Early Adventures of Baby L - Swimming Lessons

I took a little break from blogging for my 40 Days of Gratitude, and now I'm back with an update from us!  First, Happy 7-month Birthday Baby L!  She can sit up on her own, and she's starting to push up onto her hands and knees. She can't quite crawl yet, rather she does this weird thing where she pushes herself backwards with her hands.  G and I are so not ready for a mobile baby, so we're extra thankful Miss J lives with us full time and can chase Baby L around! She also cut her first tooth, poor thing! It's not visible yet, I can feel the little pokey ridges when I run my finger along her gums.

Baby L loves her balloons!

In the last 40 days, we've had 3 visitors - my friend Jon from Michigan (whose mom was close friends with my mom), and G's Aunt Robyn and Uncle Roland. We were thrilled to show off our home and of course for all of them to meet the ever-social Baby L.

My friend Jon from Michigan - we forgot to take a photo with Aunt Robyn and Uncle Roland!

We've also started swimming lessons for Baby L. G and I wanted to make sure that she gets comfortable in the water early, so we enrolled her in a class near our home. The pool is heated, but Dubai is still a little chilly at 8am - so she, of course, hates swimming class. There are always lots of tears for her, and we usually take her out of the pool early. As the water warms up, we are hoping she'll enjoy swim class more, especially since bathtime is one of her favorite times of day.

Daddy, I'm not so sure about this water!!!

We also introduced Baby L to solid foods. We started with an Asian vegetable called bitter melon. Of course, she hated this. The good news is that after bitter melon, everything tastes good! So onward to peas, sweet potato, carrots, and cauliflower - carrots are definitely her favorite. We've also introduced her to prunes to help keep her regular! She doesn't love the prunes, but she seems to manage eating them ok.

We can't believe how quickly she's growing, and we love watching her little personality develop. She has a very happy disposition, and she can say say a few words - she says "ummm" when she's hungry, "mamamamama", "dadadada", "nananananan" (for her nanny, Miss J), and an assortment of grunts and squeals. Stay tuned for photos from an Easter weekend visit from my sister and her husband, Baby L was super fascinated by her  auntie and uncle!