Time for some fuzz

Its getting cold here. Snow forecast for today and we saw a frozen puddle just the other day! Seemed like a good time to get Rhiannon a very cozy cuddly pod for her stroller. This sheepskin sleeping bag-like pod should do just the trick. The fuzz is actually on the inside not the outside although it appears so on this photo.
That is a laughing face, not the other kind!New fuzzy hat inside her new superfuzzy sheepskin sleeping bag
Rhodri and Bentley with our friends Phil and Emily on top of a nearby mountain overlooking Sandvika and the surrounding area. We live about 2 of Emily's heads to the right of Emily's head on this photo.
The Minx and her Daddy

Out of the closet...

...and back in again!

Rhiannon loves climbing in and out of the closet!

Growth

This first photo is from the archives...Rhiannon was 2 months and 10 days old when this was taken. I wish this cute hat still fit her.
Over the past 3 weeks, Rhiannon has jumped from wearing size '3-6 month' clothes to wearing '12 month' clothes- she skipped the 6-12 month stage! Her clothes look funny on her because her bare arms stick out of the sleeves. I cannot believe how big she is getting.

And boy does she loves her food. When she sees someone eating, she makes her way over to them and climbs up their leg, humming and softly whining as if to say "Oooh, I'll have some of that!" Then, if it becomes apparent that the food in sight is not going to be shared with her, she get a bit more vocal as if to say "Aww come on! Please cant I have just a little bite?". I am sure Rhiannon's uncles and father would say that she takes after her mother...

More discoveries at the island

The "Chiefs" (pictured below) and I went on a good walk on Friday afternoon - we went back to the island with the multiple mysterious showers. This time we stumbled upon a nudey beach! I wouldnt have known it was a nudey beach except that there was a sign with a line drawing of a family (mother, father, and 2 kids) showing their backsides (cracks, cheeks and all) in detail. Below the drawing was written "Nude beach" in 5 different languages, including English. Nobody was there - it was drizzling lightly and about 45 deg F but it looked like a lovely little beach! There was a picnic table under some trees and really nice big smooth rocks jutting out from the sand into the calm fjord water. I forgot to bring my camera for this outing so I will have to post photos from a future visit to the island.The Chiefs are always eager for a walk
The Minx's new thing is to climb up on top of things and people and Bentleys! Bentley doesnt see the fun in Rhiannon climbing on him so we try to distract her with other things and people to climb on.

New noises and words (kind of)

Rhiannon has started consistently saying certain sounds that we interpret as her 'saying' things. So 'Da Da' means Daddy, 'Ma Ma' means Mama, 'Dee' means Doggy/ Bentley, and 'Na na' means banana! That is pretty much all she says, although she sure is a noisy little bugger! Still growling and making mouth-trumpet noises, and now she has started clucking her tongue and gargling.
In the bath with Daddy, sporting a 'faux-hawk'
Happy to have pried one of her shoes off and getting to play with her really annoying pretend cell phone that the nice lady at Sav-On drugstore in San Diego gave her!

Not all Guinness and skittles

I saw a poster once that said "Life is, unfortunately, not all Guinness and skittles" (actually it was an old 1920's advertisement for Guinness). At the time I thought it was funny because I thought it was referring to Skittles the candy, not realizing it was about Skittles the game.

Anyway, that phrase was in my head today as I was thinking that we are past the 'new-and-exciting' phase and into the 'bit-more-difficult' phase of our new life here. I have found that Norwegian people just walking around town etc do not smile or acknowledge other people walking around town.

So a bit of unfriendliness, combined with a turn in the weather, combined with the fact that we still have not found child care help for Rhiannon and I have been needing to be at work a lot recently have all resulted in me feeling a bit sorry for myself.

Meanwhile, the Minx is doing well and we have been keeping her cozy warm as you can see in this photo - we thought she looked like one of the Teletubbies!

Girl power

I have noticed that there are some differences in this country that show an underlying "Girl Power" message in society.
Here is what i have noticed:
- The figure on the sign for "baby changing area" is NOT wearing a dress!
- The womens sports clothing section of the new Costco-like store is MUCH bigger than the mens sports clothing section (actually Rhodri noticed this, not me)
- Out of 27 people I saw at the shopping mall the other day that were either pushing strollers or wearing a sling/ babycarrier, 19 of those were men
- In flipping through the 10 or so Norwegian TV channels on Saturday late afternoon, I found 2 channels airing the same footage of a local women's soccer game!
- Under a new Norwegian law, all public corporations have a year to put women in 40 percent of boardroom seats.
Interesting, huh?

