We've started spelling words in front of Annika. Words like bath, park, treat, etc. are now off limits in our house. Unless you want a tantrum of course when she can't have one of those things Right.This.Second.

Last night she again asked to take a bath. It was after dinner so we headed upstairs. She got sidetracked on our way up though and we ended up playing for 10-15 minutes instead. I was chasing her around the upstairs while she squealed, laughed and ran away. Sometimes I would "catch" her, "throw" her on the ground and kiss and tickle her. Then she would escape and I'd chase after her again. This is still one of her favorite games. When she'd had enough chasing, she saw the bathroom door and was back to asking to take a bath. We have a little bath ritual in our house. Annika stands next to the bathtub while I run the water to get it warmed up. She likes to stick her hands under the running water. Then I let the cold water drain while I take her clothes off. Next I start filling the tub with warm water and put Annika in there with it. She likes playing with the running water again, sticking her face and hands in it. Then she plays for 15-20 minutes. When she asks to get out, that's my cue that it's time to wash her up. I tell her to lay down and we rinse her hair. Then she stands or sits and I soap up her hair and body. Then she either lays down again so I can rinse her hair or she sits and tilts her head back so I can pour water over her head. She's so good about getting her hair and body washed and doesn't care if I get water in her eyes or on her face or not. Then we say good-bye to the water (she actually waves and says good-bye to it!) and we get out of the tub and towel dry off. Then I wrap her up in the towel with her arms pinned against her body and set her on the counter in the bathroom. Now we brush her teeth. I lay her down on my left arm while I brush. She mostly tries to suck the water out of the toothbrush but at least she's not trying to swat it away! Then we untowel and run to her room to put a diaper and some pajamas on. Last night she got away from me and was downstairs running around naked before I even knew what was happening! She is quick!

Tonight after work I'm going to visit a baby born on Monday! Congratulations to Brian and Suzanne on the birth of their son, Samuel.

Happy Birthday Auntie Carrie! I hope you have a wonderful, marvelous, fantastic day!

Monday night Auntie Krystle was over for our regular Monday night scrapbooking. Before going to bed, Annika usually plays with us or looks at our scrapbooks. We call my pregnancy and baby scrapbooks the "baby books." As Annika flips through the pages she points out everything that interests her. On my baptism page for her there are pictures of lots of people. Annika was pointing out all her aunts and uncles and naming them ("Dusty", "Thias", "Kim") and then we pointed to Adam. Except instead of saying Adam, she said Elmo! Each time we corrected her and each time she said Elmo instead of Adam. I'm not sure if she just couldn't say Adam or if she was tricking us. Either way, she had us laughing. She also tried to say Krystle that night but it didn't come out even remotely close to the correct pronunciation.

Saturday Annika and I went to Jen and Jim's house for a play date. In attendance was Jen, Jim and their daughters Audrey (4) and Ava (1), Robyn with Gavin (6) and Jessica (1), and Laura with Emily (1) and then of course Annika and myself. Michelle and Brianna couldn't come because Brianna is sick. Shannon was supposed to come with her girls too but they were also sick. I think Annika had a good time. There was a ton of new toys for her to play with and she was very observant of the other kids, as she always is. Of course, maybe she was just trying to steal all the baby dolls they were playing with. She hoards her dolls at home, putting them all in a corner or on the stair landing and then laying down with them or lining them up. She also really liked the watermelon that Robyn brought to share. This was probably been the last time I will see Robyn before she has the Tater babe. She is due May 18th. I can't believe he's coming so soon! Jen and Jim have a very nice house. It always makes me jealous when I see other people's nice houses with finished basements, manicured lawns (meaning they actually have grass!) and decks! I want that too! All in time Kristina, it will all come in time. Patience!

