Sunday we had a nice visit at Nana and Papa's house. The great grandparents were able to come too, making it extra special. Annika was excited to go visit for two reasons - the dogs and Mr. Potato Head. She was excited because she wanted Thor and Zoe to chase her. Thor is much of a chaser, but Zoe will chase her all day. Annika loves that. And Mr. Potato Head, with lots of fun accessories, is a new toy at Nana and Papa's house. Annika loves playing with him. It was a nice day out too so Papa was able to BBQ for us - yum! The only scary part of the day was when we lost Annika. Yep, lost her. There were eight adults in the house and not one of us noticed Annika run out the patio door chasing after Zoe. When I noticed she was not around, I told Kris to help me look for her. He thought she was in the house somewhere so he took his time walking around calling for her. I checked all the rooms and couldn't find her so I knew she must be outside, since the patio door was standing open. That's when I started panicking a little bit and started yelling at Kris to get outside and look for her. I kept having these visions of a lump on the 55mph road outside their house. So scary! We ended up finding her in the hay field in the back of the house, walking after Zoe. Kris ran out there to retrieve her and talk to her about staying close to the house and telling us where she's going. You can bet I made sure I knew where she was at all times the rest of the day though! James was a mellow baby the whole day though. He spent most of it curled up sleeping in Nana's arms.

Monday was an exceptionally nice day out and we took advantage of that by getting out of the house. Kris and Annika went for a bike ride with Annika in the bike trailer. And James and I took a walk with James in the baby bjorn. We met up at a park about 3/4 mile from our house and let Annika play for an hour or so. She had a great time sliding and climbing and playing in the sand box. She even made a couple friends in the sandbox. She just marched over to them and plopped herself down right by them and started playing with their sand toys. I walked over and asked the dad watching them if Annika was being okay and he said she was being just fine. The other kids were older and were very nice about Annika playing with their toys. When they were done in the sandbox they headed for the playground and Annika chased after them all over the playground. She had a blast. But I think she was sufficiently tired out that when we said it was time to go, she didn't put up any fuss.

Tuesday I took Annika to ECFE class instead of Kris. It was my first time going to class without Kris. I was a little nervous but the other moms made me feel right at home. Annika showed me some of the toys and we sat in a circle with the other kids and moms and sang some songs and before I knew it, it was snack time for the kids. That was the moms cue to head out for the parent education time. After a good discussion about listening and communication (a much needed topic of discussion for our house!), we headed back to the kids. Annika was in the far corner of the room playing. When she saw the moms heading back in, she started scanning the room for me. I was walking towards her and when she saw me, she stood up and ran as fast as she could straight to me and then jumped in my arms. What a warm welcome! What a way to make my heart swell! Kris was at home with James and I had pumped a bottle that morning in case James got hungry while we were gone. Two of the moms, Rachel and Michelle, invited Annika and I to lunch at McDonalds. It's a tradition with them and Kris and Annika joined them last week. I agreed to go knowing that James had milk if he needed it. I called Kris as soon as I got in the truck after class and Kris said that James had already taken almost two ounces from the bottle and that it had gone just fine. Whew! With that off my mind, I could enjoy myself at McDonalds. Annika had a good time too. She really likes Rachel's sone Ethan and after she was done eating, she and Ethan ran around a little bit. Ethan is all Annika talks about when she gets home from class. Annika and the boys - we are in trouble!

Tuesday night I asked Annika if she wanted some ice cream. She of course said yes. I asked her where it was and she replied "In the Squeezer!"

Yesterday was a low key day for us. We didn't have any plans for the day so Annika and I made sugar cookies. We even rolled out the dough and used our Easter cookie cutters to make bunnies and flowers and carrot shaped cookies. Annika was happy to help mix the dough and push the cookie cutters into the dough. She was even more excited to clean up after me when the icing would drip off the cookies and onto the counter top. The cookies turned out great and yummy too! And last night when I was talking to Gramme on the phone, I had to run upstairs to get Gramme an e-mail address. While I did this, Annika swiped a cookie from the counter. When I came downstairs she had it almost all gone and was grinning her devilish grin at me. Mind you, dinner was almost ready at the time!

James is getting so big! He's still such a good baby though. He's really only fussy when he's hungry or tired. And it's so fun to watch him develop. He tracks people and toys with his eyes now. And he smiles at me almost every day. We do tummy time each day and he's really good with picking up his head and moving it from side to side. His sleeping at night is still about the same. He usually gives me around 4 hours at first and then a three hour stint. After that it's a little hit or miss. I think he just gets tired of sleeping by himself after a while. For example, this was our night last night - James ate at 9pm and fell asleep and was in his bassinet by 10pm. I was sleeping shortly after that. He woke up at 1am to eat. He woke up again at 4:30 to eat. Both times he went back to sleep fairly easily. Sometimes it takes him a while to fall back asleep when he's back in his bassinet. I have to repeatedly put the pacifier back into his mouth or he wakes back up. He, like Annika, sucks for comfort though and it's either me or the pacifier! I think he might be a thumb sucker though when he figures it out. He's content sometimes sucking on his fist. Anyway, he woke up again at 6:30am. I knew he wasn't hungry since he had just eaten two hours earlier so I picked him up. As soon as I did, he settled back down and went to sleep. So I laid down with him cradled in my arm and went back to sleep myself until Annika woke up at 8am. He did this same thing the night before. He was fine in his bed until about 7am and then he was fussy and as soon as I picked him up, he was fine and went right back to sleep. Since I absolutely love cuddling and napping with my babies, I am totally okay with snuggling those last couple hours of sleep. Pretty soon I'll be back at work at that time so I'll take advantage of it when I can! Of course, it would be okay if he just slept all through the night too!