Meryl and Margot are rolling the block these days. Watch out.

Lummi is so patient. Holmes loves petting Lummi, and Lummi loves attention!

 Today’s beach outing revolved around sticks. Sticks float! And, they come back to you in the surf. So you get to throw them again! After taking this picture, lots of people descended on to the beach - Meryl and I sat for quite some time people watching and digging our toes into the rocks. Fine by me!

We buckled and bit the Amazon convenience dust to buy Meryl what the Internet has deemed as the best scooter for a growing toddler. Turns out, Meryl’s friend, Margot, across the street has the same one!  (And, all of preschool.) Thank you, Wirecutter, on behalf of the world of well intentioned busy parents, for pretty much everything we buy these days.

Yet another haircut. But Meryl moved up in the salon world by getting her hair washed, sitting in a big kids chair, and leaving with a fancy braided pigtail. We love her stylist (yup, just said that - she goes to the same person each time), but now I might have to start doing fancy pigtails!

 I had one moment of celebration, when a single piece of rice wasn’t spit back out...and that was it. Holmes has tried a whole host of sauces, rice, oatmeal, and roasted parsnips. He loves tasting, but hasn’t quite figured out the rest!

One of Meryl’s pre-school teachers coordinated a Wheels Up party today to celebrate National Bike Month! They closed part of the parking lot, encouraged everyone to bring wheels, and let ‘em loose! Meryl brought her tricycle, but quickly gravitated to trying out scooter-life...and loved it! (Annnd, she went faster than I anticipated - I had to hold my breath.) Fittingly, we rode our bike home too.

Six month check-up and all is good! In the last couple of months, Holmes grew an inch and gained a couple of pounds. And, he found his toes. We closed out the appointment with a few shots and a peremptory measles vaccination as we’ll be heading to Alaska in July...and airports seem to be operating as a measles exchange these days (whhhyyy?). So, we played it safe.

 This morning, we met up with our in-from-out-of-town friends Neil and Steph, and their kids Rose and Rye, each a little older than Meryl and Holmes. We got a whole room to ourselves at Bay Cafe (their choice for legitimate reasons), which was perfect for crawling underneath tables and running around...fine with us, we had catching up to do amongst us parents! Kids making friends with other kids, it’s pretty great.

 May is National Bike Month! So today, we rode allthebikes.

Biking in the morning, and soccer and basketball in the afternoon! We signed Meryl up for soccer this summer (Go Cottontails!)...so we dug our soccer balls and basketballs out of the garage, and then we needed to borrow a pump, and then the block came out to play! Trevor from across the street gave Meryl a few tips to start the season:)

With uncontrollable laughter!

And got wet! Meryl ended up squatting a little too low in the water, and then later took a tumble while throwing a stick! Whoops! She also learned that ocean water tastes salty...and consequently wanted to lick everything that was wet:) Oh what you can learn at the beach.

We’re in the midst of applying for Holmes’ passport! First step, the picture, which needs a white background. We took advantage of the white sheet at PT this week - and, well, forgot that he had drool on his shirt. Oh well! Turns out adult passports last ten years and kids passports expire in five. Now, where to go? (Also, it’s fun to list height as ‘two feet.’)

 And just like that, he’s getting the second kid treatment with this post a day late:) (We did take this picture yesterday!) Holmes is growing and growing, and now ready for food! I remember when I thought he’d nevvver do tummy time longer than a minute, and now he’s loving it, while reaching and grabbing and drooling all over! He’s such a happy and content kiddo. And well, who wouldn’t envy his hair too!

 Six months down, and double the weight up!