Wayne and Rebecca Madsen

It's a tug of war match between the cat and the Paela over a piece of wrapping string.

Paela loves to push strollers and her little car. She goes back and forth on this stretch of hallway until she can't walk anymore.

Paela is using her fine motor skills to get into the wipes bag. Oh, the places she'll go.

Paela escapes my arms to wander around.

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.