Georgia Aquarium and Ice Skating

The girls and I (plus Uncle Brian) took a road trip and spent the week of New Years enjoying Atlanta, and I have a ton of pictures to share! (Sorry I'm so late with these.) We visited the Georgia Aquarium twice before the end of 2008 (when our annual passes expired).


Waiting for the train at the Avondale MARTA station

We arrived at our old house Monday afternoon, and Bella promptly fell down the stairs. I wouldn't have worried about it except that her mouth was full of blood when I picked her up. I promptly called my husband, who was unable to help since he was at work back in Little Rock. It turned out just to be a torn frenulum connecting her upper lip to her gums, which isn't a big deal. At any rate, that adventure took all afternoon to address, so we couldn't visit the Georgia Aquarium until Tuesday, nor could we check out books from the local library for bedtime stories. Luckily Chick-fil-A was giving out books in their kids' meals, though.


The Georgia Aquarium from Centennial Olympic Park

Of course this holiday week meant that the aquarium was packed, and that certainly detracts from your ability to see the fish and even move around. We just skipped the smaller tanks, but the girls loved it anyway.


Fish!!!


Dancing with the belugas


Pointing out some unusual fish

On New Year's Eve, we headed to downtown Atlanta again. (Twice actually -- we visited the GA capitol in the morning and then Olympic Park and the Aquarium after naptime.)


Excited to ride the train again


Reining in the adventuresome one

On New Years Eve, Gabi really wanted to go ice skating at Centennial Olympic Park. She's been learning to roller skate at school and likes it, so a skating activity sounded like fun. Uncle Brian agreed to watch Annabelle from the sidelines, and he took a few pictures of us (as the wiggle worm permitted).


Gabi's first time to ice skate


Bella enjoyed a trip around the ice
while Gabi took a break


Gabi having another go

It was so cold outside that we were completely frozen. Uncle Brian tried to play with the girls at the new playground in Centennial Park, but the girls got cranky. So we headed across the street to the Georgia Aquarium to defrost. It was a wonderful time of day to go because there were very few other visitors, and we stayed until closing. However, the girls were tired and hungry... I guess you can't have everything.


Bella showing Uncle Brian the jellies


Check out that scorpion fish!


Gabi touching the anemones


Watching the sea otters

A Little More Christmas

Last week, I tried to upload some pictures from our New Years trip to Atlanta, but Blogger was having issues so it didn't work. Today, my brother Scott emailed me some pictures he took during our Christmas visit in Dallas, so I'll share those with you first.


Bella and Grampa


Gabi serving Gramma Jane's cookies


*full modeling credit to Uncle Scott ;-)


Uncle Scott giving Gabi horseback rides


My new wall decoration


Michael's martial arts display case


Reading with Gramma Jane
(This pop-up book provided [a bit] more than
seconds of non-ripped apart fun.)
Thanks for the pictures, and btw -- Happy birthday, Uncle Scott! He turned 27 yesterday.

Ophthalmology

Bella had an ophthalmology appointment on Thursday afternoon. She woke up Thursday morning with relatively dry eyes, so I thought that her ophthalmologist might not recommend anything further. However, her doctor said that if that was a good day, then she definitely needed to have something done. Apparently clear basal tears mostly confined to her eyes, although great compared to her recent goopiness with caked eyelashes and water dripping down her face, is still not normal. At least I feel confident that she honestly does need a procedure, knowing that the doctor saw her on a good day and wasn't just judging her from an excessively goopy-eyed day.

Her Pediatric Ophthalmologist is referring us to an Oculoplastic Surgeon who will start out with a probing of the nasolacrimal ducts (like what she had done last June in Atlanta, but this time under general anesthesia) and if it doesn't appear to work as well as he'd like, then he will insert stents to drain the tears. The benefit of using this other doctor is that, if the stents are necessary, he will do that surgery under the same anesthesia, whereas her regular ophthalmologist would wait a few weeks after the probing before determining that stents might be necessary.

I'm not upset to hear that she is now too old to be able to hold her down and perform the probing in the office like they did in Atlanta. While we would all like to avoid anesthesia, I think this approach will be much more humane than strapping her to a board fully conscious and forcing her to watch as your come straight at her eye with a probe that you shove down her tear ducts to break the membranes blocking tear drainage.


Bella signing bear
The bear sign is supposed to be with arms crossed over the chest such that the hands are at the shoulders, but Bella crosses her arms down like this instead. It gets the point across.


