I have to take a moment here to brag about my child. (Um, Kristina? Isn't that basically what this website is? A big bragfest about your child? Why yes, yes it is.) Annika has really gotten this whole potty thing. She hasn't had any accidents since Saturday. This past weekend she started telling us when she needed to go too instead of us asking her all the time and making her go. Last night, all of a sudden Annika disappeared and was quiet. That's rarely a good thing with a toddler (trouble!) but where did I find Annika? She was sitting on the potty going pee. She also now understands when she has to go #2 and tells us that too. Just now as we were finishing up lunch, Annika disappeared again. Kris yelled "Annika? Where are you? What are you doing?" I was standing in the kitchen, looked to our half bath downstairs and saw Annika on the potty. I went in to check on her and found her doing #2 - ON HER OWN! Oh my goodness but this child amazes me. I think we have daytime potty training down. We haven't tackled night time yet but it's probably about time. I'm usually up once a night for a potty break of my own. I could get Annika up then too for a potty break. And Kris usually goes to sleep long after I do. He could bring Annika to the potty before he comes to bed. It's just so easy to stick a diaper on her and let her sleep all night.

Yesterday while Annika was momentarily left to her own devices (OK, OK, Kris was in the bathroom), she opened two Christmas presents. Who didn't see that one coming? I did but I wrapped the presents anyway and put them under the tree. Oh well. One was for Gramme so Kris just wrapped it back up. The other was for Daddy from Mommy. Kris now knows the only present that I've got him so far. Merry Christmas honey! I hope you like it! Hee hee. He wrapped it back up and put it back under the tree too. I know it's an awful lot of temptation for her. If she unwraps more, we may have to relocate the presents.

I had another pregnancy freak out yesterday. My mom told me on Thanksgiving that I looked like I was carrying this baby differently than I carried Annika. That I looked like I was carrying lower and more out front. I don't know. I'll have to compare in pictures. Then yesterday a co-worker told me that I looked like I dropped. What? Dropped! Dropping means there is a baby coming and usually relatively soon. At 30 weeks, now is NOT the time for the baby to come. Then he was being very quiet yesterday and I was worried about a decrease in movements. Dead Baby Thoughts (DBTs) kept circling my brain. Finally during a meeting yesterday afternoon he got an energy burst and kicked and rolled around constantly. He repeated this performance last night (which is when he is most active anyway) and again this morning on my way to work. Kris was teasing me last night though that I freak out when he's moving too much and when he's moving too little. I reminded him that my last freak out (the contractions) was not because the baby was moving too much but because my uterus was having a fit. I only freak out about the baby when he's moving too little. Man, pregnancy is nerve-wracking people! I just want everything to be OK and for me to have a healthy, full term baby in February. F.E.B.R.U.A.R.Y. Got it? Moral of the story? Be careful what you say to pregnant women because they are likely to go off the deep end even if you meant no harm. Yikes. Kris must be having so much fun living with me.

Annika is such a good little mommy. She loves playing with her babies. She has one baby that cries or laughs or coos when you push it's tummy. It also came with a couple bottles. Each time the baby cries, Annika picks it up and cradles it in her arms and soothes it. It is so interesting to watch this natural instinct in her. Hopefully that will translate into her being a good big sister too. Annika loves playing with all her stuffed animals right now too. If she asks you to play with "toys", she is asking you to play with all her babies and stuffed animals. She likes to line them up on the couch or stuff them all in your arms or make them slide down your legs while your sitting. She still plays with her blocks and legos and she colors and such but her "toys" are her favorite activity right now.

In the past week or so, Annika has started making her wants known. She now very clearly (and sometimes loudly) states "I want X." X could be some milk or to color or something else. We always tell her she has to ask nicely and I'll ask her to repeat it as "I want X please." Sometimes she gets it and asks politely the first time but more often than not she just states what she wants. At Gramme's on Friday morning she saw the bananas in the pantry. She exclaimed "I love bananas! I want a banana!" We need to work on thank you next I think. She gets the please thing but doesn't say thank you very often. She's also good at saying "Excuse me" when something is in her way. She even said it to the bathroom vanity yesterday when she bumped into it. And she says excuse me to Mara when the dog is in her way. It's pretty cute.

So, where did we last leave this little family website...ah yes, contractions. Not to worry. All is back to normal. Contractions yet but not to the frequency they were last Tuesday. I must have been dehydrated or something. And I hit 30 weeks yesterday. That's a pretty big milestone for me because the chances for the baby are pretty good now. Only 7 weeks until I'm officially full term!