Long first week

Its been a long week! We are very glad that today is Saturday. This morning the temperature was 8 deg C (~48 deg F) and it was so refreshing to be outside bundled up on a walk through Sandvika town.
Bentley got to have a bit of fun jumping for small rocks in the shallow fjord water, even though he had to stay on the leash.
The Minx has been a good sport this week - she spent quite a bit of time in the office with us sitting in on meetings and being plied with Cheerios. Fortunately, she is fascinated (for now!) with calculators and fluorescent pens so she just played with these while we conducted business. Most of the guys we work with here have children also, so they didnt seem to mind having Rhiannon around. Its not a long term solution though!
She has been pushing this box around the place, using it as a 'walker'. And now the past couple of days, she has also been chewing on the corners of the box.

Settling in

The past couple of days we have been running around trying to sort out bank, tax and work stuff. We have all been hanging out in the office with Rhodri and I taking turns babysitting. Bentley has been going for walks with us and chilling out in the car. Everyday we explore in a different direction. Today we found a really nice path that went alongside a river. I was hoping to run into other Moms with babies at the many playgrounds that are scattered around, but they were all vacant! It rained today, but not until later this afternoon when we took the train to go meet Rhodri in Asker and go shopping. Rhiannon has been such a good sleeper lately...sleeping solidly for about 12 hours. Lets hope I didnt jinx her by saying that just now....

Sunday afternoon at Semsvennet

We went for a walk today around Semsvennet Lake, which is about a 5 minute drive outside of Asker. There were several hundred other people there walking around the lake with their strollers and dogs, so we fit right in! There is a big leash-free area for dogs ("hundelufting") so Bentley got to chase and hump Norwegian dogs for the first time! He has been acting a little bit more agressive than his usual friendly self - maybe its his way of adjusting to all the changes. Here we are at the Hundelufting area.

It was such a gorgeous afternoon - no clouds in the sky with a cool wind and damp ground covered with yellow leaves. There were cows with bells on grazing in fields around the lake and a sole canoe was out on the lake with 2 people in it. Too bad we couldnt take the "SS Meerkat" with us!

Blurry first days

Well its been a blur these first few days but I think we are getting there. Our first night in this time zone was really long and hard - the Minx didn't go down for the night until 4am so we all slept until noon the next day. Here is the Minx with her new fleecy mittens all snuggly in her stroller
We went exploring today. We walked from our apartment down into the village center and out to a peninsula that had a pedestrian bridge over to an island. Bentley went for a swim in the fjord for the first time! The island had stand-alone showers all over the place - how strange! For people swimming in the fjord? There were also about 5 small soccer fields in the middle of the island
On our first day here, we went over to the house we will rent starting in December and met the family. The mother (Pia) had baked some hazelnut rolls and the 2 kids of the family (Aagne and Marte) had invited their friends over so that they could play with Rhiannon and Bentley. The boys were enthralled with Rhiannon and she seemed to feel the same way about them! Meanwhile, the girls had taken Bentley on a long walk around the neighborhood using a duffel bag shoulder strap as a leash since we managed to forget his normal leash.The Lewis' with Haavard, Pia, Aagne and Marte

Made it to Norway!

Well, we all made it to Norway although it sure wasn't pretty!
We left at 5am on Wed for the airport. Sending Bentley through Continental cargo was a bit chaotic and since the place didn't open until 6am and our flight was at 8am, the fact that we had to spend over an hour there put us waaay late for checking in our 6 bags, 1 stroller and 1 carseat! Fortunately Rhiannon's charismatic smile charmed the baggage guy who helped us get to the front of the line and we made it to the gate as the Final Call was being made.
Here is the Minx with the baggage guy and other airport workers.
On the other end at the Oslo airport with all our luggage and about to go rescue Bentley from the Customs officials.
NOT impressed!

Heavy leaning on friends and family

We really leaned on our friends and family for help and support during the frantic days of packing and moving this week! First I convinced my parents to come down for part of the weekend to help look after Rhiannon while we packed. Then my Mama friends Ruby and Nicole came over on Sunday to help, Ruby back on Monday and then Lisa came over on Tuesday. The double stroller got a lot of use and so did the play yard on the deck!

Here is Nicole with Sofia and Rhiannon, Ruby in the background.
Rhiannon and Cade getting ready for yet another walk to the park
Saying goodbye to Lisa and Isabella