Everything in her path

Annika has a new hobby - it's called CHOMPING. I've been ignoring the signs of teething for a few weeks now, but it's tough to ignore now that anything she touches winds up in her mouth, and then is blown to smithereens. My finger, Chris's finger, her fingers, the burp rag (yummy!), her blankets, her rattles, her toys - I think you get the picture. Her chomping is accompanied by loud grunting noises. She's basically rabid.

I would show you a picture of her "going to town" as we say over here, but it's kind of unflattering. How about this?

Nico's baptisim

This weekend, Annika attended her first religious service (and not her last, don't worry!) Little Nico Negrete was baptized, and quite a baptism it was! Nico looked spectacular in white, and only cried just a touch during the service. Then afterwards, family and friends went to Nico's house where we ate, drank and were merry.

Annika was very good, despite the fact that she woke up at 4:30 that morning and would not go back to sleep (very unusual for her). Her daddy refused to leave her in the crib wide awake, so they both got up for the day. (Notice how Mommy didn't have the same experience). Because of this, Annika slept through most of the after party which is also unusual for her - she tends to take 20-30 minute cat naps, as opposed to 2 hour marathons. It is also important to note that she looked adorable in a new dress.

You asked for it

Milestone madness. Little Annika is impressing me with her developmental achievements daily. Here are some updates -

1. She smiles quite a bit. Her smile is essentially her mouth wide open - looks like she's about to scream, but the corners of her mouth turn up enough that we can call it a smile. Things that make her smile - Mommy or Daddy making faces at her, the fish tank and her play mat. Sometimes her own reflection makes her smile.

2. She laughed - once. We were playing peek-a-boo for the first time (previous attempts were aborted quickly when she started to make the cry face), and she was sooo excited. Lots of big mouth smiles, and finally a little giggle! We have only heard it once, but I am excited for more.

3. She rolls! I was kind of hoping it would never happen since I didn't want to have to watch her every move on elevated surfaces - like the bed and changing table - but she rolled yesterday! The experts say that rolling occurs usually because the baby wants something - a toy, etc. However, I am pretty sure Annika just wanted to roll. She was on the playmat and I was watching her. With a few grunts and lots of attempts to swing her body around, about 10 minutes later she was on her tummy! When she got there, her arm was still pinned underneath her, so finding that uncomfortable, she propelled herself back to her back in one fell swoop. She tried a little bit again today, but I am getting the impression that she was happy to do it once and feels no need to do it again. At least today.

4. She reads! OK, not really - but she does allow me to read entire books to her. We read The Very Hungry Caterpillar and The Cat in the Hat. She actually stays still and listens to me for both books - and Dr. Seuss is long! She also touches the butterfly at the end of The Very Hungry Caterpillar which is so cute.

Those are the latest and greatest accomplishments. I'm sure there will be many more.

It's in the name

I just love Annika's name. I do. I'm not ashamed! My husband was fond of the name, if not as ecstatic as I was - though he did (for all intents and purposes) get to pick her middle name (which I also love). However, it still surprises me that some people have a tough time pronouncing it or spelling it, or sometimes just are completely confused.

Perhaps I should have expected that from the fact that it doesn't break the Top 100 in the U.S. for girls names? Perhaps I should have expected that when we chose a clearly European name? Or maybe I should have had a clue when the majority of folks we shared the name with pronounced it "Anne-ika" (as opposed to Ahn-nika)?

We chose the name for a few reasons - 1) we wanted something not too common (check), 2) something classic sounding (so it seemed to me) 3) and something that was easy to pronounce and spell. Hahahahaha - I really thought it was!

But the name is making some strides! Annika Sorenstam is the top women's golfer in the world (sorry Michelle Wie). Even Barbie plays Princess Annika in a straight-to-DVD movie (her prince's name is Aidan). It was even a victim's name in Law & Order: SVU!

