Here is a picture of Annika sitting in her Care Bear chair watching Sesame Street. I had to take about 10 pictures before I got one where she would break her concentration and look at me. She was very serious about watching Elmo.

Last night was Jeanette's CAbi party. When I arrived home from work, Annika and I had some play time before eating dinner. After dinner we had to do an emergency hair washing since Annika decided that the way to get rid of the pizza sauce on your fingers is to rub it in your hair. Instead of stripping her down and throwing her in tub, I laid her on the bathroom countertop and stuck her head in the sink. She didn't know what was going on. After I washed her hair, I brushed it and dried it with a hair dryer. She finally has enough hair to blow dry! Usually after a bath I let her hair air dry so she was very cautious about this thing blowing warm air on her head. At least I have a very quiet hair dryer and it was on the low setting so it didn't scare her.

Annika had a great time at the CAbi party. She sat nicely on my lap through the whole hour+ demonstration. She was cracking the people near us up when she kept pointing to her pants and saying "pants" over and over again. After the demonstration I tried on a couple shirts and jackets and Annika just followed me around the whole time munching on a cracker. She was absolutely perfect. We left fairly early so I get could Annika home to bed.

Tonight Auntie Krystle is babysitting so Kris and I can go to a martini party at Pam and Mark's house. Tomorrow Annika and I have a playdate with some work friends of mine. Sunday Annika and I are going to visit Gramme and Grandpa Merv and then shop with Auntie Krystle while Daddy works on our taxes. Fun, fun, fun!

Annika pee-pee'd in the potty yesterday! We were having a little "let's sit on the potty and read books" time while I was making dinner. I left the bathroom to throw the pasta in the boiling water and when I came back, there it was! I didn't make too big a deal out of it. I showed it to her while telling her what she had done and congratulated her. Then we re-diapered and went on with our evening. Now that she's done it though, maybe she'll start connecting the two activities. I think I'll be more diligent about giving her some potty time each day. Maybe if Kris did it during the day and I in the evening, she'll catch on.

Yesterday was a very nice day around here. It was mid 50's and sunny. I had a few meetings I needed to call into from home and Annika really wanted some Mommy time right then (of course!) so Kris took her out for a walk. They were so cute walking away from the house. Annika was sitting in her wagon with a little sun hat on, holding on to both sides of the wagon all excitedly. I tried to get a picture from the office window but it didn't work too well. They were gone for about an hour though. They walked to the park down the street from our house. This park doesn't have any swings so Annika spent all her time going down the slide again and again. She loves slides. It's supposed to be nice again on Saturday I think so maybe we'll take another walk to the park before our playdate.

The picture of Annika to the right was taken yesterday. She has found some of her summer hats. Yesterday when I arrived home from work Kris let Annika out the front door to come greet me. She sprinted down the driveway towards me as I was coming back up from getting the mail. She didn't stop when she reached me though. She sprinted right past and headed for the street. Luckily no cars were coming because she did make it about 5 feet into the street before I caught her. We played chase Annika around the driveway for a few minutes before heading back inside. Kris said when Annika saw me get out of the car she grabbed her hat and coat and headed for the door. I guess she really wanted to come see Mommy!

Kris said Annika was really, really crabby yesterday. First waking so early in the morning, then having tantrums almost all day long and only taking a 25 minute nap. He felt around in her mouth and she has four teeth coming through. They are her 4 eye teeth (2 top and 2 bottom). Not only are these the most painful teeth because they are so sharp, but she's getting them all at once! Poor girl. It doesn't make the tantrums any more fun, but they are more tolerable since we have some reason for them happening. We had the baby Orajel on standby in case she woke up during the night needing it. Luckily she only woke once and went right back to sleep.

