Pure Joy: Face Planting and Book Reading

Six months has officially come and gone. Six-month-old Anika is sitting up on her own, eating mashed up real food (namely, bananas and sweet potatoes), getting more tempermental about her sleeping, and she's giggling, grunting, and panting in what may be the strangest noise to ever escape an infant's mouth. The most frightful change over the last couple of weeks, however, was Anika's decision to start rolling over so she could sleep on her stomach. We're big fans of any movement at all and under most circumstances, Alicia and I would be proudly rooting Anika on (tummy sleeping should help her flat head after all).

But usually she ends up sleeping just like this, in her patented, face-plant position.

This was terrifying the first time it happened (and resulted in incessant monitoring of the monitor and many trips upstairs to roll her over). But we quickly learned that if we turn Anika on her back in her sleep, she'll just roll right back over onto her face. Perhaps this sudden behavior is motivated by fear of having to wear a head-shaping helmet 23 hours a day--or the level of sweatiness that would induce? By now, Anika's face-plant is all part of the nighttime sleeping ritual (for some reason she doesn't do this when napping in the middle of the day). We are told (and by that I mean we read on the internet) that it is nothing to worry about now that she can roll herself over and lift her head up readily.

With the exception of her face-plant sleeping position, I've decided that six-month-old Anika is far cooler than five-month-old Anika. Our days together as a family get more fun all of the time.

This is the way most mornings start now, with Anika presiding over her various toys, and with Alicia and I rapidly providing her with a new toy when she tires of the one she's playing with. Her favorite right now is the multi-colored ring set--a noiseless, old-school classic. (What more does a six-month old need than a bunch of rings that go around a stick.) Anika can even take the rings off by herself. We're still working on stage two, which means Alicia and I are cleaning up after her.

After Anika tires of working on her fine motor skills, she likes to sit down for some light reading. Barnyard Dance is one of her favorites. Who doesn't like stories about dancing and singing barnyard animals? Why is it that all children's books are about animals? What's wrong with writing stories about people?

She's sort of even getting the hang of turning the pages herself--when there are holes in the middle, at least. For now, Anika likes touching, turning, smelling, and eating the pages as much as she likes looking at the pictures--assuming she even notices them.

It doesn't take long, and Anika tires of her board books. She insists on more sophisticated stories read by Mom. Such titles include the Great Brain, Diary of a Fly, Frog and Toad All Year, and Dooby Dooby Moo (a follow up to another common read Click Clack Moo: Cows that Type). Diary of a Fly is my favorite and the funniest. Sometimes I laugh and scare Anika.

She not only easily startles at my laughing, she is easily distracted by my picture taking.

But not for long. The story is just too enthralling. And how can Farmer Brown be so clueless? And how could the pigs fall asleep when it came time for them to do their interpretive dance!?

Dad, stop distracting me--I'm learning how to read. (This looks like a look I'll be getting for the rest of my life.)

And every minute is precious. I've only got so long, before I get sleepy doing this reading thing.

After Anika's nap, it was off to the wading pool for some swimming time and a picnic with small group friends. Six-month-old Anika goes swimming (five-month-old Anika did not). This is pretty much the look she had on her face the whole time she was in the pool.

She hardly cracked a smile--apparently too mesmerized by all of the kids and the noises and the fountains. Or she was just thinking about Dooby Dooby Moo and Farmer Brown's ineptitude at keeping watch on his animals. Who can blame her?