So, Archie is five months old today. I know I say this every month, but it has gone so terrifyingly fast. I remember when he was two weeks old and part of me was impatient for him to grow up and be more interactive and responsive. And now I miss when he was just a tiny little baby and would snuggle and nap all day.

He is growing so much! He can roll over on his own and holds his head up with no problem. He has completely lost his babyish looks and now looks like a real little boy. He has started to stand up with me holding him for balance, and is so strong! I have to wrestle to get him into the carseat as he stiffens his whole body and won't bend, so I poke him in the guts (or 'punch him in the breadbasket' as my brother said) so get him to fit into the seat.

His sleeping habits are pretty crap at the moment. He has about three or four 45 minute naps during the day. Occasionally he will sleep for an hour which is always exciting, but generally they are pretty short. On a good night, he goes to bed at 7pm he wakes up for a feed at about 11pm and 3am, then is up at 6am. Every morning I try to get him to sleep longer but he refuses. I think the morning light wakes him up, so I might investigate making his room darker. On a bad night, which happens about once a week, he is up every two hours throughout the night and won't settle at all. This kills me, as I get only  short snatches of sleep and am a nervous wreck by the morning. I know now why sleep deprivation is a form of torture!

We are planning on starting solid food this weekend. I have been waiting until he is definitely ready, as I didn't want to start too early but he is starting to open and close his mouth when I am eating something and to chew on anything he grabs, which are apparently signs of being ready for solids. And now that he can hold his head up better too, I think it is time. I'm kind of looking forward to it, because it will be fun seeing what he does with the food. I imagine that he will have a huge appetite, if his size and breastfeeding prowess is anything to go by.

I've been doing a bit of research and I've decided to start with pumpkin puree. Most babies start on rice cereal, but our health nurse said that you don't have to start with that necessarily; it's just that everyone has always done that so now that's the norm. And I figure that he has to eat pumpkin and other veggies eventually, so we may as well start with them. And the rice cereal has no real nutritional benefit. We don't have a high chair yet so will have to sit him in Lee's lap or something to start, until he can sit up on his own.

We had a barbecue on Saturday with some of Lee's furniture designer friends and their partners and kids. There were a four year old, a three-and-a-half year old and a two-and-a-half year old, all boys, plus an eight-month-old girl and Archer. It was really, really, really great seeing all the little boys playing together and their parents 'parenting in action'. Lee and I were talking afterwards about how it was like looking into the future and imagining our family of boys. It was good to get my head around the possibility of having two boys and realising that I could in fact be okay as a parent of just boys, as I had always imagined myself having a girl next, but seeing all the kids on Saturday made the prospect of having two gorgeous little boys seem awesome and fun and rowdy and messy and perfect.