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.