Bella signing bird
To indicate many birds, Bella uses two hands. It's cute.


Bella signing elephant
ASL for elephant traces an imaginary trunk from your nose out-down-out with your hand, but using your arm as a trunk is more concrete and easier for babies to understand/remember. Besides, she loves to raise her "trunk" and trumpet like an elephant (or watch/hear me act it out).


Bella signing fish
Bella has learned Lola's name; she calls her "Lala." She thinks Lolo looks like Daddy and used to call him "Dada" as well. Now to differentiate between Daddy and Lolo, she says "La-dada" for Lolo (because he's the "daddy" that goes with Lola).


Bella so happy to read a book with Lola
Since Bella's ENT is contemplating a supraglottoplasty and possibly tubes in her ears, we will coordinate the procedures with both doctors so that Annabelle will only have to undergo general anesthesia once. Now that she will need anesthesia anyway, I'm less reticent to consent to another procedure and in fact might even call to get her next ENT consult moved earlier in order to combine everything. Plus, a doctor friend mentioned that if we are concerned that she might be having sleep apnea, then even though her oxygen saturation is 98%-100% during the day (we check it at most regular doctor visits because of her laryngomalacia), it might be dropping down to only 60% at night, which would not be good for her brain. So I'll talk to her regular pediatrician at her next check-up to see whether we need to take a pulse-ox monitor home. First, though, we'll wait to see when her Oculoplastic Surgery consult is scheduled.

Christmas 2008

I am finally able to upload some Christmas pictures!


The Christmas card shot


Looking at the tree (and Daddy)


Gabi's dance pose

We celebrated with Michael's family the Sunday before Christmas because his dad and uncle had to work Christmas Eve (and Christmas Day), and both his parents worked Christmas weekend.


Our family sitting in our new chairs


Annabelle learned to say "tree"


Annabelle giving Lola a kiss


Gabi's princess chair


Gabi trying on her hat and gloves


Bella cuddling her leopard


My stylish coat


Bella wrapped in a ladybug towel

Christmas Eve we drove to Texas in time to watch Notre Dame [finally] win a bowl game, and then to celebrate with my family on Christmas Day.


Family portrait at church on Christmas Day


Gabi examining the poinsettias


Gabi admiring the nativity scene

Our girls slept in on Christmas morning until about 9 AM. Gabi was excited to see that Santa had come, and she was very careful not to step on Santa's snowy footprints. Gabi pulled out Disney princess stickers from her stocking and proceeded to make up a very imaginative game based on the characters in the stickers which involved much narration and occupied all her attention such that I don't think she even looked in the rest of her stocking until after church.


Our family at my parents' house

Just like last year, once she opened a present, Gabi wanted to play with her new toy and could not be coaxed to put it down, even to open another present. You'd expect most children to show interest when you offer another present, but it's great that Gabi likes to enjoy each gift. Additionally, Gabi decided that her name is "Gabriella Christine" and not "Gabi" -- and she absolutely refused to open any present addressed to "Gabi." We had to get out a pen and write "Gabriella Christine" on each tag before she would even consider giving it a second look. So we ended up with a few presents left unopened (even a few days later).


Now that's a real box!

Michael needed the drill to open his big present (while Annabelle sat on it) -- a display case for all his martial arts belts.


Bella's box of block books
(small board books that can also be building blocks)


Bella reading one of her new books


Bella's smile

My brother Stephen and his wife Alicia moved to the Dallas area this summer. Alicia (and her sister) are excellent interior decorators, so their apartment is super-cute.


Visiting Stephen & Alicia's apartment

We also met up with my cousin Jennifer and her family (parents, husband, and six children) to go bowling one evening.


Bella saying "ball"


Our cousins Kaitlyn and Timothy


Cousin Benjamin


Cousin Jonathan


Bowling Team 1
Scott, Jennifer, Jonathan, Ryan, and Timothy

It was down to the last frame, and these guys won. Ryan had the highest score overall, but Michael was just 3 points behind him. The last team was at a disadvantage because they only had four players, although Bella did join them for their team photo. (Bella and Kaitlyn didn't actually bowl, obviously.)


Bowling Team 2
Jessica, Benjamin, Melissa, Michael, and Gabi


Bowling Team 3
Harvey, Josh, Jane, and Karen (plus Bella)

The night before we left Texas, Scott's girlfriend Amy drove into town and spent some time with us.


Amy reading with Gabi