Percy's Favorite Things

Little Percy is now almost 7 months old, it's gone so fast but it also feels like we've always had him. Here are some things he loves:

Swimming

I think he actually thinks he can swim, he kicks his legs like a frog and splashes with his arms while I'm holding his tummy up, he seems frustrated that I'm holding him I've been tempted to let go but I don't think I will just yet. I think his natural chub helps to keep him afloat. A mum at swimming asked me "does his swimsuit have floats built in?" and I had to say "no, he's just chubby."

Bath time

not surprisingly he loves bath time too, he loves to splash and is fine with me pouring water over his head.

Animals

We were in the park once and some dogs came up and started sniffing him. I was holding him tight trying to protect him, I'm a bit scared of dogs, but he was laughing his head off. He also loves to "stroke" our rabbit. He's a bit grabby with her at the mo so me and Dan have to do it together, one of us is in charge of protecting the rabbit from the baby and the other is in charge of protecting the baby from the rabbit. Lola copes incredibly well, she once had her ears pulled and didn't really react.

Silly voices

The way to make Percy giggle is to sing a song in a silly voice or give a toy an accent. My mum knitted him a dinosaur and a monkey. We have given the dinosaur a Scouse accent and the monkey a posh accent. Originally the dinosaur was always trying to start a fight and then I pointed out that this was negative stereotyping so we switched them round and now the posh monkey is always inciting violence and the Scouse dinosaur is an activist for peace.

All food

We started weaning Percy at 6 months, we went to a baby led weaning workshop which was really good. If you don't know baby led weening (or as my Dad calls it self-directed eating) is all about giving babies finger food and letting them feed themselves. After a few days we started giving him some mushed up food too because a lot of the finger food is ending up on the floor. He's tried more veg than the average adult now...carrots, broccoli, parsnips, courgette, butternut squash, avacado, cucumber, tomato, sweetcorn and peppers. He's also had fruit, natural yogurt with oats, Weetabix, rice and toast. Soon I would like to try him on potatoes and meat.

Day one of "eating" -throwing broccoli everywhere

GIVE ME MELON!!

I love my parsnip face mask

Songs

He loves when I sing nursery rhymes to him, especially ones that involve me jiggling him up and down.

His hands and feet

Sometimes he moves his hands about slowly as if he was the queen waving and he just stares at them for ages working out how they move. He also loves to hold or eat his feet.

Mirrors

Percy loves his own reflection. When I'm getting ready in the morning I sit him in front of the full length mirror in our room and he amuses himself.

Wiggling

He loves to move, he loves bouncing in the door bouncer. When I'm holding him he does this thing where he's sort of trying to get down as if he can just run off.

We're on holiday at the moment in Angelsey, we just arrived yesterday. We stopped off in Llandudno on the way and took Percy for his first trip to the beach and we also go to ride a train called "The Percy Express!" which he loved.

P.S. My friend Danni recently put on Facebook that she was doing some research into the differences between online self and real self and it made me think about what I write about Percy. I never really write negative stuff because I think people don't like a moaner, and I don't want to scare people who don't have kids yet.

So this is just a little disclaimer just in case you think that everything is easy and lovely. It's really hard a lot of the time, having a baby makes normal tasks like going out for a cup of tea into missions that you try and survive and get through. I have a lot of cute smiley photos of him but he is often grumpy and annoying. Having a baby really limits what you can do in a lot of ways. Some days I love being a mum, but some days I can't wait till my youngest child is like 4ish and I don't have to deal with babies anymore. I hope this doesn't come across as a moan, just a balanced view. I love him, but I'm looking forward to the day he can wipe his own bum.