I got all choked up and teary-eyed last night because Annika is getting so big and grown up. Whaa! It was dinner time last night so I told her it was time to get in her high chair. Usually she runs over, I take the tray off and she climbs up and sits down. Last night she looked at me and said "no." She would not get in her high chair. She said she wanted to sit in one of the regular chairs. So I went and got her traveling booster seat and strapped it to one of the dining room chairs. We slid her up to the table, put a plastic placemat under her plate (a Sesame Street placemat that my sister, brother and I all used as kids that Grandpa and Marcia just gave to us last weekend) and set her plate and cup down on the table. And she ate her dinner very nicely sitting next to Kris and I. My baby sits at the table like a big girl! What! This is so not fair! I mean, it's a good thing because now I can clean up the high chair and put it in the basement until it's needed again for Baby Boy, but it's a bad thing because it's just another step Annika takes away from being a baby - my baby. It's bittersweet. And at the moment, it's more bitter than sweet. Thank God she is a cuddly little thing. If she wasn't, I think I might have lost my mind already.

Tomorrow after gymnastics (9-10am), our family photo session (1:30pm) and a tour of the hospital (4-4:30pm), we are dropping Annika off at Auntie Shelly and Uncle Dale's house for the evening while Kris and I (and my brother, Mathias) head to the Minnesota Wild hockey game. We don't attend very many hockey games but when we do they sure are fun! Annika is going to have a great time tomorrow night too. Auntie Shelly and Uncle Dale have a piano and Annika loves sitting at it and banging on the keys. She has even started "playing the piano" at home, banging on some toys she has that sort of replicate a piano.

When Kris or I are at the computer, we tell Annika that we are working. Lately, if one of us heads for the computer, she will run over to it before us and tell us that it's Annika's turn "to work." Or if we find her sitting at it and ask her what she's doing, she tells us "I'm working." I think this is hilarious myself. I also find it amazing that she can conjugate her verbs correctly (as well as I'm vs Annika pronoun thing). Annika likes spinning in circles and often asks Kris and I to join her. One day a few weeks ago she asked "Mama spin?" So I stood up and we held hands and spun in a circle. Kris walked into the room and asked Annika what she was doing. She replied "Spinning!" It seems like such a small thing - great, Kristina, she said "spinning" - but it just tells me so much more. It tells me that her brain is figuring out this screwed up English language. It tells me that she is one smart little girl (like I didn't know that already). And it makes me so proud of her. And I can't wait to see what else she picks up on and how quickly it will be before she's setting me straight. :) Oh wait - she already does that.