Sylvia is 9 months old! (That's 0.75!)

It's really strange to realize that we've spent (more or less) as much time caring for her and playing with her out in the world as we had spent preparing for her and waiting for her to be born. I guess it goes without saying that it's been a crazy, life-changing 18 months!

At home today, we estimated that she weighs 18 pounds, 6.5 ounces; she is 27" long; and her head circumference is 18". According to the internets, that puts her in the 43rd percentile for weight, 31st for length, and 91st for head circumference. We'll get the official stats from the pediatrician next month.

Since the last post, Sylvia went seamlessly from pseudo-crawling to full-fledged, needs-a-gate-for-her-own-safety mobility. She's also effortlessly pulling herself to standing and cruising around, and trying to crawl up on stuff. She still eats solid foods pretty well except that she's starting to really want to hold the spoon herself, which is often quite messy. She's gotten REALLY good at picking up and feeding herself finger foods for babies, and she's drinking competently out of a sippy cup. She babbles "mamamama" and "dadadadada" as well as other things that for some reason don't catch our attention quite as much. She also clicks and blows raspberries. She also seems to be babbling the ASL signs for "more" and "milk", which we have been using when we talk to her. She's now getting to be too big for her infant car seat and is using one for bigger babies & toddlers, and she's wearing clothes sized for 6-9/6-12 month-olds.

Max & I are both planning to walk at graduation this June and finish up by the end of summer. By the end of September, we should both have our PhDs. We're still planning to spend another year or two in Santa Barbara, unless some other opportunity presents itself.

We owe you some additional pictures and at least one video of her crawling. I'll try to get around to that soon. Max & I are both quite busy these days. Sylvia will play with her toys for a while each day while we both work, but we never seem to have gotten enough done when she decides that it's time to stop and play with her.