Yesterday we attended church at the 2nd of our final two options. Last week we attended the first of the final two and you'll remember that I wasn't that enthused with it. I liked yesterday's church again. It was confirmation Sunday so the confirmants did the service. They did a really good job! Even the eighth grader giving the sermon did a good job. We chatted very briefly with a woman sitting in our row. She said she just joined the church a year ago and has really liked it so far. She had a little boy who was very cute and was sharing his toys with Kris. Whenever the boy would hand Kris a toy, Annika would give him her death stare. I don't think she liked it very much but she didn't do anything about it either. I, of course, was stifling giggles. Annika usually only shows jealousy towards me so that was cute to watch too. Yesterday Annika wedged herself between Kris and I as we were cuddling on the couch so much that Kris finally moved to the recliner. Ha! Poor guy. Annika has so many cute dresses (especially with the addition of 2 more that I bought her Friday evening) that we've decided she's wearing dresses to church each Sunday. She spends her days with Kris in play clothes so this is the perfect chance for her to wear them. She looked so pretty yesterday in her purple dress.

Yesterday afternoon, Mike, Dan and Kim came over to visit. Mike is a friend from high school. He coaches the Minnesota Vixen and has for the past couple years. Dan is another coach and Kim is a player and girlfriend of Dan. Annika and I slept most of the time they were over so Kris was able to talk football for hours! He was probably in heaven. After our company left, Annika and I headed to Target for a bicycle trailer. We've wanted to go for bike rides ever since the weather turned nice but didn't have anywhere for Annika to sit. We took a medium length (7.5 miles round trip) ride to the playground by the river. Annika absolutely hated her bike helmet so much so that we took it off about half way to the park. She had water and books with her in the trailer but they didn't keep her attention all the time either. We were riding on the sidewalks because we were worried about Annika on the street with the other cars. There was a lot of bouncing each time Kris would go down off a curb (slanted to the street or not) and I think it was starting to get to Annika. She had a great time at the park though. She went down all the slides and loved the swings when Kris was riding with her. When it was time to go home, she didn't put up too much of a fuss. However, she did cry and fuss most of the way home. Strangely, there wasn't any fussing from her when we stopped at Dairy Queen for treats on the way home. Hmm. I think we'll try the bike trailer again but maybe go for shorter rides or ride on the less bumpy street or something.

I've figured out how to enable comments again. If you would be so kind as to use them once in a while, I would so appreciate it.

I feel like I don't have a lot to say right now. I'm glad it's finally Friday and I get to spend the next two days with my honeys. Tomorrow Annika and I have a play date with some college friends. There's going to be five of us there and we all have girls around the same age. The smallest is 1 year and the oldest girl is around 5 years of age. But there will be six girls there. Robyn with Jessica and Michelle with Brianna will both be there since they are both college friends of mine as well as work friends. Well, Robyn is a former work friend since she's moved on to another company. It should be a fun afternoon.

My cubicle-mate, Steve, (yes, we share cubicles here at work, yes I hate it) and I were just reciting Dr. Seuss books. Why? Because we were talking about work (of course!) and somehow got off topic, as usual. He has five children so he pretty much can recite any Dr. Seuss book by memory. Anyway, we were reciting Dr. Seuss passages to each other while I was telling him Annika stories. That's pretty much what we do, Steve and I. I tell him stories about Annika and he pretends to listen and care. Once in a while I'll let him share a story with me and then I get back to talking about Annika. Ha! Today's Annika story was her love of the letter Q. She always picks out Q when there's an alphabet around. We have foam letters for her to play with in the bathtub and she always picks out Q to show me. Here's another alphabet related Annika story. One time I was readying the Dr. Seuss alphabet book to Annika and when we got to W, Annika flipped the book upside down and exclaimed "M!" Close baby girl, you are close.

Annika has become more vocal about telling Kris and I what she wants to do. Tuesday night and last night she insisted on taking a bath. Tuesday night I told her she had to wait until after dinner which I was making at the time. She threw a fit, of course, but did eat most of her dinner. And after dinner, she walked to the stairs and asked again to take a bath. And when I say ask what I really mean is that she walked over and said "Bath? Bath? Bath?" about a million times before I said okay. She did it again last night. This time it was already after dinner when she asked to take a bath so up the stairs we went.

