Knott at the Aquarium

While Michael's college roommates (from Knott Hall) were here, we spent most of the time just hanging out at our house, but we wanted to show them one "Atlanta attraction." Stone Mountain was one of the top considerations, but as the Sky Hike was not yet open, we elected to take them to the aquarium, just like we do for all our guests.


The Graceland crew outside the Georgia Aquarium


The octopus gave us a wonderful show


The penguins were not particularly engaging this time,
but the barking sea lions made up for it.


George and Gabi watch a Giant Southern Ray


Group shot with the Giant Grouper


George and a gravid Zebra Shark

George actually turned around and saw that I was taking a picture and asked if I wanted him to move. In response, I clicked the shutter. "Apparently not..." George said. Hey, I can take pictures of the aquarium any day! Graceland Reunion weekend was my opportunity to see old friends.


Lisa and Stephen by the jellies


Gabi and George watching the jellies


Daddy and Bella in the Tropical Diver


George, Stephen, Lisa, Bella, Melissa, Tim, and Kelly


Gabi pointing out a seahorse to George

Gabi seemed attached to George, and it was fun to watch George dote on our daughter. Of course, George wasn't the only one interested in playing with Gabi, and fortunately Gabi was comfortable with all our visitors. (She started out the aquarium visit requesting that Stephen hold her.) Gabi definitely loved all the extra attention!


1, 2, 3, Whee!


The Pose in front of the World of Coke


Annabelle and Lisa

Lisa and Kelly are both teachers, and they definitely have a talent with children. (As a kindergarten teacher, Lisa was especially in tune with our young girls.)


Tim thought the downtown Atlanta picture would look better without George.

Thanks, guys, for coming! We had a blast, and that was one weekend that I was happy not to have any prospective buyers come look at our house.

Graceland Reunion

The second weekend of March brought about a reunion of Daddy's college roommates. At Notre Dame, Daddy lived in a quad, affectionately called "Fallen from Graceland" (something to do with Elvis). We had invited George out to visit for a weekend and were able to rope in Tim and Stephen (again!) to join us as well. And there was much rejoicing. Photographic evidence:


Mikey, George, and Stephen: kicking back, catching up, and waiting on Tim.


"Hi, I'm Lisa! You may remember me from Stephen & Lisa Visit!"
Miss Chatterbox also posted her pictures from the weekend here.


While the ladies actually talked to each other, the guys bonded by doing guy-stuff...
...like playing Super Smash Brothers Brawl, as seen the last time we saw George in Texas


Silly boys. Oh look! Tim has arrived and looks thrilled to have just been smashed!


Lisa and Lissa compare notes on their goofy husbands.


Lissa welcomes Tim's girlfriend Kelly to Atlanta.
Lissa and Kelly compare notes on their boofy boyfriends.


The next morning, Bella allowed herself to be passed around to everyone.
Kelly enjoyed holding our happy little Cindy Lou Who impersonator.



Daddy had to watch Annabelle so that everyone could eat. Poor Daddy.


Cousin Carl (currently a student at ND) happened to pass through town that weekend.
Gabi girl really enjoyed having all the extra people around to pay attention to her.


Another late night game of Arkham Horror
... but with more hair on Daddy and a lot less Uncle Brian.





After a fun weekend, the girls say goodbye to their new friends.

Tune in next time for pictures from our group trip to the aquarium!

Pretty Girls at Home

For lack of a better theme for this post... here is an assortment of pictures of Gabi, Bella, and Mommy at home from the beginning of last month. We keep telling ourselves that we'll eventually catch up with these pictures, though even with Mommy posting 2-3 times a week, we don't seem to be making any headway. Maybe we should just stop taking pictures of the girls...

...just playing. We wouldn't do that to their loyal fans! Picture time:

Gabi has this new book called Look Who's Moving to a New Home! that one of her Dekalb Playgroup friends gave her. It has all these neat slots for placing pictures of the rooms in Gabi's old home and pictures of the rooms in Gabi's new home. She already seems to have memorized the book despite having only read it 3 or 4 times. Having just read it, I'm going to arbitrarily organize this post by the rooms in Gabi's old home here in Georgia. For more pictures of our Georgia house without those distracting cute girls, see Mommy's recent post on the subject.

Gabi's Kitchen
"where we eat meals and snacks"


GrahamCracker + Chocolate + Marshmallow = Smores = Yummy x messy
Math-minded Gabi Fans: Smores Theorem submissions in the comments, please!



Bella Baby's hair has gotten so long that it's constantly in her eyes.
Daddy decided to try out a pony tail, but Bella's hair is only long up front.
So it's a top-ponytail, 80's style! (See it's cousin, the side-ponytail.)
Personally, I think Bella pulls off this look very well. Like, totally.

Living Room
a.k.a. the girls' playroom



Like all good hairdo fads, this one quickly spread throughout our house.
Poor Daddy's hair hasn't been top-ponytail-able since that shaving incident.
Fortunately, next month's retro fad will be one for the whole family:
Hammer Pants

Mommy and Daddy's Room
a.k.a the girls' playroom


Happy Bella and Mommy pose for a picture on the bed...


