Likes and dislikes at 7 months

Charlie's personality is really starting to grow. He likes many things and dislikes a few.

Likes:
Chilling out and watching everyone else rushing around.
Tickling - when he is in the mood, he laughs for ages.
Patting/banging/hitting things, all the time; the louder, the better.
Radio 5 Live, when snoozing in the car.
Reading - favourite book "Monkey Puzzle"
Big Cook Little Cook (TV cookery show).
Balloons - he hasn't burst one yet.
Mugs - these are possibly his very favourite thing, probably because he's not allowed to touch them when hot!
Food - as always, he loves a big meal. Porridge, beef casserole and carrot puffs are his current favourites.
Drinking water out of his little cup.
Gadgets - he will stretch to his limits just for the chance to touch a remote control or a phone.

Dislikes:
Being dressed, especially his arms.
Food being served too slowly.
Being on his tummy.
Bananas
Having his face wiped after a meal.

Some new photos below, including a recent trip to Hatton Country World. Lindz realised that breastfeeding wasn't so bad when she saw what the pig had to cope with! My favourite picture is of Charlie and George sitting on the bench like two old men.

Latest weight 20lb 14oz.

Say ahhhh

Charlie has been trying to show off his new teeth. You can actually see them in the first photo.

We suspect from his dribbling that there are more teeth on the way soon so he'll be eating corn on the cob by Christmas.

One interesting thing he's started doing is pulling himself up - like doing a sit-up which uses all his strength.

We put a tv program on for him a couple of nights ago called "In the night garden". It turned out that Lindz laughed more than Charlie. Here's a clip if you haven't seen it.

Merry Halloween

First message for a while. Charlie's two teeth are now through most of the way and he has become a little biter/blighter (ask his mum).

We had a lovely time in Cardiff the week before last and spent an afternoon at St Fagans Outdoor Museum. He now weighs over 19lb 7oz and is in need of another haircut. His two favourite things this week have been patting things (chair, mattress, leg) and making a humming noise, as if talking with his mouth closed. He can sit up really well now and can correct his balance when toppling over (most of the time).

On Wednesday he went to two Halloween parties where he met up with little pumpkins, skeletons, witches and even a mini dracula. Charlie made a very cheeky little devil.

Today he is 26 weeks / 6 months old so he is going to have a yoghurt for breakfast. It will be his first taste of cow's milk and so we are really hoping that he doesn't turn the colour of his outfit after eating it.

Shades, Bouncing, Sitting, Teeth and Haircut

More development to report since my last post. Charlie has figured out what to do in the door bouncer and now jumps around in an uncoordinated fashion, which is better than just hanging there.

We found a pair of sunglasses in one of the boxes of clothes and felt the need to take an obligatory comedy photo. Fortunately, Charlie shared the joke with us.

His teeth finally started to cut through the gums yesterday afternoon. He's been pretty miserable for a few days with the discomfort from them.
He is quite good at sitting up now and can balance for about 30 seconds before slumping to the side.

Finally, Lindz gave him his first haircut today because he was starting to look like a hippy. She accidentally uncovered a bald patch at the back of his head.

Charlie's Chums

On Thursday Charlie had his mates round to play. They all had a good laugh.

He seems to be going through a growth spurt again this week and celebrated his 5 month birthday. Latest weight is 18lb 3oz, which is roughly the same as this fish:
link

Charlie currently dislikes eating banana and butternut squash. The baby cook-book suggests that we need to try a food 30 times before ruling it out. It only took me one attempt to decide I didn't like parsnips.

This weekend Charlie is enjoying chilling out in his dressing gown and reading the weekend papers.

The parsnip kid

Charlie has been progressing in many ways again recently. He is now really enjoying his solid food - consuming rice, sweet potato, parsnip, carrot and pears, sometimes all for one meal!

He has been babbling quite a lot too and has a really lovely little voice, even when it's at 5.30am.

He has also started propping himself up on his arms and quite enjoys looking around from a different perspective.

He has started going to a new baby group where they sing songs and play musical instruments. All the other babies get grumpy half way through, but Charlie keeps on laughing all the way to the end (and beyond). He's getting the hang of swimming now and has started splashing instead of sitting quietly.

Jaws vs Babe:Pig in the city

On Friday we finally made it out to the Sea Life Centre in Birmingham. It was one of our first proper Family Days Out, made even better by the fact we did it for free using Tesco vouchers, including lunch at Cafe Rouge!

The first creatures we came across weren't fish though. On leaving the village, we came across two pigs in the road which I had to usher out of the way. They scarpered pretty quickly once they saw me coming with a camera.

The Sea Life Centre itself was really enjoyable and worth every penny we paid! They had lots of strange creatures, including some sort of massive eel that stares at passers by. There were many fish called Ray, some sharks, a massive spider-crab, sea-horses and two turtles. Lindsay liked the look of the sea bass so much that she decided to have one for lunch. I decided against the gammon....

Gnashers

Sorry for the lack of blogging recently. I'm on holiday now, so I can catch up a bit.

No sign of any teeth yet but Charlie's hand is never far from his mouth. He's discovered a new sound which is a high pitched screeching noise. Sometimes he makes it continuously for 30 minutes.