nine months...said the eye doctor to the baby

what?!? no more eye doctors for nine months?!? thats right. we took annabel for her follow up eye visit to see how the whole corneal abrasion/flipped eye lid/hazy scar issue was affecting her vision. they pulled out the dilation drops, bright lights, eye scopes and special lenses and she came out winking and smiling on the other end. the doctor said that both eyes look exactly like they should for a four-month-old with good vision. that was pretty awesome news. now, there is still a hazy scar on her left eye but it is below her pupil and shouldn't offer her any problems. i asked when it would go away and he told me probably never. whoa. apparently a baby's eyes are so fragile and impressionable that a trauma such as the one that she had so early in her life will leave a mark that will be with her forever. it will be interesting years from now when she is aware of something different in one eye. i guess then she can't acuse us of making all of this up. :)

in the picture below, her left eye has a cloud on it. that is the scar.

learning to laugh...

annabel is learning all sorts of new tricks these days. it seems like every time we turn around she's mastered something else. today we were treated to a pretty fun surprise. she's still sorting her way through all the sounds and noises that she can make but in this video she's managed to get some dang cute ones in there (especially the 47 second mark). enjoy...


or click here to view video on youtube

first christmas

being that annabel was just born in september, this year was her official first christmas. technically she was in existence in 2008 but i'm gonna go out on a limb and say that she probably doesn't remember much from then (not that she'll remember this one much more but at least she's in the photos). christmas this year was a robison one, meaning that we went to texas and spent the holiday with grandma lulu and poppy and annabel's aunts erin, shannon and colleen and uncle kevin. and as a special treat, her grant mary braved the christmas storm of 09 to come down from kansas city (as my aunt she is annabel's great-aunt; it was just easier to go with "grant"; but i don't think that "gruncle" steve is going to stick as well...). so all of us were together for most of the week and we had tons of fun cooking, baking, eating, playing wii, shopping, napping, opening presents, watching movies, and playing with the baby. as was to be expected, we spent a lot of time searching for our baby since she somehow ended up in a different aunt or grandparent's arms every time we turned around. they all really got a kick out of her and got to spend some nice quality time together.
christmas morning was pretty typical for the robisons. we woke up late, came downstairs and stood around waiting for the last person to wander down (aunt erin i do believe), and then meandered into the front room to see what santa had delivered in the wee hours of the night. and boy did he deliver. there was plenty of stuff for everyone to go around. we took turns pulling all of our loot out of the stockings (and overflow bags) and showing it off. and there was even a tiny little stocking for annabel - of course piled with the most stuff. she got some clothes, toys, ornaments, blankets and the cutest little baby crocs that you've ever seen. cheryl and i got our fair share of goodies as well. clothes, ornaments, blankets (no toys or crocs...) and all sorts of other fun things. once we had gone through our stockings we started the line over and opened gifts that we bought for each other. christmas is fun because we get all sorts of fun things, but even more so because we get to see the joy in our family members when they open up their presents. its a fun time all around. the rest of the day was filled with lounging around and eating. wow. what more could we ask for.
christmas is a wonderful time every year. it was a little more special for us this time around since it was our first with our new little baby. we got all sorts of cool stuff but nothing could top the best gift that we could ever ask for...the joy and privilege of being annabel's parents. :)

jingle all the way...

sorry, the elf video is no longer available...

the spirit of aggieland...