...and are soon joined by big sister, who always wants to be near baby sister...


...and give her hugs, even if Mommy gets caught in the crossfire.


Big Sister!

Office
where Bella changes her name to "Trouble"


As seen in this video post, Bella is now mobile.
Here we see our happy baby in her pre-mobile "Golden Age"...
...when she sits and plays alone but can't get into trouble.
But then again, she's never let us put her down for long.

Girls' Bedroom
the girliest room in the house!



Our pretty girl Gabi posing in her new dress and head-scarf.
Whenever we get to catch up, you'll have to see how cute she
looks when we improvise at a restaurants (foreshadowing!).


Usually we put Gabi down in her bed with two pillows and Ashley bear.
In the mornings we find any combination of these things on the floor,
including some mornings when we find Gabi girl on the floor, too.
Here's a sweet picture in which all of them stayed on the bed overnight.


Finally, in addition to her crawling and tooth-growing milestones,
Bella has really taken to pulling up on everything she can grab.
We've had to lower her crib mattress twice in the past month!

First Tooth!

Annabelle's first tooth cut through today -- the front left lower tooth.


Annabelle and the duckies

Also, she had her ophthalmology appointment this morning, and Daddy walked over to meet us since we were just two buildings down from where he was working. (Bella has had bilateral nasolacrimal duct obstruction since birth, which makes tears run down her face instead of draining into the nose, and it puts her at risk for eye infections.) She did great while they examined her eyes and dilated them. I had to leave the room before they papoosed her down and probed her tear ducts. (Eye probing induces parental psychological trauma.) In fact, had Michael not come to sign the permission slip, she might not have had the probing procedure done, but he was there to hold her while I took Gabi out in the hall. We could still hear her scream, and afterwards I saw a little blood in her eyes. Poor baby! She recovered quickly, though, and fell asleep almost immediately in my arms. The doctor gave us some steroid/antibiotic drops and said that everything should clear up in a few days.


Daddy and Annabelle




Swinging at Scott Park by the Decatur Library

I forgot to update you on her growth measurements after her nine-month check-up last week. At nine months, Annabelle now weighs 15 lbs 13 oz, is 27 inches long, and her head circumference is 46.25 cm. She is definitely looking longer these days.

Her ears still have fluid in them, although they aren't infected, so we'll go back to get her ears checked before we move. Bella can definitely hear, but we are concerned that sound is muffled because of the fluid, and this age is a critical time for speech development. Her doctor didn't seem concerned that her breathing has again become noisy. (When she was young, she squeaked when she inhaled due to laryngeal malacia. Now her breathing sounds are lower pitched, but it's still just her immature airway.)

Bella Monkey

Over the past two weeks, Annabelle has learned to crawl. Getting to her desired location was slow at first, but now she's fast enough to get into trouble. Bella started with a wheelbarrow style, planting her face on the ground and pushing forward with her legs. I was glad when she learned to hold her head up, but it took a few more days before she actually started using her arms to help her move. Now Bella is exploring everywhere, and she has a knack for finding something that she's not supposed to have and heading straight for it. I have to keep an eye on her even during a quick task such as washing my hands after a diaper change.

Annabelle is our little wiggle worm, always moving. She loves to flip upside down and do other baby gymnastics. Perhaps her favorite activity is watching her big sister, which always makes her smile. When she is excited, Bella bounces and bounces and flaps her arms.

One of the cutest things Bella does is play peek-a-boo, which she figured out all by herself. If she gets ahold of a piece of cloth, then she'll hide and wait for you to notice, then she'll pull the cloth away from her face to reveal a huge smile. Peek-a-boo is so exciting that she usually bounces a few times before she hides again. The easiest way to get this little wiggle worm to be still enough for a diaper change is to give her a burp cloth to play peek-a-boo with.

Bella recently mastered clapping to make a clapping sound. She's signing "more" and "eat" and working on "all done." She pulls up on everything and will sometimes begin to cruise. There are so many new gross motor skills to practice, Annabelle certainly keeps busy. She's perfecting some fine motor skills as well; she uses the pincer grasp to pick out all the fruit bits first when I give her fruit and Cheerios.

GA Aquarium with Uncle Stephen & Aunt Alicia

Congratulations to Uncle Stephen on his acceptance to UT Southwestern this fall! We look forward to being only five hours away by car -- after we move to Little Rock and they move to Dallas. We are glad we were able to show Stephen and Alicia around Atlanta before we move, and of course their visit included the Georgia Aquarium.


Annabelle and Melissa


In front of the new alligator exhibit


Looking through the bubble to see river fish


Stephen's favorite: the sawfish


Alicia & Stephen pose next to a Black Velvet Ray


Stephen alongside a Leopard Ray


Annabelle towers above the Garden Eels


Tropical Reflections


Standing (with support)


Bella and Daddy


Ooh! Colorful, swimming fish!


Happy in my stroller


Annabelle and Melissa with the Sea Turtle


Watching the Sea Turtle


Ocean Voyager


Shark & ray touch pool


Goofy guys


Gabi certainly enjoyed the extra attention from her aunt & uncle!