Anika really got into Halloween this year. For many months we have been telling Anika to start thinking about what she wanted to dress up as. Being that her exposure to the world is somewhat limited, she had no grandiose ideas of going as super-heroes, ghouls, goblins or zombies. Instead, her ideas consisted of: (1) Mom; (2) her ring set; and (3) her play-mat owl. We'll have to work on thinking outside of the box.
Wise Ms. Owl was an easy pick, despite how flattered Alicia was that she was in the running.
She's watching you! Quite impressive handiwork by Alicia (with a tiny bit of help from the wonderful costume pro, Amy Lee Harrington). Not quite sure what Alicia would have done had Anika picked her ring set instead.
Eventually, Anika started to get used to the idea of being in costume.
Dressing up wasn't all Anika wanted to do though. She promised to clean her room once a week for a month if we'd take her to the orchard. It's hard to turn down such industry in a nine month old. You can tell Anika thought it was a fair trade.
Anika made the most of her trip, making friends with various farm animals, including this gentle goat. She's already asking for one for Christmas. She was told to ask her Grandparents. I'm pretty sure Minneapolis lots are not zoned for goats.
She also wanted to sit in sea of pumpkins (ala "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown"). She liked this a lot, but was not visited by The Great Pumpkin.
She was one happy kiddo . . .
. . . until we reminded her about her end of the bargain.
But she thought it was really funny when she gave us an I.O.U. and told us it wasn't redeemable until she starts walking.
The year was slipping away and we had still not taken Anika camping. Parenting failure 101 for Alicia and I. How is Anika to grow up resourceful, tough, and able to survive for weeks by herself alone in the wilderness if we don't expose her to the great outdoors and get started on teaching her how to do things like set up a tent and start a campfire with sticks and rocks? And how could we say no to our dear small group friends, who invited us on their adventure to the not-so-far-away Interstate State Park?
October notwithstanding, we decided it was not too late to help Anika appreciate God's creation. We did, however, pay dearly for our procrastination--in the form of sub-32-degree temperatures. Luckily, Anika's long-term memory is at its weakest and she will have completely forgotten this year's freezing experience by the time we take our out next year. That's what we keep telling ourselves anyway. The next Grizzly Adams? You decide.
This is Anika first thing in the morning. As you can see, she is hardly her chipper self. This look likely awaits all of our future, hair-brained family-vacation ideas. I have no pictures, but Alicia and I caved and took Anika to a doughnut shop in town. Great start to our teaching Anika how to camp. But see the note above about weak long term memory--next year we effectively get to start over and she will have forgotten our weak willed trip to the warm doughnut store.
Alicia and Anika at our campsite. It was quite the view. Anika was not impressed. Just wondering why exactly she had to hang out in a big puff snow suit for twenty four hours in a row. And where exactly were her rings?
It is now 9 a.m. and she's slowly starting to get used to looking like a giant marshmallow. This uniform may make a second showing in the form of a certain October costume (stay tuned).
This is Anika's tent within the tent. Yes, she had a mini-tent that we put her in, inside our tent. It is an Amy-Lee Harrington special and much better than lugging a pack n' play around. It worked amazingly well. We decided to keep her bundled up in light of the cold. She hardly made a peep! (Probably because she could't move.) Needless to say, it was mighty cramped for Alicia and I inside our two and a half person tent. We shared enough room for a half of a person.
Close up of cozy Anika in her mini tent--she is pleased with the spaciousness.
This is our fearsome camping group (minus Dylan who is taking the picture). Anika eventually woke up and we did a bit of a hike along the river. Having Anika as a little heater was delightful. And once we started moving some, she reverted back to her normal, babbling self, entertained by the sounds and the leaves and the outdoors.
This was Anika's reaction after we told her that we were going home and she'd be sleeping in her crib again. Next year, maybe Anika will be ready for a more rugged, national park, preferably sometime between the months of July and August.
Each fall, the Freemans go to the North Shore for a long weekend, to take in the colors, enjoy the cool breeze off of Lake Superior, and to relax. Naps are had, Trivial Pursuit is played ad nauseam, and the great outdoors are enjoyed. This was our first year with Anika, and it was an absolute treat.
This is Anika on morning one, ready and raring to go. She is as happy and giggly as it gets first thing in the morning.
Anika with Grandpa, checking out the great Lake Superior for the first time. She loves her grandpa.
Anika with mama at the lake after her breakfast of kiwi and cantelope . . . mmmmmmmmm.
