Anika Joy at 6 (and a half) Months

Last week our wonderful friend Brianna Millet took six-month photos of Anika. Just like our newborn photos, they turned out stellar, despite Anika's initial, touchy disposition. We love the results and can't recommend Brianna's skills enough (http://bcm4110.wordpress.com). And it was great fun on top of that. Here is Anika perfecting her modeling talents at our neighborhood Lake Nokomis (yes, we did follow up the shoot with some Fat Lorenzo's Pizza). 

It took a while for Anika to figure out what we were up to and why we left her alone on a blanket in the middle of a big swath of grass, without her rings, the scary glove, or so much as a book.

Anika's perplexed reaction to her first wardrobe change. Why so many different outfits? You know Dad is bad at putting clothes on me.

This is about how the first twenty minutes went, mixed in with lots of long stares and very few smiles (we figure she was thinking hard about Physics).

Turned out that all she wanted was to move around some.  (She must have been thinking about velocity.)

We do this as a family all the time--playing in random patches of long, overgrown grass.

This was Anika's first time on Dad's shoulders--she thought this was great fun, except when the glare from my bald spot hit her in the eyes. Next time maybe we'll bring sunglasses.

Then it was off to the bridge, for some more shots. She got really happy once we got her in just her diaper. These are our favorites. This is Anika being inspired by Olympic weight lifting.

Alicia must have promised her that she could finally have some Dairy Queen--I've never seen her so excited!

What a little peanut. Just checking everything out and taking in the beautiful day.

She was even happy when she wasn't on center stage all by herself.

And she really liked it when we started making out in public. Hopefully PDA isn't her thing.

But eventually she went back to being mesmerized by the great outdoors.

By the time we got to our last "set," she was back to her pensive looks and deep thinking.

Anika is a world champion when it comes to sitting up.  It's hard to believe that in another six months she will be crawling all over the place. It's been a fantastic first six months!