1/2 a year already!

Can you believe it.... my little man is already half a year old.  Actually more than that because I'm almost a month behind.  He turned 6 months old on January 9th.  Here he is waiting for Dr. Penrod to come check him out.

Zion grew a ton between his 4 & 6 month check ups.  He gained over 4 pounds and is up to 16 lbs 8 oz (30th %) and is 26 inches long (33rd %).  I cannot believe how much he has grown, but then again he loves food so I really shouldn't be surprised.  He has been eating solids 4 times a day for quite a while now, and snacks on graham crackers, and I'm still nursing him 4-5 times a day.  I think his favorite thing, so far is my homemade tomato basil soup.  But he really love my butternut squash & carrot soup and also my split pea & ham soup.

He is still sleeping great at night and I absolutely love checking on him in the morning and seeing where he has rolled.  He makes good use of his entire crib while he sleeps.

He still loves absolutely loves his jumper which I am super grateful for.  We take it down to the gym with us when we go work out and he'll jump and laugh the whole time he watches us.  This is a picture of him jumping while we were busy getting the base trim hung in our new gym.

Zion loves going on dates with mommy and daddy.  I still have a really hard time leaving him.  I think it's partly because I leave him in the morning to go to work for a few hours, so I don't want to feel neglectful and leave him when we go on dates.  I don't think Zion minds.  I think he's pretty happy to accompany mom and dad on their dates.  Here he is looking like a stud in his little tie.

And another date at Malawi's.  This is one of our new favorites. 

Happy Sumo is his favorite.... he loves to chew on the empty edamame pods with just a tiny bit of soy sauce on them.  Ok, maybe it's not his favorite, but it's mine and Zac's.  While we were pregnant with Zion, we would go to Happy Sumo after every doctor appointment to celebrate our little Zion monster.  Now it's so fun to go and take him with us!

I love it that Zion will still let us cuddle him while he naps.  Most of the time he naps in his crib, but every now and then we get home from work and it's nap time and we just want to cuddle with our little buddy while he sleeps.  Isn't this the cutest?

Other fun things about Zion-
*He loves to wrestle with his daddy
*He gets really quiet and holds perfectly still when he hears mommy or daddy's voice from the other room, and then when we walk in, he laughs and screams and gets so excited to see us
*He started taking baths in the regular tub a few weeks ago and loves being able to spread out, kick and splash so much
*He loves his sippy cup and holding it by himself- I don't love the mess it makes
*He still falls asleep in his carseat whenever we drive for more than 10 mins
*He loves to play peek a boo
*He has been sitting up by himself really good since he was about 5.5 months and it makes him look so old
*He loves to be on his tummy now to sleep and play with toys
*He hasn't figured out how to get up on all fours and crawl, but he can pretty much get anywhere/anything he wants by rolling around
*He has a crush on his Aunt Ninny and flirts with her so much we all start laughing

And the not so fun-
*Zion has developed a pretty bad case of stranger anxiety.  Aside from me, Zac and Aunt Ninny, he cries when people hold him.  If he still has a visual on one of us he does ok, but if we aren't in the room he gets so upset.  I hope this stage doesn't last very long!