We're off again

We're leaving in the morning for Dalmac, the 4 day bike ride from Lansing to Mackinac. We're bringing Anja, but leaving the dog at home. We will be splitting the biking, one of us will drive with the baby while the other bikes. This will be a real test - 3 nights in a row will be the longest we've camped with Anja, plus the camping situation is really close quarters, the tents of our neighbors will almost be touching ours. So, late night baby noise will not be appreciated by tired bikers who have to get up early. And staying in a nearby hotel if we need to won't be an option because they will all be booked up by the other bikers. So we're committed, whatever the situation.



In other news, Anja is growing so fast. It took so long for her to grow into the 0-3 month clothing, but now she's fully into the 6-9 month stuff. She's really long so she's outgrowing footie pj's fast. I Just picked up some new outfits at the used place. It's hard, but I also sold some stuff back. The special ones, and the ones that are non gender specific I'm sending Laura who is due in December.





More crawling action:

And..... action!

Lately all this kid does is move! We use a full-sized bedspread now instead of a blanket on the floor and she crawls off that pretty quickly. Today we spread a bunch of her toys around the edge of the blanket and she quickly crawled to each of them so she could frantically wrestle with each one in turn. And she makes noises all the time. She squeals and shrieks and blows loud bubbles while rolling all over the place and wrapping the blanket all around herself. If you put her in the bouncy seat she kicks and rocks for hours.

She hasn't gotten up on all fours yet, but she's really close. She can get both knees underneath herself at the same time, and she's starting to push up with her arms now. She's almost had it a few times before she crashes back down. She's very driven to push and kick and scoot around on the floor constantly.

Rocking and rocking:


Places to go:


Lots more rolling:


Anja says no more video:

This kid is so smart!

Look, now she can feed herself!

Conversations

Anja's thoughts on the political candidates (or at least that's what was on NPR when she was talking):




How to crawl when you're 4 months old, complete with sound effects:

No theme today, just fun videos

cute video:




more dog and baby:




kicky legs:




competition between kicky legs and tired baby:

Anja wants to talk

But she doesn't know how to yet. She does sometimes try to babble. The first morning after we stayed in the cabin at Leelenau State Park this past weekend she was talking in an urgent whisper, it was really funny. Here's a picture of her doing it:


I really love these dinosaur pj's, I'm a little sad that she has outgrown them now. Her wrists are really stretching out the cuffs. But they're just so cute!



We had a four month checkup today. We switched doctors and now I'm much happier. We are now going to a father/daughter DO practice, in fact they are the husband and daughter of one of our midwives. Anja is 13lb 13.5 oz and just under 25inches long. Still long and thin: 59% for weight and 82% for height.

Check out Jay in his wedding attire from this weekend:


And here is Anja in her cute wedding outfit. With her foot. In her mouth.

Breakdancing baby

Today Dad was home with Anja while Mom once again was away writing. But he took this video:

Baby and dog

Okay, last post before we go...

Gum your veggies

Vegetable comparisons for this week and next for Laura's baby (http://everyseasonbutwinter.blogspot.com/).


mango...


and corn...

As you can see we've clearly entered the "everything she can grab goes into her mouth stage." Or at least in the general direction of her mouth, sometimes she just mashes her toys into her face while her mouth is open.



In a couple of hours we're off to the Traverse City area for Heidi and Justin's wedding. Can't wait! The ceremony is at a lighthouse 400' from our cabin at Leelanau State Park.

"Tug of Nuk" is not a game

But Jay and Anja think it is:

Truth in advertising

We've been so busy. Busy interviewing for and not getting jobs. Busy planning for weddings and 4-day bike rides. Busy applying for more jobs. Busy arguing with insurance about how they "didn't get" our claims. Mostly I've been busy frantically trying to get my thesis finished and approved to turn in by Aug 22nd, the deadline. I'm really glad I did a full thesis master's complete with a ridiculous amount of field work. But I'm also glad I never have to do it again!



I told Jay recently that there isn't a lot of "truth in advertising" in the pictures and videos I post, as I don't really put up those with Anja crying or being fussy, so don't be fooled. Although her grandmas would tell you she never cries, I'm sure. She's a really active baby, at least compared to babies I've seen and met recently. She definitely is not what you would call a cuddly baby, more of an entertaining baby. I can probably only post about 50% of the pictures I take because she never stops moving.









Jay came back from the conference last Thursday and everybody was still intact. It wasn't really as hard as I thought it would be, staying home by myself for so long, but it is much nicer to have someone to tag team Anja with me. She's been very vocal lately, she's off the cooing noises and instead makes a really loud BLAHT! noise now and also makes some of her original vowel noises, but at 10X normal volume. I think she really likes how it sounds.

