"You're still brand new, and they broke you already!" -- Betty to Abigail

On Wednesday, Abigail was playing on our neighborhood playground with Larry (I was still at work). She wanted out of the swings and began watching 2 guys playing Frisbee. Then she tried to run towards them, tripped over her own feet, and fell on her shoulder. Then she cried. And cried. I arrived and she kept crying. Then all she wanted to do was be held and caressed. She never wants to be held and caressed. When we offered her a cell-phone to play with, she reached for it and stopped, jerking her arm back like a chicken wing.

That is when we knew we had to go to the emergency room. (Actually, we went to an emergency center- much MUCH cheaper than the hospital emergency room for the same thing.)

You don't need to have an M.D. to look at her x-ray and know she broke her clavicle. It looked like the Coyote after he falls off the cliff chasing the Roadrunner when someone wheels an old-timey x-ray machine in front of him.

But as you can see from the video, this has not slowed her down any.

We love her so much!!!

Abigail's First Time to the Beach

With Uncle Jim, Aunt Steph, Baba, and Mama

On a very warm day in February

Happy Chinese New Year and Other Live Entertainment

On 6 Feb. 2011 we went to the Chinese New Year Festival in our city. There is a large community of Chinese-Americans and there was a celebration at the local high school. Some of the acts included a Chinese choir, children's dance troupes, a skit about the rabbit taking over from the tiger, a fan dance, and other music. Abigail was interested for over an hour without being fussy. She danced in her seat, on our laps, in the aisles. She clapped and cheered. After the live theater, there was a Chinese feast of food. Abigail was not very hungry, but did eat some noodles and fried rice.

After this successful introduction to live theater, Larry and I decided that it wasn't too early to introduce her to live musicals. This past Wednesday, I took her to the dress rehearsal for the local high school's production of "Honk!", the musical of the ugly duckling. For an hour, Abigail sat on the edge of the stage watching, completely enthralled by the actors. When they sang and danced, she stood up, danced and "sang" along. When they finished, she applauded and cheered and returned to her seated position to once again watch the drama unfold on the stage. After intermission hit, she was delighted and surprised to see Baba come up out of the orchestra pit and share his sandwich with her.

Like a House Plant moved into the Sunlight

Abigail had a check up with her pediatrician this morning.

She is now 31 inches long. We noticed her 12 months pants were starting to look like capris on her and that is because she has grown nearly an inch and is in the 70th percentile. The doctor said it was an accelerated velocity of growth, which we understand means that she is "catching up quickly".

She is 18 pounds, 2 ounces, which is still under weight, but she has gained nearly a pound. (Not surprising since she can eat 2 drumsticks, a piece of cheese, half a baked potato, and a clementine for dinner.)

Her head circumference is also larger,
probably because her brain is absorbing so much new info :)

A beautiful weekend

We live far from our families. We sweat all summer. The people in our city are scary-bad drivers. But during the winter, it is nice that we have 70 degree weekends while our families are facing 2-foot snows and ice storms. This weekend was really a turning point in our relationship with Abigail. Almost suddenly, she became less needy. She needed to be held less, she let go of us and ran and played hard and was a toddler and not a baby. She ate voraciously and slept soundly. We completely enjoyed every moment of parenthood this weekend. We went to the 700 acre county park a mile from our house and played on the playground there, took walks in the marsh and scrub forests, went on the floating docks and fishing piers. Abigail toddled up to elderly strangers and gave them unprompted hugs, melting one grandmother's heart. We look forward to more times with Abigail like this weekend.