6 month check up

"As soon as her nappy comes off, she grabs herself. Is that normal?"
The baby nurse laughed. "Yes, they all like to do that. Boys like to try to pull their bits off."
"I'm afraid she is going to hurt herself, she's not gentle or anything." Not to mention I now have to contain a hand as well as two legs whilst I change a nappy. Otherwise she gets a fist full of poo.
"She'll be fine."
Hannah had her 6 month well baby check up at the early childhood centre. I forgot the list of questions I made, but I seemed to remember most of them.
"She steals all of the other babies toys. Not just one toy, she doesn't stop until she has all the toys and they have none."
The baby nurse laughed. "She's very assertive and determined. She's too young to know that it's not acceptable to take all the toys though. You'll just have to watch her carefully if the other mums think it's a problem."
"How much food should she be eating?" I really had no idea.
"Half a cup to a cup per meal. When they start eating protein, their main food source should be food, not breast milk. Still breastfeed her 4-5 times in a 24 hour period, but she should start dropping a night feed once you up her quantities and give her protein at lunch and dinner." Awesome.
"She often needs to lay in her cot and cry for 5 minutes before she will have her before bedtime booby. Is that normal and ok?"
"Some babies just need to wind down like that. They get so stimulated during that day that they need some wind down time. Some babies are ok after you read to them quietly, others need to scream it out. Screaming is not the way the majority of babies go, but it's not harmful." Phew.
Darn, I forgot to ask about napping. Little Miss Hannah isn't so fond of the naps. Sometimes she won't sleep at all, others she will sleep once for 2 hours, other times half an hour each (2 naps per day is what we aim for). It's so unpredictable. Oops, should have remembered my list!
She also told me I can start making her food lumpier and introduce more meats, cheese, yoghurt (Hmmm..spell checker is telling me that yoghurt is spelled yogurt, but I swear it has an h. It is telling me it has an h if it's plural though. Strange), and even toast fingers. We're in for some fun, I think!
I gave her some cheese that very same day. I grated it (as I was told to) and put it in her broccoli, sweet potato, and potato mix, and gave it a stir. She took an unsuspecting bite and made the "what the heck is this terrible stuff" face. Then she gave me a food shower. She blew every last it out of her mouth and continued to do so if I got the spoon anywhere near her. She grabbed for the container and held it. She grabbed for the spoon. 'Why not,' I thought. She wasn't eating it, so at least she could play with it. To my surprise, she actually ate it. As long as she was holding the spoon (with me also holding it, although she clearly thought she was doing all the work) and the container, she ate it. After a couple of days, she ate it just fine.
Next, we tried yoghurt. I got some of the natural kind as I thought it would be the least offensive taste wise, the most mild. I got the 'what the heck are you feeding me' face again. I tried some myself and found it was quite tart tasting. No wonder she didn't like it. I didn't even like it. Guess I'll have to find a different kind of yoghurt to give her. Or maybe some cottage cheese, she might like that. Next on the list though, is tuna. I made a nice batch of really soft pasta, tuna, broccoli, and sweet corn, whizzed it up in the blender, and put it in an ice cube tray in the freezer. Tomorrow, she will try her very first portion of fish.