It's been a long week and it's only Thursday. I've been in training at work all day Tuesday, Wednesday and today. And the last two days have been late days. I'm hoping I can leave work early tomorrow to make up for it but in the mean time I'm dragging. And I miss my baby. I don't like going in to work on Wednesdays! I've been completely spoiled by having my Wednesday work day be from home. I may have to go in next Wednesday to for an executive review I'm presenting at. Ugh. I'll get lots of Annika time this weekend though to help me through these two work weeks.

Annika has been so cute and funny lately. She has started asking Kris and I to get up off the couch or out of the recliner to dance with her. The song that is on at the end of Sesame Street always gets Annika shaking her butt. Lately she's come over to me and said "Up?" When I stand she takes my hands and we dance together. I've never been a big fan of dancing with little kids like at wedding receptions and such but when my little baby girl asked me to get up and dance with her? Well, I melted into a puddle. Any time, any place baby girl and Mama will dance with you.

I think Annika is officially done nursing. She hasn't asked to nurse for quite a while, at least a month. I'm so very grateful breastfeeding was so effortless for us. Annika latched on perfectly from the beginning, I never had supply issues, we never had complications like thrush or mastitis and she self-weaned when she and I were both ready. I couldn't have asked for more. And now, instead of nursing, on those mornings when she's in bed with us snuggling, she seeks out skin to skin contact. She pulls my shirt away and buries her face and neck on my chest. She does this whenever she's tired too. She'll curl up in my lap and make skin to skin contact. She's done this at home, of course, but also at restaurants, relatives homes, etc. Whenever she wants her mama, she snuggles right in. I've been wearing a lot of v-neck and scoop neck shirts as a result. One time I came home from work wearing a turtleneck sweater. She was so mad at me because she couldn't get to my chest. I ended up changing my shirt for her. That may seem indulgent to some but I was more than happy to do it. It meant cuddling time for me!

No pictures today. I'm fresh out of new ones. Can you believe it!? I even forgot my camera yesterday. Grandma Lona took lots of pictures of Annika but I don't have a copy of them yet. I'll share them with you as soon as I get them, I swear! You can just take my word for it that Annika sure was cute yesterday in her Easter dress.

We had a great Easter yesterday. After Annika got up, I preoccupied her while Kris went downstairs and hid a dozen eggs. The Easter Bunny had hid her basket during the night already. When Annika and I got downstairs Daddy was ready with the video camera. He taped her "finding" her eggs which were hidden in plain sight of course. It was so funny. Each time she'd find an egg, she'd exclaim "Egg!" She was very excited to find eggs in the living room. She had no interest in finding her basket. I had to finally trick her into looking on the floor behind the reclinder by saying "Annika, there are more eggs back here!" Then she came running only to find her Easter basket with plastic eggs and candy in it!

We went to a nice church service yesterday. It was at the BIG church in town. The church was packed so full we ended up in an overflow room. And they had people directing traffic in and our of the parking lot. I think it's too big for my taste but it was a very nice service nonetheless. After church we headed down to see Grandma Lona and Grandpa Dale and the rest of the family. Annika had a great afternoon, riding the play horse, exploring all the new things, chasing the dog and cat, playing with her new stuffed animals and books and even taking an hour and a half nap. Oh, and there was lots of cookies and sweets for little miss Annika. And she ended the day by giving hugs and kisses to everyone. That really made the great Grandma's and Grandpa's happy.

Last night we stopped by Grandpa Dan's house to visit with him and Uncle Mathias. Annika was her usual happy self. Her other play horse was there and she learned how to get on and off him all by herself. She also got a little too daring at times. We brought the horse home with us and we'll have to be extra careful around it for a while. She doesn't understand that she could get hurt but Mommy knows she could all too well. I'm always nearby and ready to pounce should she start to fall.

Annika, Daddy and I went to the park about seventy million times this weekend. Or three. Annika and I went twice on Friday and Annika and Daddy went again on Saturday. There is a great park in our town, down by the river. It's brand new and very well constructed. It's also huge. Annika played there for an hour and a half both Friday and Saturday. Friday morning I took Annika there and we met a couple of the other moms from ECFE class. It was fun to meet some of Annika's little friends. Now, every time we pass a playground when driving, Annika pleads "slide?" over and over again. She also continually goes to the front door, pounds on it and asks "Out?" Poor girl! Hopefully she and Kris can go to the park again today. We also need to get some grass at our house so we can just play outside without having to walk to the park all the time! Get going builder!

