Annika has gone back to her playground bully ways. This afternoon was Kris's work Christmas party at a co-worker's house. Another little boy was there, Benjamin. Benjamin is only a couple weeks younger than Annika. She was so excited to play with him and kept pestering him all afternoon. Finally at one point, Benjamin took off running away from her. Annika thought this was a great new game to play and ran after him. When she got close enough, she pushed him (not aggressively, just as in a "tag, got ya!" sort of way). The problem was they were on slippery hardwood floors in socks and Benjamin went tumbling. He ended up hitting his mouth/chin on the floor and immediately started crying. There was no blood so at most he'll get a fat lip but boy, did I feel bad. Annika did too. I knelt down by her and told her that she has to be gentle and that she can't push people because they can get hurt that way. She was really concerned about Benjamin and wanted to go give him hugs. She was almost crying herself. I told her to tell Benjamin that she was sorry and she did and then Kris scooped her up and brought her away so Benjamin's Mom and Dad could console him. That was towards the end of the afternoon and we all left shortly after. Annika and Benjamin played together pretty nicely the entire afternoon leading up to that.

Annika charmed another couple at church this morning. She had them practically in hysterics at one point. The first time was when Annika came at me, open mouth with tongue out. That's my fault really. If she has a messy face from eating one of her "potty treats" which is usually a Hershey's Kiss, I'll tell her I'm going to clean her face and then I kiss and lick her mouth. She thinks this is hysterical. So, she now reciprocates. Today she came after me in church and was trying to lick my face. The pre-teen girls in the family sitting behind us thought that was hilarious. The second time she had them giggling was when the pastor was giving his sermon and when the whole congregation was quiet, Annika announced "I have to go potty" loudly enough for several rows around us to here. Now the whole family behind us was laughing. Oh well. At least she wasn't making a fuss during church. We had a different family, who was sitting next to us, tell us how well behaved she was during church. That's always nice to hear, especially when we sometimes feel like we're "shushing" and quieting her or distracting her the whole time.

32 weeks pregnant today! My weekly newsletter from BabyCenter said the baby could be around 4 pounds right now. He is still an active little guy and now some of his rolls and twists hurt because he's starting to run out of room in there!