Balqis is turning 7 months on Saturday.

She loves to say 'heyyyy' now. She usually saves the 'mamamam' rambling when she's cranky or crying.

Once she flips over, she usually balances herself on her hands and knees and starts rocking forward and backwards. She is still trying to figure out how to crawl forward. But she is going all over the place with her backwards crawling. One can't just leave her at a spot and expect her to still be at the same spot 1 minute later. She can no longer sit still on her own, always lurching forward to grab or munch or lick something. Pictures taken usually end up in a blur.

One second later... (fell face first)

Her first pearly white showed itself when she was 6 mths old, plus a week or so. Her daddy felt it when she bit him and saw a shimmery whitish tooth sprouting through. BB now has two lower teeth.

She started solids when she turned 6 mths one day old. She had breastmilk mixed with nestle cereal. It probably tasted the same to her with no difference in texture. She lapped every single spoonful and ended drinking it up with a cup as she just had no patience for the spoon. Then she started on mashed bananas, which she grimaced at, potatoes mixed with breastmilk which was good for her as the texture was similar to porridge, and chopped pears which she liked. Her mom is trying to be more diligent to prepare sweet potatoes and yam sometime next week.

Alhamdulillah, all praises to Allah, Balqis has not come down with any fever or flu since she was born. Her mom had the occasional flu and cold now and then but Balqis didn't get it. Maybe she did but the antibodies in the breastmilk helped probably. She came down with a runny nose a few days ago which was gone in a few hours, so her mom put it down to a case of allergy to dust or some other allergen. Alhamdulillah. Allah is the best Caregiver and Protector.

She just broke her own record when it comes to sleeping too. For the first time in her life, she slept for four hours through without waking up even once. Shocking, yes.

She has started to display emotions in other ways other than crying. Once, she scolded her toy because it sprang back on her.

It is also getting harder to give her a diaper change now. And to change her clothes too. She lies down like a spring board, always flipping over.

And because she is very easily distracted and wants to play all the time, she no longer wants to nurse for the sake of a feed. She only drinks when she wants to nurse to sleep. There is no such thing as a feeding time for her anymore. She feeds when she wants to go to sleep. Sometimes her mom tries to nurse her while she is awake and not sleepy. She can nurse and drink, for like a minute at most, before she tries to wriggle away.

She readily smiles for the camera these days. Explains why most of the pictures always have her grinning and smiling.