on sunday we got back to our old stomping grounds (and possibly annabel's in about 18 years). after breakfast in houston we loaded up the car and drove the two hours to good ole college station, home of the fightin' texas aggies. whoop! in addition to introducing annabel to texas a&m, we had a full schedule of friends and family members to visit. first on the list was aunt kim. this was the first time that they had met each other and they immediately hit it off. annabel was talking about her car ride and kim was remembering all her notes from the early childhood development class she took and placing annabel on the timeline of growth. it was fun. after all the introductions were made we headed over to get some tasty texas barbeque. a few plates of brisket, sausage, green beans and cornbread later we were stuffed to the max. so we said our goodbyes and went to go meet up with cheryl's old boss and his family. it was good to see him and catch up on what's been going on around town. cheryl is godmother to their oldest boy and its good to see him every now and then. he grows so dadgum fast that i feel like if you don't it would get real tough to recognize him at all. but we couldn't stay too long because their house was about to become bunco central and there was still lots to do to prepare. so again we said our goodbyes and headed out. next was the speedy britches reunion and christmas party. this was the name of our city league softball team from a few years back and a great group of people. its always tons of fun to get together and our christmas parties are a blast. annabel was getting a bit cranky about the time we arrived but she took a short nap, ate dinner and then was a huge hit making her rounds. after dinner we had our yankee swap gift exchange. snuggies, coconut bras, nerf guns and softballs were just some of the gifts this year. we wrapped up the night talking babies with the newly expectant kristin and dirac. it was a fun night with good friends.
monday morning we were able to sleep in a little bit before meeting aunt kim for breakfast. next we made a trip to hearne to see all of cheryl's old coworkers and townie friends. last stop of the trip was to st. mary's catholic center where i used to work. we got to see my old boss, angie, lucy, mike, glenn and another friend, kimmy. after some catching up and oogling the baby, we piled back in the car and returned to houston. all in all it was a super busy two days (and there were even some more people who we wanted to see but just couldn't work it in) but totally worth it to see old friends and show off our new little baby. thanks and gig 'em!

headin' back to texas...

we made it back to texas! can you believe it? well, only for a week or so. but we'll take what we can get. this past saturday cheryl, annabel and i boarded a jet plane and headed off to the lone star state for christmas. this trip was special for a few reasons. one, it was to be the first plane ride for miss annabel. not knowing how she would react to that, we were pretty excited and nervous. and second, if texas ever leaves the union, we're hoping this will help her chances when she wants to apply for texas citizenship. not sure but it can't hurt. :)

cheryl worked for about two straight days getting ready for the trip. washing clothes, gathering bottles, shopping for diapers and packing suitcases. it was a lot of work! she told me friday night as we were watching the snow come down and wondering if our flight would still happen, that this trip had better happen if for no other reason then that she spent so much time preparing for it. it was funny. so we went to bed friday night with our bags packed, our christmas presents wrapped, our boarding passes printed and hoping for decent enough weather that the big day would still happen. and then we woke up saturday morning to nothing but white everywhere our eyes could see. whoa. actually it wasn't that bad. columbus got about 2-3 inches of snow but the temps were hovering around the freezing mark so the roads were clearing up pretty quickly and new snow was slowing down quite a bit. so we loaded up the car and headed to the airport. when we got to the counter to check our bags the attendant asked where we were going. we told him houston so he let us continue. the woman next to us showed up and said that she was going to new york. his response was, "then your flight has been canceled." ugh. then the next guy said that he was going to philadelphia and they told him that he had already been rebooked on a new flight the next day. apparently the 22.5 inches of snow that philadelphia got was an all-time record and nobody was getting in or out for a while. so we were pretty happy that we were coming to houston. worked out well for us. after that we made our way through security (much more complicated with a baby, a stroller and bottles of food for annabel) and on to our gate. annabel had been napping pretty well and she was just relaxing in her stroller. and once on the plane nothing much changed. we had heard that giving a baby a bottle to suck on during take off and landing would help their ears to pop. so we did and it worked. at least annabel showed no signs that she was anything but thrilled to be eating. and then she settled in for a nice two hour nap. when we were de-boarding, the ladies in the row in front of us noticed annabel and commented that they had no idea we even had a baby on board. if they did they probably would have been turned around talking to her the whole time. so we were fine with nobody knowing. :)

all in all annabel travels well. this is a good thing because being in ohio, we'll probably have more than a few trips over the years to texas, new jersey and all sorts of other places. i will say however that her bag was only three pounds lighter than mine (and i had the christmas gifts)...amazing. :)

parks, puppies and playgrounds...