Since it's been almost a week, I have so much to tell you! (And record here for my baby's babybook, scrapbooking and general journal keeping. Heh.) OK, so, first - Thanksgiving. We had a lovely one. It was busy with three stops to make but that is just how it goes on some holidays. First thing in the morning Kris met up with his brother so they could run the Turkey Trot in downtown Minneapolis. It was a nice morning for a run, I hear. Annika and I had a casual morning, cuddling in bed late, getting ready together in mommy's bathroom complete with make up for both and then we meandered down to Nana and Papa's house, arriving just before Daddy and Uncle Dusty did. Great timing we had. (Oh, and about that make-up thing - Annika is hilarious and insists that she wear make up too like Mommy so after I'm done with each step I "put" some on her. I blow off the eye shadow brush and then brush her lids, I close the eyeliner and swipe her lids, I turn the powder pad over and brush her face, etc. Then she takes my deodorant and swipes her underarms and we tell each other how pretty we are.) Dinner at Nana and Papa's house was delicious. And, because I have some of the best in-laws around (and I'm not just saying that because they are reading this site right now - Hi Nana and Papa!) they made me a turkey. They had planned on having Swedish meatballs and Lutefisk but Kris told them (shame on him!) that I was disappointed that I wasn't going to get any turkey on Thanksgiving seeing as how this was our only "big" meal of the day. So they went out and purchased and prepared a turkey with dressing just for me. How sweet is that! It was very yummy too. Annika loved all the fixings and even had her first taste of Lutefisk. And she ate a bunch of meatballs along with jello and green bean casserole. What she loved most though was Nana's pumpkin pie. We cut her a small piece which she devoured and then asked for seconds. She ate almost her whole second (small) piece too! After dinner she ran around like a crazy girl, dancing with her toys in the living room, until it was time to go. Thankfully the turkey (along with the turned up heat in the truck, her pacifier and a blanket) did it's trick and she slept almost the whole way to Grandpa Dan and Marcia's house. Once there though, with a whole new audience, Annika turns on the charm and entertains us some more. There are balls to be played with and uncles to be jumped on (lucky Mathias!) and Grandpa's to be snuggled with and Annika is loving it all. We snack on yummy treats and watch some football while reading all the sales ads for the next day. Kris and I start formulating our game plan. Before we know it, it's time to pack up again and head over to Gramme's house. What? A whole new audience for Annika! She is loved all the attention and was busy the whole night loving up to Gramme. She also has to play with all the "toys" (Reba the dog's toys along with 3 wooden dolls that Gramme has). Annika stayed there overnight that night and was not concerned in the least when Kris and I got up to leave. She knew she was headed upstairs to go to bed with Gramme so she was just fine.

The next morning Kris and I got up fairly early (7:15 - not 5am like some stores were opening at!) and headed off to do some shopping. The big thing I wanted to get done that morning was toy shopping for Annika and Baby Boy. That was the one bit of shopping that I couldn't do with Annika. Kris and I headed to a bunch of different stores (Best Buy, Target, Macy's, Toys 'R Us, etc.) and got a bunch of gifts bought. I am officially all done shopping for Annika and Baby Boy! I didn't end up getting Annika that play kitchen like I had thought. I ended up finding her a bunch of smaller toys instead. I would still like to get her one but it's just not in the budget right now. I've got my eye on this one though for in the future. Kris and I both liked it when we saw it at the store this weekend. She's going to love what we got her though and I can't wait for Christmas so she can open them all!

Saturday was the big holiday decorating day for us. We set up our tree and decorated the rest of the house. One thing was confirmed (again) for me. I have way too many Christmas decorations! I may have to start going through what I have and cutting back a little. I just love Christmas decorations though! I've seen dozens and dozens of cute things in the stores this year again that I want so badly. Must.Not.Buy.Christmas.Decorations! Just a little note to myself there on that one. The house looks nice though and today I'm going to pick up our wreath and garland that we ordered from a fundraiser for the outside. I'm hoping Kris can get that put up tomorrow so the outside of the house is decorated too. Saturday night Dusty came over and we watched some movies together. Annika was so excited to see him and put on a good show. She was singing at the top of her lungs while riding her horse and playing with her toys. Dusty couldn't stop laughing at how silly she was being. After Annika went to bed that night I pulled out all the gifts we've purchased and wrapped them all. I didn't like how bare our tree looked! Now it's filled with presents under it.

