First fever

Anja made it almost 15 months before having her first fever, which was today. She's had some runny noses in the past, but has never really been sick, or had an ear infection either. We've been amazingly lucky about that so far. She was a pretty good sport about being sick today, and still wanted to play, although she had trouble sleeping. Her fever reached 104 in the afternoon (I was in contact with her doctor) and here she is running around in the apartment with the AC on full and no clothes on. Except that she absolutely had to wear her shoes and her new backpack. She was much better by bedtime with her temp back down to 99.


Jay and Anja leave in a couple of weeks for Michigan. I won't be able to go since I don't get vacation for 6 months. I'm bummed, but more happy to have a job than anything. It does mean that Jay will be traveling across the country alone with a very active toddler while dragging a car seat. I picked up this cute backpack that she loves that also has a detachable "leash" on the back to avoid losing your kid in a crowded airport.

Bathtime

In case you missed it on facebook or flickr, here is something to make you laugh:

4th of July and Reading List Complete

I finally finished Anja's current list of books, you can see in on the lower right side of this page. I think these are all the books she has right now, although there may be a few under furniture or hidden somewhere around here.

I didn't take any photos of the fireworks, but for the second year in a row Anja slept right through them.


Here are a few recent photos from yet another beautiful part of Point Reyes where I have been running lately. On recent runs I've seen an osprey nest with chicks, many semi-tame deer on the trail, elephant seals, two different kinds of snakes and many lizards. This picture here is the trail to Arch Rock.


And this is the view facing south toward Bolinas from Sky Trail.


This weekend we went to Tilden Lake Park in Berkeley and Anja and Jay got to see Berkeley's campus (sorry no pictures of campus). But here is Anja sporting some new clothes from Grandma at the park, very stylish.


And checking out a ladybug with Daddy:


Also a video of Anja finding all the clothes that arrived in the mail from Grandma. She loves to play dress-up. She picks out a lovely flower dress/plaid shorts combo here:

Beaches clams and hikes

Since last weekend we've been to Bolinas Beach for the first time. It's part of a "locals only" type of community but it is a public beach. It definitely has a more hippie feel to it, complete with dogs running loose everywhere and the apparently parentless boy about four years old who was running around in the surf with no clothes on. The beach was nice and the water was surprisingly warm. There is a fairly protected bay that is great for first-time surfers and some people were taking lessons when we were there.


Anja loves running around on the beach and she no longer eats sand!


She liked her clam.


Then we went to Duxbury Reef where some of the most impressive tidepooling around can be found. We were there at medium tide so we didn't see the really awesome stuff like sea slugs or sea cucumbers, but we did find a lot of small fish and hermit crabs, as well as a few bigger crabs.


Anja thought some of it was pretty cool, until she became squirmy.


Look, a rare photo of me with Anja! Check out this amazing tide pool. I love it.


We also went on a guided nature hike through Marin County Open Spaces. They are free and there are several a week. Here is Anja looking at an insect in a bottle that was caught on the hike.


And we stopped with the group for lunch here.


Also Anja and her dad on Father's Day weekend. She liked putting the picks into the hole in the guitar.

Sign Language and more videos

Here are a couple of videos of Anja saying bird in sign language. She also says "bird" verbally, but it mostly sounds like "baby."





Also this video is cute for multiple reasons. First, this is the first time we've given Anja these finger puppets from her grandparents and she really likes them. Second, this is her typical morning outfit. She loves to put on clothes, especially dresses. So here she had me put on a dress over her pajamas, and then wanted a sweater put on over everything.


And here's a funny one showing how quickly her tastes change. A few weeks ago she LOVED this whole milk yogurt and now she doesn't eat it at all:

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!

Sand

A fun dilemma to have when living here is where to go when you have a few hours free? There are so many great, free options that it is hard to decide. The easiest place to go is Point Reyes National Seashore, since there are so many great places within the park to go and there is no charge. It's a really big place, it would take about 1.5 hours to drive from one end to the other, and that wouldn't include driving down the other offshoots of the main roads. You can visit waterfalls, mountains, sandy beaches, rocky shores, open meadows, wetlands, conifer forests, and more. It takes about 45 minutes to get there from here. Anja and I went there for the afternoon yesterday.


Jay is gone for the weekend playing in a hockey tournament with some folks from work (in Tahoe!), so we're on our own. Anja is pretty easy these days, but it is still amazing how exhausting taking care of a baby/toddler by yourself can be. The best plan is usually to take her somewhere so she gets the daily stimulation she needs. That way she has a great day and eats and sleeps well later. The beach is great for that. Anja loves the birds, the dogs and the sand.


On this trip she played such fun games as:
-wearing sand for a hat
-sitting in holes that I dug in the sand
-laughing hysterically when her feet were buried in sand
-taking off and putting on sandy shoes (a fun game anywhere)
-picking up sand and putting it in my hand
-very slowly pretending to put sand in her mouth while smiling (waiting for me to stop her so she could laugh and do it again)