Pulling herself to a stand and walking along the sofa

HG has always been long in proportion to her size, and she continues to grow more length-wise. The first items of clothing she always grows out of are her PJs or all in one baby grows with integral feet. As of this week she is now officially wearing size 6-9 month baby grows, some of her trousers, dresses and long sleeved 3-6 months tops are looking a little short, though she can still wear most of them. That said, she is still petite and on the small side for her age - she can still wear many of her size 0-3 month vests.

She does however appear to be growing too long (though not to big) for her car seat -which claims to be good for up to 13 Kg (HG is currently close to about 6.5Kg).

Her 6-9 month snow suit is just right now, perfect as the Israeli winter has finally kicked in - better late than never. She has mixed feelings about it, sometimes she loves it and more often she kvetches and even cries when being suited up. It's fine in her buggy, but a little cramped in the car seat. It isn't really designed for snow, it's more an all in one coat, good protection against the chilly rainy weather.
She does look a bit like a baby michelin man in it.

Her hair has also started to sprout. No longer a fine, thin layer which barely covered her scalp, it is now a little fuzzy and need to be smoothed (though not quite brushed) when she wakes up from a nap or takes off a hat.

Friday morning as Ima sat down on the sofa to sort some papers while keeping an eye on HG who was playing contentedly on her big padded playmat closeby. HG kept gradually inching closer to Ima, no suprise as she much enjoys playing with the sofa, looking under it, gnawing on the leg or making big eyes at Ima and stretching out her hands for Ima to stand her up against the cushions on the back of the sofa so that she can look out the window.

Today she just crawled on up to the sofa, sat up, reached up to the seat of the sofa, got into some kind of kneeling position and pulled herself up. Ima and Uncle Ivor gave her a cheer, and then clapped, and she turned around to look at Uncle Ivor and fell back onto her tush.

She kvetched for a bit and then got back in to a sit and pulled herself up to a stand against the sofa, this time staying up there and walking sideways while holding on against the sofa, walking all the way to the other end where Ima was sitting.

Since then she keeps trying to climb up everything, pulling herself up using the coffee table, trying to pull herself up by holding on to the top of Ima's knee high boots (unsuccessfully), reaching for the struts on the dining room chairs...

And she doesn't want to hold on usually once she has pulled herself up. She is no longer content holding on to the arches of her playmat or the crossbar of her baby gym. When stood against them she will hold on for a few seconds and then let go with both hands, trying to stand unsupported. She falls and then begs to be helped up again (these supports aren't strong enough for her to pull herself up with). She loves standing while holding on with one hand and playing with the other, or against the sofa, she'll sometimes manage just by gnawing on the seat of the sofa with her hands free.

Her crawling has also become more fluent lately. She is now reasonably safe crawling on the bare floor, without the soft mats, as she generally keeps to a classic all fours crawl, rather than reverting to her earlier commando crawl, or head down, tush propelled crawl. Gates to block off the kitchen and guest rooms are now a must, as she is fast, and easily gets from the far end of the living/dining room to the kitchen in no time.

The upside is that she can amuse herself better. The down side is she can get into even more trouble. For the most part HG doesn't enjoy playing while sitting down - she either likes to be mobile, ie playing in a crawl, or standing, allowing her to look around more easily.

She will sit in her high chair for short periods, but increasingly she associates this with food. She likes to join the grown ups for meals as long as she can eat too, at least a little. She is an eager eater, no games, no fuss, just put a bowl of food out of arms' reach and hand her a spoon and she is happy. She likes to feed herself, though she doesn't always remember to hold the arm of the spoon instead of the bowl of the spoon. She is voracious and will often grab for the bowl of food and try to eat directly from that.