It doesn't feel like there is anything new going on lately. Annika's her cute, adorable self. Kris and I went out on Saturday night for his 5 year service anniversary with his company. It was a nice evening although the program took forever. We were 2 and a half hours into it and they still had another 45 minutes or so to go when we cried uncle and left.

Kris and Annika attended their first ECFE class of the winter session on Friday. One of the moms asked Kris if Annika was also taking swimming lessons. Turns out her little boy is in Annika's swim class too. There is two boys with the same name in the swim class so I'll have to find out which one it is that's also in Annika's ECFE class.

We checked out another new church yesterday. There's not much to report about this one. I don't know if we'll go back or not. The music was awful. Apparently you don't have to sing well to do solos in this church. And the sermon seemed to drag on too long. I started zoning out which is never a good thing in church. We have three churches left to attend. Hopefully one of them will be "it."

Last night Annika and I attended our first swimming class. I think Annika enjoyed parts of it and didn't much care for other parts. First, we arrived pool side about five minutes before class was scheduled to start and I swear I was the only parent in a swimming suit. Other classes were going on at the same time for older children so all the other parents were wearing jeans, sweatshirts, coats, etc. Then there's little old me in my swimming suit. Talk about feeling like a fish out of water. Anyway, there ended up being 8 or so kids in Annika's class. There is one other little girl and one other mom (not together though). Kris and I have this backwards. He goes to class during the day with all the moms and I go to class at night with all the dads. :) Two of the little kids in Annika's class didn't like the big pool. One cried during most of the class until he and his dad got out and left. Another little boy and his dad stayed to the side and played with a toy the whole time, acclimating the little boy to the big pool. During class we sang songs, floated on our stomachs and back, blew bubbles and got our faces wet. Annika is fine with getting her face wet, although she'd rather we didn't. I dunked her two or three times and then she had enough. She thought the blowing bubbles part was hilarious. You could just see her thinking "Look at mommy blowing bubbles, how silly she is!" We also practiced sitting or standing on the side of the pool and jumping in. I was in the pool saying 1, 2, 3, jump and then Annika would lunge towards me. She liked that part. By the end poor baby was so cold though. Her lips were completely blue and she was shivering something fierce when sitting on the side. So we quit that activity and just cuddled together playing in the water. Of course when we got out, I was the one freezing as I tried to get Annika changed back in to her street clothes as quickly as possible. She was a good little girl in the locker room though. She stayed sitting on the bench the whole time so I could change without having to chase her too.

Oh and don't worry. I took about 25 pictures yesterday of Annika in two of her bathing suits. She is just so cute. I'll try to post those by this weekend.

First. First. First...

Congratulations to Grandpa Dan and Marcia on their engagement!! They surprised us on Sunday by stopping over with the good news. After antique ring shopping that day, they found the perfect ring and dropped by on their way home. Marcia's ring is gorgeous. We had some Asti chilled yet from New Year's. We popped the cork and toasted to the happy couple. May they have many more happy years.

Saturday, Annika and I went shopping with Gramme. At lunch time we stopped by Pottery Barn to pick up Auntie Krystle and then went to lunch at Sydney's. Lunch was fine but towards the end, Annika had enough of the high chair. She was over due for a nap and this was our last stop before going home. Gramme took her out to the mall area to run around while Krystle and I stayed to take care of the bill. When we exited the restaurant, we found Gramme and Annika in the toy store next door. Annika was telling Gramme about how much she liked Sesame Street by hugging and lunging at the Elmo and Grover dolls. Since Annika already has an Elmo doll, Gramme decided to buy her the Grover doll. As they stood at the checkout counter paying, Annika pointed at a porcelain doll on a stand nearby. Gramme handed one to Annika and Annika decided she loved this doll so much she was never, ever letting go. Ever. And then Annika had her first ever toy store tantrum. I took the doll away, gave Annika Grover and walked out of the store while Gramme and Krystle finished the transaction. Annika cried these huge tears and had the saddest little face on while also bucking and flopping and generally having a tantrum. We got her quieted down by playing with Grover and his nose and eyes. Pretty soon, Grover was her best friend again and snuggled him the rest of the way to the car. Since Saturday, she has played with Grover constantly. She likes Grover's floppy legs so she gently shakes him to watch his legs move. Apparently, this is quite funny too according to Annika. Sunday night Annika waved Grover's hand and said "bye-bye" to me.I wasn't going anywhere mind you as I was sitting in the recliner but I thought it was the best thing ever anyway. She used a doll to wave "bye-bye". Isn't she like some genius child or something? For sure. We have also decided that Grover has stinky feet. She stuck a foot in my face so I jumped and said "P U Stinky!" She thought that was hilarious and proceeded to stick Grover feet in my face another 99 times before moving on to another activity. She thought it was so funny in fact that Grover had stinky feet that she was practically falling over she was laughing so hard which of course made me laugh and the game took even longer to play. Ah, that Grover. He is a barrel of good times.

