First major owie ... and trip to ER

Shortly after we got home last night, Annika and the corner of her bedroom door briefly became one. After 1-2 seconds of silence, there was blood curdling screaming (from her... not me!). I swooped her up as soon as I could get my arms around here and tried to soothe her. I looked for blood and gratefully didn't see any. Then I noticed the goose egg that was on her forehead above her left eye. I rushed to Eric and told him that we were going to the ER. He saw her goose egg, proclaimed "Jesus!" and grabbed his keys.

Fortunately, NW Hospital is a stone's throw away from us and we were in the ER within 5 minutes. Annika calmed down en route to the hospital, but Eric and I were a mass of nerves. We were VERY lucky because no one was in the ER's waiting room when we arrived. We filled out 1 short form and were in the triage room getting Annika's stats evaluated. The nurse decided that the pulse/ox finger thingy was too big for Annika's wee little fingers, so he got the monitor that goes around wee little toes. Annika was QUITE impressed with that! Soon, we were in the exam room waiting for the doctor to check out our baby girl's now golf ball-sized goose egg.

The nurse brought a coloring book and crayons to keep Annika busy .... Eric decided to show her that crayons can also be used to color her toe nails!

The doctor performed a neurological exam on her and proclaimed that she was fine, but wanted to observe her for a bit before releasing her. About an hour later, we were on our way home with instructions to keep an eye out for the brain bleed symtoms and to keep her on Tylenol.

We were all completely wiped out after the ordeal and crawled into bed last night .... only to be awakened almost every hour. It seemed that each time Annika rolled over during the night, she would rub her forehead on her mattress and wake herself up. Poor kiddo!

She had a follow up doctor's appointment today and got a clean bill of health. The doctor said we need to watch her for brain bleed symptoms for another 24 hours, but didn't expect us to see them based on how Annika is doing thus far.

Fortunately, she's going to be fine. She also has another "first" story for her baby book.

Going to church with a toddler

On Sunday, I realized something very important. Going to church with a baby is EASY. They sleep. Sometimes they coo or wiggle, but they generally sleep. On Sunday, I watched some fairly new parents snuggle with their baby during mass; he was quiet and generally snoozed (which is not a reflection on the priest's homily, I hope). Annika, on the other hand, was intent on eating a collection envelope, patting the leg of the person next to us, flirting with the woman behind us, singing at the top of her lungs (when no one else was singing), and being a general wiggle worm. Mid way through mass, we made the transition to the cry room, where we found another mom and toddler. Her little guy, just like Annika, was chatty, wiggly, and busy. It was then that I realized when Annika was a baby, I could peacefully listen to the homily and reflect. Now I'm lucky to catch every 5th word and the general idea of the homily. I had to laugh at the change in church experience as Annika has aged. Fortunately she hasn't gotten to the stage that she resists going to church.... I'm sure that'll be here before we know it.

Trip to the Zoo

The Woodland Park Zoo has a great indoor play area called the Zoomazium. A few times per week, the zoo has toddler play time in the Zoomazium and we decided to check it out yesterday. There were quite a few kids there and lots for the little ones to do. At one point, a zoo employee read a story (Annika was too busy playing to pay attention to the book) and then there was a bunny that the kids could pet (again, Annika was too busy). I think Annika's favorite aspects of the Zoomazium were the fish tank and the climbing structure. Oh, and the African drums.

After spending about an hour plus in the Zoomazium, we took a quick peek at the nearby animals. There was a a peacock right outside the Zoomazium; he was just walking around and preening ... it was spectacular. We also checked out the flamingos (which got a "WHOA" from Annika) and some other animals I'd never heard of... they were funky, fuzzy, gray creatures. There were also some red, fuzzy critters curled up in trees. Annika's favorite animals were the ducks that were hanging out in the flamingo area. EVERYONE near the exhibit (and probably beyond) knew about the ducks because of Annika's ability to scream "DUCK!" at the top of her lungs and practically launch herself out of the stroller while pointing at our feathered friends (one of whom escaped to a nearby exhibit .... probably to distance itself from my child.)

I'm quite excited that we got a membership to the zoo .... first, it pays for itself within 4-5 visits and second, I can see Annika having a marvelous time there.

Spring Colds & Cooper Day

Annika and I are sporting spring colds right now. She's about 3 days ahead of me and seems to be improving, so there's hope! I currently look like Rudolph because of blowing my nose so much. This morning as I was taking Annika out of the car, I noticed she had a crusty nose, so I made a reference to her being a booger nose. Of course, she replied with "boog noshe" .... do I know how to expand her vocabulary or what?!?

