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.