Sunday morning while getting ready for church, I set Annika in one of the sinks in the bathroom so she could "brush" her teeth. Basically she chews on the toothbrush. Hey, it occupies her for minutes at a time! I can actually get ready without chasing her around the house. Anyway, she saw my eyelash curler sitting on the countertop, picked it up and pressed it against her eye. Clearly this is more proof that she is the smartest little girl ever. She knows what to do with an eyelash curler! At 16 months! Maybe this doesn't bode well for the future. She loves shoes and clothes and now eyelash curlers. Her teen years are going to be hell, aren't they.

Sunday night, Annika figured out how to crawl up into her high chair, turn around and then carefully sit down. While this another genius move on her part, it is also very scary for her parents to watch. We now make sure to keep the tray locked on her high chair so she can't climb up it. However, this just makes her mad which leads to more tantrums. Exhibit A would be the tantrum she threw last night that Auntie Krystle got to witness. How lucky for Auntie Krystle.

So, remember way up there when I mentioned getting ready for church? Yes, well, we went to another new church on Sunday. We have now found the 3rd out of 3 churches that we will not be returning to. This one was a free church. Kris and I are apparently more traditional than we thought because the 20-30 minutes of music at the beginning was a bit much for us and then the 45 minute sermon by the "pastor" without ever reading any scripture was enough to push us over. Sure, the "pastor" referenced scripture but Kris and I are of the belief that you can't just take quotes from seemingly random parts of the Bible to make your point. That's like taking random sentences from this entire blog and then trying to make a point with them. Okay, that was a weak analogy, but my point is when you take random snippets from stories, parables, etc. you lose the true meaning of those passages. You need to study the lines in question within the story it appears. Or you need to make it abundantly clear that the context and message you are conveying is really what the Bible intended. And simply putting Romans (xx:xx:xx) after the snippet is not good enough for Kris and I. Annika loved this church though. She danced and wiggled during all the singing. And she loved the drums, waving her arms in the air as if she was the drummer. They even had two electric guitars (complete with a guitar solo) and an electric keyboard to go with the 6 singers. We are quite picky about what church we will attend apparently. We still have 5 or 6 more churches to check out. Hopefully we'll find a couple to pursue further than one attendance! Last night I finally finished my pregnancy scrapbook. Next week I will start Annika's 1st year scrapbook. She's only 16 months old. I'm not that far behind! Ha!

Those of you who have young children, had young children, work with young children, know young children...I need your input. You see, Annika is either a scientist or engineer in training or she has a mild form of OCD. When Annika sees a piece of lint on her sock or clothing or my sock or clothing, she must pick it off and give it to me. And when she's eating mixed vegetables for dinner, she eats one kind of vegetable at a time. She'll start by picking out and eating all the carrots, then all the peas, then all the lima beans, etc. I'm sure there other examples if I sat down and thought about them long enough. I'm not concerned about her because she may just be exhibiting my weird OCD like tendencies but I do think it's funny and I was wondering if this is a normal thing for young children. For now I will just be grateful she still eats foods like peas and lima beans and shut up. I'm waiting for the terrible twos to come where she'll refuse all food but McDonald's chicken nuggets (which she's never had by the way) and french fries (which of course she has).

