General update

We have just got back from a short break on Texel and Michael is doing very well. We were a little concerned that being in a strange place and sleeping in a travel cot would throw off his routine altogether and leave him unwilling to sleep. We needn't have worried - he did fantastically well and slept soundly all night and for his daytime naps. In fact, he slept so well that I think the blackout blinds in the hotel suite might have had something to do with it. We're going to buy some for the bedrooms at home. We don't really have much to complain about when it comes to his sleep but he does tend to be a bit of a light sleeper once the sun has come up. Blackout blinds should help with that.

He thoroughly enjoyed exploring the hotel suite and thought it was a great joke when Daddy stood outside on the balcony and tapped on the window. The floor was stone and I nearly had a heart attack every time he crawled off or pulled himself to standing. If I had had a big butterfly net then, believe me, I would have been following him around with it.

Michael has never really seemed afraid of anything but, curiously, he was frightened of the shower nozzle in the hotel bathroom. It is a pity because it is the fastest way to rinse the soap suds from a squirming and determined baby. He's irrepressible so I imagine he'll get over this fear before long.

He has started babbling 'Mama' which, as you can imagine, is thrilling for me. He has been saying it off and on for months but only when he needed something. To hear him say it as part of general baby chit-chat is lovely. He says 'baba' too.

I think he has had a growth spurt because he seems to have grown quite a bit in the last month or so. He has a health check at the baby clinic in a couple of weeks so I will be interested to see his updated stats. His legs look like they are finally starting to catch up with his huge torso.

Lastly, I haven't mentioned how he is doing with solid food in a while but I can report that it is going very well. He has his ups and downs because of the teething but on the whole he does very well. He now lets me feed him with the spoon rather than taking the spoon from me to feed himself. He absolutely loves banana, although he enjoys all of the fruits that I have offered. He is less keen on vegetables and will sometimes eat what I offer and sometimes not. I have tried mixing up breast milk with something like sweet potato but quite often this little fishy won't bite. So, the list goes as follows:

Foods that Michael likes doesn't hate:

• Banana
• Avocado
• Apple
• Pear
  
• Rice cakes
• Carrot
• Sweet potato
• Pumpkin
• Green beans
• Brown bread

I'm not surprised that he didn't like the puréed green beans. What was I thinking?!? It was absolutely disgusting and I wouldn't have eaten it either. At least he was polite enough not to throw the bowl at my head!