212.

I really don't know what's been happening the past couple of weeks.
Everything seems so important at the time, but when I get here, they all seem to be forgotten.
The major thing is that Lileeva is sitting pretty much by herself now. She still wobbles a bit, and throws herself back or front (Heavy head, she has.) but she is kind of stable now.
I put her on follow on milk a week ago, she's doing good. Doesn't poo 4 times a day anymore hah! She didn't like the 6 months+ bottle teats though, I reckon it has something to do with the quick flow, it always drips in her mouth, even without sucking and it must've annoyed her.
She's also well interested in finger food now, last week she stole Alfie's biscuit! (Then chocked on it, of course, making me close to having a heart attack.)

 Since Lileeva is getting bigger (Almost 6 months!) we went out with Lee and bought her some nice grows and clothes. Believe it or not, this is the first time we had to buy essential stuffs, thanks to our friends and Louise. Surprisingly we ended up with quite a bit of pink gear in our bags. Ah well, what can one do, that seems to be her favourite colour so far, always chooses to cuddle the pink teddies and so.
We started to use the nappy cake nappies on her, which are Wilkinson's own brand (Meaning: Cheap nappies.) but she doesn't look too fussed. Only using it for sleeping and when we take her out though. My only problem is that it ain't stretchy but hey, as long as she's happy in them, and has no nappy rash... Still, Lee doesn't want to chance it, so we will keep buying Pampers, after all we don't use much and we don't mind paying for quality.
By the way Laura said, as she heard, if your water breaks in Mothercare or Asda, you are getting free nappies for life! Damn, should've been hanging out there more...
We are off for a holiday next Wednesday, started to look forward to it. Apart from the flying. That one screaming baby on the flight, that always one screaming baby on the flight! I'm dreading it.
The main issue (Besides feeding from a bottle.) when we are out, is the sleeping situation. She's only able to fall asleep when laying flat, alone, preferably covered with a blanket. (I'm well happy about this independence though, on a long run.) Now, it's alright, when we are in Wetherspoon, on a couch, after a 20 minutes over-tired screaming session she gets used to the noise and can fall asleep. But clearly won't be alright on a flight where she has to be sitting up for almost 3 hours. Sigh.

We keep getting chatted up on the street, by the way. Random people pay compliments, how gorgeous she is, and oh her eyes! She is lucky to have the good bit of genes of ours, I suppose.

211.

The second tooth has cut through today! Still well amused, she's only 5 months 1 week after all.

She also discovered a new favourite position as one can see.

210.

I took Lileeva to baby massage on Wednesday where the lady introduced something new; the treasure basket. Lileeva was going mad for it! The whole idea behind it is to put all different shapes and textures in it (Pretty much anything.) what they can investigate. Anything apart from plastic, cause that's what most toys are made of.
So I've created our own. So far we've got a big metal bar blade (Classy!), wood incense holder, rubber gloves, jar lid, washing sponge, shiny fabric devil horn hair band, plastic formula spoon, cardboard drink coaster, colourful paper muffin cases, glass spice holder and a metal absinthe spoon, all this in a corn basket with wood handles.

So far Lileeva is more interested in Kitty. She keeps reaching out for her, leaning forward to touch her. The cat has none of it. Can't blame her though, Lileeva only started to use her hands and grabs everything with her strong little grip. When she does manage to get to Puddy, she usually ends up with a serious amount  of hair between her fingers. Miracle that the cat didn't yet bite her.
That little furball will be in serious trouble, once Lileeva masters the tricks of crawling.

209.

Lee put the guitar up on Lileeva's wall so that's done too!
Walls in this block are super crap, impossible to screw them (Nuclear attack - meet me at mine!) but the nails don't stay in, in fact the wall falls off with them too, leaving nice holes, with a perfect view to the bricks.

I took Lileeva out yesterday in the sling, facing out. It's only recommended for babies over 6 months but she's really good with her neck, and seems frustrated after a while when she has to face me. She's obviously looking around, but gets pissed off after an hour or so as it's usually more than her neck can handle.
I also didn't want to introduce everything at the same time. I want to carry her on my back in the Manduca (Since she's getting heavier.) so that needs a little practice too in the next month or so.
Anyways, she loved it outwards.

I got a 'Baby on board' badge, will pop it on the carrier. Just for the sake of it. People do tend to give up their seats for us though, well surprising after the hassle and lots of standing on public transport I went through while I was pregnant. Must be something to do with obese people, I didn't stand out much with the bump, hah!

208.

Alright, I'm hopeless. Lileeva was staring at my toast the other morning so I gave her a bite. She gave me a face then chew and swallowed it with bit of a cough. She spat the second one out.
Now the same thing happened today, so gave her a bit again. She was reaching out for the second dose which she grabbed with her hand and put it in her mouth! Just what she done with the sippy cup 20 minutes later! I swear she's going to be ready for finger food very soon.

