Well, where do I start?

Well, where do I start? So much has been happening that I haven't had time to note any of it down. From solids for Dylan, to the VW show, to the Baby expo, and bargain buys!

One lovely little gift I received recently continues to amuse each time I see it. I was given a gorgeous Bed Toppings 'Sleep tips' sheet for Dylan's cot. It's a fitted sheet decorated with a set of written 'instructions' for little ones to assist them in sleeping. It just amuses me each time I put Dylan down for a nap. 

Back on Sunday the 19th, one day shy of Dylan turning 5 months old, we gave him his first solids. I was nervous about making his rice cereal. Would I mix it with breast milk? Or formula? How much milk to use? How many scoops of cereal? How hot do I make it? What if its too runny? Or too thick? I managed to get it just right and Dylan was remarkably accepting of this foreign matter in his mouth! He kept opening his mouth as the spoon approached and I kept on shovelling it in. We finished the small amount I had made up and there were smiles and cheers all round!  I mucked it up on Day 2 though. It doesn't taste quite as good using breast milk apparently. Alternatively he just doesn't seem to like his solids as the first feed of the day. We continued with one meal of rice cereal as his second feed of the day and had ongoing success. Hooray!  Just over a week later I made up a batch of puréed sweet potato and divided it up into tiny portions to freeze. I mixed up a small amount of cereal and had a portion of the purée ready. One spoon of cereal, then one of purée, then one cereal, then purée, and finally the two mixed together. And he liked it! We did have a few funny faces as he worked out there was something different in his gob. So now we are on two solids a day, the first being plain rice cereal, and the second a mix of purée veggies mixed with a tiny amount of rice cereal.

I made a mistake in not thinking too much about the reality of going to a Baby expo. I remember going to Bridal expos while planning my wedding and not phased by the crowds, the lack of seating, etc. I have never seen so many women with prams on my entire life! It was a seething mass of crying babies, prams stalled in the middle of the too narrow walkways, and a perfect recipe for one heck of a headache. I got to see the few stands I was interested in, and was happy to skip quite a few that were either irrelevant or just too crowded. I did pick up a few things for Dylan and hopefully paid slightly less than regular retail prices too! Love a bargain!

On Sunday the 26th I headed out to Fairfield Showground for the VW Nationals for a couple of hours. It was great to catch up with a few familiar faces and for them to meet Dylan for the first time. There were so many great cars on display. I wish I'd had more time to see them all, but every few metres we seemed to bump into someone we knew and would have to have a chat before we could move on.

Dylan also got into the mood by wearing his little beetle t shirt!

The happenings of late have also meant a little big of bargain shopping. As I clearly had no idea what I was doing when it came to starting Dylan on solids, I got a recommendation for a book on feeding babies. A quick check of eBay and there was a copy going cheap! A few days later a last minute bid and it was mine, well at least once it was posted from Victoria it was mine!  Last week I found Dylan seemed to become quite content playing with his toys but wanting to also sit upright. As he can't sit up unsupported yet, I figured it might be worthwhile to look at getting a bumbo. There were numerous to choose from on eBay, but a quick check on gumtree led me to find one going for a bargain price of $15 located one suburb over. Yay! My last purchase was another online buy but thanks to some junk mail that arrived this week. I had been looking for a set of baby books that knew had previously been available from Big W. The junk mail showed they were back in stock, so they were ordered on Wednesday night and my friendly postie delivered them by Friday night! We love our bargain buys!

Bel