6 months of age is amazing (7 months too. I’ve been meaning to write this post forever!). Eva’s personality is beginning to show and she is this happy, smiley, loving, little person. She sits and moves a little bit in her immediate area, but I’m not having to chase her down (yet). She is so easygoing. If a toy gets out of her reach she doesn’t get upset, she just finds something else to play with. She loves games and is beginning to make up a few of her own. We are having such a good time!

So after a little trial and error, I have determined that texture is highly important to Eva. Looks like I got the texture right with the prune puree I made. She loves it!

Can you believe it’s illegal to name your daughter Elvis in Sweden?

Good thing we chose Eva.

On the first Wednesday of every month, the San Francisco Zoo is free. So Eva and I thought, since it was such a beautiful day, that we would go. I was really excited to show her all of the animals, but it turns out she is just not that interested in them. To be fair, they really blend in with their environments. Good for them, bad for Eva. Eva was most interested in the foliage (she is a treehugger) and the people. Things she liked: ducks, penguins, and the Siberian tiger (maybe she felt a connection with him since her ancestors and his ancestors come from the same place). Also, I think now is the appropriate time to share one of the dumbest things I have ever done in my life: when Eva’s Dad and I were in Laos, I petted a tiger. A huge tiger.  Near this waterfall.

Free zoo days are definitely the place to be for moms and kids. I caught a glimpse into the future.

More pictures from the zoo…

Can you find all the animals in this picture?

Duck party!

Meerkat on the lookout.

I want this guy’s life.

Since Eva’s Dad ate all the chocolate ice cream we decided to give Eva applesauce instead. Eva cannot really hate all fruits, right?

Wrong!!

Eva just had her half-birthday! She has now been alive for over 15 million seconds! To mark this special day, we took Eva to the doctor. As of her 183rd day, she weighs 15 pounds, 11 ounces; is 25 inches tall/long; has a head circumference of 16.5 inches. She keeps growing so fast, except that height thing; she was 25.25 inches just a week earlier. I don’t know what to make of that, maybe all the jumping in her jumper is also compacting her. Really, I think her knees were bent a little while getting measured.

Eva also knows her name! Yes, it’s true. As of her 4,392nd hour, she looks and smiles at whoever says her name. Eva is also moving around, incessantly. She is not crawling, but she is definitely moving all over the place. She kind of just pulls herself up on things and then flings herself where she wants to go. It is very cute and entertaining; she laughs the whole time.

Sometime not far past minute number 263,520, and after a large amount of wasted bananas and avocados, we have concluded that Eva does not like her fruits. Tomorrow … chocolate ice cream.

Eva does not like to eat avocado. She does like to spread it on herself though. She probably heard it does wonders for the skin.

Today the most important man in Eva’s life turned 30. I know what you are thinking. I am a cougar! Eva adores her Dad like no other and they definitely complete each other. He, of course, thinks she is the most perfect thing on the planet.

For this important birthday, I decided to take Eva’s Dad to the dump. We went to the Albany Bulb, which used to be a dump, then a homeless camp and place for artists to create art using found objects, and now a park. We had a great time and saw a lot of interesting things. We did not make it to the hobo hot tub however.

I must also remember and thank Grammie, who, 30 years ago today, gave birth (which, as previously stated, is really hard!) to an amazing and wonderful man.

Eva’s Dad in his birthday suit and other pictures after the jump….

Photos from Albany Bulb:

A few weeks ago we bought Eva a jumperoo. Originally we were going to get a door jumper but, much to our disappointment, none fit our doors. So, at more than twice the cost and taking up more than twice the space, we bought a jumperoo. It has more gadgets than I have ever seen on one toy. It also lights up and plays music! I was feeling like a bad mom because we hadn’t bought Eva one of these, and it seems like all moms were using them. I was expecting Eva to happily bounce away for hours. She does like it, it just took a while to get her to jump in it. She mostly only jumps with encouragement. So essentially when Eva is jumping, everyone in our house is jumping. Family exercises! One funny thing: If Eva has had a pretty intense jumping session, she will continue to act like she is jumping even when you take her out of the jumper.  Stay tuned for better video.

Eva’s aunt, uncle and cousins got her this book entitled : The Vegetarian Mother’s Cookbook: Whole Foods to Nourish Pregnant and Breastfeeding Women and Their Families. We love this book! It lists the nutritional value for each meal, not only calories, fat, carbs and protein, but vitamins and minerals too. The recipes are easy to follow and the food tastes amazing. I just keep thinking up variations of each recipe. Some favorites at our house include: breakfast burritos, black bean and sweet potato enchiladas, and millet-veggie burgers. In fact, we make millet-veggie burgers at least once a week. Did you know there is a millet shortage in Africa?