She really gets right up on those hands and feet:
Okay, sorry.
But here's a real video of her this morning. She slept 8.5 hours all in a row! And when I went in to check on her she was just hangin' out. (And I didn't realize how messy her room was until I saw the video!)
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Monday, September 8, 2008
Daycare Day 1 recap
Brenda said Anja did very well today. She was put in the middle of the group for "circle time" and loved to look at everyone's faces. She also said that in all her 20 years of daycare, she has never seen a baby this young sit up. She was so surprised that she called her husband over to see, but she couldn't get the video camera fast enough. I tried to tell her this morning that she really does get around, but I don't think she believed me until she saw it :-)
And she asked if Anja gets carried around most of the day because she didn't like to spend a lot of time in her seat. I tried to explain that she really does prefer to be on the floor, really. Often, when you put her in her seat now, she tries to turn around while still strapped in because she does NOT want to be stuck there.
She's getting much better at getting up into a sitting position (it looks like she bumps her nose at the end, but she's fine):
She's still trying to figure out how to go from rocking to crawling:
I kind of like this "leap frog" version of crawling:
And she asked if Anja gets carried around most of the day because she didn't like to spend a lot of time in her seat. I tried to explain that she really does prefer to be on the floor, really. Often, when you put her in her seat now, she tries to turn around while still strapped in because she does NOT want to be stuck there.
She's getting much better at getting up into a sitting position (it looks like she bumps her nose at the end, but she's fine):
She's still trying to figure out how to go from rocking to crawling:
I kind of like this "leap frog" version of crawling:
Daycare Day 1
I took Anja to daycare this morning at 9:00. It went really well. I stayed for half an hour to meet the other kids and make sure Anja was fine. I think she's still too young to really be concerned about being held by strangers, but I still wanted to make sure. The other kids have known she was coming for a while, and when I pulled up they were all at the window looking out. As I got closer to the door I could hear them yelling, "They're here! They're here!". There were three other kids there (and a baby sleeping). I met Owen and Cassandra (about 3 or 4 years old) and Zoe, 2. All three kids wanted to hug her at the same time and give her toys. Owen especially really loved her, it was very cute. The place has an open floor plan, with a toy/play area on one side for the older kids, complete with a plastic play house and lots of toys and books. The other side of the house, with a kitchen in between, has pack 'n plays for the two babies and baby-safe toys. When the babies are having "tummy time" on the floor, this area is separated by a gate so the toddlers don't fall on them. But most of the time all the kids and babies are together, including for daily story time and activity times. I think this will be great for Anja, to be around kids.
She was pretty subdued when I dropped her off, she hadn't been awake for very long. She seemed pretty content watching the other kids. I tried to say bye to her but she kept looking around me to try to see the other kids. It reminded me of the story my mom tells about dropping me off at daycare for the first time. I think I was maybe 2 years old. She put me down and said, "Bye Susie," and I said, "Bye Mommy" while running toward the toys and never looked back. My mom cried but I never did!
Brenda, our daycare provider, said that this week will be a low key week with the kids since it's Anja's first week. They won't have many activities this week and may deviate from their schedule as needed. The general schedule each day is play time until 9:00, 9:00-10:00 is story time, 10:00-11:30 or so is play time, then lunch. 12:30-3:00 or so is quiet time/nap time for everyone. 3:00-4:30 is play time. And at 4:30 they get to watch a video as parents start to arrive. They also have special activities and crafts depending on the week (ie: green foods for St. Patricks Day, Easter Egg hunts, Halloween dress up, etc). These are mostly for the toddlers and older, obviously. They are also learning sign language - this week they are learning to sign colors. Anja will only be there from 9-3 each day for now.
Searching for daycare earlier this year was pretty hard. We can't afford a daycare center, which is the most common type of care and easiest to find. So I cold-called phone numbers from the statewide list of licensed daycare providers. Most didn't have any openings, the rest were too expensive for us. The most common price for daycare was $800/month. Others that we could afford were ruled out just because I didn't get a good feeling from them on the phone. In the end we visited three places that sounded okay. The place we ultimately chose was first, and I really liked it. The other two were pretty scary. My favorite was the rambling old farmhouse-type place with a completely open door policy. We walked in and the young girl working there said, "Who are you here to pick up?"! When I asked her how many kids she was watching at the time, she looked around and counted heads, then said, "five." It was chaos at that place. The third place had a large finished basement where they keep the kids all the time. It was piled to the ceiling (no exaggeration) with toys and puzzles and games. Kids had to walk through corridors of plastic toys and boxes to find a place to play. And they have 12 kids at a time there.
So we were lucky to find this place. It's just outside town, which is partly why it's so affordable. It would be great to have affordable daycare just down the street, but driving 15 minutes to a quality daycare we can actually afford is worth it.
My only real concern is that she won't get enough floor time. At home she spends most of her time on the floor, and she really demands it now. She is liking her bouncy seat less and less. She isn't big on being held, or being strapped into a seat at all, she wants to crawl around. But she requires constant attention when she's on the floor because she moves so fast now. So I don't think you could watch her on the floor while simultaneously watching 4 or 5 other kids.
We'll find out how it went in a couple of hours!
She was pretty subdued when I dropped her off, she hadn't been awake for very long. She seemed pretty content watching the other kids. I tried to say bye to her but she kept looking around me to try to see the other kids. It reminded me of the story my mom tells about dropping me off at daycare for the first time. I think I was maybe 2 years old. She put me down and said, "Bye Susie," and I said, "Bye Mommy" while running toward the toys and never looked back. My mom cried but I never did!
