It's that time again.

Time for another Boo Boo photo mantage. This photo montage is the beginning of the commemoration of her first birthday, which will occur a week and a half from today. Yes, I know. It caught me by surprise too. So why not wait for her birthday to post pictures, you say? Well, because 40 Days for Life starts this Wednesday (mark your calendars), my parents are coming this weekend for an early celebration, and I just don't know if I'm going to have the change to post again before the big 01. If she keeps growing like she is, though, she might post them for me. It just doesn't seem possible that she's going to be year old, but here she is, nearly walking, nearly talking, nearly a toddler instead of a baby. I know she's growing up because I caught myself wanting another baby the other day. Good grief.

I love the different attitudes represented in these pictures. As my parents would say, she's such a little person. You can tell that there are some very definite thoughts running through her head.

(This one's my favorite.)
Annika is also forging relationships with her toys. Her favorite toy right now is the dolly that Beppe gave her for Christmas. She carries it with her everywhere, often upside down. She rocks it, hugs it, and pats it on the back, and sometimes she even sleeps with it, all snuggled up on the crib.
And it is also Spring! I know this because Friday our weather was so nice that Seth was tempted to . . . yep, to break out the grill. We had brats for dinner, grilled to perfection on Seth's grill. Of course, today it rained, which is the second sign of Spring. The weather around here likes to play with us. It announces the season of torrential downpours with a week of gradually warming sunshine. But hey, brats are brats, especially when grilled, and anyone who wants to live in the most beautiful place on earth has to learn to roll with the punches.

Our little maestra at work.

An example of Niki's derringdo. This little one has no fear.

Boo boo getting bigger.

I've been looking at my blog and I realized that there's too much text on it and not enough pictures. The problem is that I don' t have a lot of pictures to post. It's not that Niki doesn't do something new and cute every day. It's just that lately, I've been too tired or too busy to grab the camera and snap a picture of her. Plus the camera is often in another room. Plus half the new things that she does are somewhat dangerous, so I have to stay close to the baby to make sure that adventure doesn't become disaster. But here are a few pictures of Niki and her latest developements:

Climbing -- that was one of those "Do I grab the camera or the baby?" moments.

Imitation -- She's washing off her high chair tray with an old wet wipe.

Appreciating Pake -- sometimes she finds Pake Jaap intimidating, but not this time.

And surviving. Actually, we're the ones who view surviving as an accomplishment. This is Seth with his 29th birthday cake.

But that's all I have. I thought I had more pictures, but I've been too wrapped up in life to record it properly. 40 Days for Life is only nine days away (sign up now. You'll be glad you did -- www.40daysforlife.com), and there is more to do than could ever be done by our little committee. We want the whole world to rise in defense of unborn life, and so few people seem to appreciate the magnitude of the crisis caused by abortion and the denigration of human life in infancy. The fact seem so obvious -- 115,000 babies aborted every day, lives viable at 23 weeks can still be terminated at 36 weeks, post-abortive women are 50% more likely to attempt suicide -- there are no positives here! How can something like this be regarded as common place?

In the midst of my frustration, some of my friends, who are more experienced in the pains of advocacy, sent me this blog address. It contains a video of a 12-year-old girl and her remarkably articulate criticism of abortion. She made waves, and people listened. Check out her speech and her story and be encouraged. Or be challenged.

http://bound4life.com/blog/2009/02/06/y-o-p-p

See y'all later, probably after April 5th. :) Sigh.

Some pro-life stuff to whet your appetite

Hey, everybody. It's February. In less than a month, we enter Lent, and 40 Days for Life begins. To get everyone going on pro-life thoughts and actions, I'm posting links to a couple of articles.

The first is a blog entry by one of my fellow 40 Daysers. She went to the West Coast Walk for Life in San Francisco. Her blog shows the truth of the matter, but it's not for the weak of stomach. http://courtneykir.wordpress.com/

The other article was sent to me this morning. It's a confessional by a respected actor about his past with abortion and how his feelings changed. Mr. Graham uses vulgar language, so be warned.
http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ggraham/2009/01/27/flashpoint-a-womans-right-to-choose/#more-32250

If anyone has doubts about how destructive abortion is, please feel free to pass on either of these articles. We are called to be as wise as serpents and as gentle as doves, but we cannot be either if we cannot face the truth of what we are up against. This is just one of the many evils that we need to look directly in the eye.

Quite possibly the last Little Abby update.

For all of you who have been following through, here's the latest and we hope the last:

After two x-rays (one late last night and one late this morning), the doctors feel confident that the growth in the air pocket yesterday was just a fluke that resulted from some air rushing in as the tube was removed. Which means she gets to stay tubeless and, even better....WE'RE GOING HOME! =)
Today will be focused on taking her off of her IV fluids and transitioning to oral medication. We'll also have to chat with the various specialists about follow-up visits during the next year (which is how long it will be before her chest xrays will start to look normal again). Tomorrow, they're planning to remove her PICC line. And then, FINALLY, we get to pack up her room and head home. Of course, that's assuming that we can pack up her entire room before the day is over tomorrow. Perhaps I should get started today....seriously, have you SEEN her room lately? =)