Nine months...

 

Heimana has been outside longer than she was inside now. She's crawling around the place at great speed at the moment, and is into everything. She's got four teeth (two at the bottom and two at the top) and another two on the way. She would really love to be up and about on our feet, but we're not there yet, thank goodness! She's not talking, but she does have a wide array of noises at her disposal, blowing raspberries incessantly is currently a favorite past-time.  

 

She's still got a fairly happy disposition, but she's definitely becoming more and more willful. She and Matotea are already fighting over toys! I can already see the toddler tantrums coming. I think Heimana will be able to hold her own against Matotea.....

Food Glorious Food

Heimana's appetite for solids and grown-up food is rapidly developing. I remember being amazed at how rapidly Matotea became obsessed with the dinner table, but Heimana, with the help of her sister, is catching on even faster.
Compote and baby food works well (chicken, rice and tomato or apple,banana and blueberry are current fvourites) but it's a two man or a two spoon job!
Even better is the real thing from our plates, a crust of bread does the trick for a few minutes.....but she's sure that we're holding out on her! She happily gums at a bit of rice or mashed banana.
Water from a glass or a cup of herbal infusion (red fruit or mint) are also accepted, if there's nothing better around!
She's also experimenting with some slightly less suitable food stuffs - our rubber ring, for instance,
I know we should be encouraging her to eat her greens, but we need a little talk about cooking methods, or to wait for those pearly whites to grow!
Dad's already leading her astray, and she loves it!

(No babies were harmed or intoxicated for the making of this photo!)

Heimana's progress

Tuesday Heimana celebrates her first six months - her progress has been remarkable, even in the six weeks since the grandparents met her in the flesh. In late november she was just getting the knack of grasping things and had just started to prop herself up on her belly.

Yesterday she rolled over properly for the first time, and is already doing her best to sit upright unassisted, at least for a few seconds, followed by the inevitable face-plant and frustrated little screams.
The baby gym now serves as exactly that - a gym, she likes to do pull ups with the little toys and does the whole babyzilla pose that Matotea liked so much. She's picking things up and quite clearly throwing them away now.....or making them 'disappear'.
She's also discovered that you can make noises just for the fun of it, and for a few days she was screaming and yelping with glee, just because she could! She really loves her sister, her little eyes light up when she sees Matotea up to something (.....which she normally is).

She's still all smiles and charm......

Summer's here

Finally the season seems to be changing - the flowers and fruit are here. The first mangoes are falling from the trees (Hurray!) and the mini sunflowers I planted a month or so ago are in bloom. The weather is sunny and so we even ventured out onto the beach, though Matotea was the only one brave enough to actually get submerged. Even better we're on holiday - we've closed the guesthouse for a whole month, for a well earned bit of R&R. I for one aim to enjoy my delayed maternity leave! At the end of this coming week we head to Tahiti en route for a week in New Zealand. It's been more than a year since I left PF, so I'll be glad for an injection of 'Big City' life!!!!! But before that happens we have lots to do to get ready for our 'Tree Day' which kicks off on thursday and runs 'til saturday, with a big meal and another visit from Maeva and Marco.



Other breaking news.....
Heimana is just starting on solids, here she is (above) enjoying her first homemade carrot, potato and umara puree. Unfortunately, along with her appetite for REAL food comes teething, it's early, but the signs are there - she's drooling like crazy, is avidly mauling anything within grasping distance, our fingers, her hands, my breast, she's also as grumpy as I've ever seen her, poor little thing.....so she's been getting lots of attention and distraction!

Her intensive exercise regime continues - who said you can't run before you can sit up?











Matotea's 'balloons' which, in the past few months have morphed through wiggly lines and dots have now magically turned into blob people overnight. This is a family scene, daddy and mummy blob (center and far left, respectively) are accompanied by Matotea (flattened blob in bottom left corner, see how she is symbolically placed beneath us, I interpret this as an early attempt to express her angst at being suppressed by her parents, we alwys spoil all her fun ;-) ) and Heimana (who initially was NOT going to be included - who wants a baby sister anyway? - actually appears here with arms and legs).

Wales beat Samoa in the rugby albeit unconvincingly, my alliances are a bit split here particularly as the Samoan team were playing "for the tsunami victims", but anyway it's just fun to be able to follow the rugby from Rurutu - once more let me say YAY for internet!

Surfacing

Heimana has her two month check-up tomorrow, she's not quite two months, but she's already grown up a lot and now little bubbles of personality have started to break to the surface. She has a beautiful smile (it shines through from the inside mostly, though she is mastering a reasonable grin)..

...she loves to play....watching people wiggle their fingers in front of her eyes makes her almost pass out with pleasure, her whole body shakes, we even got a few gurgles yesterday. It quite different than from with Matotea. I guess every baby is a bit different, or maybe it's just 'cause I've already done it once, but she seems much easier to read and more responsive. Looking back over Matotea's pictures it's amazing how similar they both look, Viriamu can hardly tell them apart!

Both of them are/were able to mimic facial expressions at this stage (it's a common phenomenon that I first read about in Dr. Sear's Baby Book - and it really is true!). I spent hours teaching Matotea to stick out her tongue when she was about two months, and she was able to do it, and I can see Heimana trying to copy me now too. It's so much fun having kids (in between all the sleepless nights and dirty nappies)!