we've got a new photo album up. click here to see the photos.














well, the weekend flew by as it too often does...but it was a good weekend still. the highlight was definitely our trip to the park with the puppies. last week temps dropped down into the teens and it was freezing. but saturday the sun came out and "pretty pleasant" actually appeared for a day. still cold but it was just too darn nice to stay in the house. so we loaded up the baby, the dogs and the camera and went to the park. now, this "park" that we go to is not really a park but a school playground and field. it's really pretty perfect because it is totally enclosed so we don't have to worry about the dogs running off. it also has a pretty decent playground with swings, slides and jungle gyms. and there isn't ever anybody else there. except for this one time some guy walked over with his little boy and two dogs. everything was fine until his little dog wandered way over to the gate and left...without the guy even noticing. the guy lived a few blocks away so odds are the dog was just ready to get home and was tired of waiting for his owner to take him. all in all it was pretty comical. (now that i read it back that story seemed pretty dang pointless. oh well :) but anyway, this park is perfect because theres tons of room for the dogs to run and chase the ball and there are things for us to do or at least places to sit if we feel like it. and when she's big enough, annabel will have a great place to swing and take on the big slide on her own. :)

third month slideshow

in keeping with tradition, here is a slideshow from annabel's third month with us. enjoy...



or click here to view online

here's to three months...

our little monkey is officially three months old today. its hard to believe that three months ago today we were in the hospital meeting annabel and taking our first step into this new adventure called parenthood. some days its hard to figure out if its flying by or if the days are slower than molasses. but every day is an adventure and we're loving it.

so i would like to propose a toast to the last month. here's to being parents. here's to annabel. here's to happy bath times. here's to morning smiles...and afternoon smiles...and nighttime smiles. :) here's to gaining weight. here's to surviving her first shots. here's to no trips to the eye doctor. here's to napping. here's to snow suits. here's to tummy time, play mats and bumbos. here's to blowing bubbles and talking up a storm. here's to road trips. here's to thanksgiving. here's to grandparents, great-grandparents, cousins and friends. here's to new family traditions. here's to 131,040 minutes, 2,184 hours, 91 days, 12 weeks, and three months. and here's to our family.

first snow in columbus...

we've been a little heavy on the videos recently but they are just so dang cute. here's another one that i think you'll enjoy...



or click here to view video on youtube

road trip video

here's a short video of us returning from new jersey over thanksgiving. enjoy...



or click here to view video on youtube

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas...

today was a special day for us. and tons of fun. this week we've been dragging all of our christmas decorations out of the basement and piling them in the front room in preparation for the weekend. we started off the day with "breakfast with santa" at st. brendans. it was a fun morning full of flying pancakes, sausage and photos with good old saint nick. on the way home we headed over to the hallmark store to get annabel her very first christmas ornament. a pair of tiny little booties. they are almost as cute as she is. :) by the time we actually made it home, she was huuuungry. so we fed her and put her in her swing for a nap. (on a side note, her swing was something that we kept trying to use but every time we put her in it she got even fussier than before. couldn't figure it out for the longest time and then one day we turned up the speed. and it worked! apparently the slow swing just bored and irritated her and she's a baby that needs to live in the fast lane...) anywho, while she was sleeping we took advantage of the time and got to decorating. we worked together to assemble our tree and then cheryl focused on the nativity while i put the lights on. cheryl gives me this job because messing with the lights "irritates the heck" out of her. she is determined that if we get a new tree it will be a prelit one. but then i'm not sure what i would do...this would probably force me to take over the supervisory role. :)

so with the lights on the tree, the nativity set up and our stockings hung with care (all done with the little drummer boy playing in the background on the radio), it was now time to hang the ornaments. our main tree has a very simple look to it. we've got a few boxes of red and silver balls that go up and that's it besides the angel topper. fortunately we bought a short tree a few years ago when we lived in the duplex so that will probably become our "ornament tree" for all the items that we've collected or been given and that our kids will begin mass producing once they can operate the bottle of glue and the elbow macaroni. once we finished the tree we hung up the mistletoe and officially completed our day of decorating (with a smooch to test it out of course - it worked...).

