Back to work

Well, here we are, the night before I go back to work and Maija will not drink from a bottle. Wish Jay luck tomorrow while he's home all day with a sad baby. We've been trying for several weeks now and she just will not take a bottle, so Jay is armed with frozen breastmilk, bottles, cups and medicine droppers. Hopefully one of them will work before I get home in the evening.

Other than bottle woes, life continues to get easier around here. Lately we are putting both kids down for bed at 9pm and they're down for the night (for Maija that means for 7 or 8 hours, for Anja it means 10 or 11 hours). Maija is getting better at taking naps in her crib during the day as well. She is really good at sleeping if we carry her around, so she does get quite a bit of sleep each day, which is nice for everyone.

Maija is getting stronger and really hold her head up well now. We have started putting her in a walker (without wheels, so not really a "walker" I guess) and she seems to like standing in it. She is a very smiley baby, and has started to make a lot of different sounds. Part of the benefit of not using a pacifier is that we see her smile and talk all the time.

Lately Anja likes to tell jokes.

Mostly that means she just makes up a word for something and then laughs about it. But the best joke ever was when were driving over the Mackinac bridge a few weeks ago:

Anja: That's the Golden Gate Bridge

Me: No, this bridge is called the Mackinac Bridge.

Anja: Macki- Mack- Macaroni and Cheese Bridge? This is a macaroni and cheese bridge? (laughs at her own joke)

Also other more recent jokes:

Me: Let me get Maija and then I'll read you a book.

Anja: You're gonna READ MAIJA? Maija is a book?!!

Me: No, Maija is not a book.

Anja: Maija is a book to read. Maija is a tree for climbing. Maija is a ladder. Maija is Boots!

Anja: (stands on one foot) I'm a flingy-mingo!

Anja: I'm a noodle?!! (goes limp in my hands)

My banana is spinny

Anja is beginning to think it's pretty fun to have a little sister around:

Also, this is how dinner goes when her afternoon nap was too short:

Toddler ramblings:

Anja: Daddy! Stop!

Jay: Stop What? Stop talking to Mommy?

Anja: Yeah.

Jay: But we were just discussing important shirt-buying strategies.

Anja: STRAGEDIES!!?? What is STRAGEDIES!!??

Jay: A strategy is a plan for doing something.

Anja: Stratcheteees? Tragedies?

Jay: A tragedy is something terrible.

Anja: Stratcheteee? Stratchaty?

Jay: No, strachety, stracha- stracha-, tragedy. Wait, it's not tragedy. What is it? Strategy?

Anja: Slurp Slurp Slurp! Mmmmmm... that was pretty yummy. That was pretty YUMMY apple juice. THANK you Mommy! What's inside here? What is inside this peanut?

Me: Just more peanut.

Anja: Ohhh. Look. Look. There's nothing inside this peanut! (accidentally eats a piece of cauliflower) Spit spit YUCK. I don't LIKE IT! Ptoooiee. YUCK. Mmmmm peanut butter and jelly. I better check to see if the jelly is yummy (blows out through her nose several times). Mmmm hmmmm. It is yummy! (opens sandwich and eats the jelly out of it with her fingers)

Me: What is your name today?

Anja: I don't know not Anja... maybe some kind of dinosaur.

(after Jay returned from taking both kids to the park and leaving me at home alone for an hour)

Me: Boy, one hour sure goes by quickly.

Jay: That's all that was? Only one hour?

Michigan Trip (now with more awesome)

We have done far too many fun and interesting things in the last few weeks to comment on them all fully, so here is an abridged version:

1. Michigan trip = heroic success

2. Flying on a plane with an infant and toddler to Michigan was easier than driving with them once we were in Michigan

3. Pick blueberries but watch out for ants

4. Anja loves this bobcat

5. Anja loves her cousins

6. Michigan water is warm and doesn't have sharks

7. Miners beach on Lake Superior has bitey flies that are especially attracted to infants and new moms

8. Grandmas are great for holding babies

9. I mean she really likes this bobcat

10. Two weeks of constant attention was just what Anja needed

11. We had a great visit with my grandma who is doing well

12. Anja hid dinosaurs in Grandma's lap and couch and played with every cat toy she could find

13. Also she found deceased cat's ashes on Grandma's shelf and wanted to play with them

14. Having a family camp makes a childhood special

15. Somehow we keep finding fun new places in Marquette like this little island you can get to by wading through shallow water (but not with an infant)

16. This is Levi

17. Sometimes babies cry through the entire service, and then through the whole baptism, and all the way down the hall until fed again, even if they were fed right before the service

18. Anja thinks saunas ("sown-duhs") are okay, but prefers eating pretzels on the camp porch with a stuffed bobcat

19. Jay is Superdad

20. Maija was almost never not in someone's arms for two weeks

21. Dueling scrabble phrases

22. Make sure your kid has cute pajamas because sometimes they wear them until noon

23. Rare event:

24. You cannot pose toddlers but you can try

25. Animals vs trucks

26. "Don't touch my toys again!!!"

27. Ahh... camp

28. Maija is a very smiley baby!

29. She is also incredibly strong and very cute

30. Shadows are popular again

31. Two weeks away from home plus new baby = complete untraining of previously potty-trained toddler (no photo available)

32. Look at my moth!

33. Look my shirt says "Little Finn"

34. If this bobcat were an ice cream flavor, Anja would say it was Supercoolamazing flavor, now with more AWESOME!!!

If you haven't had enough, here's a video of general baby cuteness with smiling and cooing and Anja narrating

And as always, Anja's comments:

(while sitting next to me on a chair)

Anja: I'm all clean with boogers.

Me: You have boogers in your nose?

Anja: No, see?! (shows me her nose)

Me: Okay, good.

Anja: Yeah, I put them on you, see? (shows me my own arm)

Jay: Our neighbors got a new Audi

Anja: Newaudi? What's a Newaudi?

Jay: It's a kind of car.

Anja: Oh. With a face? It can talk?

Jay: No, it just goes really fast.

Anja: Ohhhhhh

Jay: Anja, do you have to go potty?

Anja: No... I'm just going to stay inside and eat butter.