Happy new year! We had a long and busy day celebrating Nana's 60th birthday. It was a very nice party but a scary drive home. We're getting our first snow storm here in Minnesota and the roads were a mess. We're home though, safe and sound. Here's to a happy and healthy 2007! Now it's time to go snuggle up with the hubby and ring in the new year.

We are half way done with our busiest weekend in months. Last night was a baby shower for Kris's cousin Tim and his wife Kari. It was a really nice evening. We don't get to see that family very often as they are pretty scattered across the nation and upper midwest. Annika really enjoyed herself playing with Jack, Emma and Peter. Emma has a super fancy doll house and Barbies. Annika was in heaven playing with those. The downer of the evening was the missing presence of Uncle Jim. He's in the hospital recovering from gall bladder surgery. Please keep him in your prayers for a speedy recovery.

Yesterday afternoon Annika and I were getting ready for the party. After we woke from our nap, we took a shower. Annika was wearing her new bathrobe when we heard Daddy arrive home from work. Annika ran down the stairs to greet him, except she stripped off her robe before doing so. Daddy was greeted by a naked little girl running around the house! Silly girl! As they came back up the stairs I heard Daddy ask Annika if she was getting ready for the party and Annika ask Daddy in reply "Touch Nika?" Daddy didn't know what she was talking about and asked Nika to repeat herself. Annika said "Girls touch Nika?" Then it dawned on us that the last parties Annika has been to are with my side of the family. The little girls, Ann and Beth, that are sometimes there are very aggressive socially. They give Annika big bear hugs and pat her head and kiss her cheek. Annika hates this. She definitely needs her personal space. So she was asking Daddy if the touchy girls were going to be there. Daddy assured her that they weren't and then helped her get dressed.

Today Annika and I spent most of the day at home. Daddy was out running with Uncle Dusty, Auntie Carrie and Uncle Adam and then he headed to the north end of the cities. There, he visited with an old work friend of his and his new baby. And then he headed to Gma's 90th birthday party. In the mean time, Annika and I were getting ready for our next party. This evening was a Christmas party for Gramme's side of the family. When I told Annika where we were going, she wanted to know if the girl and boys (Jack, Emma and Peter from last night) were going to be there. I told her no but there would be other kids for her to play with. And there were. A lot of my cousins are now having children. I think there were kids there from 5 years old down to babies. Annika had the most fun playing with Blaine's dinosaurs. She was very well behaved while we were there, until the very end when we said it was time to go. Then she pitched a fit and cried and tantrumed most of the way home. Ah, good times. How do you handle a tantruming child when in the car. I told her that Mommy wasn't going to listen to her when she was crying and whining and then I ignored her until she calmed down and talked to me nicely. But man, did she pitch a fit in the mean time. When she does that at home she gets a time out but I can't really do a time out at 65mph down the highway. Ugh. That girl has a temper and no patience sometimes. It's really not a nice combination. Tomorrow we have another party and then Monday is our last Christmas celebration before returning to life as normal.

Today was a pretty low key day so there's not much to talk about. Annika and I were home the whole day with the exception of a trip to Target. Nothing exciting or out of the ordinary happened. Annika continues to have a runny nose but it doesn't seem to be slowing her down at all. Annika also continues to love her new toys. I've been asked to play "dolls" (play with her new doll house) minimum three times a day. It wouldn't be so bad but then I have to get down on the floor. That's not so comfortable these days and getting up is even harder! Still, when your daughter asks you to play dolls with her and it's a choice between that and chores, which would you choose? The laundry can wait, people. I'm really enjoying my days off. Tuesday is going to be a rude awakening when it's back to the routine.

Today was Annika's big train adventure. A few weeks ago we were driving through town along the light rail line. Each time Annika saw one of the trains, she got really excited. Today we decided to take her for a ride on it. I was glad we waited until I was on vacation so I could go with. At first Annika was apprehensive. When we told her what we were going to do she said "I not ride a train." Then she asked if Mommy was going to ride a train. I said that I was and then she asked Daddy. When he said that he was too she was a little more willing to maybe give it a try. We headed to the 28th Ave Park and Ride to get on. As we were waiting for our train, one going the opposite direction went by. Annika thought it was pretty neat up close but was still a little scared. When our train came, she refused to get on so Daddy had to pick her up and carry her. She didn't cry or fuss and when we sat down, she was perfectly content to sit by the window and look outside. She warmed up quickly and watched everything outside for a while. She wasn't even scared when we went in the tunnel by the airport. We headed downtown to almost the last stop. Then we got off and wandered around downtown for a little bit. We had made plans to meet Uncle Dusty for lunch since he works downtown and we were a little early. We headed to Macy's and thought maybe we'd check out the Mary Poppins display again. Unfortunately, the line was three floors long (Mary Poppins is on the 8th floor and the line to get in started on the 5th floor) so we scrapped that idea and instead wandered around the Christmas decoration displays. Then it was time to head to the restaurant. We ate at the yummy Kieran's Irish Pub. Annika and I each had fish and chips. Annika really liked hers and ate a whole piece of fish. Her appetite has been almost non existent lately. She wanted to just eat ice so we were bribing her - eat two bites of fish and you can have one ice cube, etc. After lunch, Uncle Dusty took us through the skyways to the Wells Fargo tower and surprised Annika by buying her a Prince horse at the Wells Fargo museum. Annika loved her new stuffed horse and had to carry it the whole way back to the train and for most of the train ride home. I say most of the train ride because about two-thirds into it she fell asleep. That was a good thing because it was past her nap time. I think Annika liked her train adventure and I got some cute pictures too. We may have to do that again some time!

During the night last night, Annika woke up and needed to go potty. When I went to go help her, I noticed that she was burning up again. I got the thermometer and she was up to 101.3 degrees. Anything in the triple digits and I start to get worried. I gave her some tylenol and she went right back to sleep. This morning when she woke up, she was still warm but not as bad. She was down to 100.1. I gave her another dose though and checked her mouth. Sure enough, both of her top two molars have poked through. I know most doctors say there is no correlation between fevers, runny noses and teething but I think for some kids, Annika included, that just isn't the case. Sure enough, tonight she was warm again and her nose started running. At least we know she's not contagious in any way. She was also whining tonight that her mouth hurt. We were out of orajel so I gave her another dose of Tylenol. Hopefully she sleeps well tonight.

Last night I found my hospital bag packing list from my pregnancy with Annika. That, combined with a list I found online and I should be ready to go. I have a few things I need to pick up at Target but I should be able to get my bag packed by the end of the weekend. One more thing I can check off the list. My next big thing will be to get the car seat out of the basement, cleaned and installed in the truck. Little by little we are getting ready.

I've missed a few days there, haven't I? Oops. The holidays got me. Merry Christmas (a day late) everyone. I hope you had a good one. Ours was very, very busy but it was also really nice. Saturday was a busy day getting ready. We had our last gymnastics class that morning. We've decided to stop going for a little while. If we start up again, we may take a weekday class instead of a Saturday morning one. Kris thought Annika was starting to get bored with the classes and we'll be a little busy here shortly so we thought now was a good time to quit. Luckily the classes are year round and you can start back up any time so if we change our mind, it won't be a hassle. After gymnastics we headed to the grocery store. We had our list of ingredients needed and that saved us some time but Annika was tired and antsy and by the end of our grocery store run, we were all crabby. Ah, such fun. We got what we needed though and headed home. We ate lunch right away and then Annika and I laid down for a nap. Boy, did that girl need one! She slept for almost three hours. When we woke up, I started baking cookies (one of the items needed for our holiday celebrations the next two days). Pretty soon I handed that job over to Kris though so I could work on Nana and Papa's gift. I ended up picking out 1,145 pictures to put in their new digital photo frame! Um, no, I do not have a photo taking problem! That night after Annika went to bed, I had one last job to do - finish wrapping all the gifts. I was exhausted by the time that was done. It was just one task after another all day long!

Sunday was just as busy. We were hosting Christmas Eve dinner for Kris's family that evening so all morning long was spent cleaning the house. I even took the time to do some chores I don't usually get done like dusting out the china cabinet. By lunch time though, the majority of it was done. After lunch, Annika and I laid down for a nap, this time I needed it more than she did. While we napped, Kris started the dinner prep for that evening. One funny thing that happened that afternoon was something Annika said. She must have stubbed her toe or something because she was in the kitchen with Kris and I, holding her foot and crying. Kris asked her what was wrong and she sobbed "I broke my foot!" Kris and I couldn't help but giggle at her while also trying to be sympathetic and make her feel better. When we woke up from out nap, Annika and I helped with a last few chores and then it was time to change into our fancy clothes for Christmas Eve church. Kris's family met us there so we were able to show them the church we are considering joining. After church it was back home again to make dinner. Kris had set the table while we were napping and it looked so nice. He got out our china and the cloth napkins and the wine goblets. It looked so elegant. The beef tenderloin we made only had took cook about an hour and then we all sat down together around the table. It was a lovely meal and the beef tenderloin turned out magnificent. That hubby of mine can cook! He also made his version of Asian green beans (green beans sauteed in garlic and soy sauce) and sherried mushrooms. Along with that we had mashed potatoes, salad and dinner rolls. I'm drooling just thinking of that meal again. I was the last person finished eating. That may have been because I was busy helping Annika eat or it may be because I was a little piggy and kept going back for seconds. I'll let you all decide which one you think is correct. After dinner clean up (thank you Auntie Carrie and Nana for helping so much!) it was present opening time! I hope everyone liked what we got them. It seemed like they did so I'll just go with that. Kris, Annika and I were spoiled again with great gifts. Annika loved her build-a-bear reindeer, puzzle, book, ornament (which she had to immediately go put on the tree!) and pajamas. She had to wear her new pj's that evening even. Before we knew it though, it was pretty late and time for bed. The time always seems to slip by so quickly when you don't want it too.

Yesterday was more whirlwind of activity. We started the morning by eating our traditional Swedish pancakes and then present opening of our own. Santa was good to Annika, bringing her Cars, The Polar Express and three Muppets movies. It was just what she asked for (Cars and Muppets) plus a little extra. Her toys from us were a big hit too. She loved her new baby stroller but she loved her new Little People doll house. She played with that for over an hour that morning before we convinced her to change her clothes so we could go to Gramme and Papa Merv's house. We had a lunch time celebration there (hmm, yummy lasagna!) and of course more gift opening. Hopefully once again everyone liked their gifts. I tried to really find stuff I thought people would like this year instead of opting out with gift cards. Gift cards are so much easier though! Anyway, We received some very nice gifts (again). One of the highlights was when Annika received a scratch and sniff book from Gramme. Annika thought it was nice and all but Kris really liked it! Turns out he had the same book as a child and he was excited to show it to Annika. Annika was getting the hang of this present opening thing though and wanted to go "help" more people with their gifts. After opening all the presents, Annika spent a good half hour or so running through all the paper on the floor as if it were a pile of leaves and laughing her fool head off. She thought that was great. Then, Uncle Mathias laid down on the floor and she spent another hour or so torturing him by climbing all over him. What was most hilarious though was when Daddy told her to lick Uncle Mathias. So she went after Uncle Mathias full bore with her tongue sticking out, licking his arms and face. We were all falling over ourselves laughing and Uncle Mathias was playing defense, trying to get her to stop. Then, Auntie Krystle showed Annika what a "wet willie" was so Annika went afer Uncle Mathias with her finger sticking out, aiming for his ear. It was hilarious. Pretty soon it was time to leave though and we headed out. We had another celebration to go to that evening at Grandpa and Marcia's house. Annika again had a great time, what with being the center of attention for two days straight and everything. After getting out all the appetizers and desserts and each of us loading up a plate, it was time for more gift opening. We were all spoiled again (for the third time!) with some really nice gifts. The hit of the night for Annika was her new kitchen set (which Daddy is finishing setting up for her today) and the cooking utentil set that she got to go with it. She started whipping up all sorts of things in her new pots and pans. I would ask her what she was doing and she would say "I"m making." She didn't tell us what she was making, but she was a busy little girl. The pots and pans were even more fun when she figured out she could turn them upside down and use them as drums. This wouldn't be so bad, but she got a nice wooden kitchen set and the cooking utensils were all metal and wood too. The new drums were a little loud! Uncle Mike (Marcia's son) is a drummer though so he and Marcia thought Annika's drumming was excellent. I'm sure the rest were just happy the cooking set was going home with us! We all migrated to the family room and played Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture Series 2 the rest of the evening. It was really fun. Most of us are really competitive so there was some lively banter being thrown back and forth. My team (consisting of myself, Auntie Krystle and Pierce) won but just barely. It was a really close game which, of course, only made it more fun! After that though, it was time to go. I love spending time with our families and was a bit sad that the holidays had come and gone so quickly. It seems like you spend eons preparing for it and then, blink!, it's over.

