here comes the tooth fairy...

last week annabel hit a pretty big milestone... her first tooth broke through!

at annabel's four month check-up the doctor said she had a tooth coming up, so like most first time parents we were excited and started checking her mouth every day. and every day there was nothing.... she turned five months and there was nothing. then six months and still nothing. seven months and nothing. the excitement wore off at some point and we stopped checking so often. then last tuesday i (cheryl) decided i would check out the progress and there was her first pearly white!

the tip is just above the surface of her gums, so it is still pretty small and very hard to photograph. :) i have been trying for a week to get a picture and today i was successful. not only did i get a decent photo - i also was able to shoot some video.

take a long look at her "toothless" smile - beacause it won't look like that much longer.



or click here to view video on youtube

yea! fun at the park!

guess where mom and dad took me last weekend? to the park! i've never been to this park before. they told me that they took me when i was younger and it was cold but i don't remember it. they even told me that i went down a slide with mommy. i especially don't remember doing that. but this trip to the new park was so much fun. the first thing that we did when we got there was go swinging. that was kind of scary at first but turned out to be really fun. there were some silly boys throwing sand next to me but they didn't scare me. daddy was there watching them so they stopped. after we went swinging, mommy helped me do some chin-ups. i really need to work out more. for some reason though she wouldn't let me chew on the chin-up bar. oh well. next thing we did was go down a slide. mommy even let me slide down on my back all by myself (i think that this was one of daddy's ideas). it was a short slide and daddy was at the bottom to catch me but it was still so much fun. after that we went over to a different part of the park and played on some bigger swings and slides. it was all so much fun. i hope that we get to go back again soon. and there were lots of other kids playing too. maybe i'll play with them when we go back. well, it's time to eat now. i think that i'm having green beans. yum! you can watch a video of me on the swing if you want. love you. xoxo banannabel







or click here to view the video on youtube

http://aggiesinohio.blogspot.com

what a silly girl...

we've got a giggler. enjoy...



or click here to view video on youtube

http://aggiesinohio.blogspot.com

seventh month slideshow

that sweet child o' ours turned seven months old last week! and what a busy month it was. two trips to the columbus conservatory, two visits from the grandparents, easter, a trip to the zoo and everything in between. but we still can't believe how fast it is all going and how big she is getting. it seems like just yesterday (and so long ago at the same time) that we had to carefully cradle her head and wrap her up tight to sleep. now she is throwing herself around on the floor and puts herself to sleep on her tummy. the last seven months have been amazing and we are excited about all the months to come.



or click here to view video on youtube

on the move...

i think the fun is about to begin. annabel is not crawling yet, but she is definitely passed the "where you put me, i will stay" stage. she has become quite the roller and is pretty good at scooting too. the photo shows where she ended up in just a few seconds after we put her down on the blanket on her floor to enjoy some "naked time." and the video... well, the video speaks for itself...


or click here to view the video on youtube

fever with a side of butt rash...

annabel got sick this week for the first time. yeah, i know. she made it 7 months without any problems but it had to happen sometime. now i suppose that i need to go back and be a little more accurate. since she spent her first five days in the special care unit at the hospital and we spent her first month of life going back and forth to the doctors office, i guess the more accurate statement would be, annabel got sick this week for the first time since october. although, technically all those trips to the doctor were for non-illness related reasons - eye problems and weight issues...wow. all these words and you're still wondering what the heck is wrong with her this week. jeepers. sorry. tuesday evening cheryl noticed what looked like a rash on both of annabel's arms. kind of strange. wednesday morning when annabel woke up she felt warm. cheryl checked her temperature to find out that she was running a fever of about 101.3. not bad but something to keep an eye on. annabel's whole bottom was also rashy wednesday morning. cheryl made a number of calls to the doctor's office but the triage nurse kept telling her to keep an eye on it but it didnt sound like a problem. when she woke up on thursday her fever was gone but the rash seemed worse on her arms and her bottom. again, calls to the nurse told cheryl it was probably nothing to worry about. none of this really seemed to be bothering annabel but it was bothering us. so friday morning when the rash was still there and had spread to her chest and legs, cheryl made an appointment and took the baby in to get looked at. turns out that she's got a case of roseola. its a viral illness that is somewhat common in small children ages 6 months - 2 years. since it is viral and the fever has passed, there is nothing really to do other than wait for the rash to clear up, which should take 2-5 days. we also don't know where she picked this up. in the last week she has played with our neighbor's baby, gone to church, gone to the grocery store and gone to the zoo. the good news is that this is really no big thing and doesn't seem to bother her at all. so if you happen to be a fan of big illness, this would be kind of a let down. but for the rest of us, we'll be happy when its all gone.

to the zoo and back again...

well, on monday we made our first official trip to the zoo with annabel (not like we had an unofficial one but you know what i mean). i had the day off and the weather looked promising so we thought that a trip to the park would be fun. then our friends with zoo passes (who also have an infant girl) threw us a bone and suggested that we be their free zoo guests for the day. well, it took us about a half a second to jump on that train. so monday afternoon came around, we packed the baby, stroller, diaper bag, extra bottle, baby sunscreen (you can see where this is going) and headed off to the columbus zoo. for all you zoo buffs out there, did you know that in 2009 the columbus zoo was ranked the number one zoo in the country by usa travel guide? it was. and it is a pretty cool zoo. it has manatees, elephants, tigers, gorillas, kangaroos and i heard that we'll be getting a couple of polar bears this summer. cheryl and i have been to the zoo three times now and its definitely a good one. anywho, this trip was far different than our previous two trips. first difference was the amount of stuff. all the items listed above plus more made us realize that life has definitely changed. it was not all that bad though because pretty much everything went in our little stroller which also carried the water bottles and pistachios. not a bad deal. second difference was how much more pointing that we did. and to be honest, it was all pretty point"less". ha. "annabel, annabel. look over here. look at that. look at this. annabel..." when she did look it was either at our face or our hands. she has yet to grasp the "follow the direction of the finger" concept. no big deal though. it was fun. and when animals don't move, to a baby i am pretty sure that they look just like everything else. the one exception was the fish. she really liked the fish. they have an enormous tank for two manatees and tons of fish and stingrays. it is pretty cool. and the fact that she could get up close and personal to the fishes swimming right in front of her made it very exciting. in addition to that tank they also have a large reef tank with lots of smaller but more colorful fish. and who doesnt love colorful fish? the third difference was the diaper change/bottle break after about 2.5 hours. the previous two "babyless" times we didn't want to stop even for a short break because we wanted to see more. this time, the babies made sure that we did not skimp on the break. but after they got a fresh set of drawers and a full belly, both girls were ready for a few more animals. unfortunately, the zoo was ready for us to leave. so we sprinted over to asia to see the tiger, bear, elephants and the rhino. all of which were up and about so that made it worth it. and then it was home again, home again. so after close to three hours at the zoo, we piled back in the car and headed home. pretty sure that annabel was asleep before we hit the highway. she was exhausted. but it was a good day and one that we will be sure to repeat many more times in the coming months and years.

our little model...

annabel had her first professional photo shoot this past week and the pictures turned out great! she loves having her picture taken and is such a little ham - she even smiles when you count to three - so we knew we would end up with some great shots.

click on any of the photos to see more pictures from the day (they start on page 3 of the album) and this past month.