6 months old

Kathryn Persis is 6 months old! She is such a joy to have in our lives. She loves to smile and be tickled and observe all the activity around her. She is a great cuddler when she chooses to sit still, but most of the time she is in motion. She is still tiny (12 lbs 5 oz & 25 inches at her check-up), but what she lacks in size she makes up for with strength and physical prowess. Her arms and legs are always moving, she loves rolling both ways to grab her toys and she wants so badly to situp that she does mini-situps whenever we lay her on her back. Her favorite place to be is in the Johnny Jumper and she can really get some air!!

Kip's favorite toys are anything fabric.... ...and this soft plastic book which she crumples and gnaws on with gusto.

Solid foods have been a bit of a challenge with this precious girl. Don't let that sweet face fool you. She has deadly accuracy with her left hook when a spoon wanders nearby.However, when the mood is right she eats like a horse. Her current favorite: avocados. Good thing they're high in fat:)We are also making great strides in the napping area, once I accidentally discovered that she is soothed by up and down motions. I was trying to sneak in some exercise one day while she was a little fussy and demanding to be held. I started doing lunges and realized a minute or so later that she was all snuggled in and almost asleep. I've been doing that routine ever since at nap time and bed time and it works like a charm. And my legs are getting some serious toning!

We love this girl so much!! And except for when I'm woken up in the middle of the night, I don't want her to grow up:)

Chase!

Gus's favorite game these days is chase. It is one of the first things he wants to do in the morning and definitely the first thing he wants to do when I get home from work each afternoon. Typically, he will let me chase him until I can't go any longer. Between the two of us, we still haven't reached his threshold. This morning, I decided to make an effort to chase him until HE wanted to stop.

Our normal route is a loop, running from the kitchen, to the back entry room, into the jack/jill bathroom, through our bedroom, into the dining room and completing the loop back in the kitchen. I measured it just for fun. The loop is approximately 70 feet. Thankfully, Gus prefers that I stand on the back of his tricycle and push myself while he runs ahead of me.

The end result: 62 laps. Of course, things start to blur together when you're running the same course that many times, but I feel pretty comfortable with that number.

He ran for the first 46 or 47 laps and then finally started walking after that. So, I believe that means that he ran more than half a mile! I tried to surreptitiously drop off the tricycle at about lap 53 (my quads were burning), but he caught me and asked me to get back on. In the late 50s, I asked if he was ready to stop b/c he was walking so slowly and he replied, "We're not done yet." In the end, he was distracted by a siren outside. After the emergency siren faded away, he asked to chase again. I wasn't surprised, but I just couldn't do it.

He talked on every lap. We were various Thomas the Train characters along the way. At one point, we were each Zoom, Zoom Bully (a character from one of his books; don't buy it if you can avoid it!). We each got several "tickets" along the way for going too fast. Somewhere towards the conclusion, I ended up with a police SWAT hat on.

He is an amazing little fella. I only wish we had the patience and energy to play with him the way he wants and deserves. We love you, Gus Man.

Yikes.

I think I may have gotten a little behind on the ironing.