We finished the long weekend yesterday by taking things easier at home. The only real excitement of the day was after church we stopped and got Annika's hair cut for the first time! Annika's always had this swath of hair on top of her head that is longer than the sides. And she has a pretty dominant cowlick so her hair naturally parts on one side of her head. It looked like the girl had a bad combover. The back was also a little uneven. I didn't want her curls cut off in back though so we compromised. We evened out the top and sides and trimmed the back. Her hair is no longer in her eyes and she still has some curls. Overall it's cute but I warned Kris that we won't be getting another hair cut for a long time. I want Annika's hair to grow and be long(ish) with no bangs and that there is going to be a weird in between stage when it's in her eyes and not long enough to tuck behind her ears. That will be the barrette stage and if she won't wear a barrette to keep her hair out of her eyes, then she (and we) are just going to have to deal with moving it out of her eyes for a while. He agreed (because I think that's how he wants her hair too). Annika was so good during her hair cut too. She sat in the big chair all by herself and looked in the mirror and watched the stylist. She was a little wide-eyed for the first part but once she figured out that this doesn't hurt at all, then she started to get fidgety at the end. She was pretty excited too with the sucker she got as we were leaving. Of course I was busy the whole time snapping pictures. I'll try to get those posted Wednesday evening.

The rest of the day was spent resting and watching football. Kris managed to tape and paint three coats in the baby's room too. We're leaving the wall color the green that it is and adding two accent strips around the room in coordinating colors. Kris got one of those stripes done yesterday but it took three coats to completely cover! I'm hoping he can do the second stripe Wednesday and then we can finally move the furniture into place and I can really get started on getting the room finished. I have clothes and blankets and little, itty bitty socks to wash and put away in dressers and artwork to hang on the walls and, well, nesting to do!

I am fine. I'll just put that out there first. However, yesterday was a little nerve-wracking. I've noticed I've been having more Braxton-Hicks contractions lately. Sunday I think I had 5-6 all day and Monday was the same. Yesterday I had my first one early in the morning and I decided that I'd start writing down when I had them for curiosity's sake. Curiosity turned into worry when I realized I was having them once an hour and had 6 by noon. I talked with Michelle and she encouraged me to call the doctor and go home and rest. Excellent advice I would have given her if the situation was reversed. My only problem was I was carpooling yesterday so I was without a car. I'm sure if I asked Brian, he would have driven me home as we are both capable of working from home. I was going to call my doctor but decided to call Kris first. I told him what was going on and that I was going to drink another big glass of water and hang out at my desk some more. At this time I had gone an hour and a half since the last contraction. I told him if I had another soon, I would call the doctor. I didn't have another until a couple hours later and then none for the rest of the day. So, I didn't call the doctor. And I'm fine and Baby Boy is moving around like crazy. I'll keep writing down when I have them and keeping an eye on this. If they speed up in frequency again I'll call my midwife. Now that the holiday weekend is here though I plan to rest whenever needed.

Annika has recently started saying "Yes." Before she had always said "yeah" or nodded her head. Now she enunciates that yes like crazy. It sounds so cute coming out of her little person.

At our hospital tour on Saturday, someone (a father-to-be) asked if the hospital had an internet connection. I expected the answer to be no`but guess what! They have wi-fi available in all the rooms. The tour guide (a nurse at the birth center) said it can be spotty and not that reliable. I turned to Kris and whispered "Hey, I can blog the birth!" He grinned and said "with your work laptop?" It is the only laptop I have with a wireless card. My personal laptop is too old to have one of those. So, I think I will add the laptop to my "hospital packing list." While I won't be blogging the birth, I can send an update when we get there and an announcement after the baby is born. Or maybe Kris can post the occasional update depending on how it's going. Wouldn't you all like a guest-blog from Kris! I think that sounds like an excellent idea!

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Saturday's photo session went quite well, but not exactly as I'd envisioned. We ended up with a very cute picture of Annika for our Christmas card this year. The family photos I wanted though? They were a total bust. There were about eight to choose from and between Kris and Annika I think they blinked in 6 of them. And then of course there was a cute little girl who wouldn't always look at the camera too. So, no family picture for us. I'd still like one so maybe after all the Christmas decorating is done Auntie Krystle can come over and do a photo shoot with us. Or maybe if we get some snow before Christmas we can take some outdoor pictures. Annika was pretty cute when we were taking her picture on Saturday. She would give the photographer just this blank stare - no expression at all. So the photographer started sneezing and then I would laugh at that and pretty soon we had Annika grinning. What really cracked her up though was when Kris and I both started laughing. Whenever we laugh, Annika has to join in and laugh too. So, we fake-laughed Annika into some great pictures. Then yesterday Annika wore a cute pink jumper for the first time and I wanted pictures of her in it. I asked her if I could take her picture so she immediately sat down on the steps (that she was coming down), spread her skirt out and cupped her hands in her lap. It was too cute to see her pose like that! I snapped a few pictures and then asked her to stand up so I could get the whole outfit. She obliged but was a little confused. Standing? But Mama, I sit and pose to have my picture taken - don't you remember yesterday? I could just hear her saying that in her head.

We had our hospital tour on Saturday afternoon. Since we're not taking childbirth classes this time, I wanted to at least tour the hospital. It is different from where Annika was born after all. I'm glad we did too. While everything we saw and heard was great (encouraging rooming in with the baby, lots of security and locked doors, huge and private rooms, etc.) there was one thing missing - jetted tubs. Each room has a full bathroom but only with a standard tub. During my first labor I spent a couple hours in the tub at home but because it was a standard tub, the water wasn't deep enough and it would get cold after a while. At our house now though we have a nice, deep soaking tub with jets and an in-line heater. I can soak, have bubbles and have constantly heated water. I plan on staying in there as long as possible before getting out and heading to the hospital this time. Thank goodness the hospital is only a 5 minute car ride away!

Speaking of pregnancy, this one is going pretty well. I was 29 weeks yesterday (only 8 weeks until I'm full term!). Baby Boy still moves around a lot. I'm starting to get more Braxton-Hicks contractions, sometimes 5-6 a day, but they are painless and only slightly uncomfortable at this point. I haven't felt him have any hiccups yet. I think that started around 28 weeks with Annika. I'm looking forward to that and if he doesn't start soon, I might start worrying. I hope he's practicing his breathing in there and just isn't getting hiccups yet or something. There's always something to worry about with pregnancy, even if you're having a textbook one. I haven't heard back from the doctor regarding my glucose screening test or my hemoglobin test so I'm assuming everything came back normal. They were to call if something was out of the ordinary and it's been almost two week now. I'll probably worry about my sugar intake anyway though. I'm just like that.

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.

Saturday after gymnastics class we headed over to Grandpa and Marcia's house. We were there to help disassemble and bring over to our house Annika's new bedroom furniture. She now has a twin bed and new dresser and the nursery furniture has been moved to the vacated office. After her room was all set up with the new furniture and bedding she was pretty excited to get up on it and start jumping and jumping and jumping. Ugh. The jumping! The girl jumps on everything! I took some pictures that I'll try to upload tomorrow night. Kris and I were invited to a party on Saturday night but declined. I didn't want to be gone on Annika's first night with a new bed and new routine. Amazingly, the first night was pretty easy! We followed the same routine we usually do and she crawled into her bed and laid down. She wanted me to lay down by her but I told her that Mommy had to sleep in her own bed. She went to sleep shortly after that. She woke up about an hour later and when I went into her room she was walking around in the dark, I think to come over and turn her light on. I put her back in her bed and she went back to sleep. Sunday night was a little more difficult. She kept getting out of bed to jump on it or read books or play with her stuffed animals. I had to go in a couple times to lay her back down and turn the lights off (except for her night light). Finally Daddy came in and kneeled down by her bed and whispered in her ear that it was bedtime, that Mommy and Daddy loved her and that we would be close by in our bedroom. Then we got up and left her room and that was the last we heard of her that night. I was worried how last night would go since Daddy would be at work at bedtime and couldn't do the magical ear whispering. Annika did pretty well though. We did the normal routine (bath, brush teeth, pajamas, cuddle, in bed, night light on, music on, sleep). She got out of bed once to play. I put her back in bed, told her it was time to sleep, cuddled her for a minute, told her I loved her, turned off the lights and walked out. She was sleeping within minutes. She hasn't asked at all for her crib. I think the big girl bed thing is working out pretty well so far.