I love my daugher so much that it hurts. You mothers out there know what I'm talking about. When I was pregnant, Kris and I would daydream about what she would look like, her personality, etc. We had a list of things we hoped she had from each of us. We hoped she had my thick, full of body hair instead of Kris's thin hair. I hoped she had my feet because I really like my feet which Kris teases me about all the time. I hoped she had Kris's eye shape since I have huge bags underneath mine all the time no matter how much sleep I've gotten. Of course, we didn't daydream about which of our flaws, both physical and personality-wise, she would inherit from us. Much to my chagrine, Annika has inherited my terrible skin. My skin is always dry. Kris hates that I lube up twice a day with Eucerin. If I don't though, my skin on my arms and legs will literally flake off. My face is also terribly dry. I actually have facial dermitis under my mouth and when it's flaring up, it's red, flaky and terribly itchy. It's most attractive and I really feel my best walking around like a huge freak! Not. Anyway, about a week ago, Annika developed small red bumps on her upper right thigh. Since then, the rash has grown to encompass her entire right thigh, her right shoulder, her right forearm and the right side of her belly. Since it was all on her right side, I was sure she had some atrocious disease or that it was heat rash from sweating while sleeping on her side or some other weird explanation. No, Annika just has really dry skin. The doctor gave us a prescription for her today and if it hasn't gone away in a week, we are to bring her back. I was hoping she would be spared my skin problems, but I don't think she's been that lucky. Rats.

First off - Happy Birthday Grandma Lona! I tried to post yesterday but blogger was done and wouldn't let me in. Bummer! We had a nice dinner out last night with Grandma Lona, Grandpa Dale, Aunt Kim and Uncle Dusty.

I was poking around in Annika's mouth tonight (very carefully since she has SHARP teeth and likes to use them) and found that her bottom right molar has popped through. So, baby girl is working on two bottom molars right now. She's been sleeping pretty well the last few nights (knock on wood) and hopefully that won't change now that it's poked through. That makes 12 teeth so far. She has her four front teeth on top, four front teeth on bottom, two molars on top and now two molars on the bottom.

I'm up to 3 shows now that I like to watch on a weekly basis. Ever since Annika was born, my tv watching has gone way down. That's not a big surprise to anybody who has children. Anyway, I like watching Alias and Veronica Mars and now American Idol has started it's 5th season. Right now the it's the trainwrecks with a few good people sprinkled in. I actually watch it for the good people so I can't wait until they are done with the auditions and move on to Hollywood. I love singing and am amazed by the talent of some of these people! Say what you will about people (stars, celebrities, etc.) like Christina Aguilera but that girl can sing! I probably love singing and the power of people's voices so much because I suck, suck, suck at singing. You always want what you don't have, right?

OK, I think I'm heading to bed now. I'm so tired!

We may have part of the mystery solved with respect to Annika's sleeping problems lately. Her 11th tooth popped through yesterday. It's a molar on the bottom left side of her mouth. The corresponding molar on her bottom right is just about ready to poke through too. We're going to have to dig out the Baby Orajel tonigt I think. She slept fairly well last night. She went to bed at 7pm completely worn out. She woke up at 1am but went back to sleep fairly easily after I gave her a pacifier and laid her back down and covered her with blankets. Then she woke up again at 4:30am and wanted somebody in her room with her. So, I laid on the floor next to her crib. This wasn't quite good enough as she needed to be touched as well. So, I laid on the floor, with my hand up between the crib slats resting on her back and then she wiggled around until she was holding my finger. And that is show she fell back asleep - after I heard my alarm go off in the other room at 5:10am. Lovely. Luckily, I went to bed at 9:30pm last night so I got a couple good chunks of sleep and am surprisingly not that tired today. I am very thankful that we don't have any plans this weekend though so I can take some naps and catch up. This has been a hard week sleep-wise. Kris said today he plans on taking a 4 hour nap tomorrow like I did last weekend. I think I may join him for at least part of that if Annika will cooperate and sleep with us. Ah, a girl can dream, right?

One of Annika's latest tricks is to lay down on the first step of the stairs. She lays there and kicks her feet before rolling off and landing feet first on the floor. It's very cute but also bittersweet. She is almost as long as the step! It makes her look so big.

Annika has also taken to singing lately. It's not with a song, just when she's playing with toys, she'll be quietly singing to herself. Getting cavities yet from the sweetness?

Annika's cold is clearing up finally. However, now, when she sees a tissue laying around or a tissue box, she always has to grab it and wipe her nose with it. And if you're nearby, she needs to wipe your nose too.

