Contemplating Misbehavior

In an effort to keep my blog going without the guilt driving me away, I've resolved to post anecdotes and the like more routinely. Starting now.

This morning Anika rushed into the bedroom where I was getting dressed, exclaiming "dad, dad"! She's recently started this 'trouble at the old mill' behavior (usually because her monkey has wound up somewhere out of reach), so I followed her into the kitchen where we discovered the cat on the counter: Bad. Bad kitty.

Andrew's comment: "Aww, our budding hall monitor." Ha!

Fall Fun

Only a month has passed, and yet Anika's growth seems exponential. She now boasts over 75 signs, is taking stabs at about 30 words, and has added many new tricks to her repertoire. One may now witness her enthusiastically "raising the roof", "bumping fists"(as captured below), stomping her feet, dancing, demanding to Skype with her "Bahpa", or egging on the tickle monster. Her laughter has matured such that she now squeals, giggles, chuckles... all are music to our ears.

Here are some photos from October's events:


In mid-October, my friend Emily and her new partner, Mike, came to visit. We took one last trip to New Hampshire for the year, and (despite lots of rain) thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.



Emily and Mike will make excellent parents, I gather, as long as their offspring are as adorable as mine. They are quite taken with Anika.




In mid-October, we were graced by the presence of Grandpa Wally and Grandma Karen. Although their week here was pretty relaxed, we did go down to Cape Cod for a day to revisit the old stomping grounds of Anika's great-grandparents, Wally Sr. and Karolla. We walked on the beach, ate seafood, and stocked up on Beach Plum Jelly (something none of us had enjoyed in more than a decade).

We actually did have a couple of occasions to break out Anika's lobster Halloween costume. Once for the Jamaica Pond Lantern Parade and again for a Halloween party at our local library. The Halloween party was for kiddos approximately 9-15 months old, which is a fantastic age for Halloween costuming. Anika's was one of the better costumes though. There were ducks, bees and pumpkins aplenty.




Anika is identifying her jack-o-lantern here as a kitty (via sign language--though she's probably saying "kitty" also).



Note the awesome new play kitchen. It actually looks just like our real cabinets (both are from Ikea). Anika loves banging around in there.



This is from a visit to the "Tot Lot" with the grandparents. There are two of these in our neighborhood, full of fun toys for toddlers.