Movember and The Beard Project

November, also known as "Movember", is now the one month of the year in which men can shamelessly let their facial hair grow regardless of whether it can be sported well or poorly--even in professional settings.  (Because I'm not convinced a mustache can ever be pulled off in a professional setting by anyone born after 1960, I'm opting for the beard.)  What boss or client can fault you for supporting prostate cancer?  Thus, I have joined the Movember facial-hair growing movement this month.  While I'm all in favor of whipping prostate cancer, I confess that I have ulterior motives.

Ever since Anika has been old enough to observe her environment, she's been scared of Grandpa Kim.  Alicia and I are at a loss for this phenomenon.  We finally decided that it must be Grandpa Kim's (extremely impressive and sporty) beard.  Thus, when Movember rolled around, I thought perhaps my growing of a (not as impressive and sporty) beard would help Anika overcome her fears.

This is before the days of Anika's keen observational skills.  (That or she was simply immobile and unable to express her fear of the beard.)

This is Saturday morning.  I've been hard at work growing my beard for twelve days or so.  You will note that Anika is all smiles notwithstanding the dark, and intimidating scruffiness of my face.

Needless to say, Anika is a lot more excited about this new development than Alicia.

This weekend, after almost two full weeks of the beard project, it was time to test my hypothesis.  Grandma and Grandpa Kim came to South Minneapolis for a first-time trip to Marla's Caribbean Cuisine--a hot spot that has been featured on Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.  Anika doesn't like to mess around when she eats out.  It's only high-profile, international fare for her.  

This is Anika a month or so ago at Victor's 1959 Cafe--also a Minneapolis favorite, which was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.  The Cuban food is wonderful.  Anika got in the mood by doing her best Fidel Castro impression.  Or maybe she's expressing her agreement with the UN's condemnation of the embargo?  Hard to tell.

After enjoying Victor's so much, Anika wanted to stick with the Caribbean theme.  As you can see, both Anika and Grandma were quite happy about Marla's colorful red sign. 

Anika got right down to business when she arrived.  Marla's has the tastiest menus around!  We had to teach her that the Caribbean vibe involves being relaxed and, thus, voraciously eating the menu wasn't scoring us any points with the waitress.

Anika was outraged when we told her she couldn't order the ox tail, and we started feeding Anika her standard-issue pureed chicken and mashed up vegetables instead.  You'd have thought we were feeding her MREs.     

Luckily, this was not a problem that a bit of play time with her rattling ball wouldn't solve.  Few are.

So far so good.  She was quite happy sitting next to Grandpa Kim, beard and all.  But long-distance proximity is really no indicator of success when it comes to Anika.  We were cautiously optimistic.

Alicia and I give Marla's two thumbs up.  My chicken jerk was fantastic (just make sure you have plenty of napkins to wipe the sweat off of your forehead). Alicia's meal was also scrumptious.  We'll be going back for sure!

At home, it was time for the true test. 

In the midst of a spirited family game of Rook (the men won), Anika finally settled in happy and comfortable next to Grandpa Kim.  Mission accomplished.  Physics 101 starts next week.