Annika Lately

The other night I was looking back through our blog and reading all of our posts up to Annika's birth. I loved reading about her milestones and seeing how much she has grown and how her little personality has developed. I realize that I am never going to be one of those moms that has a baby book put together for Annika....just not the scrapbooking type...but I would like Annika to be able to look back on this blog someday and read about what she was like when she was little. So, even though at times it feels kind of self indulgent to blog so much about my baby, I am going to try to be better about it so that we have these memories documented.

So here is Annika lately:

LOVES:

strawberries, blueberries, raspberries...any kind of berry

Dogs

Curious George

her mama and daddy (at least thats what her smile says when we get her up in the morning)

her cousins

the pool

going "bye bye"

golf balls

music

playing outside

her binkies (yes she still has them at bedtime)

her baby

her blankies

HATES:

garbage trucks and loud tractors

rinsing her hair out in the bath

going to bed...our little girl used to get so excited to "find her binkies and go nigh night"...not lately. We hope this is a very short phase.

Getting her diaper changed...maybe you should learn to use the big girl potty, ha little one?

Annika is trying to say more and more words every day, but isn't a huge talker yet...she just kinda jabbers in her own little language. Every once in a while she will say something like "yeah" or "all done" and it sounds plain as day, but then she won't repeat it. I do try to teach her most words in English and Spanish so I just tell myself that maybe she's just a little confused as to what exactly we want her to call certain objects:)

Our little girl loves to color...with crayons in her coloring books or with pens on her dry erase board...I think she may have a little artistic streak like her daddy. She loves to read and often sits in her little chair and reads to herself. She plays with her little golf set every day. She even holds the clubs with two hands now and makes contact with the balls. Then she has to drop the club and clap her hands and cheer. Pretty cute.

Ethan still gets the most laughs out of annika...those really good belly laughs that just make you happy. For now he seems to enjoy the attention of his younger cousin. We'll see how long that lasts.

Aj meets little Aj. Tate, Martha and Avery came out for a wedding and we finally got to meet precious little Avery Joy. Annika is a little more excited about it than Avery.

Chelsea was up for the wedding too, Annika let her share her favorite spot on the floor.

Annika discovered dirt...mmm, tasty. Don't worry baby, mommy ate it when she was little and turned out ok.

coloring on the white board while mommy paints.

Daddy's favorite time of the day.

Mommy's favorite time of the day. There's just nothing better.

weekend of fun!

Lately I have been feeling a huge itch to get out of town which worked out perfectly because E and I had planned to spend the weekend in San Francisco. Saturday we took Annika to her first Giants game. Eric's childhood friend Nate invited us to enjoy the game in his company's box and kids were invited so the three of us headed to the bay. Truth be told Eric and I were both raised going to A's games so Annika's first professional sporting event really should have been in Oakland. But lets be honest, the view from AT&T is much better than from the other side of the bay. Anyway, we had a great time, though most of it was spent pulling Annika back out of the box adjacent to ours. She thought our neighbors were a lot more fun than we were. I love that she is so friendly and curious, but sometimes it would be a lot easier if she just sat shyly on my lap, you know?

We spent the evening at Eric's parents house, the E and I woke up at the crack of dawn and headed back into the city for the Bay to Breakers. I have wanted to run in this race since I was in high school and I'm so glad we finally did it. The B to B is one of the largest foot races in the US. Runners start on the Bay side of SF and run 12 kilometers (7.45 miles) to the finish line at the beach. The race is also well known for its colorful participants. Many of them dress up in outrageous costumes, others forget the clothes altogether...yes, its very entertaining. Luckily E and I were far enough toward the front to avoid running alongside some of the less clothed participants.

My goal was to have a great run and to have fun. We had perfect running weather. Cool, cloud cover, misty...perfect. One of those days you could just run and run and run. E and I both finished in under 1 hour which also felt great. I had been feeling pretty out of shape lately so it felt nice to push myself. I think this may become an annual event for the Jungs...at least for a few years.

Today it was back to reality at work. Feels so much better to go back after a nice break though.

And I get to come home to this.

Happy Mother's Day Mommy!