I'm making mixed food now, will try her on a few, then going on jars. Easier. Don't want to give her food poison with making the meaty ones too raw or something.
I got her weight today as well, 6.95 kg ~ 15.3 lbs absolutely average. She has michelin man arms and fat roll around her pits so we got a bit worried but she's fine luckily. With Lee's words: 'I didn't say she was overweight. I said she looked fat!'
I kind of measured her too, she's around 68-70 cm ~ 26.8-27.6 inch so she's O.K. that way too.
All in all, she's a happy baby and that what matters to us.

207.

Belated lucky Friday the 13th and happy fifth month to my gorgeous little girl.

206.

I got Lileeva one of these today. I just had to. They didn't have pink in Boots so I bought the luminous lime green. (Will go nicely with the matching avocado puke.)
It's a really soft rubber bib, easy to wipe and catches the dropped food. So far she loves holding on to it as well. Might as well consider to use it when bottle feeding her too, since she usually throws some back up when winding her.

Also got her a tiny toothbrush, same option of colours but she preferred the pink I think. Trying to make her choose already, I always hold things up so she sees them and able to decide. Well... Whichever she stares with more interest, that's what I buy. (People surely look at me like I'm nuts, but couldn't care less, really.)
I mean, she does have an opinion on things already, another story that she's not yet able to tell us what it is, right?!

205.

Lately Lileeva became very good in grabbing things, therefor enjoying her baby gym even more.
She loves her Peppa Pig teddy too, always having it close to her face when napping during the day and befriended the orange rubber duck too.
She sometimes laughs now without tickling her and also blows raspberries.
Not to mention the 'talking' which is more likely shouting but still, good try. She tells us off all the time now haha! Such a big girl!
Only have trouble with getting her dressed nowadays. She is at that age when it's normal I reckon. Funny for example how much she hated coming out of the bath when she was 2 months old, screaming from the cold but shut up as soon as I got her dressed. Now it's the opposite, bare happy with laying around naked but when I start to put them grows on! Doesn't help that she became quite sicky lately and have to get her changed a few times daily.
Ah well, will grow out of this too, in fact before I'd even realise, all what she will want to do is dress-ups.

We just had a calculation with Lee and it looks like I don't necessarily have to go back to work just yet. I'm planning on staying home with her until she can attend a free nursery (Age of 3? Have to look into it.). Not like we are going to live on benefits, we won't. We are entitled to get shit, but will still be able to manage we think.
As soon as we decide to have another baby though, I will go back to work for about a year or so. That way we can save up and might be able to get Maternity Allowance again.
This, might be sooner than we first planned... Well... Lee said he will think about it. After all the less is the age gap between, is the better for them, and if we were started trying for another one when Lileeva is around a year and a half, she'd be over 2 years old when we had her little brother or sister. Ideal in my opinion.
And, to be honest, with all the joy ahead of us with her, I reckon Lee as well would miss bottle feeding and nappy changing once Lileeva will be old enough to walk, talk, play and kind of take care of herself. (But of course, he'll never admit this haha.)

204.

I'm still feeding Lileeva with single component food.
I know she's ready for more, but since I got hold of some stage 1 vegetables thought I let her try and taste them as they are, before mixing. I did give her ready made mixed purees when were on the move (Strawberry-apple, apple-banana, apple-prune and butternut squash-prune-apple-carrot.) but not sure which option she prefers.
So far she tried:
- Apple
- Banana
- Pear
- Sweet potato
- Carrot
- Tomato
- Strawberry
- Pea
- Avocado
- Butternut squash
She likes some more than others, but I think it's normal, after all she's allowed to have favourites already. We had a hard time with avocado only, she didn't just pull faces or start to moan like usually does when she doesn't like something, she actually threw up from it. Twice.
She's also eying my toast lately! Lileeva thinks she's some kind of super hero after having her first tooth growing out of her gums. That's O.K. I started her on solids at 3+ months but no way I'm starting her on baby biscuits before 6 months! (That's a month earlier than recommended anyway.) Especially that she was chocking on the pea puree which contained little bits of pea skins.
She has dropped a bottle (Having 4 x 210 ml a day.) so doesn't have much milk, nor a lot of solids so I began to worry about her nutrition, but it clearly says on the follow on milk box that it's not suitable for babies under 6 months.
Just have to keep an eye on her in the next month I reckon. After all she looks happy and healthy so technically no reason to worry about.

203.

Breaking news! Literally. Lileeva's first tooth has finally appeared last Wednesday, on the 5th of May. It's the lower right, and by the look of it the lower left will emerge soon too. She ain't even 5 months yet!