7 weeks old today and 8lb 13oz at the Baby Clinic last week - Zara is currently sleeping peacefully in her new solution to her "Scooby Doo legs" problem - a baby sleeping bag so she can wriggle and jiggle to her heart's content and yet never kick off the covers - genius!

 

She's developing new skills faster than we can keep track of them - and did her first real smile on Friday 28th July (as opposed to her "windy" smiles which make her look like George Best on a Stag Night...). Since then we are of course even more under her tiny thumb...

 

A mystery skill was identified when we kept tucking her VERY firmly into her blankets in the moses basket, only to find her very easily escaped. Z was then spotted bum-shuffling her way up and down the basket - up to the top to escape, back down to lie on top of the blanket and wake herself up...bring on the baby sleeping bag!

 

She's not too sure about the bouncy chair, or her lovely new present from Uncle Michael (photo attached - think problem is that it is bigger than she is!) but loves lying under the playmat and practising crawling. Gets frustrated easily and wants to achieve things instantly - like her Mum who instead of persevering with learning how to sew, just started sticking things together with sellotape (and to this day, sewing on a button is about as adventurous as it gets!). Another of my bad habits has also emerged - the twirling of her hair with the fingers when she's tired (luckily she has a lovely footballer's mullet with which to do this!)

 

Most exciting part of the week was Wednesday 2nd August when her Nanna came to stay and we went to Richmond to check out the new Carluccios restaurant. Unfortunately it didn't actually open till Saturday. Fortunately they were having a "training day" so we three ladies lunched in there for ABSOLUTELY FREE - 3 courses and all we paid for was wine (of which we had plenty because of all the money we were saving - although Z had milk as usual...and was fussed over by lovely waiters)

 

Friday was also pretty exciting as all 6 of the NCT babies got together for the 1st time and had fun whacking each other in the face on a playmat with their variously uncoordinated arms and legs!

 

And Mummy had two very exciting treats this week - a night out with the girls on Friday (not much drinking sadly - still ever conscious of the night feed...) and a morning shopping in the West End on Saturday. Z played up nicely for Daddy and all the shopping ended up being for her anyway as I couldn't face the trying on of non-maternity trousers...maybe next time!

 

This week's plan's involve another weigh-in, a day out at Kew Gardens (via Kew Retail Park - Baby Gap obsession...) and the dreaded 1st INJECTIONS - be ready for screeching...