Kira claps!

Kira started to clap and it is so cute!  "Da da da da!" she screams while she applauds anyone who looks her way.

Working on standing

We had a blast at Jake's 2nd birthday party!

Ice cream...

and a short sink...

...and all the 'white blankeys' in the world.  Max officially loves Ikea, which he pronounces, "I-Kia!" as in his sister. 

TGIF!

"Here's a little ice cream for Kira"

Feet!  Max said his are blueberry.

Meghan took photos of Kira this morning.  Kira is great at smiling and Meghan is great at taking pictures!

Max at the movies!

Kira and mommy had a dermatologist appointment this morning.  Kira was her usually smiley self, and the doctor confirmed what all the other doctors said- the mark is harmless and will go away.  Max insisted on tagging along to the appointment.  He is very concerned about Kira's "mark".  He also wanted to ask the doctor about all of his bug bites.  "The bugs are eating me," he sometimes says.  Unfortunately when we left the doctor, Max was disappointed.  "Her mark is still there!"

We were done with the dermatologist by 8:30am, so we had plenty of time for e bagel date before camp.

The skies opened up on the way home from camp. "I don't need an umbrella, it's like a shower!" Max said, until he remembered he had a Spider Man umbrella.

Max went to see his first movie with mommy and grandma.  We saw 99.5% of Inside Out.  Max was exhausted, but he sat quietly while he munched on the candy he selected (fruit snacks!) and popcorn.  Just before the movie ended, Max said he wanted to go home.  So off we went with a giant cliff hanger.

What's cooking?

Kira surprised herself when she fell forward in the chair and was able to stand a tiny bit (with the chair heavily supporting her!).

"I'm the cooking monster!"  declared chef Max as he prepared dinner.  He had no patience for the pasta, so he ate some raw.  "It's glass!" he remarked.  Not a bad comparison.

Give her all the pouches!

Pawley helped cook breakfast

Kira is 9 months old!

You do not have to ask Kira to smile for the camera!  This nine month old girl shows us more of her bright personality each day.  Her favorite person is her dad, but she loves Max an awful lot, especially when he climbs into her crib every morning.  When daddy is around she has to be held by him, but when it is just Kira and mommy she is more likely to play independently.  Her absolute favorite items are medicine syringes and the package of wipes.  Once she gets her hands on them do not even try to take them away.  Kira loves to people watch and she appreciates all of the smiles and attention she gets from strangers/new friends, but she is definitely starting to be more attached to her parents and less happy about being left with others.  

Kira can roll across a room, or lean over and stretch her arms out really far to get something that is out of reach.  However, she is still working on standing and crawling.  Her fine motor skills are on point, as evidenced by every morsel of rice, fruit, or peas that quickly disappear from her plate.

Smile for the camera?  No problemo for this girl!

Look how old I am!

Kira is still a great sleeper!  She wakes up bright and early around 6am, but she hardly ever, ever, ever wakes up during the night.  She still takes two naps that are around 90 minutes each. The best thing about her sleeping habits are her wake up habits; she wakes up so happy that sometimes their is a fight to see who gets to get her out of her crib.

Kira looks so very much like her big brother!  Kira is 17 pounds, 12 ounces, while Max was nearly 20 pounds at 9 months old.  They both have enormous smiles that get bigger and more giggly when they look at each other.  

Thank goodness Kira's video monitor caught this hilarious scene this morning:

Max woke up, took off his pajamas and diaper and brought his "box shorts" (boxers) into Kira's room.  He climbed into her crib, stepped over her body, and climbed onto her changing table, where he turned on the light and put on his boxers.  He promptly retraced his steps back out of the room, followed by Kira crying.  She missed him!

Max loves to feed the ducks...

...but we almost got attacked by geese.  When we got back in the car, Max said, "Hey mom!  You know what?! Those aren't ducks! Their names are the BIG BAD WOLF!"

Kira loves waiting outside for Max and she goes CRAZY when he finally gets home. He is usually pretty happy to see, "my Kia Belle!", too.

Kira was so brave for her nine month shot.  Luckily there was only one.

We celebrated with bagels and donuts.  Circular carbohydrates, only!

"Find me, Mommy!!!"

Happy Monday!

Kira loves going on summer lunch dates with mommy and daddy.

She polished off two pouches before our food came.  Rather than eat the homemade baby food taking up prime real estate in the freezer, Kira prefers to feed herself these pouches.  Not only does she like the independence of being able to feed herself, but she enjoys chewing on the package for dessert.  

One of Max's many obsessions is the tongue of his sneakers touching his ankles.  He was so fed up with it today that he came right home from camp, marched in the house, and immediately grabbed the scissors to rid his new sneakers of the pesky tongue.  Luckily the real scissors where hidden and he was redirected to a more appropriate activity...

The playground!

Max loved going down the slide with Kira, but she is not totally sold.

"Chase me!!"

Thank goodness Max was around to buckle the back of this Ergo AND to distract Kira from taking off these sunglasses for a hot second.  What would we do without him?!

In preparation for her nine month check-up tomorrow, Kira had some heavy duty crawling boot camp today.  It went a little something like this:

Place Kira on her tummy and watch her...

1. Kick

2. Smile

3. Laugh

4. Roll 

and repeat...

Despite her immobility, she will probably still get promoted to 10 months old tomorrow.  It really is too bad that she cannot stay a little baby forever!!