after our day of decorating the house we realized that we had made no plans for dinner. so another christmas tradition was born...chinese food! and how appropriate that cheryl's fortune (which was not really a fortune at all but still appropriate) was "happiness makes a home." it's not the tree, ornaments, stockings or mistletoe that fill our home with joy. its the time that we can spend together and our love that makes this a happy home...(awww).

waking a sleepy baby...

the other night annabel fell asleep on the couch with cheryl. she was there for about an hour and a half but it was getting late and she still needed to have her bedtime meal. oy. they say never to wake a sleeping baby but sometimes you have to. and sometimes its downright tough to do. :) enjoy...



or click here to view video on youtube

annabel showing off...

in this video annabel is just hanging out on the play mat at grandma and grandpa's house. she was totally into the hanging toys with the bells and the mirror. it was fun to watch her enjoying herself so much...



or click here to view video on youtube

a jersey thanksgiving...

this year we went to new jersey for thanksgiving. how fun is that?!? well, a bunch of fun... wednesday morning before the sun came up we bundled up the baby and drove 11.5 hours across ohio, west virginia, pennsylvania and new jersey to spend the holidays with grandma and grandpa dale, cindy and jeff, their new baby kaelyn, and about 45 of cheryl's cousins. we ate good, we played good and we slept good. it was a good thanksgiving holiday. annabel spent lots of time playing on her mat and made some big strides in her development. she got way better at holding her head up in just a few short days. and with all the grandparents, aunts and cousins playing with her all the time she probably set a record for number of smiles in a single week. and then after three full days of hanging out in jersey we packed back up the baby and all our stuff and drove back to ohio. the weather was much better on that trip and we actually cut an hour and a half off the trip time. on the way back we even got to stop and see a giant quarter on the lincoln heritage highway in everett, pa. we drove by a giant ice cream sundae building but between you and me, it was pretty lame. you won't be seeing any photos of that. :)

we put up a bunch of new photos from the week so click here (or the photos) to see the album.

more fun to come...

this past week and weekend was filled with lots of fun times for all. check back later for photos, videos and stories of things like annabel meeting her cousin kaelyn, first thanksgiving photos and stories from the road trip back to ohio...

first road trip...

on wednesday annabel went on her first road trip with her parents. and by the photos, you can tell that she did it robison style. :) we left columbus around 730am on wednesday morning after annabel her breakfast. we loaded her up and started driving. we were a little nervous about how she would travel but not too nervous. she is such a pleasant baby in general and she has done such a good job on the car trips that she's taken around town that we figured that she would probably be happy or asleep pretty much the whole way. and she was. she slept all the way through ohio and west virginia (interstate 70 goes through west virginia for about 20 minutes...it was kind of a surprise for us the first time we made the trip...). it takes a good six hours to get through pennsylvania though. but it was pretty cool that she went to sleep and woke up two states away from where she started. wow. our first stop of the day was in bentleyville, pa where we pulled off to take a photo with big jim, a twenty foot tall metal cowboy. it was outside of a best western hotel so after we snapped the shot we headed inside and fed annabel in the hotel lobby. it worked really well. next stop was in bedford, pa where we went in search of the giant coffee pot outside of the bedford county fairgrounds. we did not have a real address though so as we were driving along trying to decide if we wanted to keep looking...bam...there's a giant coffee pot. it was pretty funny. so we shot some photos, fed her and kept driving. the rest of the drive was wet and uneventful. after about 10.5 hours annabel decided that she was bored in the back seat. so cheryl climbed back there with her and they talked up a storm the last 45 minutes. so there you have it, there it is. annabel's first road trip. we leave on sunday to drive back to ohio and as long as the weather cooperates we have a few photo ops for that trip too. a giant quarter and a huge ice cream sundae. sounds like fun doesn't it? :)

rip catherine elizabeth simmons...

