Annabel

Two

Annabel turned 2 today. She got a Radio Flyer for her birthday and went to the Mariners game.

If you'd like to see pictures of her over the last year plus, they're on Flickr now.

Long time no talk

Many things happened:
* Annabel is walking with confidence
* She's picking up a few words ("Yeah" is a favorite) and trying to sound out a few more
* She likes TV a little too much
* In her first 16 months she's been to more major league baseball games than her father and two Wilbanks uncles had been to in their first 18 years of life... combined

I haven't updated Annabel's pictures recently, and I probably won't. I'm going to use Flickr from now on. Here's all the Annabel-tagged pictures, and here are the RSS and Atom feeds.

Now, the pictures are over there, but we'll update this site from time to time. In fact, she's starting to outgrow this template....

One Year Old

Hard to believe a whole year has gone by already--except when I look at Annabel and see how big she's gotten!

This time last year I was the most exhausted and scared I've ever been in my life. But somehow we got through it, and now we have a really wonderful, good-natured, mellow, smart, and beautiful little girl to show for it. I'm looking forward to the next year of discovering more about who my daughter is going to be.

Easter

Thanks to the wonders of the Paschal Moon, Annabel had her second Easter despite being under a year old. Last year we stayed at home recovering from her four day delivery. This year we went -- and endured some thank-God-the-fire-marshal-is-off-today conditions.

We bought Annabel two Easter dresses, but she ended up wearing the red one (Mom's decision). Thing was, she was happier than I've ever seen her on Sunday, smiling the whole time, apparently an utter doll in the nursery. I brought her back in to see the Hallelujah chorus (which Mom sang as part of the choir), then we took scads of pictures.

She's started to walk in the last two weeks. She took a couple of steps in front of the altar, then plopped on her butt. I decided to humor her, grabbed her hand, and pulled her up. Off we went at running-for-baby speed -- she was almost dragging me behind her!

I think this is first time I looked at her and thought, "She's really not a baby anymore." Maybe it was the dress -- it made her look a lot older. Maybe it was her massive height -- she's well over halfway up Susan's thigh when standing up. Only ten days until she's a year old....

You can view all the Easter pictures starting here.

Nine months

Well, she's now been out longer than she was in. Annabel currently is running in the 97th percentile for height; if that holds she'll be at least 5'10" -- the average between her mother's and father's heights.

Her development is really starting to pick up. At Thanksgiving, she couldn't crawl. At Christmas, she was just learning how to pull up. Now she can be in things she shouldn't be in faster than humanly possible. And, she's really feisty -- why she is now both Squirm-a-bel and Crabasaurus -- and flirty. A few weeks acgo, we spotted her in the church nursery holding hands with a boy. We'll have to watch her; you know she's looking to break some six month old's heart.

Big Girl

Annabel is trying her best to crawl. If you set her down on the floor on her back, 9 times out of 10 she'll be on her stomach within five minutes. She then gets her butt WAY up in the air as she scrabbles with her knees and feet. She doesn't have the arm strength yet to push up and crawl, but she hauls herself along like a commando. While she can't go all the way across a room, at least not very fast, it means I have to supervise her a lot more closely. No more setting her down on the play mat in the living room while I work at the computer and load the dishwasher, confident she's fine as long as I hear rattling toys and/or a happy little girl talking to herself.

Four months old

Annabel is four months old today, so to celebrate I took her to the pediatrician for a check-up and four shots! She's 15 lbs. 9 oz. and 26 inches long, which makes her 90th percentile for weight and 97th for height. Such a big girl! We just switched her into 6-9 month clothes.

We're cleared to start solids, since she has good head and general motor control, is big for her age, and often intently watches us eat, making chewing motions. But there's also no rush, and I think we'll wait until after my parents visit us this month (8/14-22). We've got enough to do between now and then getting the house clean.

C-SPAN Addict

To quote Susan:

"As John Kerry began his acceptance speech, we set Annabel down on a quilt on the living room floor with some toys near at hand, as we often do. She turned her head toward the TV and watched the entire thing. With every appearance of rapt attention, and with kicks and arm flails that more or less fit in with rhetorical flourishes and crowd roars. It was hilarious."

I walked in from work Friday, and there's my baby daughter on the floor, laughing and kicking and excited... over a Senate committee meeting. And you couldn't distract her from the TV in the least.

She is a baby wonk, that much is clear.

Rolling Over and Other Accomplishments

Annabel can now roll over from front to back. She also babbles quite a bit, can support most of her own weight in a standing position if you help her balance, grips her toys firmly, and seems like she's working on sitting unsupported. Personally, I think she's the smartest three-month-old baby in all the world, but as her mother I'm just a tiny bit biased.

The Fourth

So, we were going to Samantha's party last night, but in the end we gave up on finding a parking space. 100,000 people tried to jam into the area around Lake Union, but there was probably only street parking for 1,000 in Eastlake. So, we drove around for 30 minutes before giving up, then came home and let her wave our American and Canadian flags for a bit. Despite the loud concussions from the two big displays and some idiots down the road blowing up a TV set, she didn't flinch.

Miss Fussypants

I'm sitting here feeding The Cranky One right now, so please excuse the one-handed typing.

Her latest trick is this: She can stand on two feet for a whole two minutes so long as you hold her to give her balance and not support.

Went to see the Mariners again on Sunday. Annabel likes the ballpark because there is so much to look at and listen to. She's very quiet at the game. She sat on my knee for quite a while, but she is getting heavy. My leg went to sleep twice.

Welcome to the land of Annabel

You just knew she was going to get her own blog, didn't you? :)

Right now, only the photo gallery and the wish list links work. Good news is that those of you who are feed-savvy can subscribe to not only this blog but also a separate photo feed (RSS or Atom).

I will populate the archives with pieces from the PTBNL blog. I'm shutting that down since... well, the P has been N, and it's L.

The rest of the content will get filled in as we get a chance to put things together. Annabel willing, of course. One of the drawbacks of giving a 2.5 month old baby is that she can't exactly contribute her own content... yet.

Well, here we go

Off to the hospital to get labor induced.

Want to know when the Player is Named?

Then subscribe to the mailing list. I'll send the announcement to the list first (well, after the grandmas know.)

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Two weeks to go?

A little update of things with The Player:

She's fine. Heck, she's more than fine, she's just way too dang healthy. She's head-down, turning her back, and ready to drop.

Mom is bored. She's been stuck on the couch watching DVDs and reading books since she was forced into bedrest. She wants to do things to get ready, but she can't.

Dad is frantic. He's been doing the work of two trying to get things ready. The nursery has been torn up yet again for painting. Hopefully, that will be finished this weekend. Meanwhile, he's working and taking care of the house.

Everyone's depressed, except the Player. She just spends the day head-butting Mom's bladder.

The midwives are now talking about inducing at week 39, which starts April 2. All this is contingent on Susan's blood pressure and whether the Player wants to leave or not.

The birth plan is finalized. The nursery will be ready by the end of the weekend. Bags will be packed next week. Camera is charged.

And yes, we finally have a name. No, we're not telling.