On Dasher and Dancer and Firebot

I'm way behind on updates. Since I last wrote I've flown across the country twice with Maija (once with help and once by myself). We've visited or been visited by grandparents from both sides, and Maija has started daycare one day a week.

Maija and I look a little bit alike:

Grandma R visited and we took a trip to Armstrong Redwoods. Anja is seen here posing with "Rocky", her gecko/flashlight that Grandma bought her during that visit. Actually, this Rocky is technically "Rocky #1", due to an unfortunate mishap the following week that Anja did not know about, involving Jay's car. I made an emergency trip to REI to get Rocky #2 while Anja was out the next day.

And here is a rare picture of the four of us! Most of us are looking at the camera and some of us are even smiling.

Santa came to Petaluma on a tugboat.

Petaluma had its downtown tree lighting ceremony. Which we technically missed because we were in the candy store, but we came out afterward to see it.

The following week we watched the lighted boat parade downtown. It was pretty spectacular, although less so if you are only 2.5 years old and your parents get the time wrong and you spend an extra 30 minutes standing in the cold and dark waiting for the drawbridge to open and for the boats to come.

We had a beautiful foggy evening in Petaluma afterward.

We ran across Petaluma Pete, the wandering piano player. Anja was a big hit and even made it into the local online paper:

http://petalumapete.blogs.petaluma360.com/12449/big-downtown-crowd-last-night/

Maija is an expert at sitting now, and when I gave her something to hold onto today, she pulled herself right up.

In case you needed any more Christmas-themed content, here is Anja singing "Joy to the World" (Joy to the Whir-old), accompanied by Jay on plastic piano.

Tree up and decorated:

Anja says funny stuff:

Me: Look, it's Super Maija! (holds Maija up in the air)

Anja: No! It's just Regular Maija.

Me: Special Maija?

Anja: No! Just Regular Maija.

Me: Just Regular Maija.

Anja: Yeah.

Jay: (to Maija) Your bib says "Daddy loves me". Daddy loves Maija. And Daddy loves Anja. And Daddy loves Mommy!

Anja: And Daddy loves Oskie! (the neighbors' cat)

Anja: What starts with poop?

Me: Poop starts with the letter "p".

Anja: P...p... pee. Pee in the potty! Hahahaha!

Anja: That's Firebot the Reindeer!

Jay: Firebot?

Anja: Yeah. That's Rudolph and that's Firebot.

Me: Maija is a little sad.

Anja: It's okay Maija. PEEKABOOOOO!!!!! She likes that. That makes her happy.

Me: Do you like your little sister Anja?

Anja: Yeah!

Me: What do you like about her?

Anja: I like about her that she grows up.

M-N-O-P-O-P-M-N-O... what starts with cow?

Cute kid.

Okay with back time, hates tummy time.

Anja hanging out at the coffee shop in her cool retro sweater. This was mine long ago. She is playing chess without a chess board and about ten "horsies".

Anja drew a seal.

Anja likes playing with Maija.

Anja still says funny stuff:

Me: Anja, are you done with your soup yet?

Anja: (taking really fast spoonfuls of soup with her face really close to the bowl) I'm not done. I'm just a bee eating pollen from a flower!

Jay: Don't lick your toast, just take bites out of it. Licking it is too messy.

Anja: (in extreme distress) But I LOVE licking!!

Me: Do you want to have some friends over for movie night? Who should we invite? Can you think of anyone?

Anja: Auntie Heather!

Me: Well, Auntie Heather won't be here until next week, can you think of anyone else?

Anja: Do you remember Kai?

Me: I do remember Kai. But he lives kind of far away so he can't come this week.

Anja: He will just have to DRIVE! Do you remember Kai?

Anja: I'm two years old.

Me: That's right. And I am 37 years old.

Anja: You can even go to school!

Jay: Who knows their letters at daycare? Which kid knows their letters the best?

Anja: Uhh... me! M-N-O-P-O-P-M-N-O... what starts with cow?

Jay: (at a local restaurant) Okay, let's go wash your hands in the potty and then you can go play.

Anja: No Daddy! Not the potty! Wash your hands in the sink. We don't wash our hands in the potty!

Heather: What does Grandma like for Thanksgiving dinner? Does she like turkey?