Today was a recovery day for Annika and I. I got the house mostly back in order. I still have my china and goblets to hand wash but all the gifts have been put away and the boxes crushed or stored. It helps my stress level when my house isn't a cluttered mess. That's Gramme coming out in me, I'm afraid! Annika spent the entire day in her pajamas. She was a crabby little thing this morning (two late nights in a row with short naps yesterday and today lead to a crabby girl apparently - shocking!) so she went down for a nap early. Unfortunately, she didn't sleep very long, only an hour or so, and woke up with a low grade fever. It was around 100 or so. We spent the rest of the afternoon snuggling in bed watching movies and relaxing. By the evening, the fever seemed to be gone and her mood had improved. Hopefully she's not getting sick. We have big plans for tomorrow - a train ride! Don't worry I'll tell you all about it.

I did it! I finished Annika's stocking before Christmas! Goal accomplished! Ok, so it was by the skin of my teeth, but it's finished! Want to see it? Of course you do! Here it is!



Didn't it turn out great? I love it and am so pleased.

I also had my 34 week doctor appointment today. All is well. Weight gain and blood pressure are good. The baby's heart rate was good and he even kicked the doppler away once. That was pretty funny. I have another appointment in two weeks and then it's weekly from there on out. They are all on Friday mornings, fyi.

This morning after Kris and Annika got home from ECFE class, Annika wanted to go play in the snow. Not much of it stuck around our house. The driveway had a thin coating and there was a little bit in the grass but Annika was determined to play in it anyway. After Kris left for work, I bundled Annika up and we went outside. There's a bunch of pictures uploaded so you all can see my purple and black marshmallow having a great time. She was even trying to do snow angels. It's too bad there wasn't any actual snow for her to play in. Hopefully we'll get some soon so she can do some real playing.

It snowed today! Just in time for a white Christmas! Granted, other parts of the country are being hit really hard and Christmas is going to be a big mess for most of them. I hope they can make the best of the terrible circumstances. Personally, I'm happy to have snow. I like the snow and it's not Christmas for me without it. I'm also glad because I don't have to work tomorrow (or at all until January 2nd - woo-hoo!) so I don't have to drive in it when it continues to snow tomorrow. Well, I don't have to drive in it to work. I do have a bunch of errands to run tomorrow. First, I have my 34 week doctor appointment (at 33 weeks, 5 days) tomorrow morning. Then after Kris and Annika get home from ECFE class, Kris is going to head off to work and Annika and I are going to the grocery story. We have to get all our ingredients for our Christmas festivities. Then, tomorrow night when Kris gets home from work, I'm heading over to Gramme's house to finish up Annika's stocking. It will be done just in time for Christmas and that was my goal. It's going to be a busy day tomorrow!

Tonight the Vikes are playing the Pack. I think I need to head down and finish up my detail work on Annika's stocking in front of the tv!

I've uploaded 38 new photos into an album titled "Annika #15". I may need to reorganize the photos or do something different when the baby is born. I don't want to have separate his and her photo albums when I'm guessing there will be a lot of pictures of them together. Also, there are nursery photos in that album too. Let me know what you think!

So, we may have a name. May. As in maybe. As in it's still in talks. But I proposed a name today, with a cute nickname, and Kris didn't immediatley shoot it down. Of course, that may be because I started crying when I told it to him. He looked at me as if I had completely lost my mind. No, I haven't lost my mind, I'm just a little emotional and hormonal right now. So, yeah. Nothing definite but a possibility is terrific right now.

Tonight on the way home from the grocery store, Annika wanted to listen to her CD. I told her no, we're listening to Christmas music. So she insisted that we listen to "Annika's music right now!" After informing her that was not a nice way to talk she said "Listen to Annika's music right now please!" Um, yeah, little girl, that isn't going to work either. So I told her no, we would listen to her music some other time but right now we are listening to Christmas music. Then she yells "Nika's music right now!" So I tell her "Mommy said no." So she yells back at me "I said right now!" After stifling a giggle, I just ignored her after that. You can't fight with a 2 year old, right? And she eventually let the music issue drop, seeing as how I was ignoring her and not changing the music. Man, when did my 2 year old turn into a petulant pre-teen?!? Yikes!

I have a big list of chores to get done this week and absolutely no energy. Tonight I'm supposed to finish the last detail work on Annika's Christmas stocking and fold/put away the load of baby laundry. Instead, all I want to do is go to sleep. Sleep, sleep, sleep.

Tonight Annika and I ran to Joanne's to get some supplies to finish up Annika's Christmas stocking that I'm cross-stitching for her. We wandered around the store for a little while and then went to the check out line. There was a mom and a little girl, maybe 5 years old, in front of us. The mom had to tell me that the little girl was in love with Annika's name. She has the Annika Barbie movie and now loves the name Annika. She just kept staring at Annika like she was a real life Barbie! It was pretty cute. Then the mom had to ask how old Annika was. When I said two, she said that she looked small for two (um, actually she's taller than most two year olds but whatever) but that she certainly didn't sound young! Annika was talking up a storm. And she speaks pretty clearly too. I had to agree with that one.

