It's really all going to fit

It's hard to believe, but we are really going to pack everything we own plus a baby and a dog into one trailer and two cars in less than two weeks. We sectioned off part of our dining room in the size and shape of the moving trailer and we've been filling it with boxes. We are almost done and we have filled 67% of our trailer space (Jay's estimate). (Don't worry, Blue will not actually be packed into the trailer like in the picture).


It would actually be quite easy to fit everything into the trailer if we didn't have several big items, like multiple bikes and bike parts, a big jogging stroller, and piles of camping equipment. But those are the things we will be especially glad to have once we are out there.

We have gotten rid of almost all of our furniture, except for a few pieces that break down. And there is very little left in any of the rooms now. It feels really good to have gotten rid of so many things. Here's our bedroom, just a mattress on the floor and two duffel bags of clothes to last until California.


By the way, did you know that 15,000 grey whales migrate past the coast near San Francisco each year? And that the best time and place to see them is mid-January from the Point Reyes lighthouse? The lighthouse is 18 miles from where we'll be living.

(photo from http://www.nps.gov/pore/)

And don't forget about the breeding colonies of elephant seals, harbor seals and sea lions. If you're into that sort of thing.

(photo taken from http://www.nps.gov/pore/naturescience/animals.htm)

We have packed away most of Anja's toys, but we kept out her new toys for the trip, and everything we think may help us entertain her on the drive out west. She absolutely loves this Mozart music box. It plays several different tunes, and each button on the box plays a different instrument:


The house is very unbabyproofed right now and Anja is very mobile, so we have asked our friends to help us watch Anja for a few hours a day so we can pack. Today our friend Carol stopped by for a few hours, and later our friend Leah came over for another couple of hours. (Carol, that nap Anja started when you left only lasted about 10 minutes!) It was great having some help, and Jay finished most everything in the basement while I packed up the rest of Anja's room. It's also nice to spend some time with friends before we leave, at a time when we really can't stop packing to go visit anyone.

Anja would still like to help, though:

Christmas

Just a few quick pictures. We spent 4 days in Illinois with family and now we're packing up the house. Anja had a great Christmas:

Swimming pools and movie stars...

We're going to California!

We are really really excited about what a great job this is for Jay, the terrific prospects I have out there, and how amazing an area of the country northern California is. Here's a photo of the ocean 15 miles from where we will live:


We will also be just as close to redwood forests, and a couple of hours from mountains. More soon!

New Job!

Yesterday Jay received a job offer for a really great position in Petaluma, California. Today he had a phone interview for a job in Raleigh, North Carolina which he will hear back about on Monday. If he is offered that job too, we will have to make a decision quickly. So we will definitely be moving to one of those two places in the next month. This is really good news for us and a huge relief. I have been unemployed since April, and Jay has only been employed part time since September. We exhausted all of our savings months ago and have been receiving financial aid from my parents for several months. It is incredibly difficult to find a job right now, especially in natural resources. We really really needed this.

Well, it just stopped snowing here. It's been snowing since midnight or so and I think we've gotten about a foot. Anja and I are snowed in. Lansing is pretty good about plowing the main roads, but the side streets sometimes aren't plowed for a few days. Our road has not been plowed yet. I've seen a few people get stuck outside the house in the middle of the road already.

I would like to take Anja outside in the snow later if the wind dies down.



It's interesting to see what things Anja likes as she begins to prefer some toys over others. She has always liked this pink elephant, a gift from Alice and Bill. When she hears the music it makes, she always smiles and sometimes comes running.


This made us laugh a lot. Jay found that if you "walk" Anja along the ground with her feet in the air, her legs make a walking motion:

Be careful what you wish for

Except for the first month or so of her life, Anja hasn't been a cuddly baby. I was jealous when other parents would complain about how their baby always had to be carried. Anja just wanted to be put down. Well, lately she has been very clingy, today especially. At the very least, she wanted to be near me, and preferably being carried. I finally had to put her down and let her cry for 10 minutes so I could do some dishes. As soon as I picked her up, she stopped crying. If I moved to a room where she couldn't see me, she would start crying. If I stepped a few feet away to fold some clothes, she would crawl up my pant leg. It is very cute and endearing, but it also made it impossible to get anything done.