I love you soooo much!

April Happenings

This month is only half over, but we have been having some good times. It started with a weekend in Pebble with Jeremy, Audi and Harper. It took the girls about 5 seconds of seeing each other before they were back to being the best of friends, even though sharing became a little more an issue than months prior. They were troopers for the 3 days we were together, a ton of fun with the Swifts!

Wheel barrel ride became a fast fav for the girls.

No one can get Annika laughing as hard as Harper.

A great hike to Point Lobos, again was chilly, but worth the view.

Breakfast time had some entertaining views one morning. Annika kept saying "Woof." We're working on it.

One of our favorite things to do is see the Bag Piper at Spanish Bay. It was a perfect evening, Annika and Harper made a million new friends, as well as tried to escape down one of the fairways, and eat some dirt. Great memories.

Kara has found a new niche, hand bags. This means going to the fabric store is now a normal activity.

Ethan discovered my skateboard, it started with me giving him rides down the driveway. He quickly found better ways to use it.

So Annika loves pillows... and Curious George. She finally realized she could move the pillows in line with the TV and enjoy two things at the same time.

My mom found the chair and it has become a new favorite place to sit, right behind mom's lap, of course.

The weather has finally turned warm, which Kara keeps loathing the fact that the worst season of heat is close upon us. Today we decided to heat the spa so Annika, Ethan and Mo could get back in the water. It took Annika about 2 seconds before she was climbing up the steps, walking to the fence, and making a dash back for the spa to jump to me. She is fearless.

pictures

No big updates, just a few pictures. Life is good...

Little dutch girl (well half at least) in the tulips
Look at her eye that cake!
Beautiful blossoms

Little buddies

My favorite girl.

The Big 3-0

I am now married to a 30-year-old. Crazy! Eric celebrated 30 wonderful years today. No big celebrations today. I had to work, but Eric did get to spend the afternoon on the golf course. He is helping my brother in law coach the highschool golf team so he "has to" play golf 2x/week. Someone's gotta do it right? Mom Jung made a yummy cake and brought it for us to enjoy...She swears Annika was saying Dadda B... for "daddy's birthday cake" all day long. She's probably right, our little girl loves her treats. Happy happy birthday to you babe. We are so blessed to have you as a daddy and husband. We love you!

just a little update...

The rain is pouring outside and I'm curled up by the fire with a glass of wine after a full week of work and I'm just feeling very happy to be right where I am. Life is good. Work is going well, though not without its challenges, we are so blessed to have family here to help with AJ and to love on her, Eric is loving what he is working on these days, and we are just generally enjoying "the simple life" up here in Ripon.

Eric is out of town for the week on business so Annika and I get a girls week. I am excited to have a few days off to hang out with my little girl...just me and her. I do miss getting to do that everyday, but I also cherish our time together now much more than I did before I started work.

As I said before I am really enjoying work, though a little discouraged at times about how many labor inductions occur and how many poor turnouts result from the inductions...but that is for another post. Seeing babies be born never gets old. I cry every time and feel like kind of a fool when the "seasoned" nurses look at me like I'm crazy.

I turned 29 on wednesday. Eric and I spent last Sunday in San Francisco celebrating. Eric's parents watched annika and we had a very fun and flavorful day in the city. We walked around all day and ate delicious food, soaked in the sun, and just enjoyed hanging out together. It was wonderful. Then I got a birthday surprise with icecream cake and balloons from my niece, nephew, sister and parents on Thursday...Ethan was so excited....very sweet. 29 was a great year and I am so thankful for all the blessings it brought.

Annika has 4 teeth breaking through on top and 2 1/2 on the bottom. She has also been sick, so you can guess what kind of sleep we're getting lately. She has been super cuddly though which is a nice treat...she normally doesn't sit still for longer than a couple seconds.

Oh, and one final little piece of news...if you haven't heard yet my sis is having TWINS! Check out here blog post (the Schenks) from a few weeks ago. We are so excited! I love being an auntie!

Sorry no pics this time. E has the computer with all our pictures on it. I promise to post some when he gets back. Have a wonderful, cozy and relaxing night!