OK, I'm going to drag myself to get one of my chores done and then I'm collapsing into bed. Exhausted. I am exhausted.

I did it. I removed all the tags from the new clothing that I've purchased for baby boy. It's all ready to be laundered tomorrow night. I'm 33 weeks now and am pretty confident that if he were born, he'd make it. (knocks on wood, avoids black cats, etc.) This is my last baby related task until after Christmas. Do this last load of laundry, which includes his going home from the hospital outfit, get it put away and then rest for Christmas. After Christmas I'll wash any clothes he gets from Santa, pack my hospital bag, clean the car seat and get it installed and then - then - it will be okay for him to come. I will be full term on January 7th and that isn't that far away anymore! There's other miscellaneous things I need to do like clean the swing and bouncy seat and baby bjorn but those aren't essential so I'm not going to worry about them. I'll get them done in January some time. I'm feeling like we might be getting close to ready at home and that helps my stress level. Of course not having a name isn't helping but Kris is reading through a baby name list right now so at least we're working on it.

I missed yesterday! That's my second day missing posting this month. Argh! I totally forgot yesterday. We were pretty busy yesterday. First was gymnastics then Kris headed down to his parents to work on the floors one last time before Christmas. While Kris was working, Annika and I were shopping! Hee. We finished up our Christmas shopping for Daddy and now we are all done! OK, so there's two small things I'd like to get yet but if that doesn't happen, it's okay. Annika was such an angel during shopping. In the first store, I didn't have her in a stroller and the store didn't have carts so she was left to walk on her own. And she was so good, staying right by me, not touching all the merchandise in sight and sticking close by me. I couldn't have been more proud. The second store we went to had carts. There was some whining to get out of the cart after a while, but otherwise it went really well. After shopping, we had lunch with Gramme and Auntie Krystle. Gramme was totally smitten with Annika and even scooted her high chair closer to her so she could snuggle and love on Annika. We went to Macaroni Grill for lunch and Annika thought it was pretty cool that she could just color right on the table! She also had to go to the bathroom three times, not because she actually had to go, but because she wanted out of the high chair, I think. After lunch, Gramme and Auntie Krystle said good-bye and I strapped Annika in to her car seat. I said good-bye to them also and by the time I walked around the truck and got in big crocodile tears were rolling down Annika's face. I asked her what was wrong and she said "Where's Auntie Krystle? Where's Gramme?" I told her that they had to go home now and so did we. She didn't want them to leave. I told her Auntie Krystle was coming over to our house that night to play with her and then she was better. We went home and took an almost three hour nap together and before we knew it, it was night time and Auntie Krystle came over. She was babysitting for us so Kris and I could go to a party. Annika hardly batted an eye when it was time for us to leave. We each got our hugs and kisses and then she was busy playing with Auntie Krystle and gave us each a quick wave as we walked out. We had the last martini party of the year to go to at Amanda and Dean's house. It was a nice evening hanging out with friends. John even brought his Wii with and we got to play with that for a while! OK, so Kris played it with others. I was sleepy by then (Hey - it was after 10:30pm and I'm usually sleeping by then - this was a big night out! Ha!) so I just watched the others play. It looked like fun though! And I was laughing right along with the others, even if I wasn't on my feet bowling or pumping my fists running or playing any of the other crazy games.

Today was our first family Christmas party of the season. Annika super excited to see Auntie Shelly and Uncle Dale. She's been asking about them for days. And she spent a great deal of time with them this afternoon. That's when she wasn't running around like a crazy girl of course. She had a great time playing with a little football and other toys, helping some aunts open up their presents, playing with Daddy and Grandpa and Marcia and seeing all the other kids. She asked for them all on our way home this afternoon. "Where's Uncle Dale? Where's Auntie Shelly? Where's the kids? Where's Grandpa? Where's Marcie?" On and on and on... Then as we were stopped at a stoplight, she thought she saw Uncle Dale in a vehicle by us. The car went straight and we turned and she was upset and almost panicked "Where's Uncle Dale going?" It wasn't him, of course, but she thought it was. I told her Uncle Dale had to go home to his house and we had to go home to ours. That was a good enough explanation and while she wasn't very happy about it, she accepted it. Silly girl.

My friend Jen had a baby boy on Friday night. Congratulations Jen, Jim, Audrey and Ava! Little David is such a cutie! She reads this site once in a while. Leave her a congratulations in the comments if you'd like!

Sometimes Annika is such a manipulative little thing. She knows that if she says she has to go potty, that we will always listen to her and take her to the bathroom. The past week or so at bedtime, she tells me, through the baby monitor, that she has to go potty 3-4 times. The first couple times she might manage to squeeze something out but the last 1-2 times she usually doesn't. She just sits there, swinging her legs. That's when I tell her that this is the last time and now it's time to go to sleep. Usually she tries one more time and I have to go in there and tell her it's bed time - no more potty tonight. Then, she'll go to sleep. She does this at nap time too Kris says. Today she had to go 3-4 times before she would settle down and take a nap. She does wake us up occasionally during the night too to tell us she has to go potty. Then, she does actually have to go and we bound out of bed to help her. OK, bound might be stretching it, but one of us always gets up to help her. She's still in diapers at night but I'm thinking that when we run out, it might be time to do the night time training.

And now I'm off to take a jacuzzi bath. I have a knot in my lower back that's been bothering me for a few days. First I'll let the jets work on it and then Kris has promised a massage. Whee!

