Wayne and Rebecca Madsen

Paela had her 9-month checkup today. Yay for a visit without shots! She enjoyed meeting the doctor and not having to sleep all day long to recover.

We're pretty sure they measured her height wrong -- we saw the measuring thing angled and her head not flush with the top of the table. But they marked her at whopping 29.75 inches (97th percentile) -- that would be a huge growth from her usual 75th percentile. The weight and head circumference are steadily growing: 19 pounds (50th percentile) and 45 cm circumference (75th percentile). Solid foods are doing her just as good as milk alone, I guess. She does love her avocado!

I'm impressed we got it all (mostly) done. In the same week, I had my entire family visiting, our team at work released the project we've been working on since January to beta testers, and we moved to a neighboring town. Not a small amount of stress, and at least some fun.

Paela's early-to-bed mentality made family togetherness a trick to figure out. We left earlier several nights, but later than Paela would have liked, just to have Paela fall asleep in the car after we'd driven 3-4 blocks. We moved bath time to the morning since she wasn't home for any sort of routine for days. And several nights Wayne was kind enough to hang out alone with the sleeping baby and our kitty for company while I went to hang out with the rest of my family.  read more »

Yay for Paela. She's been playing in the pool for a couple months, but we finally got around to taking some pictures of her.

Paela got stuck behind the toilet.  read more »

Well we got approved for the apartment we applied for. Part of me wonders if this is a good choice, to move when we could probably stay here for about the same in rent. The other part sees the gas prices rising to 4.70 here in CA and thinks living closer to school/work is a very good idea.  read more »

This week marked Rebecca's first full week back at work, without unpaid family leave, because her boss won't let her work from home more than just a little bit of the morning.

After we went apartment shopping last week, we placed in a bid for an apartment and now we've been waiting all week for the manager to look over our application and give us approval. We don't know whether or not we'll be moving in a few weeks, which doesn't help us much. [apparently the manager we really need took the week off because she got married. Hopefully she'll get back soon and isn't overwhelmed trying to catch up.]

Rebecca worked all day long and all evening long after Paela went to sleep. Her team at work has a project due. Last week. So they're behind.  read more »

I had heard tell of such a thing as monkey bread, but I used father's day as an excuse to actually look up a recipe or two and try it out. Soooo good. Why didn't I try it before? Reminds me of my friend Amy's "caramel rolls" recipe, with variations on the theme.  read more »

It was one of Rebecca's last maternity leave days, so we went for a nice walk outside with Paela and filmed what she loves to do best: be outside. She runs through the grass, she gets a nice faceplant, she wades in the swimming pool and chases mommy. Ah, it's a good day.

When I'm at the computer desk -- which is right next to the table -- she stands under the table giggling to herself, waiting for me to notice. Then I poke my head under, say "peekaboo" and she laughs herself silly. Here's Rebecca playing the under-the-table game.

It's been a while since we posted a Starcat video. But here's the insane creature attacking the bean bag. She'll do this for hours. She's going to the mental institution.