The first night on Christmas vacation, sister-in-law, Brooke had Penelope dialed in. The whole week we were there they were two peas in a pod. Thankfully, I was lucky enough to have the camera rolling for Penelope's laugh attack.

Contagious, isn't it? My cheeks hurt terribly from smiling and laughing while editing the video. Maybe I should just play this thing every time Penelope gets on my nerves? Also, we can't seem to replicate this level of laughter even though we try and try. Brooke, can you teach us your secrets?!?

I just wanted to announce that Penelope is now 9 months old. Here are her milestones, Penelope can:

• Pull herself to stand
• Bounce really high in her bouncy swing
• Say ma ma and da da and boo and ga
• gurgle
• blow raspberries
• occasionally wave
• maintain a completely straight face while complete strangers try to make her smile [and go to great efforts to do so]
• eat all solid food in sight pretty much without a bib
• call family members from my cell phone
• cry and throw a whirlwind of a temper tantrum [wonder where she gets that from?]

Penelope's doctor's visit went really well on Friday. She's growing spectacularly. Here are her stats:

• Height: 85th percentile [up from 73% ]
• Weight: 83rd percentile [down from 90% ]
• Head: 99th percentile [up from 95%]

While we've had a rough couple of weeks [it wasn't all bad], she still is my favorite. Chris's favorite, too. I love you Nells Bells.