Biking crawling sitting eating

Dalmac went great. Anja slept pretty well at night, usually just up once to eat. It's actually a little easier to get her back to sleep in the tent than at home since she's right between the two of us and we just hold her hands until she falls asleep. It's pretty comical, really, but she likes it. She wasn't always good driving around in the car and we had to stop frequently if she was unhappy. She was really a little celebrity on the ride. People are so friendly when you have a baby, everyone wanted to talk to us. One night we camped in Boyne City and went to a (non-smoky) local bar to watch the MSU football game. A woman at the next table over kept staring at us and I was convinced she was going to criticize us for having a baby at the bar, turns out she just really wanted to say hi to Anja.

And a lot of people asked me if I rode my bike with her in the front carrier. Seriously? But the funniest thing is how many women commented to me about how great Jay was for taking care of Anja when I biked, and how good he was, carrying her around in the carrier, even though I did the same for him when he was biking. As if somehow he shouldn't be competent or willing. I'm surprised that a father taking care of his child is still so surprising to people these days.

Here we are at a couple of rest stops:




And here we are near Wilderness State Park


In the last week she has really gotten a lot stronger. I know I keep saying that. She is starting to push herself up on all fours. It isn't for very long, but she's definitely doing it. And she's also starting to push up into a half sitting position. The first type of sitting that babies do is usually supported with both hands. Mostly she still tries to crawl with her forehead on the ground. Even if she's not on all fours, she is definitely all over the place now. She sees toys she wants and crawls over to them, or rolls several times to get across the blanket. It's really fun to watch her learn new things.

Here she is up on all fours


And here she is pushing up into a sitting position.


We decided to start solid foods this week. It's a pretty long process, you are supposed to introduce new foods one week at a time and make sure there is no reaction to it, and then the next week you can try another food. We started with rice cereal - little flavor, little texture, and it doesn't stain clothes! Plus babies generally do well with it. She did surprisingly well. I say surprisingly because she's never been easy to feed. From the 10 weeks of failed breastfeeding struggle to the many different types of silicone nipples we had to buy to find the one kind she will actually use (including the $12 breast-shaped bottle!), to the struggles we've been having lately of just generic freak outs during mealtime, I assumed solid food would be tough. But she was very calm and did a great job. We mixed up two tablespoons of the dry flakes and she ate it all.



In conclusion, look how cute: