Six Month Old Boy!

Brian and I have had this baby for half a year! Life pre-Ethan is a very very distant memory, and I can't imagine what we did with our time before this little guy! He's such a joy right now, really. Even with teeth coming in, his second cold, and the usual baby fussiness that comes and goes, he is so much fun. In a few short months, he has gone from:



To:

We haven't had our official 6 month appointment, but did get to see his pediatrician this morning because we were still the worried new parents - he has gained less than half a pound since his two month appointment. But he's a healthy, happy boy with a healthy appetite, and we'll just continue to tank him up with milk, formula, sweet potatoes, peas, pears, apples, cereal, etc. (trying avocados soon, yum) until he starts the upswing on that weight curve again. He's certainly growing length-wise! Tall boy...

The Illinois Marathon

No, I didn't run the whole thing. But I did run the last 6.7 miles (that .7 is very important) of the inaugural Illinois Marathon, held entirely in Champaign-Urbana. Very fun. I'm sore right now, but I really think I could have run farther. It couldn't have been a better day! It was of course very different doing this now compared to doing it pre-baby. For one, Brian had serious duties this time - on other races I've run, he's accompanied me to the starting line, then said something helpful like, "I'll see you at the finish. I'm going out for pancakes and hot chocolate." Punk. But when Ethan is a little older, maybe even next year, I think that Brian and I may do some of this together in some way, which will be great. He'll just have to slow his speedy pace for his wife.

And the cute boys picked me up after it was all done - here's Ethan with his tired but very happy mom when we headed back to get my car:

He's showing his pride in me by chewing on his fingers. He's proud of me a lot these days. :)

Travelin' Man

Ethan-boy was a super traveler this weekend! We all left Urbana around noon on Friday with a big suitcase (Brian and I shared about 1/6 of it with Ethan's stuff taking up the rest) and headed to Cincinnati to see Ethan's Grammy Barbara, Aunt Kim, and Aunt Lee-Ann. The last time we were there was at Christmas, and he's changed so much since then!



Ethan's Aunt Lee-Ann actually lives in Maryland, so we were lucky to catch her in the Midwest. Boyo said goodbye to her in his PJs this morning before she started the long drive back, and we were off a few hours later. He is going to have tons of fun with all of his aunts as he gets older, I'm sure of it!

I hope Lee-Ann's drive back to MD was better than ours; Brian and I hit heavy rain the whole time, which may have kept Ethan from sleeping on the way back like he usually does in the car. Poor unhappy boy...and we are sooooo looking forward to better weather! When we do get in the 60's or even 50's, I love taking His Majesty out in the stroller in the afternoons. I can't tell yet if he's enjoying being outside, but I'm hoping he'll develop at the very least a tolerance for the outdoors. We may not be there yet...

"I'm cold - take me home!"