Yesterday as we were driving to the mall, Kris and I got into a discussion about Annika and school. I know she's only 2 but it's good to have these talks early I think. What started it all was when I told Kris that Annika will be in preschool for three years. See, we'd like to start her in preschool next fall. She will technically not be eligible to go since she will still be 2 as of September 1st. I'm hoping I can find a place that will accept her since her September 7th birthday is so close to the cut off date. Of course this means I need to actually research what preschools (public like through ECFE and private as in a church) are available in our area. We both think she's ready for preschool. And in her ECFE classes there is already a parent/child separation time so she is used to being left alone in a classroom environment with a teacher and other kids. Anyway, although I'd like her to start preschool next fall, I don't want her to start kindergarten until she is 5, like all the other kids will. Yes, she will turn 6 very quickly after the start of the school year but personally, I'd like her to be one of the older kids in her class rather than one of the younger. Kris, I think, would like to send her to kindergarten when she's 4 and about to turn 5. I don't know if that's even possible in our public school system but that's not what this story is about anyway. When Kris was making his argument about sending her early, he brought up how smart she is. (Side note: It always makes me smile when Kris talks about how smart Annika is. I think he thinks she's the smartest little girl in all the land. While I, too, think she's a sharp little girl, I don't know that she's brilliant or anything. She's either on track developmentally or ahead but she's not ahead by leaps and bounds, I don't think.) While I agree that Annika is a smart little girl, my counterpoint was that preschool is about more than just being smart, it's also about social interaction skills and such. He wants her to learn how to read and not "waste" three years learning how to fingerpaint and use scissors. Then he said "How many 2 years olds do you know that already know their phonics?" "Phonics?" I asked. Yep, it turns out Annika is already learning phonics. He started quizzing her; what does a say, what does b say, what does c say, etc. I told him she just had the sequence memorized. So he skipped ahead to m, what does m say. Each time Annika told him the correct answer back. We both attribute this to playing with her LeapFrog Friends Learning Bus. It teaches phonics with a jazzy little tune and since Annika loves music so much, she enjoys playing with this toy. Anyway, I told him maybe we should let the preschool teachers and the kindergarten screeners tell us what their opinions are of Annika and if they think she would be ready for kindergarten at 4 (almost 5) or 5 (almost 6). Kris agreed to this and then told Annika "Don't worry honey, I'll teach you how to read when you're 3." Hee!

Tonight while Annika and I were reading "One Fish, Two Fish" by Dr. Seuss, we got to one of the last pages. On this page was a cow, a little girl and a little boy. Annika asked "What's this?" while pointing at the cow. So I repeated it back to her, "What's this?" And she squealed out "a cow!" The she pointed out the girl and boy. I asked Annika if she was a girl or a boy and she replied "I'm a boy!" I told her she wasn't, that she was a girl and that baby brother was a boy. Nope, she insisted that I was Mommy, she was Nika, the little girl in the book was a little girl and that she was a boy. So I told her that Mommy was a girl, Annika was a girl and Daddy was a boy. No, no, no - you could just see it in her eyes and hear it in her voice. She insisted, while pointing to her chest, "I'm a boy!" So we called Daddy at work. I wanted him to hear her insisting this. It was just too cute and I was laughing too hard which only made Annika more insistent. By the end of their phone conversation, Annika said one time that she was a girl and then it was back to being a boy for her. Silly monkey!

A few months ago Annika got new fall pajamas. The wrists on the sleeves are rather tiny and her fingers would always get caught when she pushed her arm through. So I started teasing her to "get her pinky out of there!" She giggled so we repeated the new tradition each night. While putting her pajama shirt on, we would both exclaim "Get your pinky out of there!" Annika now attributes having her hand stuck (or her foot or a zipper or anything really that's stuck) with this phrase. If we're putting on her coat and she's trying to get her hand through the sleeve she yells out "Get your pinky out of there!" If we're putting on her shoes, she'll yell it. If I'm putting on socks, she'll yell it. Any time that anything is stuck, she yells it. It's pretty funny.

I missed my first day in December posting yesterday. I was too tired last night to think of something to say.

Today's excitement was at lunch time. We headed to our local mall to visit Santa. Annika has been asking to see him and was excited to see him for about a week now. We explained that she would sit on his lap and tell him what she wanted and then we would take a picture. All this morning and at the mall on our way to see him it was all about Santa. We get to the area he's in and guess what! No lines! We waltzed right up to him and Annika freaked out. She was a monkey and attached herself to my hip and there was nothing that was going to get her down. We let another family go ahead of us and she watched that little girl and boy get their picture taken, tell Santa what they want and get their little coloring book souvenir. We asked Annika if she wanted Mommy or Daddy to sit with her and Santa and that was also a no. There was nothing we said or did that would convince her Santa wasn't scary. So, we gave up on the Santa picture and had some lunch instead. I was disappointed but I also wasn't going to make her sit on his lap. I don't need to traumatize the poor girl. We may try again next week or we may just scrap it all together for this year.

And now I'm sleepy again so that's all you get.

Today's writing prompt over at Holidailies is "those mass-produced family holiday newsletters." This is a timely writing prompt for me as last night I finished up our family letter, printed it and then assembled our Christmas cards for this year. Today I bought stamps and tomorrow they will all go in the mail. Yes, I'm one of those people who sends out the cheesy Christmas letter. You know what though? I like them. I like receiving other people's letters and I usually like writing my own. I was having a bit of a mental block writing ours this year however. I like sitting down though and remembering all that my family has done over the last year; all the activities we did, the vacations we took, the projects we completed. I realized this year that I have done very little! Well, besides gestating and all! And I love reading other people's letters. I have a very large extended family (21 aunts and uncles plus their spouses; 55 first cousins, many now with families of their own - and no, I'm not exaggerating) and it's next to impossible to keep up with everybody. With the newsletters, I can find out any big news that I missed. Where is that cousin going to college? What sport is this cousin involved in? How is that aunt/uncle/cousin/old high school friend doing? I don't have time to keep in touch with everybody even though I care about them all. Some of them know about this blog and I hope they enjoy reading it too. I started it as a way for my family and friends to keep up with Annika's pregnancy. And now it's morphed into a family blog where I - get this - talk about my family and what we've been up to. It's like a Christmas newsletter, only in more detail, every day of the year! I wish more family members and friends had blogs! And I wish more of them wrote Christmas letters! (Oh - and if you are a family member or friend who isn't on my annual Christmas card list and would like to be - send me a card or leave me a comment! I love sending out cards and receiving them!)

