We've had a busy couple days. Weekends brings out the visitors, you know. Friday night Grandpa and Marcia stopped over for a visit. Annika was so excited to see them. She absolutely adores Grandpa and spent most of her time with him, playing with the new magnetic hide and seek puzzle they brought her. They also brought James a Swarovski crystal so now both Annika and James have a crystal given to them at their births. How sweet! It was also nice for me to have company in the evening. Kris went back to work last Monday, keeping his part time evening schedule so the evenings are now just me and the kids. If anyone wants to come visit in the evenings, let me know!

Saturday morning James and I met Amanda, Mary and Pam to pick up our bridesmaids dresses for Amanda and Dean's wedding. The wedding is May 12th. I'm glad I have a couple months yet because my dress doesn't fit! I have 1-2" in my belly that I have to lose in order to get it to zip. I ordered it two sizes bigger than what I normally wear. I'll have to work hard the next couple months to make sure I can get into it! The dresses are beautiful though and I'm honored to wear it for Amanda.

Saturday afternoon, while Kris was cuddling a sleeping James, Annika and I were playing on the couch. She had just woken up from her nap and still had her pacifier (called a nukifier in our house - nuk plus pacifier = nukifier). She knows she's only to have it at nap time and bed time and Kris asked her to give it to me. She did and I put it in my mouth as a tease. Then she told me to look over there (at the entertainment center). I did and she swiped it out of my mouth and put it back in hers! The little stinker! Then, a few minutes later Kris told Annika, who still had the pacifier in her mouth, to look over there, pointing to the entertainment center. Annika turned to look at Kris and said "Ha, ha, ha" with a straight face. She wasn't falling for that! A couple minutes after that Annika dropped her pacifier on the floor. She said if fell under the couch and I asked if I could help her get it. She said yes and as I reached down to the floor (I was laying on the couch at the time), she ran away with it in her mouth. She had it in her hand the whole time! That little sneak! Kris and I were laughing so hard after all her antics. And then we took the pacifier away because, well, rules are rules.

Saturday evening Nana, Papa and Uncle Dusty all came over for a visit. Once again Annika had a great time playing with everyone. She always does. And James got lots of cuddle time with Nana and Uncle Dusty, even though he slept the whole time they were here! Annika was a lucky little girl though and got to stay up past her bedtime. She was very well behaved and I only put her to bed after she came to me and asked to cuddle and for her pacifier. Then I knew she was tired. It took her a while to fall asleep, even as tired as she was. She could hear all of us downstairs I think.

Sunday Michelle and Brianna came for a visit. At first Annika was excited to have Brianna over to play. That is until Brianna actually started playing with all her toys. Then Annika just kind of followed her around and stared at her! It was pretty cute I thought. Annika tried to play with Brianna a little bit in her little kitchen but otherwise she would follow Brianna around and play with whatever toy Brianna had just lost interest in. A few times she would ask me for the toy Brianna was playing with. It was a hard lesson in sharing for Annika yesterday. I told Kris we need more playdates at our house so Annika really learns to share. Annika is fine sharing when the toys aren't hers. She doesn't often have little people playing with her toys at her house though! The cutest part of the day though was when Annika kept asking to hold Brianna's hand. Each time they would go up or down the stairs they would hold hands. And Annika asked to hold her hand other times when they were playing too. Brianna didn't really want to since that would impede the playing with the toys and all. When Brianna wouldn't hold her hand, Annika would look so sad. For like a second. And then she would move on and want whatever toy Brianna was playing with again. It was a really nice visit though. And both girls got tired at the same time so when Michelle and Brianna left, Annika headed upstairs for a nap.

Today was James' two week well baby visit. I was hoping he was back up above his birth weight and he is! He is now 9.95 pounds (according to the digital readout of the scale) which the nurse said was 9 pounds 14.5 ounces. Um, well, close. That's actually 9 pounds 15.2 ounces but I'm just being a picky, perfectionist engineer by correcting it. The nurse said that is in the 75% percentile and his head circumference was in the 50% percentile. The doctor declared him perfect. He doesn't have any jaundice and she was happy to hear that he is exclusively breastfeeding (really well as she witnessed when she walked in to the room) and sleeping well at night, usually giving me 3 hour stretches between feedings and sometimes going to four hours. Her (and my) only concern is his right eye. He has a blocked tear duct. She showed me how to massage it (pressure right at the bridge of the nose and then pressure all the way down that side of his nose). Kris and I are to do that 4-5 times a day and it should unblock itself. If his eye has so much goop in it that it's glued shut after a couple hours we are to head back to the doctor for eye drops. He isn't near that right now so I think the massaging of the duct should do the trick. Everything else checked out just fine. Our next visit will be at 2 months.

This afternoon James and I met Amanda and Pam and Baby Jeanne at the Mall of America for some wedding shoe shopping. We found two strong contenders. We walked around for three hours and I was so tired by the time we were done! I haven't done that much physical activity in quite some time! I was too big and pregnant to walk around that long in the last month. I do have to be careful with the physical activity for a little while longer. I am only two weeks post delivery after all. I have to say though that my recovery has gone amazingly smooth. I feel like I could start exercising and doing more physical activity already. I'm not though, just yet. I told Kris I would re-evaluate in a couple weeks and if I'm still feeling so good then, I might start doing some small workouts on the elliptical trainer, like 10-15 minutes a day or so. After my six week check up, I'll up that to 30-45 minutes. I'll also try to join the weekend run club that Kris and his brother have started at that time. I have to fit into that dress after all!