Hi everyone!!

Welcome to the group Taria!

Oh Katie - I can imagine you must have been steaming!! No matter what they/one think/s (e.g. I do give Zara a cereal made with cows milk, but not cows milk as a drink, I put fat (usually oil) in Zara's vegetables - which babies actually need, they have a high need for fat, much higher than grown-ups) - it's just wrong that they don't listen to what you are saying. You are his mom and they should really respect your requests. Having said that... I think Omas are like that. My mom keeps feeding my son chocolate all the time and does it to my brother's kids too - I am amazed my SIL has not killed my mom yet. Also, that generation grew up giving babies solids really early and was not aware of allergy risks and the like. Not trying to defend them - just trying to maybe explain a bit... I know it's very frustrating when other people interfere with your parenting and I certainly would have said something if I were you (though I know it's a lot harder telling your ILs off vs. telling your own parents off). Just take it as a lesson not to leave your son with them for meals (or any long periods really) unsupervised as they apparently cannot be trusted to take your instructions, since they blatantly ignore them right in front of you! Sending you a big hug ... in-laws, hey?

Speaking of which... mine still drive me bonkers... MIL let out some rude comment the other day re. our lovely nanny. They still haven't gotten over the fact that we are bringing her with us to Oz and they certainly don't agree with her working for us in general. It's really frustrating. MIL made some remarks re. her not being smart enought for her grandson or something and that she didn't want our nanny "teaching" him stuff / bad grammar while we work... something rather.. arrrg, it's just so rude. What are we supposed to do? We have a business to run and it's not like we have family around to help and I rather have a nanny in my house than give my kid to child care where he/she is one of a bunch and doesn't get as much attention as he does with our nanny. And it's not like I palm off my kids to her all day - I work a few hours and the rest of the time the four of us go to the park and each kid has a grown up to supervise/play with. For us it's perfect because I get to work and I get to give each kid attention and don't have to feel so torn about dividing my attention between kids/work/household/hobbies.

Anyway ... I better shut up or I'll go on about it forever...

We have been such a quiet bunch in here, huh? I hope everone is well (I take the lack of posts as a good sign - I am sure if something was wrong, people would post)

Well, what's there to report from this end? No teeth yet for Zara but very good at munching on all sorts of things. I have made a bit of a point of giving her a bit "lumpy" food because her brother has been so useless with eating real "solids" (vs. purees) and she happily chomps on all sorts of things. I tried a bit of mince for the first time yesterday. She did not seem a big fan. She does eat whole peas and rice grains - so funny. She even manages to put the little peas one by one in her mouth ! It's so cute! And she is so proud. She loves drinking from a glass and gets all excited when I raise it to her lips and she kicks around so much, I can barely get the glass to her without spilling water everywhere. She is really good at drinking. Wolf kept leaving his mouth open and the water would run back out but she can actually drink and keep it inside
Next week we will have Zara weighed and measured - I would guess she is around 71cm or so and weighs around 7kg but I could be wrong. She is very tall and skinny and people keep commenting on it. We'll see...
Zara also tries to crawl. So far she manages to go round and round and backwards commando style. I think she is not far off from starting to go forward. Clever princess!

Well, we are moving in less than a week. I am packing frantically - it's a good exercise really... keeps a streamlined household, he he

Snowy