We celebrated Gwendolyn's 9 month birthday yesterday. Gwendolyn had a great day — so much so that she played all day with Gramma, skipped most of her naps, and then passed out for the night and missed the fireworks show 
We've been keeping a close eye on her over the last week given the respiratory/secretion changes we were noticing earlier in the week and the smoke from the fire near Santa Barbara. But she seems to be doing ok.
Last week our friend Elena (thank you Elena!) brought over an arch made of wooden dowels that is perfect to hang toys from. Gwendolyn has really been enjoying that as we can hang light toys from the arch directly over her when she is laying down. We used shoelaces to hang wiffle balls and Elena hung cards that she made with our pictures on them. Gwendolyn has been having fun batting all of those around.
Over the last few weeks Gwendolyn has been wanting to be held upright or even sit upright against the couch or pillows. This is new and although this positioning does put her at risk her bright smiling face and observant curiosity while in this position is priceless so we've been trying to hold her upright as often as she wants or as much as she can tolerate. While up, she loves dancing around and going around the house or outside on the deck to explore everything. We have noticed when we put her down that she “tells” us she wants to be held back up but sometimes she is unable to tolerate it. This has been very difficult for Victoria and me as we know she is showing us her first outward signs of frustration with her disease.