3 months old!

Hip chick chillin' at home

Yesterday our sweet little Annika turned 3 months old! We cannot believe how quickly the time has passed, nor how much not only she - but we- have changed during this brief (?) time. Funny, the last 3 months of pregnancy dragged on and on and on. And on. And the last 90 days are poof- where did they go?

We celebrated last night with some Thai/Japanese take-out (delivered). Long Beach sure has great food delivery. Annika sat in her new Bumbo and celebrated with us. I think she thinks she is now royalty with her new chair. She loves it.

Something that has suprised me is how flippin' insanely crazy in love I am with her. I mean, I thought I loved my siblings. I thought I knew what take a bullet or jump in front of a speeding car to save them kind of love was for my amazing nieces and nephews. That's how much I love them. But this. This love for Annika is off the map. Kind of makes me appreciate my own parents a lot more (and no need to rub it in, mom!). And on another thoughtful level, how much more does God love me? Makes me think...

Anyway -- back to more shallow waters. She continues to crack us up. She smiles and grins at us for any reason. She has just started laughing, and I can get the best giggles out of her when I'm changing her clothes and tickle her cheeks. She thinks that's hysterical, for some reason. When she wakes up in the morning she will pleasantly chatter at her feet, or the mobile, or her glow-worm, or the wall and is good for about 20 minutes doing this. After that, she gets a little yelpy, a sort of 'Hey! I'm awake in here!' and we go in to rescue her from her crib, again to be greeted with an ear to ear grin and a wiggly excited little girl. We are so blessed.

Right before Christmas she started sleeping through the night but seemingly forgot how starting last Friday. She graced us with 4 nights of 2:30 AM wake-up calls where she downed an entire 6 oz. bottle. Thankfully, the last two nights she slept though the night, with last night sleeping 10.5 hours. Wow! We have employed the Jack Bauer method of bottle feeding for her final feeding around 9 PM. We do everything to keep her from falling asleep while eating - tickle her legs, make noise, unbutton her jammies - all to keep her drinking. It seems to work.

I've also noticed she sleeps longer/better all night after we've spent a good portion of the day outside. Tuesday we went for a really long walk on the beach in Huntington Beach (and I got a bit of too much sun!), and yesterday we were at the park for several hours. Today we're going to Laguna Beach for some BBQ. We joined two different mom's groups down here and have really filled our social calendar! Finally!!!! :-) One group is made of new moms with babies born in 2008, and the other is a group of moms in Long Beach. I've made one new friend, Jenny, whose little guy Ryan is two days older than Annika. He is totally adorable. It's also nice to be able to talk to someone who is going through pretty much the same thing at the same time with a baby.

Ryan and Annika at the park yesterday. He has the longest eyelashes and as you can see is quite the little cutie.Annika chillin' with her groovy Wall-E sunglasses in her Bumbo. I've got the whole sun-screen kit for her - hats, sunglasses, and a new pop-up tent sun shade.

Tuckered out at the park and cozy with one of Aunt Traci's blankets.