Anja: Yah.

Heather: What else does she like?

Anja: Turkey and turkey and turkey and pizza. And not a diaper. Hahahahahha!

Halloween and Oatmeal

Anja had a great Halloween. She remembered what to do from last year, but was still a little shy about walking up to houses. We started downtown where all the merchants hand out candy, and then walked through the historic neighborhoods nearby. Homeowners go a little nuts around here for Halloween - Anja thought some of the decorations were a little scary, but not so scary that she didn't go up to them for candy. Both Maija and I were sick last week and Maija was still recovering a little, so we didn't dress her up but instead let her sleep in the carrier. Anja had just as much fun looking at all the costumes as she did getting candy. My favorite costume(s) was the family with the mom and dad dressed up as Thing 1 and Thing 2, plus the toddler as Thing 3 and the mom's belly as Thing 4.

We also didn't drag Anja's Goldbug car around with us. It was a nice idea to make it, but just too much for a 2.5 year old to deal with.

One restaurant gave out ice cream cones to the kids! Anja ate about 10% of this before Jay had to finish it for her, but it was still a big hit with Anja.

Maija is laughing more, although we can't get her to laugh as well as Anja can.

Anja has been expanding her menu back to fruits and vegetables again (although not really away from the favorites: toast, butter, and honey roasted peanuts). She really likes broccoli again, and eats zucchini cooked or raw. But EVERYTHING must be either peeled, or eaten around the peel. Here is how she eats zucchini:

She peels apples, grapes, and now recently: peas. Did you even know you could peel a pea? It takes a really long time but you can.

We started giving Maija a little solid food yesterday and she loves it. This morning she ate about 1/2 cup of oatmeal for me. It's a nice change since Anja was not into breastfeeding, formula, or early foods at that age. Maija still wants to nurse all the time, though, so I don't think solid foods will be the break I was hoping for.

This month Anja will be in daycare two days a week (one of those days is when I'm at work), as we ease her back into the daycare routine and give her more stimulation than she gets at home. Next month we will start bringing Maija to daycare one day a week too.

Anja's games with her toys are increasingly more complex. She loves to set up scenarios with her characters. She is generally very inclusive with all of her toys - everyone is friendly with everyone else and none of the carnivores eat each other. They either eat "other dinosaurs" or they just eat grass. And a bunny can be a mommy to a dinosaur. At lunch she hugged a spinach leaf and a piece of banana. At the coffee shop we took out their box of mixed chess pieces and the "horsies" played games like ring around the rosie. At night she is choosing more and more toys to take to bed: she always has to have Huckle, Flopsy and purple taggie, but then usually also has a few plastic dinosaurs, a construction truck, and a few other stuffed animals. Then in the morning when she walks into our room she brings them all along. She looks like a toybox with two tiny legs sticking out the bottom.

Words from Anja:

Anja: I'm a spinosaurus and you can be this dimetrodon.

Me: Okay. I eat plants. Do you eat plants?

Anja: No, I eat dinosaurs.

Me: Oh no, are you going to eat me?

Anja: No... I eat OTHER dinosaurs.

Me: Okay good. I have a spine on my back. And you do too.

Anja: Yeah! It's very nice. It's a very pretty spine.

Anja: (after listening to me sing nursery rhymes) Mommy! Sing the rainbow song!

Me: I don't know that one. How does it go?

Anja: Raaaaainbow. Rainbow. Raaaiiiaaaaiiiin-boooooooww.

Me: What are the other words in the song?

Anja: Rainbow, rainbow.

Me: And what is the name of the song?

Anja: Rainbow.

Me: Anja, you dropped some more cereal. Here you go (picking it up).

Anja: How come so messy around here? How come so many messes around here?

Jay: Look, my name is Daddy Mr. Napkin Head.

Anja: NOO! Your name is Jay!

Jay: But I'm making funny jokes.

Anja: No! But they're not funny. People think they're not funny!

Me: Look Anja, Maija likes oatmeal.

Anja: Yeah, she has dreams about it.

Jay: Do you know what M-O-V-I-E spells?

Anja: Um, I don't know, what? Some kind of movie.