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

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

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

There was no gymnastics for us today. Instead, we had breakfast with Nana, Papa, Uncle Dusty and Auntie Carrie! Auntie Carrie was in town for just a few hours on a layover at the airport. Annika was a little shy at first but that's typical for her. Girl is just like her mama and needs her warm up time. It wasn't too long though before she was being her normal, goofy self, swinging her head from side to side, making herself dizzy and making the rest of us laugh. After breakfast, we headed over to IKEA to do a bit of shopping. Annika had to test out all the chairs there and kept saying "I like this one!" to each chair she sat in. By the time we were done there, both Annika and I were pretty wiped out. We said our good-byes to Auntie Carrie and headed for home. The good-byes weren't too sad this time since we we're going to see her in just a couple weeks for Christmas. Once we got home, Annika and I watched a Baby Einstein video while snuggling in bed. Then we settled in for an almost three hour nap. Ah, bliss! My body was wiped out and I think I needed that almost as much as Annika did! We've had a really nice evening today too. There has been lots of good family time, jumping and singing and dancing and drawing. It's been great.

Lately, Annika has been asking us to draw people for her. Usually it's either Woody and the horse and the cowgirl from Toy Story II or else it's a Mommy, Daddy and Annika. That's new for her. In the past, she's been content to just scribble or have us write letters for her. It's too bad for her that Mommy can't draw very well at all! Glorified stick figures is all she gets from me! She doesn't seem to mind...yet.

OK, so, Blogger is giving me weird errors when I try to publish. It didn't publish yesterday's post. Let's see if it will publish todays.

My OB appt this morning was quick. That means everything is A-OK. BP and weight are good. I asked about all the contractions so she did a quick cervix check. Everything there is as it should be. She said this is now my baseline (about 2/hour or so). If they start getting more frequent or if they change in any way (discharge, pain, etc.) then I am to call right away. She said I'm just lucky enough to have an irritable uterus and that I should keep my activity light or about the levels they are now. No running 5K's, no long shopping trips, etc.

The rest of the day was spent standing on my feet (um, what was that up there about "light activity" and "activity levels as they are now?"). It was my annual holiday baking day with Mary and Amanda. It was at my house and I did rest when I felt I needed it. We made six different kinds of cookies and they all turned out great! the nice thing about doing this with two other people is we usually only make one batch of each type and each person goes home with some of that batch. This way you don't end up with a million cookies but maybe a dozen of each. That's more manageable even though some usually end up coming to work with me to be given away. That's still a lot of cookies for three people to eat!

Annika was pretty good all day too. Kris was home to help take care of her too so I didn't have to worry about my cookies, the oven, and her all at the same time. We watched some Christmas movied and then at the end of the day, Annika asked to watch Cinderella. Except she pronounces it Cinderlella. It's pretty cute. And when we were watching the Jim Carrey "Grinch That Stole Christmas" she kept calling him the grouch instead of the grinch. Maybe a little too much Sesame Street for her, you think?

She didn't even eat that many cookies today. She ate a bit of a peanut butter blossom and I gave her a sugar cookie topped with icing. Instead of eating that cookie though she just licked all the icing off. And then when I wasn't looking, she grabbed another and ate the icing off that one too. I learned my lesson and moved the cookies to where she couldn't reach them. Sneaky little miss!

I am wiped out tonight. It's partially from staying up late last night to then contracting all day (I average 2 an hour today) and then tonight Annika and I made a big trip to Target. Being on my feet, pushing the overly loaded cart around for an hour really did me in I think. My back is sore and I'm sleepy. This may be a short post.

Tomorrow morning is my 32 week (at 31 week 5 days) appointment. I wonder if they'll have me start every 2 week appointments now. Anyway, I'll discuss with my midwife all the contractions I've been having and I'll officially get my test results from my last appointment. I'm assuming those were all fine (gestational diabetes, hemoglobin, urine) since I never received a phone call. I checked my blood pressure today at work and it was 113/65 so I'm assuming that will be fine tomorrow as well. I have no idea what I weigh but I think I look okay so it's probably not out of line. I haven't started retaining any water yet although this is the time in Annika's pregnancy when that started full force. The next couple weeks will let me know if I retained so much with her because it was July and August or if that's how my body does pregnancy. I'm excited to hear Baby Boy's heartbeat again even though I can constantly feel him moving and he's had the hiccups about once a day now. It's just fun to hear that swoosh, swoosh on the doppler. I'll report back tomorrow with the official appointment details.

Today when Annika woke up from her nap, it took her a while to fully wake up. Kris brought her downstairs to me and sat her in my lap. She immediately curled up into me and snuggled as closely as she could. We rocked in the recliner for a few minutes. After a potty break for her, she was still sleepy. She asked me if I would hold her and snuggle with her more. And of course, after I was done melting, I picked her up and carried her back to the recliner where we snuggled under a blanket together and rocked. I love that little girl so much.

Tonight while giving her a bath, Annika was talking to her foam letters. She was lining them up on the side of the tub and then she stacked them by color (a stack of blue letters next to a stack of green letters, etc.) After she was tired of stacking and lining, she wiped them all back into the tub. Apparently some of them didn't come off right away or something because I heard her telling the letters that they were being naughty. Hee!

Annika doesn't have much in the way of patience sometimes. If she's trying to do something and it's not quite working, she gets frustrated quickly. She'll start yelling or crying or stamping her feet or she'll start whining "Mommy help." I hope this is a stage and not a precursor of things to come!

