What a weekend! We had Annika's 1st birthday party Saturday afternoon and a small BBQ Saturday night. Auntie Krystle came over Friday night to help us get ready (thank goodness!). She also came over early on Saturday to help us get ready for the party. The party went great. The house was crowded but luckily it was a nice day (although steamy) so people could also be outside in the garage. Annika didn't do much cake smashing. She was plenty dirty when done with her cupcake but it wasn't a dramatic smoosh in the face or anything. She very carefully, with one index finger, poked at the frosting and ate it. She's such a demure little thing! :) Annika got a lot of great presents too. I think she got a cute outfit from just about everyone! She also got some great toys and books and she adores them all. Her new toy cell phone is constantly plastered to her ear. She carries her panda bear around all the time and even knows which toy it is. I'll ask where panda bear is and she'll walk over to it and pick it up. She's constantly pressing the letters on her new phonics bus (G seems to be her favorite letter so far) but she's really impressed with the new wagon. She had tons of rides in it on Saturday, even refusing to get out. Yesterday, while relaxing at home, Annika went over to the garage door and pounded on it. Kris and I didn't think anything of it until she saw I wasn't coming to the door so she walked over to me, took my hand and led me to the garage door and hit it again. I opened the door and helped her down the steps. Then she led me straight to the wagon and started banging on it. Baby girl remembered that the wagon was in the garage and wanted a ride! Well, that kind of genius deserves a reward so in we went to put on shoes. I took her around the block before coming back home. We had all our shoes off and everything when she led me straight back out to the garage. She's just so cute with her communicating that off we went on another wagon ride. This time we went around the bigger block (where everybody was so nice waving and saying hi - Annika was waving back). It was getting to be bed time now so when Annika started pounding on the garage door a 3rd time, we instead nursed and took a bath. I'm guessing she'll get more wagon rides today with Daddy.