I suppose the only person's opinion who matters is Annika's herself. I can't wait until she can tell us what she really thinks! And if she mispronounces her own name, I will laugh! :D

Featuring...

I get a lot of questions and comments about Annika's features. Questions consist of "what color are her eyes?" "Where does she get those fat feet??" Comments consist of "Wow, she really doesn't look like Chris" or "I can't believe she has red hair!"

I know it's hard to see what she really looks like in pictures, so let's take a moment to break down my gorgeous daughter's features, one by one...

Hair: Currently her hair is a reddish/blondish. My suspicion is that as she ages, it will become an auburn...like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman after she takes off the blonde wig. For those of you who know my hair well (and I know there are legions of you), her hair is basically my highlights - I have reddish/strawberry highlights that is mostly Annika's hair.

Forehead: She has a huge, protruding forehead. OBVIOUSLY it's to make room for her ample brains.

Eyes: This is the question I get the most - what color are her eyes? When she was first born, she had a newborn's inky blue eyes but they have started to transform to a lovely hazel. I know many in my family were looking forward to some baby blues, but nope - she's her own person! They say that eye color can continue to change up to one or even two more years - so keep asking the question, because the answer could change!

Body (torso): She's chubby, what can I say? Though it appears that her body type is a long torso/short leg variety.

Legs: More chubbiness. They also resemble chicken drumsticks. Mmmmmmm...chicken.

Skin color: OK, yes, she tends to resemble my lighter than light skin. The good news is that the tone of her skin is less pink and more yellowish - so I am holding out hope that she will tan! Now, let's not go blaming me completely - she is 3/4 Caucasian!

So if there are any other features of my beautiful daughter you'd like details about, just let me know. The thing is, the whole package is wicked cute and beautiful. And she gets prettier every day! That ain't no lie!

My favorite Italian

Chris has a nice setup at his job at the Santa Clara Valley Water District. He works what they call "9-8-9's" which means - I'm not clear on the complexities - that he gets every other Friday off. And occassionally said Fridays coincide with Holiday Mondays. And this is why Christopher Columbus is my favorite Italian.

Anyway, we used this long weekend to go see Annika's paternal grandparents who reside in the greater Sacramento area. We were pleasantly surprised to find out that a set of Chris's cousins would also be joining us this weekend - the Arientes, who have wonderful taste in clothes and food. And then, the weekend got more wild (appears to be a theme) when we got to see the newest addition to the Solis family - baby Ally who was born last week, weighing in at a whopping 6 pounds, 8 ounces. I have never held a baby so tiny, because we know Annika was never, ever that small (and never will be, that's for sure). She was sweet and adorable and hopefully slept that night since she slept pretty much the whole time the family was visiting.

We also got to see the Mahers who read this blog, but don't vote in polls. (Hi Tina!)

The best part about this weekend was that Mommy & Daddy got to spend some much needed alone time. Grandma and Grandpa Hakes were just wonderful with Annika and were happy to be rid of us, I think. :) We were able to go shopping and even gambling! (Don't ask if we won.) However, though it was absolutely great to see and speak with Chris for longer than ten minute stretches without interruption, each time we came back to our baby, I just couldn't believe how much I missed her. I find that I appreciate and love her so much more every day, and it just grows when she's out of my sight. My baby girl is just the most perfect, gorgeous thing, and it was a blessing to find out that being away from her is a gift, but being with her is simply precious.

I'm gushing, so I'm going to stop now. (Ridiculous beanies courtesy of Uncle Ben).

Weekend gone wild

The goal as of late has been to keep weekends low key so Annika stays on a decent schedule and doesn't get too excitable. So even when we actually have plans, they're pretty low key.

This weekend, Cool Aunt Tori came to visit. Cool Aunt Tori was in Mommy's wedding and is one of my best friends of all time...I think we've known each other for 15 years? Jeez! Sometimes I only feel like I'm 15 years old, let alone have friends for that length of time....but I digress.

Continuing her streak of a) being good for company (people she sees more than once/week like Godmommy Lisa don't count!) and b) enjoying people with darker hair (again, Lisa, you don't count), Annika quite enjoyed her Tori time. She was in wonderful spirits most of the time they were together, and Tori's flexibility allowed for Annika to maintain a very solid schedule and not get too "worked up" as we like to say at Casa Hakes. Annika also discovered her affinity for America's Next Top Model after watching four hours in a row on VH1. (Social Services - please don't take away my baby!)

Then on Sunday, Annika went on her first charitable mission. The Hakes Family joined Team "For Angie" (in loving memory of a wonderful lady, Angie Santos) at the annual Walk D'Feet ALS in Los Gatos. Though she didn't actually "walk" - for obvious reasons, and for the fact that her eating time coincided just perfectly with the start of the walk - she was there to support Angie's friends and family. It was a great excuse to get her outdoors, too, which is not as often as I'd like. Now, according to me, Annika was an angel for the event, but you might want to check with Daddy who actually sat out the walk with her to feed her with a cold bottle...you can imagine that's her FAVORITE. Oh yeah - and as I understand, there was poo as well (you ask for poo, people, and you get it!)

Wowza

I have to say, that lately, my daughter has been impressing me. More and more, not only is she developing a personality (a little grumpy, a little silly and a lot needy ;)) but she's becoming more predicatble. We have taken her to two restaurants in the recent past, and she did swimmingly each time. Helps that the hostess tries to stick you in the back, where the sun doesn't shine and either do the waiters. But I digress....

But she has been holding her own. It's also easier to tell what she might do in a given situation - here are some examples:

Scenario #1: In Mall. Very Tired. In Stroller. In this situation, Annika tends to "cry it out." She indicates her displeasure by some whining and finally some screaming. But with some stroller action - i.e. MOVEMENT AT ALL TIMES! - she will rather quickly fall asleep, allowing Mommy to buy her footsie pajamas or Diaper Genie inserts.

Scenario #2: In Starbucks. Hungry. In this scenario, Annika thinks Starbucks is a big game. Bottle in hand, Mommy attempts to feed baby. But baby fights it - in a nice way. With smiles and some what I swear are winks, she pushes the bottle out of her mouth and coos. But Mommy usually perserveres and gets her to eat pretty hardily. She is entertained by the whirring of the expresso machine and the smell of Mommy's mocha. Excellent.

Scenario #3: On a walk in the park. In Baby Bjorn. Annika will do either one of two things - fall asleep within first 3 minutes of walk, or stay awake and lick the side of the Baby Bjorn. She especially loves to lick it after she's spit up. YUMMY. But she is usually extremely quiet when awake in these situations, and just loves looking around and doesn't love the sun in her eyes so much. Mommy has some cute hats to fix that.

I never thought I'd see the day where I could actually predict the occassional action of my willful daughter. Though it delights me now, I hope she continues to surprise and live by her own rules. I'm already so proud - that will make me even prouder. (Is prouder a word?)

Depressing

Only 4 people voted in the poll. :( I guess this means my husband is right - no one reads this thing! I'd be ok with that if there weren't pictures and stories of the best baby ever!

People - what do I have to do to convince you?

The best ever?

This is an open letter to the readers of the Adventures of Annika -

Dear Gentle Readers,

The original intent of this blog was to tell stories, share pictures and give updates on the life and times of Annika. This was especially important for her friends and family who don't get to see her on a regular basis.

Since this blog has been established for a few months (Annika is nearly 3 months old...can you BELIEVE IT??), I'd like to get a sense from the 1.5 people who read this blog what you'd like to read/see more of. So in that spirit, I present you with the first ever Annika Blog Poll!