I did two loads of baby laundry today. I haven't folded it yet and put it in the baby's dressers, but it felt good to at least get some of it washed. I have to admit though that none of what I washed was new. It was all old blankets and gender neutral clothing from Annika. It just felt strange to go into the bag of new clothing and start taking tags off. It almost felt like I was tempting fate too much. At 31 weeks, it's still too early for this baby to come. Yes, he'd have a good chance but I still couldn't bring myself to wash the new baby items. So, for now, I'll get all the outgrown clothing laundered and into the dressers and I'll wait a week or two for the new stuff. Man, do I have issues or what!?!

I don't have much to talk about tonight so instead you all get a Public Service Announcement. I read a bunch of different blogs. I was pointed to one earlier in November called AtomicTumor. Since I only came recently to this blog, I don't know it's whole history. There are a few contributors to it, the most prominent being a husband and wife team. When I was introducted to it, the wife was ill in the hospital. She took ill on November 1st, was admitted to the hospital with a mysterious infection and ended up dying on November 17th. She was 29 with two young sons, aged 10 and 4. I've cried many times ready the husband's accounts of her hospital stay, of her death, of how he and the boys are coping and living through this. My heart breaks for them. Yesterday, he posted that he received the official death certificate for his wife. The death certificate lists four causes for her death, in order of immediacy - Cerebral Infailltion and herniation, Diseminated Intravascular Coagulation, Septic Shock, Pyelonephritis. What is all that? Well, she had a UTI, it got bad quick, she went into shock, then had a stroke that left her in a coma and was ultimately brain dead and they had to let her go. Did you get all that? She contracted a UTI. How many of us have had urinary track infections? Did you all go to the doctor right away to get it treated? I already have one friend that ended up in the hospital because it spread to her kidneys. This young, vibrant woman died because of her's. Please, please, please, if you think you have a UTI, go to the doctor and get it checked. And if the quick test comes back positive, please have them run a culture. Why? Because my penicillin allergy has actually helped me twice in my life. The first was when I had a UTI. I couldn't take the standard antibiotics (penicillin, amoxycillin) because of my allergy so they ran a culture on the bacteria. It turns out my UTI was resistant to the penicillin line of antibiotics anyway. My routine UTI could have been much worse if not properly treated from the onset. The second time my allergy helped me was when I was pregnant with Annika. I tested positive for Group B Strep. Once again, they usually give you a penicillin variant and call it a day. Because I'm allergic, they once again ran a culture and yep, turns out the type of strep I was positive for doesn't react at all to penicillin and it's counterparts. I had to have a totally different antibiotic during labor. This time my allergy helped Annika from possible complications as well. Anyway, the moral of this long story is - don't ignore UTI's and have them run cultures on any bacteria strain found. Please. Your life could literally depend on it.

Keep the name suggestions coming! Kris and I need them all!

Annika has become one sneaky little girl. Recently, if you tell her to stop doing something, she'll hide from you to keep doing it. Tonight it was chewing on a pen. She was drawing on some paper and then started chewing on the end of the pen. I told her to stop and instead she crawled under an end table. I told her to come out from under there and stop chewing on the pen. So she crawls out from under the table and runs to the drapes and hides behind them. I finally get her out of the drapes and ask her if she's being naughty. She says yes and then hands over the pen. That's just the latest example. She's been doing this a lot lately. She is quite funny though. If you ask her if she's being naughty, she generally will say yes and then stop whatever it is she's doing.

Tonight as I was getting her ready for bed, I was putting lotion on her arms after her bath. I put lotion on one arm and then told her to give me her other arm. She pointed to the arm and said "left arm." And she was right! So, I told her to give me her left arm. Then as I was putting lotion on that arm she pointed to her right arm and said "right arm." Somebody's been teaching her left from right (and it hasn't been me). I don't think she actually knows left from right but she does know which arm is her left and which is her right and that's a pretty good start!

Yesterday marked 31 weeks pregnant. Only 6 more weeks until I'm officially full term and 9 weeks until my due date. And today is two months from my due date. It's getting so close! I think I need to get out my baby to-do list and get cracking! I also think it's time I washed all those baby clothes and got the dresser drawers organized. I should probably also think about making a list for the hospital bag too. With the holidays here, I'll be full term before I know it!

Annika and I had another busy day today. After church this morning (where Annika charmed the family sitting behind us) we headed home for a couple hours of downtime. Annika was crabby this morning so I was very thankful when she took an early nap. I had to wake her up though so we could leave for our second activity of the day. We went and say the Macy's 8th floor presentation of Mary Poppins with Nana and Great Nana. I've only been to the 8th floor one other time that I can remember so it was fun for me too to see the exhibit. Annika was enchanted by all the different scenes and even tried to climb up into a few of them to join the puppets in the fun. I have a couple pictures that I'll try to share soon. Did you notice that I uploaded a bunch of pictures last week? They're in the Annika #14 album. Anyway, after the exhibit we shopped a bit, looking at the seasonal displays on the 5th floor and wandered through the marketplace on the lower level. Too bad I'm on a budget because there was some adorable things there.

After that outing we headed home to help Daddy prepare dinner. Well, Daddy prepared dinner, Annika played with toys and I cleaned up the kitchen and dining room a little bit. Grandpa and Marcia were coming over for dinner so the house had to be at least a little bit respectable. They were coming over to see Annika's new bedroom now that it's all decorated. It was nice to spend a quiet evening at home with them. And it was nice to treat them to dinner for once. Usually it us at their house with them feeding us each time. Grandpa spent a bunch of time with Annika in her room reading books to her. She kept dragging him up there throughout the evening. I'm sure he didn't mind too much. And I was able to quiz him on what male family names we have. You see, Kris and I are having an awful time trying to come up with a name for Baby Boy. Kris still has a name that he likes that I've vetoed. And we still have that one name that we both like but we don't like how it sounds with our last name. Our biggest problem though is that I like traditional names (think Daniel and Andrew) while Kris likes uncommon names. Annika was a good compromise for us because it's a traditional name (at least in Scandinavia which Kris is 100%) but it's also fairly uncommon. It's social security ranking the year prior to Annika's birth was in the mid 400's. So, here is my plea to all of you - please leave me a comment with any suggestions you have. Think traditional yet uncommon. Please - I'm 31 weeks pregnant today and we have zero contenders right now.

