The Kurpinka Family Adventures: June 2015

It’s hard to believe that our little girl is already 6 months old. I know it’s cliché, but the time is just going by too quickly.

Josie is happy. She smiles a lot, especially when she sees her parents, her Aunt Emily or her cousins. She has a hilarious little grunt-like laugh. Her dad makes her laugh more than anyone else.

Josie is strong. She could hold her head up at 3 weeks, roll over at 3 months and at 6 months she can army crawl across the room at a pretty good clip. She loves to grab the newspaper, computer cords or anything that is not one of her toys and stick it in her mouth.

Josie is determined. She will zero in on a toy (or the newspaper), and make her way across the room to grab it. She has a tiny little yellow ball that she loves to hold and switch from hand to hand. It’s the perfect size for her little hands and she moves it back and forth with amazing focus.

Josie is opinionated. We have recently started her on solid food. She likes peas and sweet potatoes. She’s not a huge fan of avocado. When she’s had enough she lets us know by clamping her mouth closed and grunting at us. She cannot be persuaded to change her mind.

She loves books, but has clear preferences for which books we read to her. She loves reading “The Going to Bed Book” and “Goodnight Moon” before bed. She loves “I Am a Bunny” and “Moo, Baa, La La La.” She grins and grins while we read them to her and she loves to grab them, close the cover and try to shove them in her mouth. However, she does NOT like “But Not the Hippopotamus” or “The Very Hungry Caterpillar.” If we try to read them to her, she yells and swats at them until we stop.

Josie is sweet. She loves her grandparents, her cousins and her aunts and uncles. She especially loves Baba Ralph, Grandpa Otto and Uncle Ben. There’s something about men, apparently. She just adores Aunt Emily, who watches her every day while we’re at work. Her cousins Clare and Christopher are already her pals. They make her smile and laugh every day. We’re so grateful to Emily for watching her and that she gets to spend so much time with her cousins.

The other morning when I dropped her off, Christopher ran over to say hello. Josie’s face broke into a huge grin and Christopher handed her his blanket - his most prized possession. It is so sweet how close they are already and I can’t wait to watch them grow up together. They are going to be troublemakers. Very sweet little troublemakers.

I wish I could make this phase slow down. Josie is developing a wonderful personality, but is still small enough that we can cart her around easily. She is becoming independent enough that she can play on her own for a while, but she still needs lots of cuddles from her parents. The smile she gets on her face when I get home from work makes my heart melt.

Everyone says it’s hard to explain the love a parent has for their child. In some ways I feel like Josie has just been part of my life forever. We go about our daily routine. Josie makes us smile and laugh and we feed her, change her diapers and play. But every now and then I become completely overwhelmed by how much I love her. It makes my heart hurt and brings tears to my eyes. I can’t believe how lucky I am to have her and to be able to share her with Andrew. We are truly blessed.