Along with noses, Annika can also point out where your ears, eyes, knees and toes are. When I soap her up in the bath tub or put lotion on her, I name all her body parts as I'm doing it. She's a smart little girl and has caught on quickly. I do the same thing as I'm reading books to her (which she loves so we read A LOT). I'll point out the red balloon or the little mouse while reading Goodnight Moon, etc. Now, I'll ask her while I'm reading it where the red balloon is and she points to it. Kris is amazed by this. He asked yesterday how she knows that and I told him about the pointing while I'm reading.

Annika's sleeping has been hit or miss lately. Monday night she was up for hours during the middle of the night, wide awake and ready to go. Then she slept through Tuesday night and then last night she was constantly up again over and over. I'm exhausted today because of it. I may be going to bed shortly after Annika does tonight. I'm sure Kris will be taking naps with her today too. Ugh. So sleepy.

I haven't talked about Annika's vocabularly in a while. She's saying more and more words and phrases all the time. Last week, she started making the sound for duck. Instead of simply saying quack, quack though, Daddy would use the back of his throat to make the quack sound. Annika imitated him and now the quack, quack out of her sounds like she's clearing her throat. It's hilarious. She also says woof, woof for the dog noise. On Sunday, Grandpa Dale taught her to say "bye, bye, baby, bye, bye" and she's been saying that on and off again now too. And Monday night Krystle and I thought we heard her say "Mara" for the dog. This morning, she said it plain as day while pointing at the dog. Apparently Mara is easier for Annika to say than it is for Gramme. :) She babbles all the time in conversational tones but I don't know all that she's saying yet. Pretty soon we'll be having conversations though. :)

Yesterday Kris and Annika went to their first music class. They played with handkerchiefs and instruments, toys and balls. Annika stared at a little baby that was there and ignored everyone else. Kris said she wasn't too overly impressed with the entire production, but had a good time nonetheless.

I made a doctor appointment for Annika this morning. She's had a runny nose since before Christmas and last week she developed a cough to go along with it and over the weekend her runny nose turned green. Last night she woke up coughing and coughing. She put herself back to sleep, but it still woke me up and I didn't like hearing her cough away like that. I decided this morning that enough was enough and I wanted to be told it was just a cold. And it is. It is just a cold. She's been sleeping pretty well and is still running around like the crazy toddler that she is, so I guess all is well. Kris took her to our new clinic just up the road from our house. I was even able to get in with the pediatrician of my choice this morning. This is a pediatrician, Dr. S., that was recommended to me by another mother. Kris said he liked her well enough on the 5 minute visit he had. And that the nurse told him she's a really good pediatrician so I think we'll revisit her when we have Annika's 18 month check up in 2 months. I'll go along to that one so I'll get to meet her then.

Annika turned 16 months old on Saturday. We celebrated by laying around the house all day. I celebrated by taking an almost 4 hour nap. I have a cold too and was wiped out! That evening we went out to dinner with Grandpa Dan, Auntie Krystle and Pierce. Annika, of course, charmed us through out dinner and flirted with the lady at the table next to us. She's such an angel (usually) in restaurants. Everyone came back to our house afterwards to finish watching the NFL playoff game. It was a nice, casual evening.

Yesterday, we headed southeast to visit Great Uncle Eric and Great Aunt Lorraine and the rest of the family. We haven't seen them in a very, very long time. I think Annika was an infant the last time we saw them! It was much too long ago, that is for sure. Annika delighted them all afternoon. Kris and I were wore out though from chasing after her. Their house is definitely not baby proof (of course not, why would it be with 3 grown children and no grandchildren yet?) and there were lots of fun, breakable items for her to reach and get into. At one point, Annika had 3 people following her around. It looked like a small parade going through the house. I like it much better when people come visit me and I can just let Annika play! So, want to come visit us? We're free this weekend!!

OK, what do you think of the new template? You'll have to e-mail me to tell me as I don't have comments enabled right now. Not many people commented before anyway. If I suddenly start getting lots of e-mail, maybe I'll reinstall comments.

I think the new template is pretty. It's not very childish but the blog is moving away from Annika as an infant and more of a family blog so this will have to do. I liked the colors of this template when I found it and the Sunday Breakfast header also caught my eye. Growing up, we went out to breakfast on Sunday's after church for many, many years with my great aunt and uncle. Those are some wonderful memories of my childhood and my new template will always remind me of those. Maybe Kris and I can start those same memories and traditions with Annika. I wonder what will be some of her cherished childhood memories.

If you see anything not working with the new template, please e-mail and let me know.

Last night Grandpa Dan came over to switch vehicles. My truck is in the shop today. Hopefully nothing major is wrong, but we had some problems with the 4x4 a few weeks ago. As soon as Grandpa got his coat and shoes off, he clapped his hands and held them out for Annika. She jumped in his arms and stayed there. I tried to take her from him so he could eat some dinner, but she insisted that she sit on his lap, even while he ate. My little running-around-all-the-time-never-stops-ever little girl was still and content with Grandpa. It was such a delight for me. A while later she was off running around again though so while Kris was upstairs working (he worked from home last night - what a treat for us!!!), Grandpa and I were entertained by Annika.

Have you seen Michelle's new template? It's pretty and purple! I have a new one picked out and hope to get it uploaded tonight or this weekend some time. I wish I had the time and skill to make a custom template for myself using pics of Annika. I'm sure it's not hard as the blogger template is easy to manipulate. I just don't have the inclination to teach myself right now.

Annika took a spill yesterday. She wanted something she couldn't have (imagine that - a toddler wanting something they can't have!) and proceeded to throw a minor tantrum. She started jumping up and down (jumping at 15 months!!), throwing her head back and whining. Well, she started jumping on the edge of the area rug and ended up on the hard wood floors, slipped and fell forward, hitting her face on the area rug. Besides being snotty (from her cold and crying), there was blood. I freaked out when I saw it was coming from her right front tooth. It was just a little around her gum line but I asked Kris for the next ten minutes if we should be calling a dentist. Annika was done bleeding within a minute of the accident and Kris decided it was so minor it didn't warrant a phone call. The tooth is not loose and to calm Annika down, we gave her a pacifier and she happily sucked on that only moments after the accident. I don't think she would have done that had something actually been hurting or wrong. So, her first blood doesn't seem to be too bad. It sure scared Mama though.

Happy New Year!

We've had a fun couple of days. Sunday we went to a new church and then to Uncle Dusty and Aunt Kim's house. They were having a party to celebrate the new year. That was fun and Annika had a great time chasing the dog and observing the other kids. We had to leave early as we had invited over our neighbors. Our neighbors to our left and the ones across the street were both able to join us. It was great to get to know them a little better. J and W across the street have a 2 1/2 year old boy, Z, and a 7 month old daugher, D. I'm so glad Annika will have play friends nearby! A and K, our next door neighbors, are newly weds and have no children. I think we're going to get along well with them all. W and I are even thinking of having a garage sale together this spring. If you have anything you want to get rid of, let me know!

Annika went down very normally that evening, falling asleep around 7:45pm. When I went to bed about 2 hours later, she woke up. This is very uncharacteristic of her. She was awake for the next 4 hours. There was crying, frustration and finally playing. Two hours into the 4, I told Kris, who was still up trying to play a computer game, to just go downstairs and play with her so I could get some sleep. I was exhausted by this point. Two hours later they came back up and Kris tried putting her to sleep again. More crying ensued. I got up and rocked her in the glider and she fell asleep. Afraid to lay her down in her crib, I brought her to bed with me. After some fitful sleep, she didn't wake for the day until 8:30am. I guess she just woke up wide awake and wanted to play for a couple hours. She still has a cold so that could have been part of it too. I'm thinking about taking her to the doctor for this cold. She's had it since before Christmas and doesn't seem to be getting better yet. And although she has a cough, it doesn't seem to be getting worse. To complicate matters, we switched insurance companies as of the 1st of the year and don't have our new ID cards yet. And, we have switched clinics too!

Yesterday, Annika and I were home all day while Kris was at his parents house putting together a new desk for them. I hope they like it. Mary and Amanda came over and we spent the afternoon chatting and making cookies. It was great girl time. After they left, Annika and I took a nap and Daddy arrived home and started playing a computer game. I got up and Auntie Krystle came over. She brought hers and my scrapbooking supplies so we can start our weekly scrapping night up again. Grandpa Dan and Uncle Mathias joined us after they got off work and we had a nice pizza and college football evening. Annika ended up taking a 2.5 hour nap late in the afternoon so we was up late in the evening enjoying her extended family too.

And now we're back to our normal routines. Maybe this will help Annika get over her cold - a nice, normal routine full of naps and limited outings. I sure hope so!