Anika is happy again after her first diaper change in the wild. We had to pull over and utilize a picnic area to do our work, right in the middle of our tour of the fall colors.
The fall colors are exquisite! Hopefully, all of Anika's exposure to maple leaves don't turn her into a Canadian defector.
Along our tour of the Superior National Forest we stumbled across a maple syrup store. It is for Wild Country Maple Syrup, the largest maple syrup distributor in the state. It takes over 60 miles of interconnected tubing to gather all of the maple syrup they produce each year. Amazingly, this little store uses the honor system. No employees. Maple syrup for the taking and a little pay station to leave your money. Incredible!
Anika was equally amazed that the honor system still exists. She wanted us to get as much syrup as we could carry.
Enjoying the view from the VIP seats.
Anika with Nana in her red riding hood sweater, ready for day two
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Anika taking in the beautiful blue sky at Grand Marais in between sorting out flat skipping rocks for Alicia and I. Next year she'll be skipping them all by herself!
The disgruntled fan mail has been pouring in over the last two months:
"get off your lazy butt and give us more Anika"
you're just like every other blogger on the planet; over-promising and under-delivering"
we're strongly considering deleting Pure Joy from our favorites and going back to watching" You Tube videos of shells named Marcel (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF9-sEbqDvU)"
The fans have been heard and are in for an extra dose or two of Anika this week. The following is a smattering of recent Anika sightings as she nurtures her inner child prodigy.
Dad and Anika at the Minnesota Zoo together for the first time. Anika is such a frequent guest (family pass!) that the poparazzi slink around at the Zoo hoping to see her.
They are most likely to see Anika inspecting the tropical fish. The fish are Anika's favorite because she can get so close to them (and because Alicia has been taking her to the local fish store since she was born). She's already asking for scuba gear and tickets to the Great Barrier Reef for Christmas.
Anika was really mesmerized by the penguins and their jumping, and swimming, and squeaking. Unfortunately, she was terrified by all of the running, laughing, and squealing little kids who were equally energized by the penguins.
Can you believe all of these crazy and wild kids at the zoo?! Who are these kids' parents and what are they feeding them?! Is this where they make you go if you don't learn how to use an inside voice?
When Anika isn't at the zoo studying to be a zoologist, she's back at home tickling the ivories. There's no rest if you're a nine-month old under Mrs. Freeman's watch.
Getting after it Ludwig-van-Beethoven style. Clearly, Alicia has her playing tarantella in preparation for the pre-teen division Minnesota State Fair talent show.
Then, after she's finished warming up, she moves on to more difficult music.
Every once in a while, Tiger Mom tells Anika that she can go outside and play, and Anika is downright shocked.
After hours of learning at the zoo and playing the piano, Anika picks the lazy-baby form of recreation . . .
After a summer of hard work, this week our family finally got some much needed rest and vacation time. Stacey, my best friend and teammate from Yale, drove up from Oklahoma City with his lovely bride, Ronna, and their daughter, Lydia. We all piled into the Baumans' mini-van and headed to a cozy resort called Kavanaugh's, in the Brainerd lakes area. It was great fun, and we all got a first-hand glimpse into what life might be like with two kids. It was pretty much all crazy all the time.
As you can see, Lydia is 6 months more advanced than Anika, and had lots to teach her. Anika was mesmerized by her constant toddling around. Hopefully, she picks up Lydia's walking skills but chooses not to model her almost-nudist fashion sense (based on my time rooming with Stacey on the road, I'm pretty sure she gets this from her Dad).
Clearly none of us understand how to pack economically with small children. All this for a three-day trip! We would've needed a trailer had we gone longer. At least the car ride was short. The babes did great in the back seat, and the adults only had to suffer through about 30 minutes of Itsy Bitsy Spider and other assorted songs from Baby Einstein.
Each morning, Anika and I got up early, gave Mom time to sleep in, and sat out by the lake together. I was not entertainment enough by myself (hence the rings), but the time was priceless--a great time and place to rest and read my Bible.
Our activities at the lake were somewhat limited by nap times, baby-feeding, baby-changing, and everything else that goes with bringing little ones on vacation. But in our short windows of awake-time, we made sure that Anika and Lydia got in some solid, northwoods recreation.
This is Anika getting ready for her big paddle-boat ride. We put her in the smallest life-vest they had, which probably would have popped up off of her head in a matter of seconds. Alicia assured me that we had no need to worry because the water was so clear that we'd be able to see her at the bottom if anything were to happen. This was supposed to be comforting. As you can see by Anika's conquering-the-world pose, Anika was a fearless trooper and gung-ho to take to the water.