I found out today that Annette and Stephen are expecting their second child November 1st! Congratulations to them! All of these babies popping up around me is giving me serious baby fever! Of course I've had it for months already but these two new pregnancy announcements are throwing me right over the edge. I mean, come on, how could you not want another one of those?!? (looking to right at Annika's picture) She is so cute and precious and would make such a terrific big sister. Of course, Kris and I can't even think about more babies until the bone marrow donor situation is resolved. Patience, grasshopper, patience.

This morning Annika ate her first bowl of cereal like a big girl. She ate two small bowls without spilling anything! Of course, on her third small bowl, she decided she was done eating and dumped the entire contents on to her high chair tray. Then she put the bowl on her head upside-down. After Kris took the bowl away, she ate some of the cheerios off her tray before declaring she was officially done. This was accomplished by her shouting "Out!"

It's another beautiful day here. I think we may take a walk outside at lunch time. Working from home on Wednesdays is absolutely wonderful. I've gotten a bunch of work done today and I've had tons of snuggles already! Life just could not be better than it is today.

Here's a picture of Annika on her new rocking horse. This was taken Sunday at Grandpa Dan's house.

It was such a beautiful day here yesterday! It was almost 80 degrees! I was roasting in the car on my way home. Kris and Annika didn't spend a lot of time outside yesterday but Annika did come outside to greet me when I got home.

There's not much new to report right now. I tried to take some video of Annika in the bath tub last night. She gets so crazy in there these days splashing around. Unfortunately, we're out of video tape and Kris hasn't copied the two full ones we have to the computer. I think he and Annika are going to walk to Target today (if it's not raining) to buy more. Kris has lots of video to transfer! I was watching some of the old video on the video camera last night. There's stuff on there from last summer at Grandpa Dan's house, video of the town house before we moved out, video from Annika's first birthday, etc. I'm glad I checked the tape and didn't tape over any of it!

We have a pretty low key week this week. Thursday night Annika and I are going to Auntie Krystle's CAbi show and we're bringing Amanda and Mary with us. It's Mary's birthday on Thursday too so we're going out to dinner before the party to celebrate. Friday I have off from work for Good Friday. Kris has a doctor appointment that day (follow up from his MRI) but other than that we have no plans. I think we'll clean the house some that day. Boy does it need it! Our little girl is just a tornado these days! Saturday we're going to Grandpa Dan's house to clean out the basement of all my old toys and Sunday we're celebrating Easter with Grandma Lona and Grandpa Dale. A busy weekend is coming up!

Saturday Grandma Lona, Auntie Kim and I had a spa day together. We had massages, manicures and pedicures. It was a Christmas present from Daddy and we had a great time. On my way home, I met Kris and Annika at the park. It was much too nice out to stay inside the whole day and seeing how we don't have grass yet at our new house - we have to go to the park to play. Annika had a great time playing on the slides. That night we went out to dinner with Grandma Lona, Grandpa Dale, Auntie Kim and Uncle Dusty.

Sunday morning Annika woke up at 2am throwing up. Kris was still up playing computer games in the office next to her room and heard her coughing. He checked on her and found out what was going on. Luckily the mess was contained to her pillow case and pajama shirt. He brought her to me to clean up while he cleaned her bed. After I washed her face, hair and hands and changed her shirt we rocked and cuddled for a while. She didn't seem feverish but I was worried about her so I brought her to bed with me. Apparently getting sick gets you a free pass to mommy and daddy's bed. Sure enough though an hour later she threw up again. This time it was only on our fitted sheet and her pajama shirt again. Once again I cleaned her up while Kris changed our sheets and we snuggled back down again. She was fine the rest of the night and slept in until 8:30am. She seemed fine all yesterday too and slept all through the night last night. Kris thinks the chili she and him had for lunch on Saturday might be the culprit. I was worried it was the spicy mexican food we had for dinner. I was also worried it could have been strep. Last Saturday we were at a play date and one of the other kids got sick Sunday evening only to be diagnosed with strep throat. And in kids as little as Annika strep throat manifests itself through sick stomachs. If she gets sick again, we'll take her to the doctor. Otherwise we'll assume it was something she ate. An upset tummy may be why Annika was pretty fussy at dinner Saturday night too.