Stats and dragons

Anja smiled for this picture, but then had to check to make sure that she was really smiling:

Maija had her four-month checkup and vaccinations. She is doing great, and is at 95th percentile for height and 42nd percentile for weight - tall and thin just like her sister. She still eats ALL the time, giving me little more than 1.5 to 2 hours between feedings during the day.

Her daytime naps have been intermittent lately, and even nighttime sleeping lately hasn't been as great. She goes to bed pretty reliably at 9pm, but then sleeps anywhere from 3 to 8 hours before needing to eat again. Often she eats for hours, drifting off then waking up to eat again and refusing to be put back in her crib. Then sometime around 5am she usually starts making funny cooing noises and blowing bubbles, which is incredibly cute but also means that my night of sleep is done.

We've been pretty tired around here lately. Anja was sick last week, fighting a fever for several days. Then Maija had her vaccinations which made her sad for a couple of days too. Now Jay is sick with what Anja had. And we're also getting the first rains of the season, so it's been dreary - we just had four inches over the weekend!

Anja is good at making Maija laugh. And she loves to hold her hand. Before bedtime she makes sure to give Maija a hug and a kiss. Although tonight she also said goodnight to the crickets, and I don't think she loves them.

Anja's Halloween costume is finished. This is the first year she's into it, so it's been really fun putting it together. Maija unfortunately will be wearing Anja's old flower costume, but I don't think she will mind. Anja remembers about trick or treating from last year and keeps talking about how she will say "trick or treat" and people will give her candy!!!

Potty training is finally moving forward again, from the apparent stalemate we had been in for several months (consisting of Anja wearing underwear all the time, but with many minor accidents every day). Now Anja goes entirely by herself sometimes, including getting up and down off the stool, which is really helpful. Although sometimes she comes out of the bathroom with no pants or underwear on afterward.

Our special weekend movie this week was How to Train Your Dragon, which was a pretty good movie for Anja. There are only a handful of kids movies that are well made and interesting for adults, but also not too scary for little kids. So now she pretends to be a dragon in addition to a dinosaur. Dinosaurs are still her main focus right now, though. And she can name them: "Mommy, this is a brachiosaurus, not a brontosaurus, a BRACHiosaurus!" She also knows ankylosaurus, t-rex, iguanodon and spinosaurus and I'm sure some others that she could tell you about.

Conversations:

Me: Anja, I'm really proud of what a great big sister you are. You must really like being a big sister.

Anja: I pooped in my underwear once.

Me: Oh, well that's okay. Anyway, you are really helpful taking care of Maija and getting her toys, and making her smile.

Anja: Look, a cupcake! (shows me her apple piece where she inserted the apple stem like a candle)

Anja : (while looking at a picture on the computer of a friend's new baby who is wearing one sock) But who is that guy?!!

Me: That's Jasper.

Anja: He's like our baby. Except he has a sock there. And no sock there!

Me: So he's not like our baby?

Anja: No. But where is his sock? Is it lost?

Anja: Who is that guy?

Me: That's Jasper. That is Toby's brother. When you have a baby in the house who is a boy, that's your brother, and if the baby is a girl, that's your sister.

Anja: Where's MY brother?

Me: You have to put some pants on to go play in the sandbox.

Anja: Aw, man!

Me: Okay, fine, go outside in your underwear. (Anja runs out the door)

Anja: This raspberry has something on it!

Me: Those are little hairs, they are part of the raspberry.

Anja: It has little hairs? Like me! I have little hairs!

Jay: Up in the air, it's Super Maija!

Anja: Maija is a Super Drooler!

Big Sister and updates

Anja really likes being a big sister. Sometimes she's a little too excited:

Me: Anja, don't put that pacifier in Maija's mouth, she might not like it.

Anja: But she likes it! See?

Me: Yes, that's really nice of you, but you should let her put it in her mouth by herself if she wants to.

Anja: (dejected) Oookayyy.

20 seconds later:

Me: That's really nice of you to help Maija, but you shouldn't put things in her mouth.

Anja: She likes it.

Me: I know, but please don't put anything in the baby's mouth.

10 seconds later:

Me: Anja? Don't put anything in Maija's mouth.

Anja: Look Mommy, she likes it!

