I forgot to tell you one detail from yesterday's ultrasound. The tech said the baby is currently weighing approximately 13 ounces! That's huge! I received my Babycenter newsletter yesterday for week 19 and it said the average baby was 6.5 ounces at this point. I forwarded to the 20 week newsletter and it says that the average 20 weeker is 10 ounces. My ultrasound dated the baby at 20 weeks 4 days due to all the measurements. I wonder if this means the baby is going to be even bigger than Annika was at birth (9 pounds, 2 ounces)! Ouch! I have five or so ultrasound pictures that I'll try to scan in this weekend and upload. No "money shot" pictures but cute profiles and one of his little foot.

I have to admit that I was pretty convinced this baby was going to be another girl. I still haven't wrapped my brain around the boy thing. Just now I was reading something and the name Amelia popped out. I thought "Hey, that's a nice name. Hmm, I don't really like it better than my top girl name though." Then I remembered - I'm not having a girl. I'm having a boy. I need to stop with the girl names and focus on boy names. Anybody have any suggestions? Kris and I totally don't agree on boy names. He has one picked out (since college) that I am just not that crazy about and he's all but totally rejected the boy name that I like. We keep trying to appease the other by picking out middle names that we know the other will appreciate. It's not working though in swaying either one of us to the other side. I'm afraid we'll have to find a third name that we can both maybe agree on. Names are hard!

Annika is doing so many cute things lately! I can't keep up or write about them all. I'd love to just bottle up this time so I can replay it over and over and over again. She just cracks me up sometimes! Yesterday during the ultrasound when it was announced we were having a boy, Annika just repeated over and over again "Baby Brother". Way to make your hormonal mommy cry more little girl! And last night Annika and I were having dinner with Mary and Amanda's at Amanda's house. Amanda got out the Pac-man video game for Annika to play. Of course she can't play Pac-man but we thought she could maybe move the joystick around for fun. Instead, Annika wanted Amanda to play the game and while she did, Annika ran circles around Amanda, literally. She just kept running and running laughing and giggling the whole time. Every once in a while she would stop and push the reset button and the game would start over. At the end of the night as I was putting her shoes and jacket on, she said good-bye to Amanda and Mary and then cheerfully announced "Good-bye everyone!" And she still has to give everyone a hug and kiss good-bye. And it has to be a kiss on the lips or she'll grab your head and pull it towards her to kiss you there. There will be no cheek kissing for Annika!

Last weekend Annika was eating lunch with us at Grandpa's house. Annika took a drink of milk and put her cup back on the table, very close to the edge. Grandpa moved her cup back towards the top of her plate and Annika very plainly said "Thank you." Manners? From my child? I love it! We're trying to drive home the please concept too. Each time she asks for something I just stare at her as if she's not done asking. She's taken to saying "What do you say? Please!" when I do that. Kris and I both ask her that to prompt her to say please so now she's incorporated the whole question and answer into her requests. So cute!

Tonight I'm hosting a Pampered Chef show and a bunch of my friends are coming. These friends all have little girls around Annika's age. At last count there will be at least 5 little girls all around 2. I can't wait to see how much they've each grown! I haven't seen some of them since April! I know Annika will love it too but I'm concerned how the toy sharing will go. Basically Annika doesn't share at all. Everything is "Nika's!", even the couch when the cat is sitting on it and the car when Kris is driving away in it to go to work. I don't know how she does at ECFE class when all the other little kids are playing with the toys that she wants to play with, however, these little kids will be in her house, playing with her toys. I'm sure there will be lots of "Nika's!" coming out of her mouth tonight as she tries to grab toys away. I hope the other moms will help me police that. If my child takes a toy away from someone else, that toy gets returned pronto. She will learn eventually to share, but only if she is shown how. Oh, toddlers. Such fun!