Yesterday we had a nice family day. We had brunch with Grandpa Dan, Grandma Marcia, Auntie Krystle and Uncle Pierece and then went to Grandpa and Marcia's house to play. Grandpa was such a goofy girl jumping around the kitchen and kicking and throwing a small ball downstairs. Grandpa is finishing his basement so us kids need to get all our old toys out of there. Next weekend we're going to go back and go through them all. Annika has already laid claim to Auntie Krystle's old bouncing horse, the ones on springs. She had so much fun playing on that yesterday and cried for it when we were done. We didn't have room in our truck to bring it home with us yesterday but it will be coming home next weekend for sure. Grandpa may even bring it over this week sometime if he's in our neighborhood. Yesterday evening we headed to Gramme and Grandpa Merv's house to celebrate Gramme's birhtday which is today. Auntie Krystle, Pierce and Uncle Mathias came with us. We had yummy pizza and cake and Annika was a wild woman. She was jumping all over the living room laughing and playing. She had the rest of us doubled over in laughter more than once. I love that goofy little jumping bean so much.

I received news yesterday! Are and Jessie are expecting their second child in October. I'm so excited for them! Congratulations Are and Jessie!

Tuesday Kris called me at work to tell me Annika peed on the potty again! Good job baby girl! That night Annika walked over to the basement steps and started to go downstairs. I asked her to come back and close the basement door. Instead she started waving at me saying "bye-bye." Eventually I said "Okay, bye-bye." She quips back "See you later" before turning around and heading downstairs. Ha! So, we went downstairs and investigated things before coming back up.

Wednesday night Kris called me from work to tell me the new Red Hot Chili Peppers was being played on the radio. I turned it on quickly and listened. I really like it! I read online yesterday that they are planning a tour for this summer and will be stopping in the Twin Cities! I am so going. The date hasn't been announced yet. I love the Peppers!

Yesterday I called home for some reason. I'm sure there was a reason, I just can't think of it right now. Anyway, while talking to Kris, Annika is in the background calling for her pancake that Daddy was making her. Her little voice is just so cute!

Last night Annika and I were watching the movie "Bend It Like Beckham." Every time a song would come on Annika would push me up off my chair and we would dance around the room. She is such a silly little girl. After the movie I gave Annika a bath. During her bath Kris and I were talking on the phone. There were times when Kris couldn't hear a thing I was saying due to all the splashing and squealing going on in the background. I'm going to have to videotape Annika's next bath. She's been going crazy lately with the splashing. It's hilarious!

Yesterday I had to leave work a bit early to pick up Annika. Kris had a doctor's appointment with an orthopeodist to look at his shoulder and I needed to pick up Annika from the clinic. The doctor is sending him in for an MRI today with a follow up appointment on the 14th. This is an old football injury that he never had checked out. Anyway, when Annika and I got home, I changed my clothes and we headed out for a walk. It was such a beautiful day, sunny and almost 60 degrees. We walked to a nearby park and played for over an hour! After his appointment, Kris joined us for a little bit. Annika had a great time going on all the different slides. The small tot park she was able to navigate herself as you can see in the picture. She kept trying to walk down the tot slide though! After a while she was getting too brave, trying to climb up the big kid playground ladders and such so we went home. Annika cried and whined the whole way because she wasn't done playing.

Last night as I was feeding Annika dinner, I sneezed. Annika instictively told me "Bless You!"

Annika is working on counting. So far, she can count from one to six. She's also working on her alphabet. She can sing most of it with help and can get from A-H on her own. She and Kris work on this during the day. Annika can also name and point to a bunch of her body parts including eyes, chin, mouth, ears, nose, hair, knees, toes, elbows (she's close on this one, usually pointing to her forearm), belly, cheek, arm, hand and leg.

Annika woke up this morning with a runny nose. She could have allergies (I've had a runny nose for a couple days myself with no other symptoms), she's still teething her eye teeth, or she could have a cold. Who knows what it is, but it hasn't stopped her from being crabby and clingy! Oh fun!

How about two pictures today? These two were taken Sunday at Gramme's house. That's Gramme with Annika in the picture on the left. They are playing with Gramme's dog Reba in these pictures.

After reading Michelle's account of the babyfest on her blog yesterday I was reminded of something Annika did there. They had a book with a letter of the alphabet on each page with pictures of items that start with that letter. Annika doesn't know her letters real well yet but she was having fun pointing and naming all the pictures (elephant, puppy, etc.). She would name the letters too but would call them the wrong thing. She would call everything A for instance or Q. For some reason, she loves the letter Q. Anyway, Robyn's son, Gavin came over to play with Annika. He would point at each letter and say what it was and then Annika would repeat it after him. She said each one amazingly clearly too. I was so proud of her.

Annika does speak pretty well. Kris has remarked on that several times. You can really understand most of what she says. Last night was the exception though. She was very animated and excited and was telling me something obviously important to her but I couldn't understand a word of it. Auntie Krystle just looked at her and giggled. I tried to play along but I think Annika could tell I didn't know what she was saying. That must be frustrating for little kids.

Annika woke up really early this morning and I hadn't left for work yet. It was a sad scene when Mommy had to put her coat and shoes on and leave the house. I'm sure Annika was over it pretty quickly (especially since I had put EIEIO on the tv) but it still hurt this mommy's heart.

Saturday we had our 4th Baby Get-Together with some friends from work. There are five of us that all had baby girls within months of each other and every 3 months or so we like to get them together. This time the party was at Ying's house. Annika had a great time and had to give everyone kisses and hugs when she left. I said Annika, time to go home, let's get your coat and shoes on and she got up and gave everyone kisses and hugs. Annika also had a great time playing with all of Chloe and Abigail's toys. So many toys that are new and different for her! She loved the Sit and Spin. That's the toy she's pictured on today. She figured it out pretty quickly too how to turn herself around on it. This sit and spin is also a water toy. It has an attachment for a hose so it sprays water when connected. I want one for at our house! That would be so fun! We had pizza for dinner that night and Annika ate a whole piece of Supreme pizza, plus part of a breadstick, some grapes and applesauce. Sometimes she eats so much and others, she's a bird.

Yesterday was a busy day for Annika and us. She only had a half our nap in the car. We went to another new church yesterday morning. I'm not too sure about this one. It was nice and all but a bit creepy too. I don't know, I just got a weird vibe from it. Any church with a Graphic Designer on staff has a bit too much money in my humble opinion. And we were totally ambushed after the service which I didn't really like either. They were like vultures on the newbies. And during the service they gave everyone information on door placards that they wanted their members to plaster their neighborhoods with to promote their Easter services. It all felt kind of disingenous to me. I just checked out their web page and it's not an ELCA church and apparently has it's own bylaws and constitution. That in and of itself is not a bad thing. I think we'd be more comfortable at an ELCA church though. I'm hoping Kris will agree to scratch that one off the list.

After church we stopped by Grandpa Dan's house to visit for a few minutes and pick up some mail for Auntie Krystle. Then we went to Gramme and Grandpa Merv's house for lunch and play time. Annika laughed and giggled for the first 10-15 minutes we were there. Gramme has a dog named Reba and Annika was laughing at Reba. Annika would chase Reba and play with her. We were all laughing right along with her. They both settled down before long. After a nice visit we left so Annika could get a quick nap in the car on the way to the mall. We were meeting Auntie Krystle there to help her shop for scrapbooking supplies. We dropped Daddy off at Best Buy. Grandpa Dan and Marcia were buying a digital camera and computer and wanted Kris's help in picking out a good computer. Kris said they got a really nice computer at a really good price. I'm tempted to go buy us one now!! After our busy day we finally arrived home around 3:30pm. We had a nice steak dinner and a quiet evening before Annika finally gave out and went to bed around 7:30pm.