Osprey and Rays

Just a quick post that I've been trying to finish for a few days. Maija's sleeping patterns have kept us busy. She is pretty good at night, especially for a one-month-old. I usually only have to get up just once in the middle of the night to feed her, with one late night feeding and one morning feeding. During the day however, she often doesn't sleep in her crib at all. She will sleep in her carrier if we walk around with her, but she wakes up if I try to put her to bed. And she wants to nurse almost constantly during the day. So I can't rest or get anything done around the house. Alternating between walking around and nursing ALL day is tiring enough, but then I also have to somehow pick up a toddler while holding an infant to get her out of the crib, high chair, wash her hands, etc. It's possible, but not very easy.

There have been some pretty cute moments here in the last few days. Anja has helped pick out clothes for Maija, and showed her some toys and books. And Maija has started showing interest in Anja too, now that she is focusing more on faces. I caught them both smiling at each other here.

This past Sunday was supposed to be hot in town here (80 degrees, not the crazy high temps the rest of the country was having), so we went to the beach where it was only 67. It was definitely more work with two kids than it would have been with one, and a lot more prep time. But Anja had a lot of fun. We were there for several hours, and for all of that time there were three osprey circling overhead and periodically landing in the nest we could see from the beach. Jay also pointed out a huge ray (bat ray?) that swam right along the shore where he is standing here just a few minutes after this picture was taken. It was awesome.

In conclusion, here is Maija when she is actually sleeping during the day. Jay calls this the "sack of sand" state.

Anja's conversations this week are related mainly to our upcoming trip to Michigan that we've been talking about a lot lately:

Anja: I'm drinky! (this is what she says when she's thirsty)

Me: Anja, do you like your little sister?

Anja: Yeah. She's pretty cute. In her eyes!

Me: Anja, are you excited about our trip to Michigan?

Anja: Yeah, we can fly on a plane. With Grandma and Ivan, they're on the plane. In our living room. Grandma bought me a puzzle!

Anja: Follow me, Mommy. Follow me with all of our friends. We are going to see fireflies (leads me to the bedroom where we catch imaginary fireflies).

Me: Who are our friends, Anja? What are their names?

Anja: I don't know. Rosalie and Ivan and Kai and Sophie!