We have had an action packed day around our house. First it was gymnastics this morning for Annika and I. Kris was off with Uncle Dusty running with reindeers (doing the Reindeer Run, that is). Annika still likes going to gymnastics. She'd rather bounce on the trampoline and play in the foam block pit the whole time and races through the other activities as quickly as possible however. It might be time to get her bounce house out again for a little while. We have a smaller one (8'x8') so we can set it up in the living room or in the basement.

After gymnastics we headed home to shower and get ready for our afternoon. We had Cousin Ashley's baby shower today. Annika was excited to go and play with the other kids and hopefully see Auntie Krystle and Auntie Shelly but neither of them could make it. Her little 2nd cousins Ann and Beth were there though. They are three years old and are very outgoing and touchy-feely. They love smothering Annika with hugs and kisses and pats to the head. Annika needs her personal space and lots of warm up time though. Plus, the shower was right during her usual nap time so this made for lots of tear-filled running to Mom during the party. After a while she warmed up though and was giving them hugs right back. Every once in a while she would still get overwhelmed and come running to me. She's just not used to kids like that. All the kids at her ECFE classes are her same age and they don't really play with each other yet. It's more like they play near each other but still mostly do their own thing. Of course, when we left she cried in the truck that she wanted to go back to the party so it couldn't have been that bad. When we got home though we headed upstairs for a nap and she fell asleep right away so she was definitely tuckered out.

This evening we went out for dinner and Annika was doing the funniest things. She was eating a french fry and asking us if it tasted like pizza or sandwich or strawberry or whatever else she could think of. Each time we'd say no, she'd shake her head real hard and laugh out "No!" Then as we were leaving, she said "Good-bye Miss Lady" to the server holding the door for us. And when we got to the truck, we noticed her Grover doll had fallen out and was on the ground. Daddy picked him up and gave him to Nika and she has to kiss Grover and make sure he was all right. Then as we were driving home she was demanding that I sing along with the Christmas music that was playing. Unfortunately, I didn't know the words or melody to the song very well so she was just yelling from the back seat "Mommy! Sing!" every so often. Oh and when we were getting ready to leave for dinner, I asked Annika to go find her shoes. She got distracted by the movie on TV and her toys and after a couple minutes, I asked Annika if she found her shoes yet. She walked over to me and said "I don't know where my shoes is!" I was impressed by her sentence even if she did get the last verb tense wrong. Kris and I had to stifle our giggles while I pointed out where they were to her. She just cracks us up all day long. Of course, that's when she's not whining. Oh, the whining. How do you get a child to not whine? We always make her stop whining and ask nicely (meaning saying please) for whatever she wants in a normal tone of voice but it still always comes out as a whine first. She even got a time out tonight (2 minutes sitting on the bottom stair - she even has a timer and she can't get up until the timer beeps) because she kept whining. After that she was good for about 30 seconds and then the whine came back. Argh!

So, I've joined the Holidailies at Home project this year. It's a website that lists a bunch of blogs and online journals that promise to update their blogs every day from Dec. 1st to Jan. 1st. (Or at least 20 times because realistically, it's a hectic time of year). So, since it's Dec. 1st, I need to update! What am I going to talk about every day this month? Well, more of the usual, stories about Annika, reports from the pregnancy front and some basic rambling. It's really just more of the quality writing (heh) that you've come to expect.

Yesterday was another day of freak-outs for me. From blood (have no fear, all is fine, nothing to panic about, go back to your daily grind) to hourly contractions, I was a ball of nerves. I think I've come to realize that I'm just an occasional contraction kind of pregnant woman. I remember having my fair share with Annika too. My next appointment is Friday, December 8th and I'll ask the midwives about it then. Maybe I'll even asked to have an internal done to make sure my cervix isn't dilating at all. At any rate, if they speed up to more than one every hour to hour and a half, I'll call the doctor. From here on out, I'll be writing them down as I have them too. Baby Boy continues to be very active though so I'm not worried about him. He even had the hiccups for the first time yesterday! Yay! I'm so pleased to have this confirmation that he is in fact practicing his breathing in there and getting ready for life on the outside. The hiccups came from very down low though as though he was laying transverse right on top of my cervix. Annika's hiccups were always way up high by my belly button. Maybe that's why I look like I've dropped or am carrying lower to some people. This baby is just positioning himself as low as he possibly can. Most of the movement I feel is below belly button too. It must be comfy down there.

Last night Annika and I were driving to my friend Pam's house for a Pampered Chef party. Annika was her usual chatty self in the back seat, pointing out all the stars and water towers for me. As we were nearing our destination, Annika said "Look Mommy! A dinosaur!" Then she told me that she's afraid of the dinosaur. I reassured her there was nothing to be afraid of. A dinosaur? Where in the world would she get that from and why would she say she was afraid? Silly girl. Anyway, I told her Amanda might be at the party so Annika was super excited to go. She loves Amanda. As we were walking up the sidewalk to the front door, Annika said "Yay! Amanda and Dean! Amanda and Dean!" Dean is Amanda's fiance and the last time we saw Amanda was at their house. Dean was there and was playing with her so now she must remember and like him too. When Amanda arrived a few minutes after we did, Annika was really excited (the big grin totally gave her away) but she gets bashful around people at first so she hid by my legs for a little bit until she warmed up. Pam has a 2 month old daughter, Jeanne. Annika was very interested in Jeanne and repeatedly asked to see her. When Jeanne was down by us for the latter part of the party, Annika was over there trying to touch her. I tried to keep her from touching Jeanne's face but overall she was very gentle and just very curious of the baby. She did like playing with all of Jeanne's toys though. She even put the Snoopy stuffed animal in Jeanne's swing and then figured out how to turn the swing on so Snoopy could go for a ride! Jeanne's swing has the same controls as our swing so we'll have to be careful if/when we put Baby Boy in it! He might get a wild ride if Annika has her way!