our friends josh and elizabeth from college station are very special people. in a world that offers us so much happiness and joy, tonight they are undoubtedly suffering as no one should ever have to suffer. on november 15 they gave birth to catherine elizabeth, their fourth child. today this sweet, innocent baby girl was lost to this world. she was born with spina bifida and during a surgery to address the resulting hydrocephalus, she passed away. we don't know any more details but we do know that our hearts ache for them and their loss. please pray for them in a very special way today...

josh, elizabeth and catherine - we love you...

saint ann, pray for us.
_______________________________

from their caring bridge journal...

Tuesday, November 24, 2009 10:00 PM, CST Dear friends,

It is with great sadness that I have to tell you that Catherine did not make it through her surgery. We are all in shock, including the surgeons who were wth her during surgery. They even said they had never seen it happen before.

I know this is God's will, and we don't understand it. We are thankful for the nine days that we got to spend with her, and especially for the times we got to hold her and watch her flash her "sleepy smiles" at us.

No words can express the pain we have right now. We thank you for all your support during this journey. We will be retruning home tomorrow as a family, for the first time in 3 weeks. We just wish that the littlest one was coming with us.

We will post funeral arrangement

s on here. We love you and God bless you and your families.

Love,
Elizabeth and Josh

Baby Catherine, pray for us!

double digit baby...

yesterday our little monkey tipped the scales in the double digits for the first time ever! she weighed in at 10.0 lbs! whoa! we did not have a doctors appointment but since september 9 you may remember that we've kind of been waging a pretty epic battle with that scale...and especially since two weeks ago when she lost a bit of weight. because of all the past issues and concerns, cheryl will be taking annabel by the doctor every now and then for an official weight check. she doesnt need an appointment and they actually let cheryl do all the work, but it sets our minds at ease and its a good way for the doctor to track how she is gaining weight. anyway, 10.0 lbs is very exciting. its like when you're learning how to play the violin and after weeks and weeks of excruciatingly painful practice when all you can manage is the same awful screech over and over again, but then one time you tweak your wrist just a fraction and out comes the sweet melody of those strings that inspired you buy a violin on ebay in the first place...its kind of like that. 10.0 lbs was sweet music to our ears. and we'll keep doing what we need to make sure the song keeps playing. :)

give me a tiny little hand...

each day we wake up, get dressed, brush our teeth, and go say good morning to our little baby girl. from day to day we have no idea that she's getting bigger and older. she just looks like our little annabel. but she is getting bigger. you can tell because you see the photos. you watch the videos. even we "check our blog" every day. its such a blessing to be able to go back and read about what she was doing three weeks ago. what we were scared of last week. yesterday's big celebration. how different she is now compared to when she was born. its fun to watch her grow. to be there to experience all of her "firsts" with her. to smile, talk and laugh with her. but even though she gets a little bigger every day, she is still our tiny little girl. with tiny little ears, tiny little feet and tiny little hands. and no matter how old or how big she gets, she will forever be our little girl...

second month of photos

here's a slideshow of some photos from annabel's second month. she'll always be just a little girl to me...



or click here to view the video on youtube

what a bumbo...

what is a bumbo? a bumbo is a hard foam seat for babies that helps them develop the muscles in their back and neck. and as we found out tonight, helps them look amazingly cute. annabel is probably still a little too weak in her neck for us to leave her in the chair for very long but a few minutes here and there will help her bulk up. and she got a chance to get up close and personal with our puppies. the closest that she's been without one of us holding her was in her bouncy chair. but it was pretty funny to set her in the bumbo tonight and watch the dogs investigate. its just the start of a lifelong friendship between the three of them. :)

scales and shots...