Anja totally wins at the standing game. She has really mastered standing in the middle of the floor without any support. She used to crawl to furniture to pull herself up, but she seems pretty happy now that she can just stand up on her own.

Not a big eater

Anja has never been a big eater. Bottle or solid food, she's just not really into it.





Jay left today for California, he has an interview tomorrow. He will give a presentation and fly back on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to some of the things I may do at my internship, and I'm doing okay with the subbing. On Friday I taught at a terrific middle school. The staff and kids were all so nice, and excited about learning. It was a really fun day.

Congratulations to Laura and Rob!

This is how big Laura's baby is this week:

(picture blatantly stolen from Laura's website) Laura's baby is now known as Scott Walter, and is much cuter than a pumpkin or a jicama.

Anja has been sleeping pretty regularly lately. She's asleep by 8:00, eats at 4:30am, and is up by around 6:00. If she gets a full night of sleep like this, she's in a good mood when she wakes up. Often she's talking to herself and looking out the window by her crib. Notice how the paper blinds don't go all the way to the windowsill because she ripped off the bottom weeks ago.


It's nice that Anja is adapting well to a schedule, it's helping us to have a schedule again. Jay just taught his last class last night and my new schedule is subbing 3 days a week and going to an internship two days a week. I think the two days of internship will make the three days of subbing tolerable. I've subbed twice and had one okay experience and one bad experience. I'm learning quickly which are the more desirable schools for subbing. Tomorrow I have a middle school science class at one of the top ranked middle schools in the state, so I'm looking forward to it.

Anja really likes standing. She doesn't have any interest in taking steps, I don't think she knows about steps yet.


Tickling is funny.

Dr Jay and toys

Jay is now a doctor! And I guess that makes me a master. And we are both unemployed, or will be after he gives his class its final exam next week. Coming up next week Jay has a phone interview for a job in North Carolina, followed by flying to California the following week for an interview there. Both are great jobs and he is highly qualified for them. Both are also really desirable places to live. Then we are showing the house tomorrow night for the first time. We've had several people who seemed really interested, but the first two who set up appointments with us canceled later. Friday I have my first substitute teaching job (English) and I will also be starting an (unpaid) internship with an environmental nonprofit part time. That's what's happening with us.

Anja is learning and changing so quickly these days. Each week is notably different than the week before. One thing that is fun is how much she likes toys now. When I put her down at daycare today she crawled as fast as she could to a big box of toys and stood up at the edge to look in. Most of the time at daycare she is one of three kids - the other two kids are both two years old, and I think they view her as some sort of "best doll ever" crossed with a puppy. Every day they greet us with shrieks of "Anja's here Anja's here!" And they love giving her toys to play with. After they give her one toy they search for a second toy to replace the first, and so on. When I show up to get her, she is usually sitting on the floor surrounded by piles of toys and being entertained by toddlers. I'm really glad she's getting the socialization with other kids and I love the family home setting.

Our daycare provider told me to enjoy the first two Christmas's, because babies are happy with whatever you get them, and mostly the boxes and wrapping paper. I took Anja to the used toy place and let her check out a few things. Then I bought what she liked the most: I picked up 4 toy cars and 9 "fisher price little people" that will fit in the cars for $15. I also bought her a big green rubber ball last week for $3. For a grand total of $18 I am done Christmas shopping for her and I bought her a bunch of toys that I already know she really likes. I have to wrap them soon so I will stop letting her play with them:


This week Anja is starting to "cruise" more. Cruising is walking along an object while using it for support. She is also starting to go from object to object a little now. Here she is turning and taking one step before falling:


And she is just so strong! She's riding on this bouncy seat like it's a rocking horse:


Yesterday our daycare provider told me that Anja just stood up in the middle of the floor. Me: "Yeah, I know. She does that."