What would you like to see more of in the "Adventures of Annika"? (you can choose more than one!)
	Pictures, more pictures than I can imagine!
	Stories of her trips to Gymboree, the mall and Starbucks.
	Family stories - what's up with her Mommy & Daddy?
	Cold, hard statistics - tell me about her weight & height ALL THE TIME.
	Milestones - crawling, walking, smoking...
	Slice of life - a running commentary of what it's like to raise this precious baby and its impact on society.
	Other! OTHER. (Please give me your 'others' in the comments section).
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Miss-Adventures

The last few days have been relatively uneventful. Annika is currently experiencing her first thunderstorm, and is none worse for the wear. I'd say her Mommy is a little more jittery...

Yesterday we went to Great Mall (Milpitas, CA) with Godmommy Lisa and Nico. Annika slept nearly the whole time and allowed Mommy to have lunch and buy a birthday present for a regular reader of this blog...so I won't name names! What a good girl. Of course, she preceeded that event by not taking her bottle and forcing Mommy to directly feed her after having already pumped...for non-breastfeeding aficiondaos, that means Annika didn't get a whole bunch of food that round. Despite that, she still did really well yesterday and managed to make it home from the mall with minimal incident.

Of course, when we made it home, there was yet another poopie "sitch." Let's just say I'm grateful for Spray & Wash. And one of her cuter onsies was a casualty, but I think I managed to keep it out of her hair. (I told you it was a sitch!)

That night she met her new best friend, Marymichael, who totally engaged her and played with her for quite a while! Annika LOVES it when people chat her up and sing to her - hope MMM is ready for a friend 4 Life.

Then the poopie sitch happened again today! This time I didn't even hear it...and yet another onsie was lost. RIP, sweet onesie.

Lessons learned from America's Funniest Home Videos

Chris and I had a good laugh over a mention of America's Funniest Home Videos in a recent issue of Entertainment Weekly. The mention went something like this, "Something we've learned from America's Funniest Home Videos: Babies will vomit into your mouth if you hold them over your face."

Something to that effect had happened to Chris a while ago - the "remnants" as they were settled into his goatee. SEX-AY!

Well, this morning, I learned this lesson for myself. And it wasn't fun!

How could something this cute do this to me??

Who's grumpy?

Happy Halloween and I hate you!



Oh - and happy birthday to Aunt Summer who is approximately 27 years and 9 months older than Annika is today...

Tummy time

Before I became a parent, I had no idea half the stuff you were supposed to do with and for babies. One of these things is called "tummy time" and basically, it's exercise for babies. It's also a way to get the baby off her head so she doesn't get TOO flat of a head.

Anyway, until yesterday, she'd been avoiding it...usually when we tried it, she'd start crying, or just laying on her face until we picked her up. But yesterday, as if by a miracle, she lifted her little head up and looked around - and managed to stay in that position for nearly 10 minutes.

She also happens to look ridiculously adorable in this position.

Nothing compares 2 U

So I neglected to mention in the last post that Annika had her two-month checkup - which includes checking on her weight, height and head circumference, overall health (of course) and 3 shots! No, I didn't run out screaming like I did with the frenulum clipping, but it was still hard to watch.

First things first: Percentiles. Annika is in the 90th percentile for all 3 markers! I guess it's hard to tell she's that big since I see her all the time, but when people remark about her "robustness" I guess they are right! The good news is that means she's very healthy, and also that she's extremely proportional. 90th percentile in all 3 means she's all even Steven (Hi BB!). Love it!

Weight: 12 pounds, 9 ounces
Height: 23.75 inches
Head: 16 inches (note big head in image below)

As for the shots, she continues to impress and amaze. First of all, the shots scene at Kaiser Permanente is hardcore. There is one place that all the kiddies go - so the waiting room is like "dead man walking." Fortunately, most of the precious children waiting for their shots have no idea what's about to transpire. But the smarter ones figure it out after hearing the screams from the exam room. And I mean SCREAMS. Chris said they walk in children, and come out men (girls included, I guess). The older ones are more aware and try to remain calm until their names get called...then they cling to their mothers' legs in pure fear. In a way, it's awesome...if you're sick like that.