After Sesame Street, Annika's favorite show is Baby Einstein's Neighborhood Animals. She asks to watch it by saying "EIEIO?" At one point during the 30 minute movie, they introduce cows and horses by singing Old MacDonald. She loves that part and gets up to dance around the room. She knows when the movie is ending too because before the credits even roll, she's signing and asking "more." Sometimes we give in and let her watch it again. Kris is so tired of watching it! From Netflix today we are receiving another Baby Einstein video and a Sesame Street video (Elmopalooza!). This will give Kris a different choice for a little while! Annika's going to lose her little mind though to see Elmo. She loves him! She also loves Ernie. Those are by far her two favorite Sesame Street characters. Oh, and Grover. I forgot about him. She loves Grover too. Good thing she has an Elmo and Grover doll. She likes making her Grover doll dance by bouncing him around in the air and watching his arms and legs shake and move. She is just too precious.

Remember that map I pictured a couple posts down? With Blogger, I can add pictures to each post. I was thinking of adding an Annika picture with each post. This picture is one of my favorite Annika photographs. This was her six month portrait. I'll try and get some more recent ones downloaded from the camera and onto this machine for future entries. Fun, no?

Annika woke up at 5:15am this morning and she was not intererested in the least in going back to sleep. While not ideal, this was not the worst thing in the world. However, Annika only wanted her mommy this morning and mommy had to get in the shower, get ready and go to work. There were many, many tears. Fortunately, she was done crying before I even left the house. I called home when I got to work and she was busy "roaring" in the background as I talked to Daddy. I know in my head that she's fine and will have a good day with Daddy but it is still so hard to walk out of the room and leave her when she's crying, calling for Mommy and stretching out for me. I just want to run back to her and hold her forever.

Today at 3:15pm I go in for the next bone marrow donor blood test.

This has been the absolute most fabulous weekend. I have received 3 new pair of shoes! Ha! OK, so I set myself a goal. Work out at least 3 times a week for 3 weeks in a row and I can buy myself a new pair of shoes. I did that (yay!) so Friday night I went shoe shopping. I got myself a pair of shoes and then another pair off the clearance rack ($10!!). Today after church, (I'll tell you more about this later) we went to Kohl's (dangerous when it's only blocks from your house) and found Kris two pairs of jeans. Then we went to Famous Footwear (even more dangerous when it's blocks from your house and you have to drive by it daily and not stop to shop!) and they were having a buy one get one half off sale so Kris got two pairs of shoes (much needed!), Annika got a new pair of sandals for spring and I got another pair of shoes! Score! Other fabulous things have included lots of Annika time (ohmygodIlovehersomuchithurtsandIwanttospendallandImeanallmytimewithher!, a reasonably priced hair cut ($24!) at an Aveda salon (love you Darci, my new stylist), and dinner last night with Dusty and Kim.

So, church. The service was nice. The sermon was okay. They have a nice choir and pipe organ and building and lots of young families. We spent a long time after church chatting with the pastor and his wife. I really liked both of them. The pastor actually grew up near Stanely, ND! The church if fairly new (remodeled or new in 1998) and they have a nice "child section" in the back of church for the rowdy toddlers who don't like to sit still. Can you say Annika? Yeah. I think we'll go back to this church and check it out more. There are two pastors at this church and we'd like to hear both of them preach before we commit. Kris also found a church recommended to him by a fellow ECFE parent that's in a nearby town. We'll go there too but I'd really like a church that is in town.

OK. Big news. As some of you know, I'm on the national donor marrow list. My cousin Randy has had 3 kidney transplants due to a birth defect and they have impacted my life such that 10 years ago (how can it be that long already?!?) I signed up to be a bone marrow donor. My dad is actually on the list too. A couple months ago I received a phone call that I was a potential match for someone. At that point they were going to test the blood sample they had on file. Tonight, I received a call that I have made it to the next step. The next step is to give another blood sample. The results would come back in 6-8 weeks. I go in either Tuesday or next Monday to give that sample. There is a 5-15% chance that I make it through this next step. If I did make it through the next step, I would have to go in for another blood test around the end of May (6-8 weeks for this next test to be processed). Those test results would take another 8 weeks to come back. There is a 15% chance I would make it through that hurdle (results would be in around the end of July). If I did, I would donate my marrow in 4-6 weeks after that (September time frame). My head is spinning right now thinking of all the what-ifs. I'm excited and scared and happy (that I could potentially help) and sad (for the 38 year old woman with Hodgkins Lymphoma) and on and on and on. Oh. And Yikes.

