Sometimes Annika surprises me with her manners. I wonder how she learns them (I know, I know - example!) but I often don't remember myself being all the respectful and courteous and Kris and I are way too comfortable with each other to always use manners too. However, Annika has manners and sometimes even remembers to use them. Thursday night we were visiting Grandpa and Marcie. Annika wanted to see what Grandpa was working on (a treadmill) and she couldn't quite fit between Grandpa and the ottoman. So, she kindly said 'Excuse me" so Grandpa would move over slightly for her. What! My eyes bugged out a little I think. And Saturday morning as we were eating our pancakes that Daddy made for us, Annika asked for more. I put another one on her plate (she ate 4 or 5!) and she said "Thank you." I'm so proud of her!

The gymnastics class Annika attends is paying off! Thursday night at Grandpa's house, Annika was bouncing around. She was excited to be visiting I think. At one point she put her head down and did a perfect somersault. I gasped because I hadn't ever seen her do one before unassisted! Well, Grandpa and Marcie and I all clapped and cheered which only encouraged Annika to do more and more and more. She's learning other tricks too. She's learning to bounce on her butt on the trampoline instead of just her feet and how to safely stop bouncing on a trampoline (the "freeze" technique). They're even having the kids starting to learn how to do cartwheels. During Saturday's class this week, the kids were able to walk on the tall balance beam (the standard ~4' off the floor instead of 8"). At the end of the beam, they were supposed to jump off. Annika really enjoyed this and wanted Daddy to let go (he was holding one of her hands) while she was up there. Of course he didn't but she is quite the little daredevil! And at the end she had no qualms about jumping off into Daddy's waiting arms.

After gymanstics on Saturday, we headed out to a local pumpkin patch with our neighbors Andrew and Katie. It was a very nice place. They had a little stand set up with already picked pumpkins, gourds, and other fresh fruits and vegetables for purchase. Or, you could take their little hayride (on a very nice way with sides and steps and seats and everything) out to the pumpkin patch and pick your own. We, of course, wanted the full pumpkin picking experience so we hopped on the hayride. Annika thought that was pretty cool and liked the tractor pulling us too. Out in the pumpkin patch though Annika wanted to touch all the gross, over-ripe, rotting pumpkins instead of the nice, still on the vine pumpkins. Little stinker. And she kept tripping over all the pumpkin vines. She just doesn't look where she's walking - ever! That's a toddler thing, right? We found 4 very nice pumpkins though. We, of course took a bunch of pictures until my battery died. Luckily Andrew and Katie had their camera too and took some pictures, including a family one amongst the pile of pumpkins. I'll try to upload those that I have Tuesday night. I'm still waiting for an e-mail from Andrew and Katie with theirs. It was fun though and I think we'll definitely go back next year.

Yesterday we headed out to do a bit of shopping. First was Babies 'R Us to look at strollers, co-sleeprs and crib bedding. They only had 2 stand-n-ride style strollers. Of the two, I think we liked this one better. I'm not sure if our car seat will fit in it. And I'm not sure where the infant seat goes and if you can actually use it as a tandem stroller with an infant seat. I need to do some research on it. Then we looked at co-sleepers. I wanted to specifically look at the Arm's Reach Mini-Cosleeper. It's functional for what we want but it seems a little cheap to me, not worth the $130 price tag. It's just plastic for goodness sake! I may try to find one on Craigslist or at a Once Upon a Child or something. Last was crib bedding. Remember when Kris said he wanted something with brighter colors? Not as muted as the first three choices I sent him? Yeah, well, the one he picked out in person is about as muted as you can get! Hee! He picked out this Winnie the Pooh bedding. It's very cute but not a bright color anywhere! I think he likes this one best because the walls in the office/to-be-nursery are an olive green color and with this bedding, we may not have to repaint. What I like about it are all the different textures on the quilt. Annika's bedding has the same effect. So, it looks like that bedding is available in store only so I think Annika and I will make a trip back later this week to purchase it and some accessories (of course!) Hopefully when we get it home, it will look nice with the wall color. We also went to Pottery Barn Kids but Kris didn't like any of their crib bedding. I was able to show him the accessories I want to purchase for Annika's room though and there was minimal eye-rolling and sighing! :) We're going shopping with Auntie Krystle tonight to make those purchases. Now we just need to set up a date with Grandpa and Marcie to bring over Annika's big girl bed and dresser! I'm thinking early November. That will give us time to clean out the office/nursery, do any painting required and have it ready to move the nursery furniture out of Annika's room and into it before the big girl bed and dresser arrive. I work better with deadlines anyway. Yay! Progress!