Our precious baby fell asleep in the waiting room - so we were a little concerned about waking her up for th big event. However, when we got started, she was pretty ok. What she hates is coldness on her body - so the alcohol they rubbed on her before the shot pissed her off more than the actual shot. The shot was more shocking for her than painful. After the one, two, three punch, we gave her baby Tylenol which I think really helped. She was fantastic until she woke up again - she was MAD! She wouldn't eat for almost 45 minutes while Chris walked her around the house - but she was NOT HAPPY. Finally, we gave her more Tylenol (yes, it had been more than 4 hours) and after about 30 minutes, she ate and was happy again. After that, she was fine for the rest of the day and night. Whew! No fevers, swelling or anything else. Chris thinks she has a high pain threshold. Bad news for when she's a toddler and she has bruises everywhere she doesn't tell me about and I wind up in social services...

Busy busy

Sorry for the belated post - Annika has been busy...and you know that means Mommy has been too.

On Wednesday, the Hakes family left for Tahoe to spend 3 luxurious nights in Truckee with Godmommy Lisa, Uncle Gabs and Nico. The occassion was actually for Uncle Tony's birthday (Uncle Tony in all his glory to the left), who just turned 27! He and his friend Laura met up with us on Thursday night.

But first things first - Wednesday is Gymboree day, and boy was it a day. I think I've just figured out that Annika's nap time is 1 p.m....hey! That's just in time for Gymboree. GREAT. She was grumpy for the first 25 minutes, and then promptly fell asleep for the rest of the class. Did she do any of the activities? Oh no...but Mommy won't give up! New strategy next week - stay tuned. Here's a pictue of Lisa with both babies since Mommy had to use the restroom.

Wednesday night we left for Truckee - and Annika was a star! We fed her right before we left, and she slept for the entire trip (no stops of course). When we arrived at the house, she was in a wonderful mood and we fed her again, and she slept until 6 a.m.! It was a great night and we were so proud of her. She also managed to fall asleep on her own each night in Truckee in her bassinet, which is unheard of.

The trip was pretty stimulating for her, but I think she did quite well. All of the adults in the house were quite understanding of the babies (you can see Annika and Nico in their dualing bouncy chairs above), and though we didn't really do anything but stay in most of the time, the weather was great and the air was fresh. It was also nice to just have a change of scenery.

On the way home, we stopped to see cousin Braden and Auntie Tina. Braden is now over 6 weeks old, and though he's a little boy, he looks very healthy and is very very sweet. He also has great hair! Then we stopped to see Great-Grandma Julia and Great Auntie Joey. Annika was in one of her "moods" by the end of that stop (she had been through a lot the last few days!) but she was wonderful with Great-Grandma whom she "talked" to for a good ten minutes or so. She also saw the doggie Sammy and was quite intrigued. Chris thinks this means it's only a matter of time before we get a dog. He's wrong.



Now we're using today to catch up and get Annika back into her routine. Last night she woke up 3 times, which is extremely unusual - so we just think she's trying to re-acclimate. I'm hopeful she re-acclimates tonight for us to get some sleep!

All smiles

Finally, we have a visibly happy baby on our hands! Not that Annika wasn't supremely happy in her last 9 weeks of life, but hard to know with a little baby - she tends to stay quiet on the matter.

But now she reguarly smiles, and for a reason! She loves having Daddy make faces at her, and she gets all excited and smiley when she's about to eat. Her smiles are usually at people - though she loves her toys, I guess they don't make the same impact. The swing is a good example - she tends to look a little glazed on the swing right before she passes out. Have I mentioned how much I love the swing?

Baby madness

Yesterday, Annika saw the ocean for the first time! The Hakes ladies, Lisa and Nico went to see Mandy and Travis in Mount Hermon (just outside Santa Cruz). The plan was to feed the babies at Mandy's house, go to the beach with the babies and come back, feed them and then take them home.