Shockingly, we saw snow flakes again yesterday. I was pretty surprised when we saw them on April 1st .... seeing them on April 13th just about made me fall over. They didn't fall for long and none stuck, but they were definitely falling!! I've said all along that it isn't unheard of for us to get snow in March, but mid-April? WOW! Ironically, Annika's day care notified all of the families last week that we need to bring in sunblock for our kids ... I guess it is really critical to keep those snow flakes from burning our kids. ;)

On another note, today is Cooper Day for the Olsons. Eight years ago today, we adopted our golden retriever, Cooper. He was a wonderful dog who made one heck of an impression on us and was with us much too short of a time. Cooper's antics are famous amongst our family and friends. He's the only dog I know of who could open the fridge (without a handle), flip and stove, and take cooking bread out of the broiler without singing himself. Good time! We miss and love you, Coop!!!

Dresses, Cookies, and Beer .... oh my!

With Easter right around the corner, it was time to break out my cookie cutters and get cracking on some tasty treats. I must say, I'm pretty darned pleased with how my sheep cookies turned out (no sheep were harmed in the making of these cookies!)

Our friends Dave and Nic gave Eric ingredients for a batch of beer for his birthday present. Dave and Eric spent the evening brewing up the beer about a week ago. It is done bubbling and now is in the "dry hopping" stage.... hence the green leaves floating on top of the beer. (I figured if my cookies deserved a spotlight, so does Eric's beer!)

I'm enrolled in a 4-week basic garment construction sewing class. Having gone to private/prep schools, home ec. wasn't ever offered, so I never really learned how to sew. I've had a sewing machine for years and faked my way through a few projects, but wanted to learn some true skills. Here's the dress I'm making for Little Miss Thing. (The zipper wasn't in during the fitting shown below, but it is in now... way to go, me!)

Annika recently discovered the joys of splashing in puddles. She went through three sets of clothes in one day because of her puddle splashing marathon. (Notice her jester hat that I made... isn't it a riot?)

Annika doing her best Jerry Lee Lewis impersonation.

20 months old

Annika turned 20 months old yesterday. She celebrated the day by taking a 3.5 hour nap, visiting Daddy at work, making cookies with Mommy, and singing a chorus of "Abby, Abby, Abby" (her oldest cousin's name) as we drove around town. To mark her 20-month status here are some of her current stats:

weight: about 22 pounds
shoes size: 4
clothing size: 9 or 12 months, depending upon the item and brand
favorite food: Life cereal with milk (in Annika-ese: "Cereo and muk")
favorite entertainment: Elmo and The Wiggles
favorite book: too numerous to mention them all!
favorite word: "no" (in Annika-ese: "gnooo", like "gnocci" without the "cci")
favorite place to be: outside (in Annka-ese: "side! side!")

Upon reflecting on the fact that our baby girl is nearing her 2nd birthday, I realized I hadn't put on my running shoes since before I got pregnant. Can we say slacker? It was a GORGEOUS day in Seattle yesterday, so I put on my running garb, laced up my shoes, strapped Annika into the jogging stroller, and braved the world of pavement. I did a 1-mile loop, which was a plenty good in my book, considering how long it has been since I last ran. It went well and I'm thrilled with the fact my knees didn't explode and leave pieces of knee goo as a trail between our house and the library (my jog's mid point). One of my older brothers is in a weight loss contest at work .... $1,000 is the grand prize. On Sunday, my brother said how he ran 3 miles that day. I aspire to be able to go on a run with him. I think that's a good goal.

In addition to the "I want to run with Troy without croaking" goal, I'm on the hunt for the perfect "mommy" purse. I know there has to be one out there. It needs to be big enough to carry all of the necessary items (spare binky, Ziplock of Goldfish crackers or raisins, small pack of Kleenex, a small book, my wallet, cell phone, keys, Carmex, pen, sunglasses, and whatever crapola that we can't live without that day), but not so big that I feel lopsided. It also need to be able to go over my shoulder and not melt in the rain (hello ... we do live in Seattle!). This is my quest ... will I succeed??

She said her name!

On March 30th, Annika said her name for the first time. Well.... she said her version of her name. She said "Anh-kah", which we're pretty darned pleased as punch about.

Annika has also recently discovered the joy of stomping in puddles. We went outside in the rain (we are WA natives after all .... we know we won't melt) a few days ago and Annika became a puddle hopper. She's stomp in one puddle, realize another puddle was near by, move to that puddle, and repeat until she stomped in every puddle on our driveway. We went out later in the day (still raining) and repeated the process. She went through three sets of clothes that day because of getting drenched each time we went out. When else in life do you have enough time to stomp in enough puddles to get yourself drenched and not care a single iota about it?? (not to mention, have someone whisk you into warm clothes the moment you head inside)

Yesterday morning, Mother Nature decided to play a practical joke on us. Just when we thought spring was here (heck, it is April!), she sent snow to Seattle. For weeks, I've been reminding people (mostly those who are not WA natives) that yes, indeedy, we do get snow into March around these parts. But getting snow on April 1st was beyond my expectations. Nothing stuck, but it snowed almost all day long. Crazy!!