The Recipient of Endless Gifts

I had to give Anneka equal opportunity and post a little "mama" video. She kept trying to grab the camera, so it was a bit tricky to catch her face before the image was hidden behind her little hand. She's been saying "mama mama" constantly the last few days and is endlessly raising her little hands for me to pick her up. Oh-so-cute, and oh-so-impossible to get anything done. Speaking of which, I'd planned on making dinner ahead of time this morning during her nap because we had guests coming this evening, but the electricity was out. It's funny because I'm reading a book about how to get more done in less time... but the author obviously never lived in Siberia. Many times each day I plan to get something done and it just doesn't get done because of circumstances beyond myself. (ex: the bank machine broken, the store closed, the water off, my phone not working, etc.) I'd say that I'm becoming a very flexible person.

You may wonder about the title of this post. Anneka is the recipient of endless gifts. Wherever we go, people love to give her gifts. She's received candy, money, a bouquet of flowers, an entire cake, and countless other treasures- from complete strangers! A man on the train last weekend gave her a tomato. Of course, I've read up on what foods you can give your baby when, and I happened to know that tomatoes were on the "after a year" list. I also didn't know if this tomato was clean or not. But I held all of these worries inside and said a quick prayer (after all, God is way bigger than food allergies and germs). And Anneka was the happiest baby on the planet. She was thrilled with her tomato! She always wants to take huge bites out of apples, but I don't let her because of the choking hazard. But mama let her take huge bites out of the tomato! She was hilariously ecstatic. She doesn't take after Leif or me with that one. We eat tomatoes only if we have to.