Saturday Annika and I left Daddy and James at home so we could have some girl time by going shopping. And Annika is now the proud owner of some hot pink silk curtains for her room. I love them! After some other errands (grocery store, bakery, and of course Target!) we headed home to find Daddy up and bouncing a now content James. Apparently James was none to pleased that his girls were gone. He was pretty fussy and only drank about 2 ounces from his bottle. Kris thinks he had some trapped gas. My poor little baby! After a nice long feed from Mommy, he settled into a nap.

We had a splendid Easter yesterday. We started the day by finding all the treats and goodies the Easter Bunny left us. He filled 3 baskets (one for Annika, one for James and one for Mommy & Daddy) with candies and hid them as well as 10 real eggs and 10 chocolate and jelly bean filled plastic eggs. Annika had fun hunting for all the loot and Kris videotaped it. Two funny memories: 1 - When Annika found the first plastic egg, the first thing she did was open it and immediately eat a jelly bean out of it. Then as she found more eggs, she continued to sneak candy. We were trying to limit just how much candy she ate yesterday and it wasn't starting off too well! Then when she found her basket I asked her what was in it. She responded with an exuberant "Candy!" I asked her what else and she said "Chocolate!" She was totally ignoring the Peter Pan movie the Easter Bunny had given her. She also ignored the Charlotte's Web movie in James' basket, instead pointing out the candy again. Then, after church we headed to Uncle Dusty's house. Nana, Papa and Uncle Dusty has prepared another Easter egg hunt for Annika there. She found about another dozen eggs hidden around the living room. And my little engineer in training insisted on putting the eggs back in the carton in rows, not haphazardly, thankyouverymuch. We had a lovely brunch there and a nice afternoon. Of course, Annika had a great time chasing Babe, the bulldog, around. She also had fun playing with her Easter gifts, especially liking the sticker book! Before we knew it, it was time to pack up and leave for Grandpa and Marcia's house. Luckily, Annika & James slept the whole way there (as did Daddy - not fair!). Grandpa and Marcia and Auntie Krystle and Pierce had some Easter presents for Annika too. Annika's favorite was the bug catcher. She spent a lot of time "catching bugs" in the living room. It was a really nice, low key evening together. James spent most of it sleeping in Kris' arms.

And then James rewarded me by sleeping from 10pm to 3:45am! That's almost six hours! OK, so he woke up at 10:40pm but Daddy quickly rocked him back to sleep. It would have been even more wonderful if Daddy hadn't woken me at 12:30am and Annika at 2:30am. It's amazing how the body can handle broken sleep like that. I actually didn't feel too bad this morning. We'll see if James can repeat that sleeping thing again tonight. Today was his 2 month appointment and he received 5 vaccinations, one orally and four shots, two in each thigh! My poor guy! He handled the shots fairly well. His face got really red and he screamed bloody murder while the nurse quickly administered them but then he calmed down pretty quickly aftewards. I picked him up and cuddled him for a few minutes until he was calmed down enough for me to finish getting him dressed. And the pediatrician declared him perfect. Enormous, but perfect. He weighed in at 15 pounds, 3 ounces which is off the growth charts. And he is 25 1/2 inches tall, also off the charts. Hey, at least he's proportionaly large! Our infant car seat goes to 22 pounds and 29 inches. We'll have to see how big he is at his 4 month appointment. He may grow out of that car seat sooner than I think! What impressed the doctor most was when James raised his eyebrows at her while she was listening to his chest through the stethoscope. It must have been cold or something. Anyway, she said that was impressive for a two month old. And she said he looked more like a 3 1/2 month old, he's so big. It was a good appointment.

It's not a surprise that Kris and I think Annika is just the smartest little girl around. Today she started "reading" Go, Dog, Go word for word. She was about half way through when she noticed Kris and I watching her. Then she got embarrassed and stopped. I guess we've read that book so many times she has it memorized! And this afternoon, Annika picked up her new Peter Rabbit book from Auntie Krystle and started reciting the Peter Rabbit song/story from a different book. We've only read that book a couple times in the last week and already she has it memorized! What really impressed me tonight though was when Annika got out her new coloring crayons and book (also from Auntie Krystle) and started coloring - in the lines! Usually she does the traditional toddler scribbling all over the page. Not tonight though. Tonight she was actually coloring in the lines. I'll have to date that page and keep it. I think that's a huge milestone! It is so fun to watch my children grow and learn.