According to sitemeter, This site has had 13,969 page views since it's inception in December of 2003. And it averages 17 hits a day. That's pretty low level in the game of blogging (think Dooce for a second). However, the day I hit 10,000 page views was pretty exciting. It's fun for me to think that somebody might want to see what I've written or to hear my little stories about Annika. The map I've posted shows the last 100 people to log on to the site. There are people in Alabama, San Jose, Michigan, etc. that come to this site. I don't know anybody in those locations! I have not worked any more on trying to add comments to this site. I know I can do it with blogger, I just have to figure out where in my template code I need to put it. However, if anyone would like to e-mail me and introduce themselves, I would love it! E-mail me at nina_at_ninabina.com.

Last night Annika added a bunch more words to her repetoire. She was bouncing around the house like usual when I get home from work. She is one happy little monkey to see her mama. Instead of just squealing and laughing while jumping around though, last night she was yelling "Up and Down" while jumping. She also pointed out and said "monkey". At one point, she was sitting at her little picnic table reading books and pointing out objects and correctly identifying them (book, hippo, kitty, etc.). I grabbed the video camera and started to record. Of course as soon as I started recording, Annika decided to stand up and grunt and groan while filling her pants. Lovely. So glad I got that on camera. After putting the camera away, I took Annika's hand and lead her upstairs saying we had to change her diaper. I told her there were poopies in her diaper so we needed to changer her and she proceeded to say "poopies" throughout the entire diaper change.

We have a pretty relaxing weekend coming up. Tomorrow morning Kris and I are running a 5K with Amanda and Dean while Pam and Annika cheer us on from the sidelines. Tomorrow night Uncle Dusty and Auntie Kim are coming over for dinner and Annika playt ime. Sunday we have no plans except for church and laundry. Exciting, yes? I love our family down time together.

Our usual bedtime routine is as follows: brush teeth, change diaper, lotion, pajamas, turn on night light and music, shut off overhead light, cuddle with mom, lay down in crib, cover with blankets, whisper good night wishes and walk out and close door. It works very well and Annika knows exactly what's happening and goes to bed very easily. Sunday night after I laid Annika in her crib, she rolled over and waved and said "bye-bye" to me, then rolled back over and went to sleep. Last night as we were cuddling she told me bye-bye. I guess that was my cue to put the girl down, she wanted to go to sleep already Mommy!

Annika's also been very into skin to skin contact lately. Have I told you this already? Anyway, last night when I got home from work, Annika was taking a nap. Kris left for work and a while later Annika woke. She was still sleepy so I was cuddling her on my lap when she started pawing at my turtle-neck sweater. I changed into a v-neck shirt and we sat back down. Annika burrowed her face into my chest and fell back asleep for another 30 minutes or so until Auntie Krystle came over. I was worried how bed time would go seeing as Annika didn't get up from her nap until 5:45pm. However, at 7:30, we did her usual routine and she went right to sleep. Poor girl was exhausted from her big day yesterday. First her and Daddy met Grandpa Dale to do a computer disc exchange. Then they went go-carting with Daddy's work. Annika did not, of course, go-cart. She played with Beth and Ella while Daddy raced around the track. Daddy even got the fastest lap award. He was quite proud. Daddy said that Annika was cheering him on from the side, yelling "Go Daddy Go!" I'm sure Beth and Ella had some part in teaching her to say that but how cute!

As mentioned earlier, Auntie Krystle came over last night to scrapbook. Annika gave Auntie Krystle a big treat last night. She said "Auntie" for the very first time. Auntie Krystle has wanted her to say that for so long. She was thrilled when Annika said it and that she was there to hear it. As I was making dinner, Auntie Krystle and Annika were sitting in the recliner reading books. They were reading a Dr. Seuss book when Annika started counting! She said two, three, four, five, six while pointing out objects in the book! Granted, she always skips one (remember two, three, jump? That's still big in our house) but she got all the way to six correctly! That Sesame Street viewing is really paying off I think. Kris said that she also says B, C, D, E and then skips to P and Q. She likes Q for some reason. Gramme gave Annika this wooden alphabet puzzle for Christmas. Annika likes playing with that and taking the puzzle pieces from the puzzle part and putting them in the corresponding book part. This weekend she even got a couple pieces in the right spot. It is so fun to watch her learn and figure things out. We've got out the crayons and paper or coloring books a few times but Annika still tries to eat the crayons more than she colors with them so those sessions have been pretty short. She'll learn though and it will probably be before I know it!

Well, Friday night didn't go exactly as planned. Annika and I had dinner with Auntie Krystle and Pierce and then went home. After Kris arrived home around 10pm I quickly got my things together and left. I was at O'Gara's by 10:40pm to see the gb leighton band which started at 10:30pm. Not too bad, I thought. Until I saw the line to get in the bar out the door and all the way down the block. No problem I thought. I'm going to the Garage section which is a separate part of the bar with it's own entrance. I walk up to the door only to be greeted by a security guard saying this entrance is closed and the bar is at maximum capacity. No one else can get in, not even all those people waiting in line. Lucky for me, Pierce was standing near the entrance at the cash machine. He sees me and goes and gets Krystle for me. She comes out to talk for a few minutes. G.B. Leighton is all sold out and there's no way for me to get inside. I give her a Happy Birthday hug and then get back in my car and drive home. I'm home by 11:30pm and in bed sleeping at 11:31pm. Oh well.

Kris and I were able to go out Saturday night. Grandpa Dan came over to babysit so we could go out and celebrate Pam's 30th birthday. We went to the Mediterranean Cruise Cafe for dinner. The food was excellent, company was wonderful and the bellydancers were fabulous.

Yesterday was a busy day for me. I met Mary, Amanda and Amanda's fiance Dean at the Minneapolis Convention Center for the wedding fair. We spent a few hours walking around there finding photographers, dresses, cake, receptions sites, etc. for Amanda. Then I hurried home to pick up Kris and Annika so we could head to dinner with Grandpa Dan, Grandma Marcia, Uncle Mathias, Auntie Krystle and Pierce. We were celebrating Krystle's birthday (again - see a theme here?) :) Annika was acting funny at dinner though. I'm not sure if she was not feeling well, if her teeth were bothering her (her two eye teeth are coming through) or if she was just really tired. She only wanted to be by her Mom or Dad though. No one else was good enough. Little stinker. She was happily playing with Grandpa when we left on Saturday night and didn't even want to stop to say good-bye to Mommy and Daddy.

Two cute Annika anecdotes to finish up this entry. 1 - Yesterday morning Annika and I went to her room to change her diaper and get her dressed for the day. After finishing, I was throwing her diaper away and her pajamas in the laundry hamper in her room when Annika came up behind me and kissed my back. I thought oh how sweet, my baby loves me, she wuvs her mama, etc. etc. Then I told her to follow me to my room so I could change clothes and get ready for the day. She did. She followed along kissing the wall, the door, the shower door, etc. along the way. Yeah, apparently I rank right up there with doors and walls. 2 - Annika can say a lot of animal noises. Her funniest to date was the duck because she uses the back of her throat to say "qwack". Well, Kris has taught her to do the elephant and I think it's my new favorite. She puts her hand to her mouth (instead of her arm like Daddy does) then lifts her head to simulate an elephant moving it's trunk as she says makes a high pitched humming noise. Okay, so I can't describe it very well. It's hilarious as everyone at dinner last night can attest. We, of course, make Annika show off all her tricks whenever anyone is around. My Baby. I've only been at work an hour and already I miss her terribly.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Since I'm a quarter Irish, I am wearing my only green shirt today. Tomorrow is Auntie Krystle's birthday. Happy birthday Auntie Krystle! To celebrate both occasions, we are going out to dinner tonight and then later to an Irish bar in St. Paul to listen to some good, live music and enjoy a (green?) beer or two. Annika will be coming with to dinner tonight. I don't even know if I have anything green for her to wear! I might have to rummage through her closet but I can't think of anything right now. When Kris gets home from work tonight, I'll leave to join Auntie Krystle at the bar. It should be a fun evening out even though I'm going to be pretty tired tomorrow morning. Annika insists on waking for the day around 6:30am. More than likely I'll be napping with her tomorrow. Good thing that's just about my favorite thing to do!