We had a very successful potty training weekend too. There were no #1 accidents and both days she went #2 in the potty. I was getting pretty excited. And then yesterday she had about 4-5 accidents. I'm wondering if all this change (potty training and now big girl bed) is too much for her. I told Kris that we may have to go back to making her sit on the potty every hour to help with the accidents. Hopefully things will be status quo for her for a couple months now. Of course come January/Feburary her little world is going to be totally shook up. One thing I'm very grateful for is that both Kris and I will be home most of the day after the baby is born since Kris is working part time in the evenings and will continue to do so. We should be able to give Annika a lot of individual attention even after the baby is born. I'm hoping that's the case anyways. Please don't burst my bubble just yet if it isn't. I'm hoping this will help her transition from only child to sibling.

Sunday Annika and I went shopping with Gramme. I needed to find us some new clothes for our family Christmas picture. And of course I did some other Christmas shopping as well. We spent about 3 hours out and about and by the time we got home I was completely spent. My back and hips hurt. It was Annika's nap time too. Gramme headed for home and Annika and I headed for bed. A good 2 hour nap later and we were both feeling better. I was still feeling worn out though by later that evening. I think I'll have to do my Christmas shopping in shorter spurts and as much online as I can! I actually ordered two gifts online Sunday night already. I definitely won't be making any big mall trips come late December! I don't think my body is going to allow that!

I just got back from my 28 week (at 27 weeks, 4 days) doctor appointment. All is well. Really well. Baby is head down with a heart rate of 152bpm. My blood pressure was excellent at 106 over 67. My weight is up a total of 16 pounds (1 pound below what the doctor said I should be at). I received my flu shot today. I need to make an appointment for Annika to receive hers. We're all getting vaccinated this year since when the Baby is born we'll be in the middle of flu season and he will be too small to get one. They also took blood for a hemoglobin test, a urine sample and I did the oh-so-fun 1 hour glucose screening test. Hopefully that will come back that I passed. I have more Halloween candy to eat! Kidding! I go back in four weeks. And I got a nice lecture from my midwife on paying attention to the baby's movements. She's had two women in her eight year career who have saved their baby's lives by calling when they noticed a decrease in the amount of fetal movement. I assured her that I track his movements carefully, that he is becoming more consistent in his active and non-active times (mornings are pretty quiet, mid-morning is some movement, early afternoon quiet, mid-afternoon active, early evening quiet, late evening very active), and that I would contact her right away if I noticed anything out of the ordinary. What a timely message to be given with my post of a couple weeks ago.

Annika had a fun filled weekend. Saturday she spent all day with Nana and Papa. Kris and I left after gymnastics and went to the Gopher football game and then to a couples baby shower. I know she had a great time with them because she was sad when they had to leave that evening. It makes my heart happy to see how much Annika loves all her grandparents and aunts and uncles. She is a very lucky little girl. Sunday Annika and I had some good quality time together dancing, reading books, snuggling, etc. while Daddy was away. He was watching his friend Jon in a bike race that morning. Then after watching some of the dismal Vikings game, Kris and I got ready for our big night out. Auntie Krystle came over to babysit while Kris and I were at the Red Hot Chili Peppers concert. The concert was awesome (as soon as we got through the opening band for which neither Kris nor I cared). I love me some Chili Peppers. I loved every song they played and our seats were great.

Just now Annika came to ask me if she could watch a movie. I told her yes and to go ask Daddy to help her. How does she ask her Dad? She walks to the top of the steps and yells downstairs "Daddy! Watch a movie?" He yells back OK and she goes downstairs to pick one out. It is so cute to see her doing such big girl things like that. She really is no longer my baby, except she always will be.

Lately Annika has expressed interest in writing her letters. We have a really big pad of paper at home (think 18x24"). I've written the alphabet in big block letters on one of the pages and Annika practices "tracing" them. Basically she just scribbles a little over my writing. Sometimes she asks me to help her trace them. I hold her hand while she holds the pen and we trace the letters. Other times she's content to trace by herself. I can see her get frustrated sometimes at her lack of hand control. If she deviates too far from the line, she'll start scribbling or making big circles to cover that letter. Then she'll move on to another letter and try to trace that one. Other times when she is coloring, she just writes these tiny lines (about 1/2 - 3/4" long) over and over and over again so she has a big line of tick marks. It is so amazing to watch her develop like this. And she can recognize her written name. Each ECFE class, Kris writes Annika a name tag. And each time she recognizes that it's her name he's writing. I often have to write her name on the big pad of paper for her too and then she likes to trace it.

Annika is also singing a lot more lately. If she's riding her horse (on springs) she'll sing songs. Usually she gets really into it and the volume and power of her voice keep rising. We have to get this on tape on of these days.

