Jack's six month anniversary

Yesterday Jack was exactly six months old - where does the time go? It's weird because on one level it does seem a long time ago that he arrived with us, such a long while that I can hardly remember exactly how he looked, and yet on another level the time seems to have flown by.

All I can say is that so far (and I'm touching every bit of wood I can find) he has been a dream. We have hardly had a sleepless night and he seems a contented little baby. We haven't really followed the Gina Ford approach as such (we have never bought her book) but we have followed a pretty strict routine and it seems, in his case , to have worked.

Now he's feeding on solids really well, we're about to cut out his lunchtime bottle. So you see you just go from one stage to another, and perhaps this is why the time flies by and yet it's hard to remember the details and I guess that's why I write this blog!

Messy and happy, just like daddy

Jack has a new bumbo seat and this is how we feed him now.. it's great for that, but it doesn't stop the little man getting his baby porridge all over his chops!! Good boy, looks like he's taking after his daddy! We bought our bumbo on ebay for about £27 - a few quid cheaper than retail.

Jack and his first dip in the pool - babyswimming

We have just started taking Jack to baby swimming classes at our local group in Balham, south-west London.

Jack's first class was interesting as I'm not sure how much he enjoyed it. There were five other babies there some a bit younger than Jack and some a bit older. While some of the others seemed to cry a little bit, Jack seemed to cry throughout the class.

Even in our first class we dunked Jack - in other words, fully submerged him below the water for a few seconds. It's quite a heart-rendering experience as you watch their little face as you take them under, but it's very safe as babies have a reflex that stops them trying to breathe underwater.

The first class lasts for nine weeks and by the end of it Jack should be able to swim short distances underwater. How amazing is that. It's the next class today, so wish me luck. Hopefully he'll have a better sleep this morning before the class and this might mean that he doesn't cry throughout like last week. More baby swimming pics of Jack on flickr.