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.

Obama, fruit, and Christmas list

Anja is very happy. I'll leave the politics out, since this is Anja's blog, but Americans did something right this week:


I'm way behind on fruit comparisons for Laura's baby. Here are the week before last (cantaloupe) and this past week (honeydew melon):



Laura is doing a great job, and she's almost there!

Anja has also been doing well lately. Her evening schedule is really regular now, she goes to bed at 8:00. If we try to keep her up later so she'll sleep until morning it doesn't work, she still wakes up at the same time regardless, so 8:00 it is.

Her little tooth (bottom middle, right side) has really come through quite far. You can see it sometimes when she smiles, although I don't have a picture yet. She has been pulling on her left ear the last few days, so I think the second tooth will come through shortly (the pain of teething radiates up the jaw near the ear, so babies pull on their ears when it hurts).

She is so good at standing now. She almost never falls. Almost never, so you still have to stay near.


I've taken advantage of the unseasonably good weather to take the jogger out several times lately. I'm finally really starting to train again now. It took longer than I'd expected to get back into it, my stomach muscles were really weak for a long time, and the recommendation is to let them recover properly before hard exercise. Unfortunately this is the time of year I least like to run, but on the bright side there's very little competition at races, only the hardcore runners race in the yucky weather. The stroller we use has been great. I try to mainly run on the paved river trail, which is a mile from our house, and I have to run through construction and some bumpy sidewalk to get there, but she doesn't seem to mind. Here's Anja after a run to campus and back Thursday, over some pretty bumpy sidewalk. She fell asleep anyway. We'll use the stroller a lot next summer, but now that it's cold again I think we'll have to put it away for the winter.


I've been thinking about what Anja wants most for Christmas. Based on her current interests, this is what I've come up with:
-a set of remote controls
-Jay's cell phone
-dog toys
-a shoe rack, complete with dirty running shoes
-a wristwatch
-anything with tags

But what does it taste like?

Anja is very interested in exploring and touching everything now. But she can't properly assess something without putting it in her mouth. Aunt Heather sent her a fun soft bug book with a crinkly page and textured bugs with wings that you can grab. She really likes it. And likes eating it.

Here she is, SOOO tired but still playing with her book:




And also finding other uses for her mouth:


And wishing she could try more interesting food:

Wanting to walk

Anja is pretty good at standing now. When she uses something to help her stand, she hardly uses it for balance once she's up. And now she's started to let go of her support once she's standing. She can stand alone for a second or two before falling into a sitting position. Her progress seems to come in bursts, so it's hard to say whether she will just do this for a while or whether she will start to take steps soon. My mom says when I was little, one day I sat up for the first time. That same day I stood up. Three weeks later I was walking (I was older than Anja is now, though), so she could try to walk soon. I'm excited for her to learn to walk, but I would also be pretty glad if we didn't have to deal with walking-related issues yet.

We've been on an okay schedule lately. She reliably goes down for the night at 8:00. She is then usually up to eat 5 or 6 hours later. Then she's up a 6:00am for good. It's not perfect, but we can live with it. Often there are a few other times throughout the night when we have to get up and settle her back down, but she doesn't need to be fed then. Of course after the time change she will be getting up at 5am!



Anja has begun making more consonant sounds. She likes to say Da-da-da. It seems like she says it preferentially to Jay, but we're probably imagining that. She is having some teething pain again today, so we wonder if her second tooth is coming through.