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!

Must protect the books! The bookshelf is one of the first two places Paela goes after she wakes up. Her toy basket is the other place. I try to only intervene when she is eating one of my favorite books, but it's hard to only have a few favorites....

Here's Paela's latest mode of transportation: the spider crawl. She gets up on her toes, or one knee and five toes, and moves. She alternates now between crawling on knees (occassional), spider crawling (a little more often), and when she's really anxious to get somewhere, good ole fashioned belly scooting.

What is there not to like about the piano? Paela loves banging on the keys and reaching for the books. Best of all, she saves a special screeching sound expressly for piano time.

The kitchen is a fun place to be. Whether she is chasing her daddy's feet or the camera, scooting on her tummy or doing the spider crawl, there's lots of activity in the kitchen.

Paela likes to eat what daddy is eating. Here she grabs some nanners. Like a monkey.

So, all babies like mirrors, right? One day, I was filming Paela with the screen pointed out towards her because I forgot to turn it back toward me. She saw herself in it, giggled and tried to get the camera.

Paela loves her finger food.

Or: bedtime/playtime.

We try not to rile up our child right before she goes down for the night, but she was giggling while hopping on pop. We tried to get that on video, but our daughter is very camera aware. Instead, you get to see us clapping at our pumpkin girl. 

You've seen Paela touch the cat before. Now watch her duke it out with the kitty, in all of her raw power! Star Cat versus Paela: this time, it's personal.