Curious Critters

Over the long turkey-day weekend, Anika continued developing her zoological brilliance.  Even at less than two months shy of a year old, Alicia's television ban is in full force.  Even the most educational programs, like Life or Planet Earth are strictly prohibited.  Luckily, I have acceptable teaching alternatives.  Who needs a zoo, or the television, when you have Curious Critters, by David FitzSimmons?

The inside is as striking as the cover.  Curious Critters was a wonderful gift from Mrs. Hansen, "the Judge's" wife.  The photos are breathtaking.  In light of Alicia's gift at making animal sounds, we could probably charge admission for the other neighborhood kids.

The giant goldfish is one of Anika's favorites.  It's about 50 times a goldfish's actual size!  I doubt Anika will tolerate Mom's trips to the fish store ever again.

When Anika's eyes get really big, I tell her that it'd taste like chicken.  I don't think she is convinced.

Sometimes Anika gets over-anxious, and we tell her to stand still politely until she is called on.

I will take lizards for $500, Alex.

The different kinds of frogs are also a big hit.  Probably because Anika is so adept at moving around on all fours and sticking out her tongue.  I'd guess her tongue is three times the length of a normal human tongue, but I'm sure it's just right for a frog.

We are working on smile correction--with no real success and no promising methods.  Nose scrunching and eye-squinting are endearing when you're one.  Twenty one . . . not so much.

Curiosity and mischief are in full swing at the Freeman household.

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.   

Moving and Shaking at Nine Months

Anika is getting older all the time.  She is constantly moving now--wanting to stand up, grab things, see things, eat things, smile at things, yell at things, and crawl all over the place.  I use the word "crawl" liberally.  From a functional perspective, I think the word crawl is accurate.  But a more accurate description of what Anika does is probably "worm."  She has not yet figured out that using her knees will increase her mph about 100% (and we are not in a hurry to provide her with any extra horsepower).  Instead, Anika uses her arms to pull herself across the floor.  It's like she hits warp speed when she transitions from the carpet to the hardwood floor.  Alicia and I think her worming bodes well for her back and shoulder muscles, and thus her swimming, weight lifting, or rowing career.  This video is not quite Anika's inaugural voyage--but close.  Apologies for the poor video quality.

In other news, Anika continues to push the limits of the growth charts--the downward limits.  She saw the doctor for her nine-month appointment and weighed a whopping fifteen-point-something pounds, which put her in the third--yes third--percentile for weight.  But even that's beat by her height percentile, which is even lower--the second.  Nevertheless, we are assured that she is perfectly proportionate and there is nothing to worry about for now.

True to her development in the womb, Anika's belly size continues to run ahead of all of her other measurements.  The upside is that this helps out in the modesty department and makes for easy bath-time photography.

This is Anika in her big-girl jacket (fit for a nine-month-old), though Anika may be able to wear it next fall at this rate.

Anika learning to eat bread crumbs with her hands.  This is her new favorite activity.  And it encourages finger dexterity to boot!  She'll be playing Operation before we know it.  

 

Anika the Owl and Other Halloween Fun

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.

Anika's Introduction to Camping

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.

Anika's Trip to the North Shore with Grandma and Grandpa Freeman

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

!

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!

Back Again--Anika's Educational Regimen

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 . . .

. . . and makes me push.