Half birthday!

Ty was six months on October 22 and of course I said the same thing I say every month when we mark  another month gone by: where does the time go?!? But this month I had another thought, too: I want a grown up camera. Yes, that's right...me, the one who was VERY verbal about not understanding my parents' large cameras that were used to take artsy fartsy pictures...yeah, now I want one. Why? Becuase my child cannot be captured by a point-and-shoot camera. He moves too fast! The shutter can't keep up! I was literally in near tears trying to capture his cute little smile on camera because EVERYTHING came out blurry! He is so on the go these days you just can't get a good one....so I sort of became his paparazzi and just let him do his thing while I snapped away. So enjoy my feeble attempt  at documenting this momentous milestone. Ty is such a fun, easy-going guy! He keeps amazing (and surprising) us with all of the gross motor milestones he has been hitting. Before he was six months old he started crawling and pulled himself to stand!

Ty at six months:

--weighs 17lbs 14oz (exactly 10 lbs gained since his birthday!).

--is 27.5 inches long.

--does a funny thing we call the booty hop: he sits on the floor and hops his butt off the ground, like jumping, but on his booty. He usually giggles while he does this :) It's definitely a preferred activity!

--crawls, pulls to stand, and would really like to be able to climb the couch. He pulls himself up on the armrest of the couch and then pulls with all his might and stands on his tippy toes and lifts each leg alternately to try to climb....crazy kiddo! He is seriously so strong!

--eats avocado and green beans (zucchini coming this weekend).

--was working on teeth and this past weekend cut his first tooth!

--loves to feel different textures. He lives to get his hands in the grass and while he cuddles on my shoulder he likes to reach his hand up the back of my neck to play with my hair.

--loves bathtime and playing with his rubber duckies.

--has a favorite hangout: the mats at our Jiu Jitsu school! He is SO happy be on them! He does his bouncy booty hop thing, rolls around, crawls everywhere, gets into the bear crawl position and puts his bum in the air to make a pyramid, watches the big boys roll around, and laughs hysterically as he does all this!

--is old enough to get bored with his toys and let me know it!

--babbles and chats...lots of important things to talk about!

--has become very independent! As long as he knows Mommy or Daddy is nearby, he is happy to explore or to entertain himself with toys.

--is very motivated by the cats. He wants them...wants to touch them, pull their fur, put his mouth on them, play with their toys, chase them down the hall, laugh as he tries to grab their swishing tails...it's all fun with the cats!

--(Eliot just sadly reminded me of this one) is in a bit of a "Mommy" phase. I'm the woman of the hour these days. Sometimes its very sweet and and sometimes its really hard to not be able to hand him off to El when he needs some snuggles. I remind Eliot regularly that so long as I'm a source of food, I'm pretty cool, but that someday he's going to be waaaaaaaaay cooler than me. Ty loves his Daddy and is happy in his arms, but if he's upset, he's a Mama's Boy :)

--never. stops. moving!

Need that grown up camera!

More, mom? Seriously?

Wiggling

Making his way to the bookshelf

See the red mark? Bonked his head on the bookshelf. This is a regular occurrence...at least once a day he has a welt/bruise/red mark on his face! 

Inventory...one of his favorite activities.

See! All blurry!

Hair! This kid's hair can't decide what to do! It's super kinky curly in the middle and down the back, but straight everywhere else. We lovingly refer to it as "the curlhawk."

Reading

Getting ready to eat