Well, once again it's been far too long since our last post. Anika continues to learn and change daily, though her physical growth seems to leveling off a bit.
The picture above is a few weeks old, but illustrates how Anika generally spends her free time. The pillows around her are not as necessary now though. She is becoming quite the toy lover. In recent weeks we've seen her interests shift away from activities like the doorway jumper. Instead, Anika appears to be quite content to sit on the floor (surrounded by pillows as she still occasionally topples) and explore her toys. Banging cups together, playing with stuffed animals, and rocking out on her piano are particularly exciting activities.And it's subtle, but she is becoming ever more knowledgeable about her little world. She is nodding and shaking her head "no" in imitation (saying "no" is extremely funny to her), looking where we point (a sign she does not have autism), and I believe I'm seeing the sign for "milk" emerge. It's very similar to a wave (which she does constantly), and babies exposed to sign language do 'babble' with their hands, but she seems to use it appropriately on occasion. Also, Andrew and I have been asking her "where's Mama/Dada/Kitty?" lately, and she tends to look towards whichever person/feline we're referring.
She's also becoming very attached to Dada and I, for better or worse. She gets very grumpy when her babysitter, Melissa, arrives, and super excited when she hears our door unlock. Sometimes it's hard to accomplish anything because she doesn't want to be put down. Thankfully, however, we've finally gotten her into a consistent nap routine, so we do have the luxury of 2-3 naps and a 7:00 bedtime.
In the mobility department, I think crawling isn't in our immediate future. However, Anika has certainly begun to fantasize about throwing her weight around. She has become much more coordinated at rolling, and is building arm strength. It's possible that she'll be getting around somehow here in a week or two, but I doubt we'll truly call it crawling. She's also making progress towards standing on her own. Her latest trick is to lean across her crib rail or the back of the couch independently, as illustrated below.
This picture and the next were both taken at Match Day on March 18th, when (for those of you who are unaware) Andrew learned that he'll be doing his residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital (affiliated with Harvard Medical School) in Boston. Hooray! Anika and I are very proud. We're all going up to Boston at various times next week to begin our search for a new home. Though we hate moving (despite all the evidence to the contrary), we are excited for this next chapter of our lives.
Incidentally, "Aunties" Jen and Kyla will be our new best friends in Boston. Jen and Andrew have been very close friends throughout medical school and, as luck would have it, they will both be studying Internal Medicine at Beth Israel. Next year Jen will probably see more of Andrew than I will.
In other news, Anika cut her first tooth a couple weeks ago. However, this breaks my heart: I'm a real sucker for her toothless grin. It's her lower left front tooth, and thus far it's just barely broken the surface. She never seemed particularly fussy; we just saw it in her mouth one day. I hope they all arrive that easily.
And now, in no particular order, here are some fun photos from the past month or so:
Mmm...oatmeal!
Anika's first ride in a swing. She wasn't impressed (or big enough to actually swing much).
We've been exploring finger foods a little--sucking on carrots and gumming bananas.
Ah yes, and three weeks ago we had a lovely visit from Grandma Mary and Grandpa Tom. It rained for much of their visit, and Grandma Mary's suitcase decided it would rather see the sights in Amsterdam and the Ukraine, but we nevertheless enjoyed their company. Here's Grandpa sharing a laugh with you-know-who:
Stay tuned! Hopefully, we'll manage to keep up with the blog despite the upcoming storm of school, work and relocation responsibilities.