This weekend she is going to her first wedding. She will get to stay in a cabin one night and a tent the next. In the last month or so she has really started to fall into a sleep pattern. She generally goes to sleep around 9:30 each night, so I'm not sure how things will go at the wedding since we will likely keep her up later than that.

Day 5 - fully rested

Last night was great, Anja went to bed at 9:30 and slept for 8 hours. Then after a 30 min feeding she slept for another 3! I'm sure she was really tired after being up all day yesterday. And she's in a much better mood today.





I like this picture of her eating her blanket. Notice the baby in the book is doing the same thing:

Day 4 - no sleep for the weary

I didn't get much sleep last night. Anja was up about every two hours and didn't want to go back to sleep. For a little while this morning I hoped she would take a long nap but she's still wide awake!





Last week she discovered her feet, and has fun grabbing them now. They're the only toy she has that she can't drop on the floor.




She's also getting better at putting things in her mouth. She's been crawling to the edge of her blanket and grabbing it to put in her mouth.


And she definitely recognizes different toys now. She really likes her Raggedy Ann and grabs her if you put her within reach.


It's 3:30 and I finally just put her down for a nap even though she was wide awake. So far so good, although I can hear her talking in there so we'll see. She fell asleep briefly on the floor earlier today but it didn't take.

Day 3 - crawly

Anja is all over the place today. She rolls multiple times to get across the blanket, and today when I was trying to take her picture from the side she turned 90 degrees and crawled straight toward me! (for purposes of this post, "crawling" refers to pushing with feet and pulling with hands while dragging belly along the ground)



Today we walked to our voting place for the local primary elections. Even when Anja is squirmy at home she always likes a stroller ride. We walked to the grocery store after that. I'm sure people think our very large stroller is silly, but it's great for running, and bad sidewalks like we have in Lansing, and places where the sidewalk ends. It has such big wheels (20 inches!) and good shocks that she never wakes up, even when the bumps are big. We might drive an SUV stroller for walks but we drive a diesel compact car on the road! By the way, on our last trip to the UP and back we finally broke 50mpg with the Jetta, 50.3mpg for the entire trip! Not baby related, but cool nonetheless.



Last night was more exciting than the night before. She was up at 1:30 and 5:30 and 7:30. Putting her down after feeding her each time was tough because she now likes to roll over right away. The problem with this is that she sometimes gets an arm stuck underneath, or finds herself jammed into the corner and needs to be moved.

She learned yesterday that when you are reading a book to her, she can grab the pages herself. Now she likes to hold the book like this:

Just Us Day 2 - rolly

Last night was a good night, Anja slept for 8 hours: 9:30-5:30! Then she took another two hour nap right after that. She's been pretty awake for most of the day as a result. Anja has been very "roll-ly" the last two days. She often will roll twice in the same direction (ie back to front to back). I'm not sure if she realizes this helps her move quickly across the floor or if that's just a side effect. Jay says Anja isn't allowed to do anything new while he's gone, so let's say it's unintentional.

We have wondered if teething is on the way or even already here. Anja shows increased interest in her teething rings, and will bite down pretty hard on your fingers if you let her.




Anja is started to grow more fuzz, I mean hair. It's blonde, possibly strawberry blonde so far. She has gradually been losing the dark hair she was born with and it's being replaced by the lighter stuff. Jay was very blonde when he was little, and Anja has aunts on both sides with blonde hair, so it is quite possible she will have lighter hair.



Here's Jay with blonde hair:

Just The Girls this week

Jay just left for a conference in Milwaukee, so it's just me, Blue and Anja for the week. I will be posting daily updates and pictures for Jay so stay tuned!

This past week we had a great time up north with family. Anja is the youngest of 5 cousins and it was fun for everyone to be together for the first time. Anja also met several more Great Aunts and Great Uncles. Here she is in her role as "Eco Baby", on the new blanket from Lois and Ken: made from recycled and organic materials, ordered from NPR (not pictured are her new books, "Eco Babies wear green" and "Adventures of Michael Recycle":



Here is Anja with her cousin Kai, closest in age to her:


And here she is at Perch Lake Camp for the first time:



Anja has been very active lately. She has started rolling over from stomach to back again, and has even rolled both directions now. She is also getting better at grabbing toys that she wants. She still likes being held up so she can "walk". Yesterday while on her stomach she pushed herself up high enough to raise her elbows off the ground. But here is a picture of how she usually tries to crawl:




This isn't very efficient, but several repetitions of this can scoot her across the blanket.

How big is she now?

Just for fun, here are two pictures of Anja with her Raggedy Ann for reference, the first picture at one week and the second picture at three months. She weighs about 14lbs now.





And again for reference, this week Laura's baby is as big as a carrot: