488 Days

Anika passed the 16 month mark this last weekend.

Here she is visiting our friends' VERY large dog, Zoe. This picture doesn't do much to show

Zoe's true size. Anika loves dogs and notices even the faintest, far away barking. Her favorite word is

"dog" of course. Imagine how happy she was when we sat in front of a couple with a

seeing-eye dog in Sacrament meeting!

Anika will often pull clothes out of our hamper; usually to make a mess. In these next

two pictures she wanted me to put clothes on her, so here she is wearing my shirts.

Anika is the funniest little dancer. If the mood and music are right, she will very suddenly fold her arms across her chest and begin to turn in slow, swaying circles. You should see it :)

Some days I can't or don't want to keep up with her messes. She is a professional.

Sometimes Anika will brush her hair with a basting brush, and she laughs all the time!

One of her favorite games right now is Ring Around the Rosies. After we all fall down, Than and I will stay there and she will come over and grab our hands to pull us up again.

She was the cutest little Easter-Egg hunter. She got her own hunt at

Grandma and Grandpa Aunes. She was really good at it too!

I finally put the books in Anika's room into a bin. The other day she took a stack of

her books from our room and put them into her bin. Smart girl :)

Anika still enjoys playing peek-a-boo. She plays it everywhere! She plays it while looking through the holes in our chairs, under the table, over the bed, during diaper changes and meals, through racks and shelves at stores and the library, through her gate, through the banister, and around corners.

Here she is playing it while looking under the television (don't mind the dust)...

and behind the television.

Here is Anika's cheeser smile. The bells she is holding are from Grandma Hardman, and they are very fun. Recently Grandma Hardman was watching Anika for us and put Anika in the swing. Every time she went to take her out, Anika would push her away and wave her arms. The Little Stinker ended up swinging for about an hour until she finally got out.

Like all kids, Anika loves the park. She can tell when we are almost there. If she sees a

park she gets super excited. The other day Nathaniel took her to the park and played with her on the slides. After a while, he decided to send her down the big twirly tube slide. He put her in, thinking she wouldn't slide all the way out, and he would be able to run down and get her out, but she went flying all the way out the bottom. A woman who was at the bottom with her own kids scolded him and told him to ask for help next time. Silly Dad. Luckily Anika didn't even cry.

More cheese.

We are borrowing this talking/singing chair from a neighbor.

Anika has spent a lot of time with it. It is always nice to have something new around.

Like her mom, Anika really enjoys eating bread dough. One time while Nathaniel was making bread,

she was begging and begging to try some of whatever it was, so he gave her

some of the dough. That's how we found out she likes it. She really can't get enough.