New Years Eve

The first part of the day was spent in and around the Conservatory. Although you cant tell from this photo, it was a VERY windy blustery day. I absolutely love Conservatories - a room surrounded with glass where you can sit and enjoy the rain and wind while being warm and cozy.
We celebrated the last day of 2006 by having a very fancy and delicious 5-course-meal over at Jane's house across the street from the Lewis Family house. Here is [from the left]: Trystan (Rhodri's brother), Rhiannon, Rhodri, Llinos (Trystan's wife), Teid Trefor, Nain Beryl and 'Auntie' Jane.
Rhiannon was making google eyes at Trystan during the whole meal -- she would throw her head back and laugh crazily when he looked at her. Finally she got to go sit on his lap and immediately wanted to get down and crawl around under the table.
Making bubbly lip noises with 'Auntie' Jane
Another new thing for the Minx is to pretend to talk on the phone by using anything that vaguely resembles a phone! Here she is with the remote control shouting "AH DAH".
Lots of laughter with Nain Beryl

Laying low

We've been laying low....going for walks in between raindrops, drinking tea in the Conservatory, and walking around town and over the favorite hills of the Vardre and Conwy Mountain.
Here we are near the top of the Vardre. The Vardre is the site of an ancient (c. 700 AD) castle that overlooks the Conwy River valley (which you can see in the background). Fortunately for us, the Vardre is only a few minutes walk from the Lewis family house.
Kissing cousins Rhiannon and Gabriel. Rhiannon has been kissing almost on command these days if we say "Sws i [fill in the blank]". "Sws" is pronounced "soos" and means kiss in Welsh.
Rhiannon looked like a starfish squished flat against Rhodri's back on the way up to Conwy Mountain.
On top of Conwy Mountain with Teid Trefor, Sioned, Steve, Rhodri, Rhiannon and Nain Beryl.
The Minx likes being thrown in the air
Pulling magnets off the refridgerator with Teid is a favorite activity

Nadolig Llawen (Merry Christmas)

We are in Wales for Christmas!
We arrived on Friday Dec 22nd and have had some really lovely relaxing days since then. Rhodri's older sister Nia and her Argentine husband Cristian and their 3-month baby boy Gabriel are here too, along with Rhodri's younger sister Sioned. Its a noisy house with the 2 babies and their early waking hours! We have been having a little party in the Conservatory each morning around 6am. Its waaaay more enjoyable waking up early when you share the 'fun' with another grown-up.
Here is a scene from the early morning party with Nia and Gabriel. Rhiannon has started pointing at things that interest her and usually says "Ehhhhhyyy" in this funny voice that totally sounds like she is interested in something. In fact, usually when we hear that we know she has found the remote control or the bowl of pistachios or something else she is not supposed to play with.
Here is Rhiannon with her Nain Beryl (Grandma in Welsh).
Rhiannon got many wonderful presents, including a little car that has a musical circling scene with a princess, a horse, and a dragon. She totally loves it! She climbs on and scoots around riding on it, and she also gets off and pushes it or pulls it around with her. The seat lifts up too so she can put handy toys in there.
Rhiannon also got a supercute red ladybug (aka ladybird) scarf and ladybug rainboots (wellies)Out for a walk with Nain and wearing her favorite bunny poncho

Walking

This video is already a bit outdated because the past 3 days she has been getting a lot stronger and more confident.

On darkness

The Tromso skyline...
Its weird having it be dark all the time. When we were in Tromso, the sky started to lighten around 10:30am and then started darkening again around 1pm! The sun never did make it above the horizon. Its not quite that extreme here at 60 deg north, but there is a heck of a lot of darkness. Aside from feeling sleepy a lot, it also is hard for Bentley to chase sticks. But I do like the coziness of this dark season so far.

Here is a great idea: heated tile floors in the bathroom! It is soooo nice. Candles or soft white lights in windows is another. And it is SO nice to not be bombarded with "Happy Holidays" over-the-top Santa, overplayed carols and tinsel everywhere. Does that sound too scroogey? Maybe if I understood more Norwegian, I would not feel the same way. There is something so nice (in a way) about being oblivious to language in a foreign land.

Housewarming and a real Birthday

We had a party today! Actually, we had 2 parties. First, we invited all of our neighbors around from 1-3pm (we put flyers in everyone's mailboxes last week). I think nearly everybody came - about 25 adults + a bunch of kids - which we were quite surprised about! At 1pm prompt the doorbell rang and from then on it was one family after another, each bearing a gift of some kind. Superb! We drank coffee and ate gingerbread and it was really nice. I dont think we will remember most people's names but at least we know some familiar faces now. Here are some of the neighbors, including our friend Beate who is wearing a skirt (below).
Second, we invited all of our friends and colleagues over from 3-6pm for a proper Housewarming/ Birthday party. There were about 10 kids, mostly aged 1-5, here for the second party. We turned them loose with the basket of toys and they were off! Rhiannon and Felix (20 months) managed to chew off the top of a red bath gel crayon and were happily feasting away on bath gel (rubbing their hands in a puddle on the wood floor and then licking their hands) until Felix's older brother came and got me. The rolling horsie ran over Tidemann's (13 months) fingers but everyone by then figured it was karma because he had been pulling chunks of hair out of his sister's head all day.
Fortunately there was no overlap in the groups and I even had a few minutes to bake some more gingerbread cookies in between parties. The Chocolate Applesauce Cake that I made as a 1st birthday cake was a hit even though I was missing a key ingredient (allspice). I have a video of us singing Happy Birthday to Rhiannon and also of her eating the cake which I will post, but here is the Minx scarfing down.