Do any of you use Flickr? I'm thinking of setting up an account and would like some feedback.

Yesterday Annika had her 18 month well baby check up. She is perfect according to the doctor. She has some dry skin on her arm so we need to be diligent about moisturizing her twice a day. Otherwise, everything checked out exactly as it should have. She is 22 pounds, 11 ounces which is the 27th percentile. She is 33 inches tall which is the 85th percentile and her head circumference is 46.8 cm which is the 55th percentile. She's still tall and skinny which you can tell by looking at her and comparing her with other kids her age, of course. Before we go back for her two year appointment we need to work on two things - drinking from a cup (no sippy cups) and no more pacifiers. Annika received her last baby immunization yesterday and doesn't need to have any more until kindergarten! Yay!

Last night was our last swimming lesson for this session. Kris was able to come and watch us and take some pictures. How can I scrapbook if I don't have pictures!?! Watching a swimming lesson isn't the most exciting thing ever but I was glad he could come anyway. I think Annika was too. She kept saying "Daddy" and pointing at him during our lesson.

Annika is up to 80 words that she can say. Or at least that we've written down. I have the list with me today. Here they are:

baby, sock, ball, mama, daddy, kitty, shoe, dog, pig, book, no, two, three, puppy, uh-oh, more, eyes, Mara (the dog), teeth, bye, hi, out, wait, wow, yeah, up, yes, soft, mine, good-bye, duck, tick, tock, cheese, chair, cookies, please, bird(ie), car, Bert, train, upsa-daisy, jump, shower, sheep, Ernie, naughty, boots, outside, button, hat, street (for Sesame Street), soup, meow, ruff, moo, knee, foot, ice, Dusty, Thias (for Mathias), hippo, fox, ouch, roar, where, go, Where Daddy go?, apple, turtle, flies (for butterfly), frog, zipper, boat, hot, hello, boobie (oops!), Bless you, Elmo, whoo-whoo (for owl noise)

I don't know how much longer we'll keep writing down her words. She's adding to these at a pretty good pace.

So the 4-6 inch snowstorm ended up producing 8-10 inches in the metro area and sometimes double that in the outstate. Luckily for me it didn't take me any longer than usual to get home from work. The roads are still not the best this morning, but snow was not the reason I was late this morning. It was the sun. I love not going in to work in the total dark anymore but the sun now causes new problems. I think I'm going to have to leave earlier or risk the slow traffic problem each time my drive takes me due east. Well, that was about the most boring paragraph ever, now wasn't it? We'll wrap it up by thanking my lucky stars that I wasn't one of the hundreds of people in the ditch yesterday or in the 30 mile traffic jam on 94 east of Hudson. That must have been just a big ball of fun.

I hope Kris gets a chance to take Annika outside to play in the snow today. They have music class and then nap time this afternoon so I don't know if he will or not. If not, I think I'll bundle her up when I get home and throw her in the nearest snowbank. Our winter has been so wimpy that Annika hasn't had much snow play time. Of course, there will be pictures. There are always pictures.

