Karolina is 9 Months and 13 Days Old!

Yes, that's kind of how life has been lately. Getting away from me. Look at this child!

She's not a baby any more. Darn close to toddlerhood. I tried taking the traditional "red chair" photo and after about 17 unusably fuzzy shots because she was moving so much (and nearly falling off the chair), I captured this smirk:

Yep, this one is strong willed. In an entirely different way from this one:

The uniform is for Kuk Sool Won -- a Korean form of karate. Trying to channel that aggression. Hair courtesy of cousin Nathan's Monkey Brains.

But back to strong willed. Example: The child will ONLY eat if she is allowed to pick up the food and place it in her own mouth. And don't try giving her Super Porridge if the rest of the family is eating ratatouille. She wants the grown-up stuff. And she eats it. All of it. But it takes her 3 hours. Must be the French gene. Oh wait, we aren't really French. OK, I blame Mamie and Papi Willett. They must have been giving her French eating lessons.

Her 9th month was jam-packed full of milestones. Important ones like: She crawls! But not for the camera (sorry, Mamie and Papi -- I really tried). She also sleeps! As in, through the night! YAY!!!!

Her latest trick is vocalizations of all types and volume. There is the calm baby babble (ba ba ba ba ba ba) as well as the ear-splitting random shriek. She has distinct noises for eating (lum lum) and wanting food (aam). She blows raspberries and waves bye bye. And hello. And just waves. She is mostly very, very calm (to the point where people will ask me if she is always like this). The answer to that question is yes, except when she gets tired or hungry. Or starts teething, as she did this week. She smiles a lot. Most pictures I get of her feature a Mona Lisa-esque grin. She only shows her teeth when she is really laughing, which brother can inspire her to do nearly without fail. He enjoys making her laugh, feeding her water, and trying to get her to climb (???). He even shares his toys with her. Sweet.

As for the rest of us, life is busy! Especially now that Peter is only in pre-school three mornings a week, due to some behavioral issues (we're working on it). Mom is scrambling to make up work hours. Dad is finally back from 10 days in Australia. Jana is learning how to beat the BRUTAL heat. It's in the 90s this week, 15-20 degrees cooler than the last few weeks.

We made it to the County Fair a couple of weekends ago with dear friends from SF: Aubrey, Tom, Tai, and Baby Miriam. Peter is finally tall enough to ride some good rides on his own. We visited more SF friends in Donner Lake last week, where it was cooler. And still MORE SF friends on a trip to the Bay Area last weekend, where it was MUCH cooler, especially on the ferry to Angel Island. We love our SF friends and miss having them around. Who knows what next year will bring. Stay tuned.

And lastly, just to prove that I really do change her shirt sometimes, here is a video of my two adorable children playing nicely together while we rock out to the Beastie Boys (pardon the shaky camera -- I was rocking out too):