Bedtime antics

Argh. We coddled Annika at bedtime for a week or so during her cold, i.e. rocking her to sleep, sleeping in her rocker to be elevated - basically broke with our routine. Don't get me wrong - I still adore her, but man! We've tried to go back to the pre-cold routine and dangit, she'll have no part of it. Oh well. We're rookies and will fugure this out too... :-)

The 40th Birthday week is here!

Propped on the couch. She hates being on her back - needs to see what's going on!

I figured since my 40th (yes, fortieth!) birthday is smack in the middle of the week on Wednesday this year, I'm going to claim the entire week as a cause for celebration!

We started celebrating on Friday by escaping the city and trekking up to Big Bear Lake in the mountains. We had a very cozy, QUIET cabin right off the lake with a fireplace. It was a very restful, peaceful weekend (except for some brief moments when Annika wasn't so restful nor peaceful).

She's been a bit off the last week or so with a cold. Due to the sniffles and slight congestion, she's really uncomfortable on her back so has been sleeping in her Fisher Price infant-toddler rocker. Can I mention we love this thing? So does she, by the way. She can sit up or recline in it, and it's good to up to 35 pounds and will be around awhile.

Tongiht, she sat outside in her bumbo while Daddy cleaned the patio. She loves being outside and gets cranky on days we don't go for walks - she actually will get grousy and complain. This is sovled by a quick trip outside around the block, or even to the mailbox. I find on days we take our walks, she takes better naps and sleeps better overnight too.

Here are some pictures from this weekend:

Adorable!

View from the cabin at Big Bear Lake

The cabin

Bundled in the car ready to drive home early Sunday

My two favorite people in the whole wide world.

Catching up (aka - OK Mom! I'll post some pics!)

It's been a really busy month so far! My brother Doug flew down for a long weekend at the beginning of the month, and the same day he left, Annika and I flew to Salt Lake to see my other brother Jim and his fun fam. Shortly after our return from SLC, my niece Scout came down over the President's Day weekend for some fun in the sun - and a surprise trip to Disneyland! Those pics are on another camera and I'll post later. It has been an exciting month so far, and isn't letting up! More on that later too... in the meantime, here are some pics from the month!

Annika's second airplane trip. She's becoming quite the experienced little traveler!

Utah fam - code names Princess and Dutch. Out for a walk on a sunny day!
Annika all bundled up in the stroller. She loves going for walks! She now can sit in the stroller (as opposed to the car seat) and loves having a better view.
Princess and Annika hanging out.
Dutch, Annika and I playing patty-cake. 'Dutch' shares the same birthday as Ronald Reagan, so I thought it was a solid blog nick-name for him.

At Cabelas in Utah. Love that store! Found a pink camo blanket for Annika, and a new pink backpack. Annika loved looking at all the animals.
Passed out on the beanbag. We caught a nasty cold on our trip and came home early. We were lousy house guests!
At home, Victor set up her new saucer. She had just started to grab things and thought she was ready, and she was!
She loves this little toy and spins the wheels around and around and around.
La curiosidad mata al gato. Cats in a box.
Sweet little daddy's girl!
Playing on her new camo blanket from Cabelas. Can you find the baby?
Beach baby! Laying on a blanket at the beach inside a little suntent that broke the first time we used it....grrrrrrr.
Walking along Huntington Beach with Uncle Doug.
Uncle Doug and Annika.
Hanging with mom.
Napping with dad.

Anonymous

Hey all -
I've had a site pest leaving anonymous, cowardly and babbling comments on my blog so I've had to enable comment moderation. Since this is a rated G site, I don't need any controversial or icky comments. Obviously this person doesn't understand that it's one thing to accept and love a person, but one doesn't need to accept their behavior. Totally different concepts. Hoping they are able, with God's grace, to grow in wisdom and true tolerance.

In other news - having a great weekend! My brother is in town for the weekend and we spent the day sightseeing in LA! We'll have some pictures up later.

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.

Annika explains it all....

Annika is a very demanding, but pleasant baby. She has to be in the middle of what we're doing, and doesn't want to miss out on the action in our household. She has increasingly grown impatient with being laid or reclined in the boppy, or on the floor and has a unique, complainy-cry for 'get me out of here'.

As a result, we have to keep her in the infant rocker, or the new Bumbo (thanks to Stacy O for the hot tip on this one!).

We bought the Bumbo today and she immediately loved it. Here's some video of Annika telling us all about it! (Sorry, the lighting isn't so great). Stick to the end -- there are some good grins!



In other news, she's outgrown her baby bathtub and is graduating to the big tub tonight. I'm sure she'll enjoy that as well. Mommy and daddy and looking forward to spending time on their almost 40-year-old knees. It's not the time on the knees, actually - it's the getting up part...

Annika and I are planning a trip to Utah to visit cousins Mia and Lukas next week, and I had to go buy yet another set of warm winter clothes. We bought proper winter clothes for our Christmas trip to Seattle, and she's already outgrown them...grrr....she's growing so fast!

She had her 'two month' check up at 11 weeks old, and is doing fabulously! She's in the 95th percentile for both height and weight. This puts her solidly in the 6-9 month size for clothing. Fortunately, we live in SoCal where I can get away with buying spring and summery clothes in advance. I've already stashed an entire bin of clothes she's outgrown. I was quite emotional packing some of her first sleepers away - they looked so tiny, and it brought back many fresh memories of those crazy, sweet, hectic, joyful, sleepless first few weeks.

Annika and daddy at his desk.

Grin! - Well, kind of...

Stylin' in her hand-me-down Hilfiger (again, thanks Stacy and Sydney!)

Clean, unfolded laundry. It's not even warm as it was in the dryer all night. WHY????

George being, well, George.

I used to be cool.

I have a new favorite shirt. It says "I used to be cool". I saw it advertised on Facebook, and it cracked me up...so I bought it in anticipation of my 40th b-day next month.

Anyway, I was wearing it today and Annika graced me with yet another 'Mommy Merit Badge'. If you look closely on my left shoulder, you'll see it!

What a generous baby!!!!

As further evidence of my 'coolness', I now have a grocery wagon. Yes, a real wagon. Here's the dealio: when we moved to SoCal, we bought a modest and cozy (aka cheap and small) condo as housing prices are off the map down here. We were fortunate enough to get a condo with 2 garages, and although they are 'attached' to the building, there is no direct access from our unit. The garages are down the walk and around the corner from our door.

The grocery wagon. Notice the pink camo diaper bag in the lower right? Love it!

On grocery days, I don't want to make multiple trips back to the car to bring in the loads as that would mean leaving Annika alone in the house, even if just for a few minutes (Remember, I'm a neurotic new mama). Hence, the wagon! All the groceries + Annika's car seat fit into one trip down the walkway. Additionally, there are 2 cup holders on the thing so it can also hold my beloved Starbucks. What a good life!

You may wonder why I just don't do my grocery shopping in the evening after Victor gets home, and there is a good explanation. He works such long hours, and frequently on weekends that I really covet and protect our time together. We do shop together at Costco, but we see that as a date for some reason. It might be the free food samples on Saturday.

Here are some vids of Annika. My niece Mia is very demanding and wants to see vids on the blog every day. I willingly comply!

Annika hacking into daddy's laptop.

Annika falling asleep:

Annika when she wakes up: