Anja walking with a little help

Movement

Someone should tell Anja that babies don't crawl until 7-10 months...

UP

Last week we were in the UP to visit with family and for Anja's baptism.  Here she is in her cute little white dress:

And here she is sleeping on Grandma Roberts:

We spent some time on the patio out back at Grandma's house. 

And I know that everyone thinks their children are the cutest, but have you seen this face??

So strong

Suddenly in the last few days Anja can hold her head way up!

We had her two month appointment and her weight has changed from 5lb15oz (7th percentile) at birth to 10lb8oz (43rd percentile).  She had a few shots, which went pretty well - she didn't have any adverse reactions to them.  Now that she's a little bigger she's starting to grow into some of her other clothes.  Well, if you roll up the sleeves and cuffs...

She has been sleeping really well lately, about 6 hours at a time, which is technically through the night by newborn standards.  We put her to bed around our bedtime and she doesn't wake up again until around 5 or 6, so we don't have to divide the nights into shifts anymore.  And she's a lot less cranky when she sleeps for a long time.  She is very smiley and calm in the mornings and likes reading books and being carried around.

She hasn't figured out that she has control over her hands, but she is very good at holding onto her toys if you put them in her hands.  She waves them around and watches them and tries to suck on them if they come close enough.  

She is very smiley and interactive in general now.  She definitely watches what we are doing and follows us with her eyes if we walk around the room.  She listens when we talk and she talks a lot to her books and pictures on the wall.  Jay put up a few really colorful pictures on the wall one evening and we woke to her babbling at them the next morning.  

One of her favorite new games is when Daddy holds her up high:

  

We walked downtown to meet Jay yesterday where he was studying at a coffee shop (about a mile away).  Our stroller is great for the really bumpy sidewalks around here, and Anja can sleep in it pretty easily.  She is gaining a lot of control in her head and neck, so hopefully before too long we can take her jogging in it - we have a paved river trail here that is pretty smooth, so that's where we'll go when she's ready.

Anja loves this book

Anja loves this page of her animals book from Great Aunt Mary.  Not sure what it is about this page in particular...

Anja "sits up" and blows bubbles

On the move

We're heading to the UP today for a week.  Meanwhile, here is a video of Anja.  Look at her legs go!

Dogs, noises and grabbing

Blue has been adjusting well to having a baby around.  For the first several weeks she was scared of Anja, and wouldn't even look at her.  Now I think she's realized that Anja isn't a threat (not until she starts crawling, at least).  Blue still can't seem to understand why she's not allowed on the baby's blanket.  Here they both are, sleeping on their respective blankets, but Blue likes to try to share the "better" blanket.  

Here she is this past Saturday, hot and sleeping on the floor.  She had some pretty long naps during the day, all on her blanket.  Luckily we have a very careful dog, so we can leave her on the floor for naps.  Too bad she won't sleep in her bed as easily.  Floor naps will end as soon as she can get around.  She's getting better at spinning on her blanket, but still can't move forward or back.  She does get her knees up under her bum, though, so one more step closer to crawling.   

She is making ALL kinds of noises now, more every day.  Lots of chirps and happy noises.  More to her books and inanimate objects than to us.  Still mostly vowel sounds.  

She is also very grabby now.  She grabs and holds onto my hair with surprising strength.  Usually I have to just wait for her to let go.  All day long she grabs at everything she touches and keeps tight little fists the rest of the time.  At the end of the day her hands have little bits of dirt and fuzz clenched in them.  Last night when she was almost asleep I watched her calmly reach up to her mouth, grab her pacifier, pull it out of her mouth, and throw it away.  Then she was sad, because she didn't know who took her pacifier.  She also accidentally put her pacifier back into her mouth when she was on her blanket this morning and it was already close to her mouth.  She doesn't know who is controlling her hands, but when they get close enough to her mouth she likes to suck on them!  

By the way, she now weighs 10lbs, 6oz!

Spinning and smiling

Anja is doing great.  She really is a lot of fun.  As Jay says, "We got a good one!"  She sleeps in 4 hour blocks regularly now, which is really great.  And since Jay does the middle of the night feeding (he's a much lighter sleeper than I am), from my perspective she's already sleeping through the night.  During the day she likes to spend a lot of time on a blanket on the floor.   Sometimes she will kick and squirm until you put her down.  On her tummy she can be really active:  she grabs and pulls with her hands and pushes with her legs and feet.  The result is that she rotates around in a circle.  Yesterday in about 10 minutes she rotated almost all the way around!  

It's been hot lately here, so she hasn't been wearing any of her many cute outfits, just her cute diapers.  Dad is always convinced that she must be hot, so he takes off her clothes, and I'm always worried that she's cold, so I want to put more layers on.  

Finally got a good picture of her smiling.  She smiles all the time now.  She looks like she's about to laugh, but she hasn't yet.  It is amazing how contagious her smile is.

It's really hard to put the camera away sometimes...

Smiley video

I finally pulled out the camcorder today (click on the play button to see the video)

Anja_2
Originally uploaded by spauldi1

Smiley, talky and kicky

Anja is 6.5 weeks old now.  She had an official weigh-in today and she is 9lbs 12oz.  She is gaining fast, presumably because she started out behind.  We asked the doctor if she could be gaining too fast and he said not to worry about it: 

Doctor: "How much is she eating at a time?  About 2oz?"

Jay: "Um, more like 3-5" 

Doctor: "Oh"

She has been sleeping much better at night, ever since the camping trip.  Jay and I had been splitting the night shift into two, four-hour shifts, 11-3 and 3-7.  The last several nights Jay got up with her once in the night and I didn't have to get up until 6:30.  She has started eating larger amounts less often.  What a huge difference it makes in your quality of life when you can sleep through the night.  She sleeps a little better in her bed now, but sometimes she still just won't do it and has to be put in her bouncy seat to sleep for a few hours, or you just have to hold her.  

She is changing so quickly.  She has all kinds of new "words", mostly variations on the word "baaah" and "aaah."  Once she even said "hiii".  And when she gets really squirmy and kicky I find she usually wants to be on the floor, looking at her books.  She still really likes the black and white books, and a child's book of art that she got from Aunt Meredith.  She kicks all four limbs at once and talks to her books.  She is really good at lifting her head while on her stomach now.  She turns her head from left to right to look at the different books.  Occasionally she knocks a book over and then cries until you open it again!  

She is also becoming very smiley.  Nobody can doubt that these are real smiles anymore.  Jay plays "I'm gonna get your cheeks!" with her which makes her smile.  She has good chubby cheeks for getting.  I haven't gotten a good picture of a smile yet.  She will smile at you sometimes if you talk to her.  She also smiles at the ceiling light.  And at the light by the couch.  Or pretty much anything bright.    

We asked the doctor today about a red spot on her nose that we noticed about a month ago.  It has grown and become redder over the last few weeks.  Turns out it's a harmless birthmark called an hemangioma.  This type of birthmark usually develops a few weeks after birth and grows for a few months up to a year before it begins to disappear.  They usually disappear completely without any trace within a few years, so it looks like it will be with us for at least a little while.  Since they almost always disappear on their own, they are rarely treated unless they grow too large, so we are just watching it for now.  This one is just below the tip of her nose, you can see it in a few pictures.

Here's a great picture of her in the tub.  She doesn't cry or complain during baths, but her eyes get really big!