Face Stuffing, Playing Catch, and Noisemaking Toys

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.

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!

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?

Once we started picnicing, Anika was still recovering from all of the wading-pool commotion.

But it didn't take long and she was being goofy again. Five-month-old Anika didn't make this strange face.

Our happy, smiley baby girl.  Just love her great big smile.

Hobbit Ears and Flat Heads

When Anika was first born six months ago, after I'd gotten over the awe and wonder of her birth and my wife's awesomeness and courage, I scanned her body from head to toe. Was she healthy? Did she have birth marks? Did she have four, five, or six toes on each foot? The one thing that was obviously different was the shape of Anika's left ear. I described it right away as floppy, though that's not quite the right word. It doesn't flap in the wind, and it doesn't move when I blow on it. But the upper part is folded down and there's a small knot on the very top.

Upon my discovery, after asking our nurse if Anika's doctor could give us her opinion, I did what any modern-day parent would do (and the last thing I'd recommend). I took to Google to try to diagnose the malady myself. While our nurse assured us it was probably nothing, I quickly became a worried and nervous mess of a Dad, learning all sorts of things about ear development and serious ear problems. I also became determined to test out Anika's hearing and tried all sorts of ways to try to get her to respond to my many sounds. (When the nurses did the official hearing test a week later, my heart was racing the whole time.) Not surprisingly, less than a day after having squeezed out of the birth canal, Anika was sleepy and not terribly responsive. This made for more worry, which was met by my much-more-care-free wife's assurance that my inherited over-anxiousness was on full display.

Anika's floppy ear--day one.

As you can see, she makes it look darn cute.

While we waited for our doctor's evaluation, I calmed myself by trying to think on the bright side. Maybe Anika could get a role as an extra in the new Hobbit movies (coming this winter). They probably need a hobbit baby in a scene or two, right!?

Sadly, the shape of Anika's ear is actually the opposite of hobbit ears.

Thus, we made many attempts to pin the ear back with hats and things.

As Alicia predicted, eventually our doctor told us that Anika's unique left ear was not any of the troublesome issues I'd read about on the internet. It was simply something cosmetic resulting from extra cartilage in her ear. Today, the ear has started to normalize a bit and I hardly notice its uniqueness. Actually, I think it looks a little more curved than a normal ear, which probably allows her to catch more sound than a normal baby--maybe it'll result in a superpower of sorts. This probably explains why she startles so often and easily. Anika, of course, continues to make her beautiful left ear look like a fashion trend--ala Cindy Crawford's mole. The whole experience taught me good lessons about my own uber-anxiety and thankfulness for the blessing of Anika's health. Plus, it's given us a greater appreciation for hats of all kinds.

Great hat--full ear coverage and nice and stretchy.

Nice and warm and pink--the special care nursery's hat selection was quite impressive.

This homemade Amy-Lee special is what Anika wore home from the hospital, and it always put Anika in the mood to goof around.  Unfortunately, Anika grew out of it in just a few weeks.

Anika has hats like many women have shoes--lots of them and one for every occasion. Her bear hat was one of our favorites--and it pinned her ear back real nice too.

Bath-time hat-towel combination. Genius!

 

 

She's still growing into her first Twins hat, courtesy of Grandpa Freeman. And she's experimenting with different ways to wear it too. It is not so great in the ear-coverage category, but compensates in its sportiness.

Last but not least is the hat that I think makes Anika look like a frumpy grandma. But at least it keeps the sun out of her face!

Fast forward six month's later, and we've found that worrying about your child's health goes hand-in-hand with being a parent. Anika went in for her six-month check up this past week, and all was well. As a short and squat baby girl at the low end of the percentiles (18th for height and 27th for weight), she still has the physique of a bowling ball. There was a minor exception though. We were told that Anika would have to go see some sort of skull consultant because of the flatness of her head. Apparently, because babies' heads are only malleable for so long, you don't want to miss your window to re-shape it, if need be. The re-shaping process is accomplished with a funny-looking helmet with a doughnut in the top, which the baby has to wear 23 hours a day. (Given the perpetual sweatiness of Anika's head already, we could only imagine the result of the helmet.)

Her wild and crazy head of hair obscures the flatness of her head.

Her hair is now so disheveled in the back that she has a naturally forming dread-lock or two.

Featuring Anika's extremely disheveled hair, super-sonic sound-capturing ear, and flat head. (Her hair actually looks a bit like Frodo's in the picture above.)

Luckily, on Thursday, Anika saw the skull doctor, who told us that we could skip the helmet and prescribed lots of tummy time. (The only downside is that I won't get to paint the helmet purple and draw horns on the sides.) The doctor also prescribed sleeping for Anika on her right side--though we're skeptical this doctor has ever had an infant, because the idea that we could make Anika sleep on one side and keep her there is borderline preposterous.

So we try to do lots of tummy time, which inevitably leads to this. Life as a sixth-month old is just plain hard sometimes.