today was annabel's follow up appointment with the pediatrician. i would call it a good appointment. last thursday she weighed 8 lb 13 oz. last friday she weighed 9 lb 2oz. today she weighed 9 lb 12 oz! something that we're doing is working i guess. this is very good news because it shows that there is are no major medical issues that caused her to lose the weight. she just needs more food. if this hadn't worked then our next step would have been slathering her pacifier with cupcake icing a couple times a day... :)

after giving us a good weight report dr. g told us she didn't want to see us or annabel until her four month checkup. i said, "good, i don't want to see you either." we agreed that if we saw each other in the grocery store that was okay though. :) we concluded our appointment in a much less pleasant fashion though. shots! oy. annabel was set to get her first round of immunizations last week but with the weight issues we all decided it would be best to wait. so today was the big day. we started with the oral vaccine and she handled that very well. then came the big boys. she got three shots in her legs. cheryl was holding her hand and afterward she told me that when the nurse stuck her the very first time it didn't seem like annabel was going to mind it. yeah, that lasted for oh...half a second. then she minded very much. it was pretty crummy to hear her screaming but after her shots it took about three minutes of cuddling with mama to calm her down. she was a champ. the nurse said that in her experience babies act three different ways the day after a shot. some are grumpy, cranky or generally quite unpleasant. some sleep for hours and hours. and some you would never know anything ever happened. annabel fit in the third category. she has been fine all day. we're crossing our fingers and praying that this continues and that she doesn't have any adverse reactions because some babies will come down with a fever. we feel like we would be fine without that...

so that was our day at the pediatrician. annabel is gaining weight. cheryl is working with a lactation consultant this week to figure out if we can continue to make that happen without the formula. and our baby is vaccinated against all sorts of horrible diseases. just another robison day. :)

she is getting to be quite the talker...

here's a fun video of annabel having a nice conversation with her mama and papa. she's still working on enunciating her syllables but she's off to a pretty good start. :)



or click here to view video on youtube

bath time gets a little help...

today we gave annabel a bath and had a brand new tub to use. well, maybe not technically brand new. our neighbors used this tub for their new baby but she recently outgrew it. so we got to give it a try. it was ahhhhhhh-mazing! it still took a minute or two to get her situated and comfortable but once she was in it she was happy as a clam. we're not sure exactly what made the biggest difference but this one was a little smaller, she was sitting up instead of laying down and she was in the kitchen sink... whatever it was it seemed to work. it made her happy and made us happy. sounds like a win-win-win... :)

between bath time, going to mass this morning and having a bunch of people over tonight to play board games, annabel had a busy day. maybe that's why she was in bed by 930pm instead of her usual 1130pm. i guess we'll know this morning around 400am whether this was a good idea but it was nice to put her to bed and have a little while all to ourselves to unwind and relax. but now its bedtime for annabel's parents...so good night. :)

decisions to make...

the past few days have been pretty rough. trying to determine the best course of action for our precious little girl and our family has not been easy. but as we said on september 9, 2009, the best things in life are never easy. we want to say thank you though for all the kind messages and support from everyone. it has been nice to know that there are so many people that care about us and annabel. thank you.

good morning. good morning. time to rise and shine...

every morning we make our way into annabel's room and wake her up. some mornings when we wander in she's laying there looking around and talking to herself. some mornings she's fast asleep and we get to wake her up. now i can't imagine that this will last forever but its really fun when we get to wake her up because she's so so dang cute and happy in the morning. here's a video so that you can see what i mean. enjoy...



or click here to view video on youtube

and the saga continues...

