Teeth, more words and new job

I keep forgetting to mention that a few weeks ago Anja got all 4 of her first molars in the same week! We didn't even notice she was getting them until the first 3 were through. Then the 4th came through a few days later. Lots of kids have a lot of trouble ( ie pain and crying for weeks) with the molars because they're so big, but she didn't seem to mind. She is pretty unphased by most things. In fact, our daycare provider was very impressed when Anja apparently did a "face plant" in the yard, got up and kept going. She said the boys were impressed. It's pretty routine around here :-)

More words each day now. In the last few days Anja has added the following: Keys, kitty, cow, car, clock, chair, bag. Today she looked at a clock on the wall and declared "Kwock!" Yesterday she saw someone stamping their feet and said, "Dancing!" (pronounced Dandee) and then she did it back. Oh, and today she pointed to my and her pajamas and said, "Babamas!"


Yesterday I took Anja on a guided nature hike for 4 hours, then we went to Berkeley for a work gathering at my new lab. About 6 miles total in the carrier and she met a bunch of new people. She did great. She slept for the last mile of the hike and was awake for the entire work party. She loved all the birds on the hike and when we stopped for lunch she loved the ladybugs and the cucumber beetles we found.

Here we are on a balcony on campus with the view of the Golden Gate Bridge (not pictured). This is my new lab, Anja is the one with the sippy cup. Really looking forward to starting Monday.


Today I felt very cosmopolitan as Anja and I walked downtown and toured the galleries and boutiques. It's a great pedestrian town. I'm not really much into shopping (not having any money you get out the habit of spending it pretty quickly). But it's great for Anja to see new things and meet new people. They do have a great bookstore here with a big kids' section and a basement for used books. There are also a few plaza-type areas downtown with fountains. Hopefully next year when our lease runs out we can move to a little house that is walking distance from downtown. Prices are pretty high here (for renting, there is NO way we could buy) so if we want to rent a house we would either have to go down in size or up in price.

We are still deciding what to do this weekend. There are three nearby towns (within a half hour of Petaluma) that have festivals with live outdoor music all weekend. Plus there is a another good guided nature hike on a nearby mountain we haven't been to yet. I also recently discovered a great coffee shop that has live music Saturday mornings at 10:30, plus the Saturday farmer's market is finally going here and I still haven't been to it. Stay tuned!