Kris called me at work this morning for no apparent reason other than he misses me. (Ahhhh) He did have one new Annika trick to share with me though. Now when Kris sings "Old MacDonald" Annika will sing the E-I-E-I-O and the animals noises parts for him. How cute! And interactive! My girl child is obviously a genius. I kid, of course. She's a super genius!

OK, so it took over 2 hours to get to work today. Lovely. Although it is pretty outside with all the fresh snow. We're supposed to get 4-6 inches today. If I had my laptop with me at home, I would have worked from home today. Oh well, live and learn.

Saturday we went to Sadie's and had Annika's 18 month pictures taken. She wasn't very cooperative so we only got a couple different poses and no traditional pictures. We did get a couple very cute ones though. One is Annika sitting with some Easter eggs. It's very, very cute. We also got 2 others of her posing with a real, live bunny. Those are precious as well even if her face is turned towards the bunny in both. I have a 5x7 for each of the grandparents of Annika with the Easter eggs. Annika's 6 month picture is still on the wall in the dressing room at Sadie's. And one of the ones took Saturday with the bunny made the wall too. Annika - you're famous!

While waiting for our pictures to be printed, we wandered the mall. I wanted to get Annika some lightweight long sleeve shirts for this spring. All I had for warm weather clothing was too summery (think tank tops and shorts). Instead of putting Annika in her stroller, we let her walk most of the time. She had a great time exploring. Last night, I posted a bunch more pictures from last weekend up north and this weekend at the mall. She found a hat at Old Navy that she liked and plopped it on her head. She also had fun at Lego Land with Daddy while Mommy paid at Children's Place.

This week is pretty low key and back to normal for Annika. Wednesday is her last swimming lesson. I'm hoping Daddy can come with to see her and also take some pictures.

Annika has been a total Momma's girl lately. From the moment she wakes to when she goes to sleep at night, all she wants is her mom. If I leave the room, she throws a fit. If I try to give her to Daddy or someone else, she throws a fit. Only if she is in the best of moods will she go to others. Is there such a thing as an 18 month separation anxiety phase? To really get her point across, she no longer allows me to kiss her daddy while in her presence. If Kris and I kiss, Annika literally shoves her body between us and pushes Daddy away from her mommy. Sometimes we do it just to make her mad. I know, we're horrible parents. But come on, it's funny! Yesterday I told Kris to give me a kiss. He, being in a silly mood, stuck his tongue and lunged at me. Annika was in her high chair watching us and thought it was funny when Mommy squirmed to get away. So, later in the day when she was sitting in my lap, Annika turned to me with her tongue sticking out and lunged at me. Sure enough, I got a big old tongue kiss from her. She thought this was hilarious and tried to grab my ears for leverage as I squirmed away from her. This is how all of her kisses used to be. She's learned to pucker up and usually kisses nicely now.

Annika's favorite book lately is Dr. Seuss' "Go Dog Go." We read through the book and point out all the dogs. After reading it yesterday, I set the book in Annika's lap. She opened to the last page and gave kisses to each dog. It was pretty funny how she'd smack the book on her face and then we'd hear a loud smooch sound coming from her.

The two visits to the resort pool over the weekend really did wonders for Annika I think. Last night at swimming lessons, she did all of her skills exactly as she should and when asked. She floated on her tummy. She laid on her back and kicked her legs. She did arms scoops. She jumped off the side. She let me dunk her 3 times. She even asked for more when we were jumping off the side, dunking her and jumping off the diving board. next week is our last swimming lesson. I'll have to make sure Daddy comes with so he can see her in the pool and maybe take some pictures too.

Saturday Annika is having her 18 month photos taken. I didn't know what she was going to wear until last night. We had a couple options in mind but when I went to Target last night I found this adorable little yellow dress and white sweater and then cute little white sandals. Each item was only $10 so I splurged and bought her a new outfit. She'll wear this dress for Easter too so at least it wasn't all for just the pictures.

Auntie Carrie leaves for home today. She's at our house today playing with Kris and Annika before they take her to the airport. I'm sure Annika is eating up all the attention!