The plan was pretty sound, and it worked for the most part. As you can see from the picture of us with the baby carriers...well, it was a scene. We got to the beach and first went to lunch. Travis was hungry, and needed to be fed - discretely (and that's all I'll say - go Mandy!) We got quite a few comments in the restaurant (which was gratefully very casual and loud enough to conceal our babies' cries). Nico slept the whole time (shocking) and Annika was just active (even more shocking). But all three did extremely well, and the mommies have learned to each easy foods - Mandy and I had quesadillas and Lisa had calamari. Nothing that needs two hands!

Then we walked the streets of Capitola, with eyes following us. The kids are within a week apart, so we looked like we had planned this baby thing together - because that's easy to do (right). But I appreciate that people think we're that organized.

Then we headed home to some traffic, at first. Annika did not like the stops and starts of the car, and voiced her concerns. Lisa and I thought we heard Nico during that stretch...but couldn't be sure.

Finally we headed back to Mandy's where we commenced a baby photo shoot. A couple of things are important to note in this shot: 1. Each kid is in a different outfit than they started in that morning. Whether it be pee-pee or poo-poo or spit up, their original outfits did not last. 2. Nico was a photo hound, and would lean in and grin for almost every shot (and there were many shots). 3. We couldn't stop laughing. 4. Annika ended the shoot when she realized she was being squeezed on each end by a smelly boy. Good girl!

And this last picture is of each mommy with a different baby. My friend Katie had told me a long time ago that holding someone else's baby was a lot of fun. I thought to myself at the time "that doesn't make any sense...when you have a tight baby of your own!" But she's right! It's so much fun to see another little face and to play with a new little mind. Because, I have much to teach the next generation....

Play and music and stuff

Yesterday, Annika, Lisa and Nico and I went to Gymboree to check it out (yay for free preview classes!) My personal goal was to find other sources of entertainment for my baby girl. As interesting as I am to myself, I feel that my 8-week old sees through my attempts at entertainment pretty quickly during a bout of playtime. I was hoping that new voices, toys, sights and music would excite her.

Well, Annika's new least favorite thing is to be on her back unless she's going to bed. So all day long she either needs to be held, in the bouncy chair or propped up in some manner. The way that Gymboree Babies works is the baby lays on her little back and gets entertained by Mommy. Yeah, that didn't really happen. Annika would pout and finally cry until I picked her up. So, we didn't actually "participate" in the class, but I'm hopeful that once she gets used to it all, she might be more engaged and less fussy. I'm so optimistic!

So, Lisa and I signed our babies up for the 12-week class. I actually have to say that the instructor is great and the atmosphere in general is extremely tolerant and calm. The other mommies were real sweet and it always helps to observe other babies to make sure yours isn't crazy. (No Annika - not talking about you!)

Oh yes - she is also crazy adorable - I offer you proof:

Two whole years

I know that the title of this blog is "Adventures of Annika" and it's indulgent of me to commandeer her blog for my selfish purposes, but hopefully she will understand.

Today, Chris and I have been married for two years. Since we dated a while before that, it feels much longer, but even longer than that really. But in a good way...not in a "man, this has been dragging!" sort of way.

Chris is the best. Such a short, simple word for how to describe it. There are others though - generous, smart, capable, kind, funny, handsome, sweet...every day he amazes me by adding another attribute to the list, and every day I thank God that he's in my life and agreed to be my husband.

Beyond husband, Chris is so far, a pretty damn good father. He's patient with Annika, loves to make faces at her, coos back at her when she's trying to talk, laughs with her when she discovers something new. I never doubted for a moment that Chris would be an amazing father, but to actually see them together fills my heart up in ways I never thought possible.

Happy anniversary, sweetie. You are the light of my life and I am more in love with you every single day. I can't wait for what tomorrow brings!