This is Anika doing her best two-legged Captain Ahab impression. All she could talk about was finding the great white whale. Alicia was relegated to Anika's first mate, Starbuck. I suppose that made me Ishmael.
In addition to paddle-boat cruising, we made sure to hit the pool. Hardly natural northern-Minnesota recreation, but the heated pool water was hard to beat. This is Anika modeling her least-dorky sun hat and getting ready for some swimming.
Anika's frog pose. I've been trying to teach her "ribbit," but I think she's holding out to make "ma-ma" her first word.
Stace and Lydia goofing around.
Anika continues to put on her serious face whenever we're in the water. I don't think she trusts it quite yet. She must get her risk-aversion from grand-pappy Freeman.
Next it was time for Anika's first motorized boat ride. Despite my best efforts to exceed five miles per hour, the paddle boat wasn't fast enough for Anika's taste. The pontoon boat was much more to Anika's liking.
Mom whispering whale-catching secrets to Anika.
Ms. Lydia checking out the boat controls and making sure her Dad is driving the boat correctly.
Anika looking stupefied after her first sighting of the big white whale. Guess we'll have to go back and try again next year.
I should start by apologizing to all of Anika's fans for my long delay in posting. Life, work and general busyness have gotten the best of me. But never fear, Anika is back and doing more exciting things than ever before.
Anika is almost daily expanding her solid-food repertoire, which now includes: rice and oatmeal cereal, sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, peas, broccoli, avocados, green beans, bananas, peaches, and apple sauce. (I'm told sushi is still off limits.) And she stuffs her face with all of this food, though she especially loves the orange vegetables and her new exposure to fruit. She's rarely, if ever, done eating before the food runs out and usually, right up to the last bite, she's rapidly opening her mouth as wide as she can get it to signal to us that we should keep the good stuff coming. She also seems to like making a lot of noise while she eats--grunting, mmmmming, and generally expressing her pleasure at our feeding her. It must be a fun time for her. I wonder if she goes to bed dreaming about what wonderful new food she'll get to try for the first time the next day. Here are some recent eating shots.
Anika waits with eager anticipation for her first bite.
If I recall, this is squash for the first time. Surprisingly, it's pretty rare for even this much to be out of her mouth. She doesn't let any of it go to waste. That's our economical babe!
She approved of the squash, though was not too full to keep knawing on her hand after the food is gone.
Here's a video of Anika's eating in action. We love the speed with which she opens her mouth and sticks out her tongue when she's ready for more. This is not a style of eating fit for a state dinner, but we'll work on manners and play etiquette catch up later. For now, we're thrilled she loves her veggies!
Not only is Anika expanding her diet, she's changing her leisure activities too. This is my new favorite game to play with Anika, mostly because it involves something more than Anika and I sitting in one place while I sit and watch her try to eat everything in sight. (Not all that exciting for me, as you might suspect.) This is our version of "catch." The only thing about it that resembles real catch is the fact that it involves a ball, but we have to start somewhere. This is how it goes.
We set Anika up against the ottoman with her legs out. We call out to Anika to get ready to catch the ball. Anika get's pretty interested and focused. Keeping her eye on the ball is a good start.
As the ball starts to come towards Anika, her mouth goes wide open and her startle reflex starts to kick in.
The ball starts moving towards her at a phenomenally slow rate of about a half of a mile per hour. But she's still surprised.
By the time the ball actually gets to her, her startle reaction is in overdrive and she can't contain herself. It's just too surprising and unexpected I guess.
Once the ball comes to a rest and she has it corralled in front of her, all is well in the world again. She thinks she's the next Ozzie Smith, and is ready to hit rewind and do it all over again.
Once in a blue moon, she'll accidentally nudge the ball back towards us or pick it up and let it go to roll it back to us. In response to this, we applaud wildly in the hopes she might learn this trick and our games of "catch" will get one step closer to the real thing. Below is the video of this game in action. As you can see, she was particularly excited about our game on this afternoon. (My official apologies for the length of the video--I haven't quite mastered the art of uploading video to You Tube and this site.)
Apparently not fully satisfied with old-fashion things like having a game of catch with her Dad, Anika has started to get quite excited about her more advanced, noise-making toys--toys that Alicia and I loathe. Here is a video of Anika squealing at perhaps the most annoying toy she plays with. We just can't bring ourselves to permanently remove the batteries in light of her clear excitement. We're not quite sure what to make of the strange wheezing.