Here is Anja playing with Maija by herself:

Some updates about recent events:

-Maija is trying to crawl: She can get her bum up in the air or her head up in the air, but never at the same time.

-Maija rolls up on her side to grab toys and is pretty good with her hands now.

-Anja's language skills are incredible. You have to be careful how you talk around her because she will correct your pronunciation and grammar.

-Maija got her next round of vaccinations without too much trouble.

-We went to the local pumpkin patch where Anja still likes the bounce house more than anything else.

-We started a ten gallon aquarium bug house for Anja. So far we only have a spider, a crane fly, and a bunch of pill bugs.

-We put a ban on any tv for Anja during the week, and after two weeks we've seen a big improvement in behavior. Now the weekends are special "movie days" that we look forward to.

-Anja has a new friend, Ian, a 4 year who lives a couple of houses down. He doesn't usually play with yucky girls, but he's really great with her.

-Anja is going to be Goldbug for halloween (he's the little yellow bug hiding on every page of Richard Scarry's "Car and Trucks and Things that Go". It is going to be awesome. If I have enough energy, I will also make a Lowly the Worm costume for Maija, but I'm not making any promises.

-Anja loves her big girl bed. She bangs into the walls and thrashes around when sleeping but has not yet fallen out.

-I am finding that working from home is a mixed blessing, but overall really good for us as a family. It is very difficult to get anything done at home so I find that on the days I do go in, I'm very stressed about trying to get everything done in time. I am looking forward to going back to work full time in January, although I wish it didn't mean having to put Maija in daycare.

-Maija is a very relaxed kid and generally pretty easy to take care of. She travels pretty well, except that she needs to eat really frequently (I only get about 1.5hrs between feedings still).

-Anja eats the skins of grapes again, instead of peeling them

-Anja is more likely to eat food if in the shape of a face

-Maija's new hair is coming in blonde.

-Anja's new hair is coming in brown.

-Maija smiles when Anja smiles at her but cries if Anja makes a scary face.

And as always, Anja's comments:

Anja: Maija can say lots of words.

Me: Pretty soon she will. She can't really say any words yet.

Anja: Maija can say a couple of words.

Me: Oh yeah? What words can Maija say?

Anja: Aye-ahhh!

Anja: (looking at a picture of a gecko in a book). A gecko in their house! That's silly!

Me: Some people have geckos in their house to eat their bugs. They crawl around on the walls and eat bugs and then they don't have any bugs in their house. Wouldn't that be fun to have a gecko in the house?

Anja: Then we would be sad.

Me: Because we wouldn't have any bugs in the house?

Anja: Yeah.

Me: When I was little like you, I had a Winnie the Pooh doll

Anja: When I was little like you, I growed up. And got big!

Me: That was a loud car.

Anja (thinking I said "That was a lot of car"): No Mommy, not "lot of car", say "lot of CARS!" not "lot of car."

Habbing the gorning

Anja tells a nonsense story with made-up words:

And then creatively retires to her couch office:

Also she would like you to know that her spider is cute and awesome.

Selected quotes:

Anja: What is Blue digging?

Me: She is digging some holes in the yard, where an animal lives. What do you think lives there?

Anja: Maybe... a baby tiger! Or maybe a groundhog. Or a mole. Or a porcupine! Porcupines live down there in the ground.

(then again, later:)

Anja: Maybe a hedgehog! They stick their heads out of the ground!

Anja: What day is today?

Me: Today is Thursday.

Anja: Why can we NOT watch a movie on Thursdays?!!!

Me: Well, Thursdays are not movie days. But tomorrow is Friday, and Fridays are movie days. We can watch a movie tomorrow.

Anja: Ohhhh...

Anja: (holding a crown) This is my crown. I can wear it. On my head. I'm a king.

Me: You're a king?

Anja: Yeah, I'm a king... a king... I'm a kinkajou! I'm a kinkajou and I can jump like this! (jumps around the room). I can jump up high in a tree and grab my crown.

sleep

I'll never understand why kids fight sleep so much:

Right after that video was taken I put Anja in bed for a nap and she fought it the whole way, crying about wanting another piece of toast (after eating lunch for about 45 minutes and passing out in her high chair).

I tried again to get a few pictures of both girls. Anja was excited, and it was her idea to hold hands. She is much more interested in her little sister than I thought she would be, which is fun.

Maija continues to get stronger. To me, this is the really fun time. Those early months are great in many ways, but they are just so hard too. Now we have feeding and sleeping figured out and we have a pretty good rhythm as a family of four. Maija rolled over a few more times (both ways) and is scooting around on her back to look at toys and books. She is getting better at grabbing things, but still just mashes them into her face.

Maija is just so happy. She will always smile if you talk to her. And not just a little grin, more like this:

Anja's comments:

Jay: (pretending not to know Anja is hiding under the couch) What's this under here? Hey look, it's Anja!

Anja: Daddy, leave me alone. I'm working!

Me: Do you have some work to do Anja?

Anja: Yeah, in my office. In my couch office!

Me: Anja, Daddy's home.

Anja: Daddy??!! Yay! I'm so HAPPY! Oh I have to go potty Daddy Daddy I have to gooo poooottteeeeee!!! (runs to door to greet him)

Anja: I want toast with butter! Butter that I can see! Not pretend butter!

(This was a response to our recent mean trick of putting butter on her toast and allowing it to melt so she couldn't see it. Also she means "white butter" and not peanut butter!)

Advances

Anja was pretty excited about getting to "hold" Maija for this picture.

Maija rolled over for the the first time this week, caught on video as seen below (back to front). She rolls up on her side to reach toys now and this time she kept going. Then today she rolled over the other way (front to back), so she's moving right along.

Also in the past week she has suddenly decided she likes spending time on the floor on her back and belly and is getting a lot stronger. She is beginning to push herself along in a belly crawl, and to scoot around the floor on her back. It seems so early to be doing that, but then I can't believe she's already three months old either.

She is making a lot of noises lately. She is just such a happy baby.

Big girl bed for the big sister

Look, pictures with me! The problem with always wanting to take pictures is of course, that I am never in them. Jay took these pictures in some gardens in Sonoma.

Anja took her first nap in a big girl bed today, and was really excited about it. Right now she is asleep for her first night in it. We made a big production of talking about the bed over the last few weeks, and then finally buying it and letting her pick out her own sheet set.

She can't wait to have Maija sleep in her room with her now, although I don't think I'm ready for that yet. I think they would do fine since they're both great sleepers, but I love the convenience of having Maija right next to my bed for the nighttime feeding. I barely have to get up to feed her, and I'm not ready to give up that luxury yet.

Anja has really adapted well to having Maija around. She loves being a big sister, and doesn't show any overt signs of jealousy anymore. When Maija cries, Anja tells me I need to go get her, and she shares her toys with her and tries to make her smile.

Before Maija was born, when Anja played pretend games she was usually the "baby." She was the baby lion, or baby dinosaur, etc. Now she is the big sister dinosaur and Maija is the baby dinosaur.

There she goes!

Anja comments:

(Jay bounces a rubber ball on Anja)

Anja: Daddy, don't bounce that ball on me. Don't bounce that ball on Mommy's kid!

Jay: Did you have a good nap?

Anja: Yeah. Mommy came and got me when I was waking up!

Jay: That was pretty nice. You sure have a nice Mommy. She is nice. And pretty. And smart.... And tasty.

Anja: Tas-tee!?? Mommy is not tasty! You can not taste her!

Jay: I was just making a funny joke about Mommy, because she feeds milk to Maija.

(Anja is not impressed)

Anja: Maija is a cupcake!

Me: Mmmm, yummy. Num num num.

Anja: No Mommy! Don't eat her! She's yucky. And she's a baby!

Anja: Mommy, do you remember that poop is yucky?

(upon being given two pieces of tofu, a large and a small one)

Anja: Where's the Mommy and the Baby tofu?

Me: Right there. There is the mommy and there is the baby.

Anja: No! This one (the little one) is the Big Sister tofu and this one (the big one) is the Daddy tofu! Where is the Mommy and Baby tofu???

(Maija cries)

Anja: Mommy, Maija's hungry for you!

Anja's comments

Anja had some comments she wanted posted for the week as well. Lately she simply will not stop talking. Sometimes she runs out of things to say that make sense but keeps talking anyway.

