Anika Ponika Grace

Anika is growing so quickly, I don't know where the time goes. It seems like yesterday that we brought her home from the hospital. Anika is our little peanut, whereas Lexi has always been in the 90th percentile, Anika has always been in the 3 percentile or less. At 20 months, Anika is still wearing size 12 months and can fit into a few 18 months. She has a lot of hair and those beautiful brown eyes like Alexis. Anika looks identical to Lexi at this age. John and I put copies of our passports in our luggage. One day Lexi pulled a copy out of her suitcase and said,"Mommy why do you have a copy of Anika's passport in here and not one of mine". I looked at Lexi and laughed and said,"That's your passport copy. That is you silly". She didn't even recognize herself.

Anika has a great personality and a wonderful disposition. She is definitely a quite observer, but once she feels comfortable with her surroundings she is very open and social. She rolled over for the first time, twice in the doctors office. She was 4 weeks old at the time and the doctor said the way she rolled over was what an 8 month would do. She was on target with all of her other developmental and motor skills, with the exception of walking. She really started walking on the 4th of July. We went over to our friends house and spent most of the day outside on the grass. She didn't like the feeling of crawling through the grass so she started walking. Anika was more of a closet walker before that. Every other day I would walk into a room and catch Anika walking, once she realized I was watching she would sit down, looking at me with those big brown eyes, as if to say I wasn't doing anything. She would also walk across the balcony carrying her little plastic chair, carrying it, not scooting it, but yet she wouldn't walk, until July 4th, go figure.

Her first words were Dada and then Mama. Next was No.....No.....No....., doggie, stop. "Stop", because I am always telling the dogs to stop barking. Hot is another word and she blows and waves her hand when she says it. Lexi is Lala. Baby. Please is pronounced, peas. Thank you is ta ta. She says "Schtinky" and points to her bottom when she has a poopie Juice and the list goes on. She is going to be a talker like Lexi.

Anika has a bit of a temper and when she has something taken away from her she throws herself on the floor, produces those crocodile tears and screams at the top of her lungs. My does she have a scream. We have to nip this in the bud. She had her first time out about a week ago, she got upset, because Daddy took his cell phone away from her, so she balled her hands up into little fists in front of her and let out an ear piercing scream. She then started to look around for something to throw. I told her not to throw anything, so she looked at me and picked up her Magnadoodle and through it across the room. John then put her in the time out chair and told her to sit there until we told her to get up. I didn't think she would stay, but she did. John was going to take a picture of her, in her first time out with the tears streaming down her face, but as soon as she saw the camera she broke into an ear to ear grin. It was really cute. I have the picture posted to this article, she is in the blue chair with the denim dress with red cherries on it. I am so lucky to be a stay at home, Mom I just love to watch the kids grow and I feel so fortunate that I can be here for them all the time. I don't want to miss a thing. When Lexi is in school during the week I usually try and take the kids on a walk when our schedule permits. Tuesdays are scheduled to walk for a few hours with one of my friends, every other Wednesday I try to go to MOPS, Mother's of Preschoolers and Thursdays I take Anika to Kindermusik with Alexander in tow. Unfortunately I am going to have to either find an alternative for Alexander when he turns 7 months or stop taking Anika altogether. Alexander can tag along until 7 months, but after that I am not allowed to bring him, which I can fully understand, because you need to really focus on your child. I sometimes have a difficult time now, but everyone in Kindermusik is very helpful. Anika tends to gravitate towards my friend Irene during Kindermusik, (see posted photo) sometimes I am chopped liver. BTW all the photos posted to this article are photos of Anika.

Anika has 2 friends Ellie and Lily and we get together every once in awhile. It is so much fun to see them interact with one another, especially at this age. This is such a cute age.

Anika is such a good little girl, she is my sleeper and started sleeping through the night at about 2 weeks old. She is such a cuddler and cuddling with her is my favorite time of the day. Whenever I feed Alexander, Anika is right next to me on the couch with her head on my shoulder and arms around me, staring at Zander. She just loves to give kisses, especially to her baby brother. I look at Anika and just love her so much my heart skips a beat, we are just so blessed to have her. We are so blessed to have all are wonderful children, we are so blessed to have each other.