well, yesterday we made another trip to the hospital. dr. g sent us to children's hospital to get an ultrasound of annabel's brain. yes, her brain. we thought it was weird too. when a delivery includes a placental abruption though, one thing that the doctors worry about is bleeding in the brain. not that dr. g thought that annabel really had any bleeding but she just figured that there was no harm in getting it checked...except that it worried the heckfire out of her poor parents. but in the end it came back fine. she does indeed have a brain and it was not bleeding. :)

so after getting a good report from the ultrasound we headed back to our pediatrician's office to hop back on that awful, awful scale. now you may remember that on thursday she weighed 8 lb 13 oz. friday after 24 hours of nursing and supplementing with formula we put her back on the scale and it read...9 lb 2 oz! in a day she added 5 ounces to her bottom line (and i guess her bottom...)! wow! both of us, the nurse and dr. g saw that and blew a huge collective sigh of relief.

so what does this mean? well, it means that annabel was most likely "calorie deficient" this last week. we do not know if its a quantity issue or a quality issue, but bottom line is that she just needed a boost of calories. so giving her some high-calorie formula did the trick. cheryl will be going in this week to get her milk tested and see how fatty it is and will probably work with some good lactation people to see what else we might be able to do. this whole thing has been pretty tough to work through but it seems more and more like annabel is just a lousy nurser. now i would never tell her that to her face...but the signs all point to it. she's really good at lots of other things. smiling, sleeping, burping, winking, riding in cars, being ridiculously cute, and so on and so on. but being a breastfeeder just does not seem to be one of her strengths. whatever we end up doing in the end though, you can guarantee that this girl will get her three squares a day for as long as she's under our roof. that much we know. somehow, some way, she will be fed.

so that's the long and the short of it. we go back to the pediatrician on tuesday for another weight check. surprise surprise...what would a week be without a trip to the doctor. we are plenty happy that this did not end up being a major medical emergency but its still something that we're working through day by day.

i saw a joke the other day and it seemed pretty appropriate for us.

doctor, doctor, i think i'm suffering from deja vu.
i know. i treated you yesterday...

some days that how it feels in the robison house. :) st. ann, pray for us.

the rollercoaster of parenthood...

just when we thought that we were done with the emotional ups and downs of raising this little girl we got hit with some more bad news. ugh. at today's doctor's appointment annabel weighed in at around 10 ounces less than she weighed at last's week's visit. and only about 5 ounces above her weight from a month ago. you don't have to know a whole lot about a baby's development to know that they really should not be losing weight. so this is not good. dr. g told us to go home and feed annabel as normal but then give her a bottle of formula after each nursing. we will then go back in tomorrow for another weight check. depending on what the scale says at that time we will then move on to the next step. if dr. g thinks that there's something going on then we may need to have some bloodwork drawn and have some other tests run. unfortunately this may include being checked into the hospital for 24 hours. ugh again. so say some prayers at 250pm friday afternoon that we'll have a good follow up and figure out what the problem is.

so what could be the issues? well, it could be that annabel is just not eating as much as she needs? she eats every 2 hours during the day but sleeps all night. maybe cheryl's milk supply needs a boost and after that annabel will get the volume that her tiny little body needs. another possibility could be that cheryl's milk is not high enough in calories. nothing about cheryl is fatty so maybe her milk is not fatty enough for the baby. if this is the case then we would most likely be stuck supplementing with formula for the next few months. another possibility is that annabel has something medically wrong. an infection. a bug that she caught. or something else. who knows? she has not been acting differently the past week so that would be weird but its possible. and finally, maybe the doctor's scale is busted. if that is the case you will bet that this new papa will raise some holy hell for the worry and anxiety of the past day but then we would have an answer. whatever it is we hope we can figure it out soon and quit all this conjecturing and hypothesizing...

the part that makes this whole thing suck so much is that we were finally thinking that we had a handle on all of this. so many people kept telling us, "it gets easier..." well, today i wanted to punch all those people in the head. if this is easier then i don't know what to expect later on. but as has been the case many times already, "this too shall pass." we've figured out everything else so we'll get this taken care of too. just really hoping for the scale option. :)

no longer a heathen baby...

yesterday annabel was baptized! it was a very nice ceremony and everything was really beautiful. deacon gill from st. brendan's church and deacon robbie (my dad) performed the baptism. and they did a wonderful job. my sister erin and our friend tom linbeck were the godparents and both were able to be here for the big day. after the ceremony we all went to lunch at cap city fine diner in grandview. overall, a very joyous occasion. :)

baptism has six primary effects, which are all supernatural graces:

1. the removal of the guilt of both original sin (the sin imparted to all mankind by the fall of adam and eve in the garden of eden) and personal sin (the sins that we have committed ourselves).
   