Brenda, our daycare provider, said that this week will be a low key week with the kids since it's Anja's first week. They won't have many activities this week and may deviate from their schedule as needed. The general schedule each day is play time until 9:00, 9:00-10:00 is story time, 10:00-11:30 or so is play time, then lunch. 12:30-3:00 or so is quiet time/nap time for everyone. 3:00-4:30 is play time. And at 4:30 they get to watch a video as parents start to arrive. They also have special activities and crafts depending on the week (ie: green foods for St. Patricks Day, Easter Egg hunts, Halloween dress up, etc). These are mostly for the toddlers and older, obviously. They are also learning sign language - this week they are learning to sign colors. Anja will only be there from 9-3 each day for now.
Searching for daycare earlier this year was pretty hard. We can't afford a daycare center, which is the most common type of care and easiest to find. So I cold-called phone numbers from the statewide list of licensed daycare providers. Most didn't have any openings, the rest were too expensive for us. The most common price for daycare was $800/month. Others that we could afford were ruled out just because I didn't get a good feeling from them on the phone. In the end we visited three places that sounded okay. The place we ultimately chose was first, and I really liked it. The other two were pretty scary. My favorite was the rambling old farmhouse-type place with a completely open door policy. We walked in and the young girl working there said, "Who are you here to pick up?"! When I asked her how many kids she was watching at the time, she looked around and counted heads, then said, "five." It was chaos at that place. The third place had a large finished basement where they keep the kids all the time. It was piled to the ceiling (no exaggeration) with toys and puzzles and games. Kids had to walk through corridors of plastic toys and boxes to find a place to play. And they have 12 kids at a time there.
So we were lucky to find this place. It's just outside town, which is partly why it's so affordable. It would be great to have affordable daycare just down the street, but driving 15 minutes to a quality daycare we can actually afford is worth it.
My only real concern is that she won't get enough floor time. At home she spends most of her time on the floor, and she really demands it now. She is liking her bouncy seat less and less. She isn't big on being held, or being strapped into a seat at all, she wants to crawl around. But she requires constant attention when she's on the floor because she moves so fast now. So I don't think you could watch her on the floor while simultaneously watching 4 or 5 other kids.
We'll find out how it went in a couple of hours!
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Not a cuddly baby
Anja really isn't a cuddly baby. And now that she's stronger she's learned that she can pull her knees up and put her feet on your stomach and push really hard. And arch her back. Every kid is different. This one is nonstopmotionallthetime.
And she's still working on that "crawling" thing.
And she's still working on that "crawling" thing.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Not quite hands and knees
In this house we don't crawl on our hands and knees, we crawl on our feet and face.
And we play with toys while we're sleeping.
And we play with toys while we're sleeping.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Daycare
We are starting daycare next week. We've put it off as long as we can, the wonderful woman we chose for daycare has generously let us wait an extra month before starting (we signed up with her last February), but I can't ask her to wait any longer. And Jay really needs to focus on his work while I need to spend more uninterrupted time applying for jobs. It is really difficult to get much done that requires concentrating when you're watching her. Up until now we've been taking turns getting stuff done, but we can't do that anymore. Each job I apply for requires several hours to find the job, research it, and fill out the appropriate materials and send it in. And I'm reaching the panic stage of being unemployed now. The first few months home were really nice while I recovered physically and was able to spend time with Anja. Now it's just constant stress while our savings disappear to nothing and I still haven't found a job. I really didn't start applying in earnest until last week after I finished my thesis, so there will likely be some lag time before I start to hear back about any of the jobs.
Anyway, I'm a little sad about starting daycare, even though I really like the woman we are using. She is SO excited that Anja is starting next week, so that makes it a little easier. And she is very competent. Much more competent than us, I'm sure :-) She's been running a daycare for 20 years. But I don't want to miss all the new things I'm sure Anja will be doing. I'm pretty sure she's going to start crawling in the next week or so, she's up on all fours all the time now. I know you can't be there for all the milestones, but you can try! So I told her we would start with a schedule of 9-3. That gives me enough time to get some real work done job searching, but she won't be gone all day. We still have to pay for full time, but that's fine. It sure will be quiet around here.
Anja's not worried about starting daycare:
Recently we got some new toys for Anja: some stackable tupperware and this magazine:
They were a big hit. She likes the crinkly noise of the paper and the tupperware is big enough to grab easily and doesn't weigh much. By the way, check out that fuzzy head!
And this week, Laura's baby is as big as a head of cauliflower. Good job Laura!
Anyway, I'm a little sad about starting daycare, even though I really like the woman we are using. She is SO excited that Anja is starting next week, so that makes it a little easier. And she is very competent. Much more competent than us, I'm sure :-) She's been running a daycare for 20 years. But I don't want to miss all the new things I'm sure Anja will be doing. I'm pretty sure she's going to start crawling in the next week or so, she's up on all fours all the time now. I know you can't be there for all the milestones, but you can try! So I told her we would start with a schedule of 9-3. That gives me enough time to get some real work done job searching, but she won't be gone all day. We still have to pay for full time, but that's fine. It sure will be quiet around here.
Anja's not worried about starting daycare:
Recently we got some new toys for Anja: some stackable tupperware and this magazine:
They were a big hit. She likes the crinkly noise of the paper and the tupperware is big enough to grab easily and doesn't weigh much. By the way, check out that fuzzy head!
And this week, Laura's baby is as big as a head of cauliflower. Good job Laura!
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
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:
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:
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