Oh, I almost forgot - Anja has four teeth now! The two on the top were coming in over Thanksgiving weekend.

Funniest video ever

The word "cheeks" is hilariously funny.

Thanksgiving

Had a very nice Thanksgiving with the Michigan Spauldings.


Anja got to see her great grandma again, which she always likes.


And she got to meet her great uncle for the first time!


She was jumpy as usual.


Anja is SO good at standing now. She can stand for quite a few seconds without support. She has taken a few steps forward, but mostly prefers to crawl to get somewhere. She is also good at making noise.


I like the colors :-)

Daddy Daddy!

Today's post is all about Daddy. He has been very busy this past month and much of his work culminates on Monday. These videos will make him smile.

Anja doesn't usually see Jay for long periods of time. When he does come home she falls all over herself trying to get to him:


And by the time he does get home, if it's before Anja's bedtime, she usually already pretty sleepy:






Here's Anja trying to go from one object to another. She doesn't quite understand that she needs to take steps between. But you can see her stand for several seconds.


And here she is jumping. As usual.

Where'd she go?

Anja is really becoming adventuresome. I try to let her explore as much as I can without letting her get into trouble.


She really likes to "unorganize" things. She likes pulling books and dvd's off the shelf. Today she figured out where we keep her shoes so she pulled them all out and played with them.





She examined each shoe or slipper for quite a while.


But mostly she just liked chewing on them.


She is cute all the time, but she is especially cute when she is entertaining herself:

We're up

The batteries ran out on the video camera so you'll have to watch the time-lapse account of standing:






She is really getting quite good at standing, she's been doing it all day. People who meet her are amazed at how far advanced she is for this age. She is really having fun with standing, too. She can usually balance for several seconds, and she's so happy while she's doing it.

Sleep has really been going well lately. Ever since the day we decided we would try "sleep training", life has been so much better. She still eats at 4am, which is okay, and sometimes wakes up one other time, but falls asleep on her own within a minute or two. Last night she slept for 10 hours in a row! A new record. I'm still not comfortable skipping a night feeding because she has never really been a big eater. I don't want to skip any feedings at this point.

I did not get the job I interviewed for recently, but Jay has his phone interview coming up. His defense is also a week from Monday, so stress levels around here will go down considerably after that. As of this week I am now certified to substitute teach in town here, until we find real jobs. I really like teaching college, but I'm not sure subbing at the secondary level has any resemblance to that at all. And so far the only available jobs have been teaching Japanese, Spanish, art, and gym. I'm hoping there are some science jobs this next week.

We have had some interest in the house and I think we have it priced right. We are showing it tomorrow, and then probably next weekend as well. We are hoping for a closing date near late January because surely we will have jobs by then!

Happy 7 months old!

We forgot to weigh and measure Anja today after her bath and we certainly aren't getting her out of bed to do it now. We'll do it tomorrow. It will be interesting to see how much bigger she has gotten. I have filled another bag with the clothes she's grown out of in the last month.

Today I put together a set of angel chimes with candles - once the candles heat up, the angels spin around and hit little bells and make a fun noise. Anja was pretty interested.


This is how Daddy dries Anja off after a bath.


Since last night I have been congratulating myself on how good my dog is. Really, you can leave food out and she won't even touch it. I made peanut butter cookies last night and left them out all night and all day today. Then we got home around 8:00 today.

Me to Jay: "Did you eat 13 cookies while we were gone?"
Jay: "No, why?"

Anja stood up

She stood up twice today, right in the middle of the floor! Her feet were wide apart, and she just stood up. I thought it was an accident the first time until she did it again later. The first time she she stayed up for a couple of seconds, but the second time she stayed up for 6 or 7 seconds, balancing before sitting down. Pretty cool. And when she pulls herself up on something now, she often likes to let go and stay up for a few seconds before falling back down. She sure likes doing new things.

