Friday night was my fall CAbi party. The girls and I had so much fun again. It's becoming like our own little cult, sucking all my friends into it and getting them addicted. I think I have 4 friends plus my sister all as CAbi addicts with me. Heh heh heh. Deb, my consultant, didn't leave until midnight again. We always get to talking and shopping and talking and laughing and drinking a glass of wine or two or three. It's so much fun. Robyn was there and brought Jessie too. Jessie and Annika played so well most of the night. There were two instances though where Annika was a bully, pushing Jessie down once and trying to close a door on her another time. Both times Jessie came downstairs in tears. I explained to Annika that she has to be nice to her friends, no pushing, etc. or she could hurt them. Then I made her apologize to Jessie and the girls ended up hugging and all was forgiven. Until Annika got a gleam in her eye - hey, if I hurt my friend then I can say I'm sorry and hug her! I warned her though not to be mean any more and that she could hug Jessie whenever she wanted. My daugher, the bully. Remember in July when she pushed Emma too? Ugh. I hope she's not the class terror when she goes to preschool. I'll have to make sure Kris asks the teacher if there are any incidences at school when he picks her up. Otherwise it was so fun to see the girls actually playing with each other. There was no more playing around each other like toddlers. They were actually playing with each other, making up games and stories like pretending they were both Cinderella (surprise, surprise!) and running around yelling "Swiper, no swiping!" It was a good evening. I still can't believe that James went down like normal shortly after 7pm and didn't make a peep the rest of the night. Not even with Annika and Jessie playing in the room next door or with all our laughing downstairs. The only time James wasn't happy was when Pam arrived and bent down to greet him in his high chair. I don't know what set him off but his little face crumpled and he cried the biggest tears. I calmed him down and when she talked to him again he cried again and then he gave her the stink eye the rest of the evening. Maybe it's the blond hair? Annika preferred Amanda over Mary for a long time and we always thought it was because Amanda looked more like mommy with her dark, long hair.

Saturday we spent the whole day at the MN state fair. It's a tradition to go every year with Kris' family. Nana, Papa, Great Nana, Uncle Dusty, Auntie Carrie and Auntie Carrie's friend Mary Beth were there. James thought the whole thing was very interesting, looking all over from his perch in the baby carrier and stroller. He took a couple short naps but otherwise there was just too much to see. He was such a good baby though the whole day even though he didn't want to eat very much. Why sit down and eat when there all this stuff to twist my body away from mom and look at! I ended up finding a couple "quiet, private" places to feed him and then he would eat some. Silly kid. And Annika thoroughly enjoyed herself too. We started by looking at all the animals in the barns. Annika wanted to pet each and every one I think. She did get to pet a bunny, chicken, duck, rooster, pig and cow. And she requested to see more animals the rest of the day. That's my girl, the animal lover. Next we grabbed some lunch (hmm, pronto pups and footlong hot dogs to go with our State Fair french fries!) and then wandered around some more. We ended up on machinery hill and a little while later the parade went right by us! Annika had front row seats for it. After the parade we took her to the kiddie rides. I had bought ride tickets ahead of time so I knew we had enough for 5 rides and that was it. Annika had so much fun on those rides! Some she went on all by herself and others I went with her. We both had a great time. After the rides it was time to go through the farm. They have this mini farm experience for the kids where you get to plant seeds, riding pedal tractors, pick vegetables, etc. Both last year and this year Nana has taken Annika through the exhibit. The kids even get to wear little aprons and hold buckets and everything. It's pretty cute. Later in the afternoon we stopped by the amphitheater to watch the talent contest semifinals. There were some pretty good acts! At the end they were playing some house music and Annika decided it was her turn to dance. She went to the aisle and danced her little heart out for a few minutes, entertaining all around her. Uncle Dusty has video capability on his digital camera and got this video. Here is the link at YouTube Annika Dancing. And here is the video embedded:
Is that not the funniest thing you've seen all day?

Yesterday was more low key. We didn't stray too far from home. Auntie Krystle and Pierce came over to watch the kids for a little while so Kris and I could go birthday gift shopping for Annika. If you want to know what we got her, just let me know. I have a ton of ideas for her too. After we were done shopping we walked across the street to see Auntie Krystle and Pierce's townhouse under construction. They met their neighbors to the north and I got to take some photos of them. We said our good-byes a little while later and they headed out the door. As I was closing it, Annika shouted "Hey, they're leaving me here!" I guess Auntie Krystle had neglected to tell Annika good bye or something but Annika was not very happy to be left at home with boring old mom and dad. Too bad for her! She did have more fun that afternoon running through the sprinkler though. It's rough being almost three and having two loving, attentive parents you know! Ha!

OK, enough rambling from me. Have fun with that video!