18 Months!

Temper tantrums are a relatively new thing around here ... but this is proof that they do exist!

Waving hi to Uncle Josh & Aunt Claud in the shirt they sent me!

Hanging out at Gpa Dahlen's garden

A newly discovered passion - swinging!

She still doesn't love her bike helmet, but her protests are growing ever shorter!

At 18 months, we are seeing more and more snippets of Annika's feisty personality. She has really started testing her limits with us, wondering each time if the answer will ever change. Unfortunately for her, it doesn't, but she sure does like to check! From dropping food off her high chair tray while maintaining eye contact with us to throwing things when she knows she's not supposed to, she is definitely pushing her toddler boundaries.

Justin and I recently went to Duluth for our first weekend away together. Nana Dahlen came up to watch Annika, and everything went brilliantly until we came home. We think Annika heard our voices as she was waking up from her nap, and she decided to climb out of her crib. If the loud "thunk" on the floor was any indication, her fall was far from graceful. It has been 4 days since she tried it, with no repeat attempts, so we hope that she decided that wasn't very much fun and won't do it again for a long while.

A new favorite activity of Annika's is swinging! This from the child who has never liked to be in anything, be it her exersaucer, car seat, infant swing, stroller, etc. On a recent trip to the park with Daddy, she shocked him by requesting the swings first ... and never wanting to do anything else! After Gpa Max & Gma Linda saw her expression of pure joy while swinging at a nearby park, they suggested we buy a swing. We put one up soon afterwards, and now have a hard time getting her out of it!

Another new summer activity is biking. We got a Burley bike trailer that Justin pulls behind his bike, and we've enjoyed lots of rides on the area trails. It took a lot of practice and a bit of cajoling, but Annika now wears her bike helmet without too many protests, and really enjoys being in the bike trailer. She has lots of room to bring along her favorite books and toys, and gets a nice breeze while we ride. She loves it when we pack a picnic and head to a nearby lake, as we always bring along bubbles for her too, which is another one of her favorites!

When we are relegated to being inside, Annika still loves to read books and play with her baby - she feeds the baby, burps the baby, rocks the baby, etc. She also sits on the baby, so she hasn't quite grasped the concept of being gentle, but we're working on it. She likes to say her ABCs, and you can tell she has spent a lot of time playing with her phonics game - for the letter "P", she says "puh" (the sound) instead of "pee" (the letter).

In addition to getting to see both sets of grandparents last month, we got to spend time with my college roommate Tara and her two girls. It was nice getting all of the girls together! We are looking forward to meeting Josh and Claudia's new baby boy, Roy, in a few short weeks. The camera will be in full gear with the two cousins together for the first time, no doubt.

17 months old - what fun!

Doing my "love" sign to Daddy

Family picture - May 2007

Hangin' out in my new kicks in Georgia!

I love chalk!

Art Dabblers class with my friends

Throwing rocks in the creek with Daddy

Our little girl isn't quite so little anymore! She is really getting quite independent and loves to do things by herself. We have to allow at least 5 extra minutes to get out the door b/c she has to put her shoes on herself. :) She also loves to help Mommy and Daddy around the house. She helps Mommy push the vacuum cleaner, uses her own rag to dust alongside Mommy, helps put the dishes away, and make Daddy's coffee. Her favorite thing is to help us with our shoes. She loves to give Daddy his shoes in the morning before he goes to work, and then to put them away each night when he's home.

Annika is a huge fan of being outside. She likes to throw & kick balls, push her stroller, ride on her "car," play with the sand table, and draw chalk pictures on the driveway (and herself, when Daddy's in charge!).

Our girl is still a terrific eater - now if only we would eat as well as she does!! Her latest trick in her high chair is doing "cheers" with our drinks. She saw one of her little friends doing it with her mommy a few times, and two days later I finally caught on to what she was trying to do with me! I definitely got (and deserved) her look that said it was about time I figured it out. :)

We're still battling with her eczema, which tends to get pretty severe when she's teething. We finally have her taking an antihistamine twice a day, and that has seemed to help. Hopefully this ensures that she doesn't get another horrific breakout. She could hardly open her mouth the last time b/c of all of the sores, and we certainly don't want to see that happen again.

We think we also have a handle on her pulling out her hair. She started doing it when Daddy was traveling for a couple of weeks - she just didn't like her bath as much with me and was out of sorts at bedtime too, as Daddy usually does those things with her. She quit pulling out her hair when Justin came home, but started again when her eczema got bad. In 2 days, she had pulled out enough hair to cause a bald spot and lose most of the curls on her right side. We had tried all of the pediatrician's suggestions - telling her nice hair & gentle hair, getting her a doll with real-life hair as an alternative, and putting vaseline on her head ... none of that worked. So we bought some pajamas a size too big and sewed the hands shut. We cut a hole for her thumb and she's been wearing them for a few weeks now. She got used to it fairly quickly and we think we're even seeing some hair growing back - woo hoo!!

My curls go crazy in the warmer weather!

Annika is 15 months!

It is hard to believe, but our little munchkin is 15 months old already! She is always on the go, so it seems fitting that her first words beyond mama, dada, and nana are go, up, out, and down. She definitely keeps her mommy and daddy on their toes. :)