From 6-18 months I think is such an exciting age for babies - there are so many new discoveries all the time and it’s so lovely to see their personality starting to emerge. At 7 months, it’s becoming clear that Ben has a real sense of humour - it’s so easy to make him laugh, so much so that quite often he’ll start laughing at something and it’s not even clear what he found funny. He has such a throaty little chuckle, and it’s the best sound in the world.

We started trying him with a bit of food last month and at first he really wasn’t keen. He pulled the most awful faces with everything we gave him, and would only try a few spoonfuls of something before refusing to eat any more. But over the past month, food has become one of his favourite things! He loves pear, sweet potato, carrots, parsnips, beef and sweet potato, broccoli, cucumber, mango, and apple. We are taking a fairly laid back approach and trying purees alongside foods he can pick up himself, and it’s been wonderful to see how quickly he’s learnt to grip objects and bring them to his mouth. I love making up the purees and trying out new flavours - I do think weaning is one of the more fun developmental stages (I’ll take it over potty training any day!)

He’s embraced it so much that I now give him 3 tastes of food a day - if he doesn’t want much then I won’t push it, but he loves his food so much that he’ll start bouncing himself up and down in the high chair in excitement when I put him in!

Sitting has been another milestone that Ben has hit this month. Just last month, he was still a bit unconfident at sitting, even in the high chair which offers quite a bit of support, but all of a sudden he can sit unaided. The look on his face is so sweet - he’s so proud of himself.

At this age with Max, we had quite a firm routine in place. Not so much driven by me, but by Max - he was a very routiney baby, and needed to have his naps at particular times. Ben has a far more flexible routine, and I guess that’s partly down to being a second child who gets dragged around doing whatever his older brother fancies doing. But equally, Ben will sleep anywhere - in his cot, in a pushchair, in a sling, in the car, in my arms - which does make getting out a lot easier. He’s settled into 3 naps a day - a morning one at around 8.30 (he’s an early riser), lunchtime somewhere between 11.30 and 13.00, and a late afternoon one at 3. He’s not a long napper though, and will generally have anywhere between 20 minutes and an hour. I’m looking forward to extending those a little bit to give me a chance to actually get things done.

The biggest milestone this month though, has to be moving him into his own room. I’ve found it a surprisingly emotional transition which I wrote about here, but actually it’s been very smooth. He wasn’t too phased about the move, and is just as happy in his own room as he was right next to us. Sadly he’s not sleeping any better - I think we’re destined to be sleep deprived for a while longer with this one!