   
2. the remission of all punishment that we owe because of sin, both temporal (in this world and in purgatory) and eternal (the punishment that we would suffer in hell).
   
   
3. the infusion of grace in the form of sanctifying grace (the life of god within us); the seven gifts of the holy spirit (wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the lord); and the three theological virtues (faith, hope and charity).
   
   
4. becoming a part of christ.
   
   
5. becoming a part of the church, which is the mystical body of christ on earth.
   
   
6. enabling participation in the sacraments, the priesthood of all believers, and the growth in grace.

our role as parents has always been to raise our baby to be happy, healthy and wise. now that annabel has been officially "infused" and welcomed into the church, it really hammers home our responsibility for educating her in the faith. our faith has been strengthened through the experience of bringing annabel into this world and we look forward to sharing that faith with her.














click here (or photos above) for more photos

visitors to columbus...

yesterday grandma and grandpa dale got to come out and see their granddaughter again. they made the drive from new jersey for annabel's baptism. its been a few weeks since they last saw her (especially grandpa) and they both were quite amazed with how much she has grown since they last saw her. its true. she's bigger now. not BIG yet but bigGER. so that was yesterday that they got here. today erin arrived from dallas and got to see her niece for the first time ever. annabel decided that it was time to cry as erin was walking through the door but she calmed down soon enough and i got the feeling that erin kinda liked her :)

we've got some photos below as well as a fun video with the grandparentals. enjoy.



or click here to view the video on youtube







































click here (or the photos) for even more photos

video of a happy baby...

annabel is doing very well these days. she went to the pediatrician today and dr. g is pleased as punch about her progress. she's gained another pound to come up to 9.5 lbs. she's still sleeping through the night. still has good amounts of fluids going in and coming out. overall she's doing very well. she is also starting to smile more often and be more engaged when you're with her. all in all she is a very cute, very happy, very sweet 8-week-old. we even have a new video to prove it. enjoy.



or click here to view on youtube

just call her giggles...

friday afternoon annabel gave us her first laugh. and i know that she wasn't laughing at me because i wasn't even home. cheryl texted me right away and told me that annabel had laughed her first laugh. later on i tried everything i could to get her to do it again but she just didn't think i was that funny. surprise surprise.

so that was friday. the thursday night before that annabel decided that she wanted to get dressed up for beggar's night. you might ask what the heck is beggar's night? we did too. apparently in columbus when halloween falls on a weekend, they move up trick-or-treating to the thursday night before. and call it beggar's night. really strange. i suppose that the reason that they do this is for safety sake. more people are out in their cars on the weekends and nobody wants a dinosaur to lose its tail or pippy longstocking to lose her braids. so they send out the little ghosts and ghouls on thursday night. they even set times for trick-or-treating: 6-8pm. kind of funny if you ask me. and who is this they? no idea. i assume that its somehow supported and "regulated" by city officials with coordination by the school districts. but what if i wanted to take annabel trick-or-treating on the real halloween? would they throw our little angel in the slammer? i digress. we dressed up annabel on thursday night and had neighborhood kids come by and ask for candy. it was fun but a little bizarre.

other than that annabel is just sort of hanging out and getting big. did we tell you that she is going to be tall and skinny? at her last appointment after the nurse got her measurements she plugged her into the chart and told us where she fell. at 8 lb 8 oz she was in the 25th percentile. that means out of 100 kids her age 75 would be heavier than she is. but at 22 inches she is in the 85th percentile. whoa. tall and skinny. imagine that. no telling where she gets that from...:)