Sunday, May 31, 2009

4 Month Check Up, Memorial Day, and Friends

Last week was Annika's four month check up. Both Kara and I went with her this trip. All in all, it was a good experience, AJ is completely healthy. For those of you who want to know the stats: she is 99th percentile for body weight (18.5 lbs), 70th percentile for length (25 inches long), and 99th percentile in head size. The doctor's response was a simple, "Well, looks like mommy is feeding you half and half."

The shots I think were the most interesting for me. It was the first time I saw Annika receive a shot, and what struck me was how happy she was prior to the injection. The nurse is pinning her down, and Annika is just smiling and talking, the nurse puts in the needle, and about a second later Annika stops smiling, has a look like, "What was that?" and then recognizes that this is not a good thing and starts to cry. The tears lasted all of 10 seconds as she went right to mom for lunch and calmed down immediately (she's tough). It just hit me how conditioned we are to fearing pain and how the anticipation is sometimes worse than the actual event. It was over before AJ knew it, and she wasn't waiting in agony for the event to come. It was a good reminder about life, and about how much your kids will teach you.

So this Memorial Day weekend we happened to invite ourselves over to the Tank's pool in Coronado, which turned into a fun afternoon with friends. With six kids around, four under a year, lets just say pool parties are not the same as they were last year.

AJ, Luke and Tessa catching some sun.

Uncle Mike holding the girls, I think they would have been happy on his lap all afternoon.

This was Annika's third pool adventure, she loves it more and more each time. At the end of her time in the pool, I blew in her face and dunked her. This was her second experience with this, and I must say, it was much better than the first. She cried for about 5 seconds and calmed down again. Little does she know how many more times we plan on doing this to her this summer! Hopefully she will thank us some day, or I will be paying for psych bills for a long time.

AJ and Lane after the pool in their sweatsuits.

Kara babysat for Harper (Jeremy and Audi's baby who was born two weeks before AJ) last week for a few hours. The girls LOVED their time on the mat together. It proved to us how social Annika is. She really enjoys being around other babies, it usually calms her down. The girls would hold hands and Harper would try to kick Annika with her leg. Leave it to a Swift to be poking at a Jung! Some things never change :)

Truth be told, Kara usually reads to Annika at night. This night Kara just happened to be out and Annika wanted to read, so we went with the Bible in spanish. She likes the pictures and hearing daddy stumble over his spanish. Pretty soon I am sure she will be helping me with my translations.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Family to town and... shoes!

Two weekend's ago was Annika's baby dedication. My grandparents, parents, and the Williams clan all came to town for the event. It was a great weekend. We had a lot of fun together. There were a ton of pics taken, but only a few on our camera. We are still tracking down the others.
Thanks everyone for making the effort to come down to celebrate our daughter!

Annika and Great Grandpa Jim.

AJ with Niko...

... and Maddie...

...and Bella, Aunt Bambi and Grandmama!

AJ has started holding things, especially her Teddy Bear. Sometimes I think the bear frightens her, other times it is her little buddy.

Kara is always putting bows and hats on AJ so she will keep them on when she gets older. I thought I would do my part to help.

Grandmama sent this outfit from Palm Springs. Too cute!
And finally...
SHOES!!!

Kara's Graduation!!!


Yes, it is official. Finally after 14 months of crazy work, Kara walked for Graduation last Monday. I think for Kara it was a good way to put a bookend on an amazing accomplishment. To finish school, have a baby, and oh yes, be one of 4 graduates to be distinguished for Academic Achievement as well as to win the Student Affairs Award, my wife is kind of a big deal!

Kara getting her diploma from the Dean of Nursing at OU. Kara has told me that the Dean's credentials are extremely long, but you can't say that about her... she is standing on a stair in this pic!


Wanida, Leeana and Angelee came to the ceremony (sorry Ang, we didn't get a pic). Thanks ladies for helping us take care of AJ during the ceremony.


A tradition in nursing is to be pinned after receiving the diploma. Kara had her mom pin her as Deb is a nurse and a major reason why Kara decided to join the profession.

Congrats Babe, you are amazing!

Thursday, May 7, 2009

AJ's talking!...Well, sort of...

The other day coming home from the gym Annika cooed and awed non-stop in her carseat. I looked at Eric and said babe you know when she starts to talk she's never going to stop. We realize that we've become blubbering fools when it comes to talking to AJ, but how can you resist?!
The other evening Tatum came over and we decided to do another photo shoot with AJ. Annika is being dedicated at our church on Sunday and we needed some more pictures for a video that will be shown. We had a great time and Annika was a champ.

Um, yeah, I'm pretty darn cute!

I love this picture because this is the expression on AJ's face much of the time. Its like "hey guys, I'm ready to see more, do more, learn more...let's go!"

So I know I shouldn't draw attention to this, but I'm going to anyways. Check out those roots! I hadn't gotten my hair done since October, so I finally went in and got a good cut and color. Tatum and Wanida were watching Annika for me. When I got back home I took Annika from Wanida and she just lost it. She would not stop crying, so I handed her to Tatum and right away she was all smiles...little stinker. Guess I looked pretty different!


I love my daddy!
This is AJ's week 14 pic. The one we took with the card and the bunny just wasn't that cute:)

I love all of AJ's little hats and bows. Girl's clothes are the best! This one is her strawberry shortcake outfit. So cute!