Here she is trying to climb up the bookcase. She is on her tiptoes. She is so strong, she almost does little baby pull-ups trying to reach the top shelf.


Yes she still likes tags.


Check out this baby gadget. I forget what it's called, but it's a little mesh bag attached to a handle. You can put fruit in it for infants who aren't chewing food yet, and they suck on it. Anja loves it. I put little apple chunks in it and she mashes them with her gums until they're just applesauce and goo.

Sleepy kid

I finally figured out how to get pictures off my cell phone and onto the computer. Stay tuned for more "on the go" action shots of every day life from such exciting locations as The Store, The Car, and The Restaurant, where I don't normally have my real camera. Here's a picture from today of Anja sleeping in the cart at Meijer. So far, riding in the cart seems to have the same effect on her as riding in the car. I can't believe she can sleep like this.


I tried putting Anja in the cart for the first time the other day, and she's just barely big enough/ready enough. But wow does that make shopping easier. The seatbelt pretty much holds her in place, otherwise she would slide all over because she's so little. And I do have to keep repositioning her as she still does slide a little bit anyway. But she seems to really like it (see above picture). Up until now I was bringing her into the store in the sling, but it's just too difficult now with all the extra winter gear we're wearing these days. And I think she's been frustrated with the sling lately because she can't see out of it very well.

For some reason today was a big sleep day for Anja. She slept pretty well last night (slept 8 hours, fed, then slept another 2.5), but she still needed a lot of sleep during the day. After shopping we stopped to visit Jay where he was working (at a local coffee shop). She fell asleep in the two minute drive over, and remained sleeping when I picked her up and walked through heavy snow and noisy traffic to the second floor of the coffee shop. I gave her to Jay where she continued to sleep for at least half an hour more, still not waking at all. I often wonder what it must be like to fall asleep at home and wake up in a completely different location miles away in someone else's arms.


Anja's personality is really becoming more apparent recently. It is so fun to see her develop into a real little person. For the last few days she has been more "huggy", which is great, and I hope a permanent trend. She even fell asleep on my shoulder yesterday, which she hasn't done since she was about a month old. She also raises her hands to be picked up now. She responds more to words now, and definitely prefers some toys and activities to others depending on her mood.


One interesting development lately is that she has begun to find some noises scary that weren't scary before. Suddenly now she is terrified of the food processor (which I use to puree her baby food). And the noise made by pulling clear packing tape off the roll. She is so scared of these two things that I can't use either one when she is around. Both sounds invoke an instant, wide-eyed cry with frantic arms in the air to be picked up.


But perhaps the funniest thing that has happened in a while was our visit to the coffee shop today. We were sitting in an open booth and Jay was holding Anja so she was facing over his shoulder to the next booth. Anja would put her head up to see over his shoulder so the ladies in the next booth would see her. Then when they smiled and talked to her she would smile back and hide her head in Jay's shoulder, like she was suddenly shy. Then she would do it again. She did this quite a few times, getting the same response from them each time. One time when they didn't look back right away she started hitting the back of the seat as if to say, "Pay attention to me!" I hadn't seen her interact with other people in quite that way before. Very cute.

Toast

People always want to know how Blue has responded to having a baby around. Lately she's been pretty excited about it.

Mirror

Anja likes playing a game called, "Who's that baby in the mirror?" It's not a very complex game, but it's still fun every time.


Cute.


Serious.

It works for naps too!!!

After having another successful sleep last night (only fed Anja once, at 4:00), I decided to try something new today - putting Anja down for a nap when she's awake. She generally takes a nap around noon of an hour or so and then around 4:00 gets really cranky. I've always waited until she fell asleep before putting her in bed for naps, but she won't fall asleep in the afternoon. She then remains awake and cranky until bedtime at 8:00, leaving me exhausted after 4 hours of squirmy, complainy baby who does NOT want to play with toys, be held, or read a book. So today I put her down at 5:30, checking on her every 3 minutes until she stopped crying. In 20 minutes she was sound asleep!