Northern lights and a lavvo tent

After our bad luck subsided, we went to the Tromso Wilderness Center http://www.villmarkssenter.no/hmeny-E.htm for an evening of relaxing around a campfire, enjoying live music, eating "Finnbiff" (reindeer stew with wild berries) and watching the northern lights! Here is a photo (taken by our friend Abi Smigel) of the lights above the hangout tent. Even though it was cloudy and even raining on and off, the lights were still visible behind the clouds.
Here is the Minx relaxed and warm in my lap inside the lavvo tent. The tent was about 30 feet diameter with reindeer-skin-covered seating around the sides. That is our friend Phil behind us. Rhiannon slept on and off inside of a borrowed stroller and when she was awake she socialized with everyone and sucked on rocks which covered the floor.
Here is the Minx visiting the musician. She kept trying to adjust the strings by fiddling with the thingies on the end of the guitar (i dont know what they are called!)
Here she is socializing with Eva, Michael, Terje and Jamie (though he isn't as interested!). She especially loved looking at Terje (in the white sweater) and getting attention from Michael.

A Very Eventful Birthday!

I am SO glad that Rhiannon will not remember her 1st birthday! It was an absolutely disastrous day. I will spare you all the details, but in short...

Rhodri was out of the country on business and Rhiannon and I were scheduled to go up to Tromso in the northern part of Norway on a "Teambuilding" trip with my group at work. Rhiannon was a little bit under the weather and I nearly canceled our trip but decided to go for it...big mistake! We ended up missing the flight because the taxi I called took nearly 2 hrs to come and eventually I gave up on it and asked a neighbor that I didn't know to drive us to the train station. So when I realized that we were going to miss the flight, I also realized that my wallet was gone! We had to borrow money in order to get off of the train and go through the turnstile into the airport. Fortunately there was a later flight up to Tromso so we got on that, but then the airlines lost our stroller! In the middle of all this, Rhiannon had a diaper blowout and I hadn't packed any spare clothes, so she was a stinky little birthday girl. By the time we got to the hotel (which was NOT a luxury hotel and actually I was expecting there to be no hot water or heating in our room but thankfully I was wrong!), it was 11pm and we had no wallet, no stroller; it was late and cold and dark and we were exhausted and hungry and Rhiannon didn't feel well and both of us were crying! So sad.

I found the silver lining in the kindness of strangers. The nice neighbor Lasse was offended that I hadn't asked him for a ride to begin with rather than calling a taxi. The train conductor mobilized some helpers at the airport to come and help me with luggage to get through quickly and try to make the flight that I ended up missing (of course, when I realized that my wallet was gone I told her to stand down the helpers because we were in no hurry anymore!). A Norwegian couple next to me on the train offered to lend me money to get to Tromso.

Then my friend Emily magically appeared at the airport! She bought us a cup of tea and a chocolate cupcake and we sat for awhile in the airport cafe while deciding what to do next. She ended up lending me money and looking after Rhiannon while I ran around changing flights and things like that. In the end, we made it to Tromso and Rhiannon got to have some chocolate cake on her eventful birthday but it sure was a grim ride.
Coming soon... northern lights and a wonderful evening in a Sami lavvo tent make the trip worthwhile!

God Jul

(that means "Happy Christmas"...I think)
Today Rhiannon got her face painted and received a Norwegian elf hat (the long braids are the telltale sign I guess). She seemed to like sucking on the braid ends. Our neighbor Beate was the one doing the face painting at the shopping center and she took the really cute picture above.

Snuggly bunny outfit

Rhiannon's Aunt Heidi gave her this snuggly bunny poncho as a birthday present - the Minx turns one tomorrow! Usually Rhii only gets to wear it in the car, but on Friday night we went to a party at work and she got to wear it as a special treat. Here she is all ready to go!

Feeding time

The Minx is learning to feed herself these days....

Breakfast scene

Here is the scene in our new house during breakfast time. Right now the dining table is too loaded with stuff that we haven't unpacked yet, so we hang out at the breakfast bar area a lot. That is the fireplace and living room in the background. We have been building a fire in the fireplace when we wake up so the room is nice and toasty and cozy as we start the day. It doesn't start getting light until nearly 9am!