8.2kg, she is nice and plump and is giving my arm muscles a fantastic daily workout.
• As I have written in a previous post, we have had some success with sleeping and weaning Zoe out of swaddling. Slowly but surely we are getting there, I hope to start her sleeping in her sleeping bag in the next couple of weeks (fingers crossed). I started dream feeding her right before our bedtime at 10.30pm, she then wakes for a feed at 3am and then lately has slept in and wakes at 7am to see Daddy before he heads off to work. This is much better than 6pm, 11pm, 3am and 6am feeds (yup, no wonder she is a chubba) as it's like I'm only getting up the once.
• The dummy is being rejected 9 times out of 10, and then used as a chew toy anyway... so much for my dummy-for-the-rest-of-my-child's-life worries.
• Zoe has more hair, much to my delight! Her cradle cap is almost gone and her honey coloured hair is slowly making an appearance. She isn't ginger and isn't blonde, kind of a light in-between colour.
• We have started to introduce solids into Zoe's diet, it started as just a taste here and there and is now one tiny meal a day. I'm not sure when to make it 2 meals, but have bought some rice cereal to see what she thinks of that as the second meal in a few weeks. So far she has had a taste of Pear, Apple, Banana, Avocado and Carrot. She can't open her mouth fast enough or wide enough when she sees the yummy goop coming her way!
• Zoe is very happy ALL the time, and lately I have been able to get her laughing by making a 'rarrr' sound as if roaring like a little lion or something. Didn't expect that to be funny but oh well! Other laughs come at the showering of kisses on her cheeks or jiggling her about in the air while kissing her.
• She is getting a good hold on her toys and is obsessed with her linked rings and toadstool rattle. You can see her little mind working over time at wanting to reach out to things but not quite knowing how to yet... cute!
• Her strawberry birthmark is like a thing of the past, we aren't putting a bandage on it to protect it from her clothing anymore as it seems fine without. It doesn't hurt her or get in the way, would just be nicer if it wasn't so huge and people didn't have to ask about it when they see it! "Oh my goodness what is that!?! Is she alright? Does it hurt?"
• No teeth yet :-)