Me: Sigh

Anja: What was that? What was that noise??

Me: I just sighed. Sometimes I do that when I have a lot of work to do.

Anja: Ohhh. Sigh.

Me: Do you have a lot of work to do?

Anja: Yeeaaahhhh. Like yoga. Like Daddy does yoga. And reaches waaay up high. Like a robot! On Dora! (stretches her arms way up high)

Anja: Mommy! What is in that bag?

Me: Cheese.

Anja: Mooooooommmmmeeeeee......

Me: Yes?

Anja: What is that?

Me: What is what?

Anja: In. That. Bag. What is in that bag?

Me: Cheese.

Anja: What is it?

Me: Cheese.

Anja: Mommy! What's that over there? In that bag?!

Me: Still cheese.

Anja: Daddy!

Jay: Yes, hon.

Anja: What did Mommy say?

Jay: Mommy said there is cheese in that bag.

Anja: Cheeeese?

Jay: Yes.

Anja: What is cheeeeese? That is not a WORD! (laughs at her own joke)

sticks and s'mores

First, the update on Maija's first day with a bottle exclusively: Jay was able to get Maija to drink a little from a bottle before I got home on my first day back at work. She still isn't thrilled about it, but she will eventually drink a little very slowly if you work with her for a while. We also discovered that my breast milk has an abundance of an enzyme called lipase, which breaks down milk fat and makes it smell and taste sour, although it is still safe to drink. Usually it takes a while for this to happen, but it happens really quickly if you have too much of the enzyme. This enzyme works even when the milk is frozen, so the milk we were thawing and trying to feed to Maija for the past month tasted really bad to her. No wonder she hated the bottle. The enzyme is neutralized by scalding the milk before freezing, so now we do that and the milk is fine. Hopefully this means more bottle success in the future.

In much more interesting news, we went for a short camping trip this past weekend when Jay had to go to a meeting near Yosemite. The picture above is taken from right near our campsite, which was in a valley surrounded by mountains . It's about a 5.5hr drive from Petaluma. We drove a few hours the first night and stayed in Tahoe, then continued on to the eastern side of the Sierras in the morning. We found traveling with Anja generally pretty easy before Maija was around, but the level of complexity of travel now is definitely much higher.

I was skeptical when Jay said we could/should bring her, but when we were unable to find a dogsitter for our camping weekend we brought the dog along too with the two kids in our small hatchback. And we still brought camping gear, kid gear, and two tents.

We realized as we were driving out of Petaluma that were on our first trip in which were outnumbered by our dependents.

The area was absolutely beautiful. The campground was rustic, with about half the sites right on this cold river. People were pulling trout of it all day and we regretted leaving our fishing poles at home. It was at about 5000' elevation I think.

Both kids took naps in their tents right away, which was unfortunately not an indication of how well they would sleep at night. Anja tossed and turned most of the night, both nights, and Maija wanted to nurse all night. The first night I had to change four poopy diapers before morning and the second night Maija nursed every single hour until sunrise.

Otherwise, Maija was pretty easygoing about the trip, as expected, and Anja's experience was dependent mainly on how well we worked around her sleep schedule each day. She was not a fan of any of the extended trips in the car.

But Anja really had a great time. She liked eating snacks at the picnic table, and running around with one of her many magic wands she found.

Maija is just happy if you're carrying her.

Magic wand!

Here's a little spot at the campground at the river. Anja didn't want to walk very far, but she liked exploring around the river and the bushes nearby.

S'mores were definitely her favorite part of the trip.

I'm cute.

On our way back, we spent the whole day driving through the northern part of Yosemite. For almost every minute of the drive there was at least one baby or dog whining or crying and needing a diaper change, bathroom break, snack or attention. And if two of them were quiet, the third would whine or cry and get the others worked up again. We had to stop a lot, and I spent quite a lot of time feeding Maija.

A popular place for rock climbers, you can see the tiny dots of the climbers on the rock face here. We stopped and watched for a little bit, and had a conversation with Anja about how she can do that if she wants to when she's older. She was really upset that she couldn't do it right now.

Most of the drive looked like this, although it was tough to enjoy it fully with various whining and crying noises much of the time.

It was a great trip, but we did forget one thing on the list.