When I got home from my doctor appointment this morning, Kris told me Annika had done something. Turns out Annika decided she needed to go potty so she went to the bathroom, pulled down her pants, crawled up on the toilet and did it all herself! Usually Kris and I are diligent about taking her every 1-2 hours but this time Annika did it all herself! I was so proud of her that I scooped her up and smothered her with kisses. Then she got her candy reward. We're still working on #2. We still have accidents with that one. Overall though, potty training is going pretty well, I think.

Have you ever had one of those nights when you just didn't fulfill your personal mothering expectations? Where after you put your child to bed you feel guilty for how you parented that evening? Guilty that you let her sit in front of a movie while you played on the computer? Guilty that you lost your patience with her when she really did nothing wrong? Guilty that you got upset with her for doing normal toddler things? Suddnely worried how you're going to manage two children when you're alone so much? So guilty and worried that you call your husband at work and he has to reassure you through your tears that you are a good mother, that everybody has a bad night from time to time, that your child still loves you (exhibit A - the huge hugs and kisses and "I love you" that she gave you at bedtime), that you could handle six children if needed and that you'll do great with two and that tomorrow will be better? No? Yeah, me either. Sigh. The good news is today is definitely better. And Annika still loves me.

I keep meaning to write this week and then just run out of time it seems. Anyway, that Monday night game didn't quite end up like I hoped, now did it? Oh, well. Moving on to next week. All is not lost. Blah, Blah, Blah.

Potty training is going okay. Annika can be a stubborn little lass when she wants to, that is for sure. But we did have a big success on Wednesday. She did her first #2 in the potty. Of course then today she had more accidents than successes but we are only a week into this. I expect there to be setbacks every once in a while. She had a good evening with me. We even went to the mall quickly with Auntie Krystle and she went #1 in the public restroom and didn't have any accidents. So, I think it's going okay.

Annika showed Daddy a new trick today for the first time...she crawled out of her crib during nap time...3 separate times. And Kris said she had no problem doing it. Luckily during the day it's light enough in her room that she can see where she's climbing. I'm afraid of her attempting this at night when her room is pretty dark. I'm glad her new big girl bed is coming next weekend. Her sleeping may be disrupted with the new bed but at least I won't have to worry about her falling out the top of her crib. We may have to move most of her toys out of her room though so there is less temptation to get out of bed. More challenges, ah, such fun!

Annika is not only stubborn, she's bossy too. If she wants you to do something or not do something, she will tell you. And most times with attitude that would make a teenager proud. I get to hear "Be quiet, Mommy. Stop talking, Mommy. No singing, Mommy. Come here!" and other lovely phrases quite a bit. Tonight as we were driving to the mall, Auntie Krystle and I were talking and Annika kept telling us to stop talking and be quiet so she could hear her music. So I turned her music up and Krystle and I lowered our voices. That wasn't good enough for Annika though. She wanted absolutely no talking from either of us. So to get her mind off the no talking thing, I told her she was an elephant. Of course she said she wasn't an elephant. So I told her okay, then she was a donkey. She accepted this and agreed to being a donkey. I told her "No, you're not a donkey! You're a little girl!" According to Annika, no, she is not a little girl, she is a donkey and she proceeded to argue with me the rest of the way to the mall (Me: ok, then you're a hippo! Annika: No, I'm a donkey!, etc.) that she was, in fact, a donkey. Yeah. Not sure where the donkey thing came from but at least now we know that Annika is a donkey.

Lately, Annika has been saying "Aloha" to Kris and I. She said it tonight to Auntie Krystle too. Kris and I have no idea where she got that from. Weird.

Annika knows that Daddy's name is Kris. And pretty much any time he leaves a room or I say "Daddy" or sometimes just when Daddy speaks, Annika will say "Daddy. His name is Kris." I tell her yes, Daddy's name is Kris, but we call him Daddy. Kris really doesn't like it when Annika calls him Kris. I told him though that while I, too, would like it if she called us Mommy and Daddy and not by our first names, and I will encourage and enforce that, I'm not going to tell her that she's wrong. Daddy's name is Kris. And if (please God, no) for some reason Annika should ever get lost, I think it's a good thing that she knows what her parents first names are. Paging "Mommy and Daddy" over the intercom is not going to help much. She now knows that my first name is Kristina and she sounds so cute when she says it. She doesn't say it very often, preferring to stick to Mommy with me.

OK, that's all I can think of tonight. I'm off to sleep now. I'm so sleepy!