It's back to the real world for us. Having been away for 4 days on a quick vacation, we're all settling back into our routines today. We've been up north at Breezy Point since Saturday with Grandma Lona and Grandpa Dale and Aunt Carrie. Uncle Dusty and Uncle Adam were there on Saturday and Sunday. We had a very nice time. Annika was of course the center of attention the whole time and never without somebody with which to play. Annika was finally able to play in some snow this winter. She's only been out in it once or twice here at home and always during the day with Kris. I was excited to see her play in it myself. We took her out on the frozen lake and she played there some before we took her to the ice rink and skated her around on her boots. Then we went to the playground. She went down all the slides and absolutely loved them. She was getting so cold (her cheeks and nose were really pink) so we started heading back inside even through Annika's protestations. We also went swimming twice. Annika really became more comfortable in the water this weekend. She floated on her back without as much resistance and she got the hang of jumping off the side. Annika also learned a bunch of new words with the help of flashcards that Grandma Lona and Grandpa Dale brought her. One of these days I'll post the list of words that she can say. Of course, pictures will be uploaded from the camera to this site one of these days. I did upload a bunch Friday night so you can take a look at those!

Pam has started a baby blog. I've added a link so go take a look!

I have so much to tell you! I haven't had time to update here so I keep a small sheet of paper nearby and I keep writing down topics. The list is getting so long!

Monday night when Auntie Krystle was over, she and Annika were reading books. Krystle was impressed that Annika could point out the owl and fox (among other common aminals like cat, dog, pig, etc.) and name them. It is so cute to hear her say owl and fox. When she was tired that night she walked over to the stairs and started going up them. I asked her where she was going and she turned to look at me before going up a couple more. I followed her up and put her to bed. How many toddlers do you know that go to bed on their own? I think this is pay back for not sleeping through the night her whole first year.

At the grocery store last weekend, we bought a couple bananas. Annika loves bananas and will eat a whole one by herself. This is a good thing since Kris and I both really dislike bananas so anything left uneaten by her gets thrown away.

Tuesday night Annika and I had dinner at Amanda's house with her and Mary. Guess what? Amanda asked me to be her maid of honor! I'm so excited! I thought for sure her sister would be her maid of honor but her sister lives in North Carolina and I'm local, plus we've been friends for almost 12 years now. Right now they are thinking of getting married spring of '07 (April - early June) or fall of '07 (September - early October). Depending on when they choose to get married and when Kris and I are lucky enough to have a second child, I might either be very pregnant or nursing a young infant at their wedding! Good times! At least they're getting married here in Minnesota so it shouldn't be too big of a deal. Amanda said a couple swear words (f**k, s**t, d*mn) that night during dinner. I kept giving her dirty looks (while trying not to laugh at her) and she kept apologizing (while trying not to be too mortified). Now that Annika is a little mimic, we really need to watch what we say!

I think Annika has said her first sentence. At the grocery store last week, I was paying the bill while Kris was bagging and Annika was in the cart by me. She said "blah Daddy blah". The checkout lady thought Annika said "Where Daddy go?." It sure did sound like she did. Yesterday Annika and I went to have lunch with Gramme and Annika said it again. This time it was clearer. She actually said "Where Daddy go?" So smart!

Last night Annika took Mara by her collar and was trying to drag her around the house. She was actually trying to walk Mara. Mara didn't know what was happening htough which is why Annika ended up dragging her. Kris and I would walk in front of Annika and Mara and tell Mara to follow us and then Annika would walk beside Mara holding her collar and "walking" her. Oh, it was just too funny.

I have some most excellent news! You may remember me mentioning a friend of mine who's infant daughter had cancer. Well - that tough, brave little girl has beat it! Her tumor is almost completely gone and all her counts are back to normal! I am so, so happy for them. Life is returning to normal. There will continue to be check-ups but all is looking bright and beautiful right now. Yay!