I realize that I am not the first mom to ever put her baby down for a nap successfully. But this concept of giving her a nap when she needs it will change everything for us!

In baby-unrelated news, we have decided to put our house up for sale. Since we live in Michigan, and Lansing in particular, it may take a while to sell our house. It will be harder to do if we get jobs and have to move to another state right away. On the unlikely chance that the house sells quickly and then we get good jobs in Lansing, we can certainly pick up another house easily, or rent temporarily. I sure will miss our cute little house so close to downtown, work, parks, etc. And what a great garden we had in the backyard.

Sleep!

This picture is pretty typical these days. She likes to feel her bottom teeth with her fingers.


Last night was pretty good again. Jay spent about 30 minutes alternating comforting Anja and leaving her for 3 minutes, then comforting her again, until she fell asleep. Then I got up to feed her at 4:00 when she cried. When I put her back down she cried, but I waited for 3 minutes before going to her. Before 3 minutes came we were both asleep again! Jay said last night was the most sleep he's gotten in a long time.

Sleep training

So far we've had two nights of "sleep training". The first night was pretty busy, although not too bad (Jay may have a different view of this, since he had the first shift and there was more crying involved). But last night (the second night) I put her to bed at 7:30 and she slept for 9 hours straight! Then I fed her at 4:30 and she went right back to sleep and slept for another 3 hours! It's funny to think of "only getting up at 4:30am" as a luxury, but it really is. I'm hoping tonight is similar. If we can successfully eliminate all but one night feeding, we will start to make that feeding later and later until it is also gone.

Did I mention Anja is fascinated with Blue?


Blue has decided that Anja should be able to throw her toys just like everyone else:


But she could do without the petting.

We have tooths!

Anja's second tooth has come through, and you can see the first one pretty well now. It's sharp!


We're starting "sleep training" this week. She is nearly 7 months old and is still up multiple times a night to eat and Mom and Dad are tired. So we are going to limit her to one nighttime feeding, and we won't pick her up the other times she cries. What we will do is comfort her when she cries, while leaving her in the crib. Hopefully over time this will teach her to go back to sleep on her own, instead of needing to be picked up and fed every time she wakes up.


We have been very busy around here lately. I've been applying for jobs everywhere and completing training for substitute teaching here in town. Jay has to turn in his written dissertation material in about a week. His oral defense will be Dec 1st, so he will have two weeks to prepare for that. He's pretty much working 'round the clock these days. I'm almost always asleep before he comes home, often around 1:00. Not getting much sleep at night doesn't make this any easier for him. He has a much harder time falling asleep after Anja wakes him. Sometimes he just stays up and works. Once last week he left the house at 5am to go to work because he couldn't sleep anyway (I of course was completely unaware). I'm suffering from sleep deprivation too, but I can usually fall asleep eventually after getting up to feed her. As hard as this is, it is still not as hard for me as the last month of pregnancy was, when I couldn't sleep at all because of the heartburn and reflux. Broken sleep is still better than no sleep, although 7 months of broken sleep is no picnic. At least Jay will be done soon, and we will laugh about how hard these few months were. But we aren't laughing yet!



We have two leads on jobs right now. I had a phone interview last week for a job in northern Virginia (outside DC) working for a land trust group; they are calling people back this week to schedule in-person interviews. Jay is a finalist for a job in Petaluma, CA working for a Bird Observatory. I'm really interested in the Virginia job, but I'm not keen on the area (super expensive and big city lifestyle). Jay's job lead is in a really interesting area, and I'm pretty sure I could find something out there as well, so I'm pulling for the California job, but we're not ruling anything out yet. We should know more in a few weeks. Meanwhile I have two temporary jobs lined up here that can start in a few weeks.