With affection and sourdough

One thing I love about Norway and Norwegians in general is that there is not much in the way of embellishment with romantic adjectives or unnecessary verbage - they pretty much tell it how it is. I love this because I can trust it - I know there is minimal exaggeration. And so I just made myself a late night piece of toast and was reading the label on the yummy bread that I was eating, and it said "Bakt med kjaerlighet og surdeig", which translates to "Baked with affection and sourdough". And I thought, yep, that's about right. It is entirely possible, however, that this phrase has some kind of hidden meaning that only Norwegians know about and so doesn't show up in my dictionary...

On a blind course

Today I visited Rhiannon's class in the forest. The teachers built a "sensory ropes course" which was a long piece of rope tied between various trees, up over a small mound of rock, around some small trees and then through a little gully. There was a log to climb over and another log to go under. Rhiannon is the 2nd one in line, wearing red in this photo. Everyone was watching the other teacher demonstrate walking blind through the course.
Everyone took turns doing the course, first pulling their hat down over their eyes and then holding onto the rope and walking around. Rhiannon didn't want to do it blind the first time, and the second time she did but she stopped to peek out quite a few times!

Rowing

We have a rowing machine that gets used relatively often (usually by Rhodri rather than me - I still have bad memories of ergometer workouts from my rowing days), but this is the first time that the younger Lewis' have been allowed on...

Tryfan is saying (in the above video) that he is watching a [Fireman] Sam video - he was pretending that the little computer screen on the rowing machine was showing videos. Now it's Rhiannon's turn:

Quiet week

It's been a quiet week and weekend here. Rhiannon has been a little under the weather, so she stayed home a couple of days this week and then barnehage was closed on Friday so we were all home together that day. It's been a little rainy and pretty cold, but we still go outside and play everyday. It looks a lot like this... pretty leaves still clinging to a lot of the trees, but there are plenty of fallen yellow lovelies on the ground too.

Tryfan turns 2!

Today is Tryfan's birthday but we celebrated it mostly yesterday.
I say mostly because the barnehage celebrated it today by hanging a flag outside the building, making him a paper crown to wear, and conducting the traditional "bursdagsamling" which involves a wooden birthday train with the appropriate number of candles on it,treats provided by the child's parents, imaginary fireworks (birthday child gets to pick which colors the fireworks get to be, and the number of fireworks that are let off depend on how many years old the child is), and everyone in the class singing the Norwegian birthday song. This song is not the 'normal' Happy Birthday song with Norwegian lyrics set to it. It is a completely different, more thoughtful and celebratory song. Here is Rhiannon singing most of it (I think she left out a couple of lines in the middle):


As for the main party yesterday, we had a birthday brunch from 10am-12:30 on Sunday morning. We were 6 families altogether, with a total of 8 kids...very manageable and only a little chaotic. It was a bit of a potluck brunch: Anne-Stine brought fresh apple juice made from the apples on her trees, Elisabeth made a quiche, and I made cinnamon rolls from this recipe. Here are the troops preparing the apple juice glasses.
We just ate, chatted, and played for the morning and it was wonderful.
Rhiannon was such an adoring and excited big sister. She helped Tryfan open the presents (because he hasn't figured out how fun it is to do that yet) but she always asked first if he wanted help from her (because sometimes, you know, one doesn't want help from their elder sister).
Tryfan's favorite presents were a fire truck that makes siren noises and a firefighter's hat. He is totally obsessed with fire-everything.
And so our little guy turns two.
Aside from being obsessed with firetrucks, firefighters (especially "Fireman Sam" - the Welsh cartoon series), and all things fire-related, Tryfan:

• loves sweets, especially M&M's and Smarties
  
• appreciates soft fabrics like fleece, satin and wool, and always comments when something soft is next to his skin (usually he says "ooh that's NICE" and closes his eyes with pleasure)
• is very strong, fast and agile
• is very good at hugging, kissing and cuddling
• is VERY ticklish
• continues to just have his own jokes going on -- he talks and giggles to himself all the time
  
• sometimes uses a strange voice to talk in and does the 'chicken walk' during some of those same times
• has very mischievious eyes
• is shy and bashful with people he doesn't or barely knows
• loves kitty-cats and the color pink
• adores Rhiannon and wants to be with her a lot of the time - their favorite activity of late is going down the slide as a train (Rhiannon in front and Tryfan behind)
  

We are so grateful to have Tryfan in our lives!

Long week

This week I worked all day every day at the barnehage. It was Very Hard Work, especially the language part, as all the communicating was in Norwegian. So I learned how to say "You are not allowed to hit people" and "Please sit properly and eat your food" and "Can I help you with that?" and so forth. It was fun to get a glimpse into the behind-the-scenes work and organization that goes into keeping this barnehage thriving. Here is Rhiannon with Sofia just enjoying the late afternoon sunshine earlier this week.
On Tuesday I got to go "på tur" with the 3-year-olds. We went on a 4 hour hike through the forest, with a stop at a playground for lunch. It was a very cold sunny day. The forest we went through is one that I know well because I take Bentley there very often. It was so fun to just play and explore and ramble through the forest with a herd of small kids!
Here are the stragglers on the walk across a plowed field on the way back to the barnehage.
Rhiannon was coughing a lot this week and so she ended up staying home on Wednesday and Friday with Rhodri while I hung out with her friends. Sad! But it was the right thing to do.

The day that could have been

It was this day 2 years ago that I *thought* (and hoped) that Tryfan would be born. It would have been nicely symmetric to have Rhiannon's birthday of 12/10 (as in Dec 10) and Tryfan's as 10/12 (as in Oct 12). But it wasn't to be since he wasn't born until a full week later, and I guess that's okay because with the date/month vs month/date confusion between America and Europe, it would probably have caused us trouble at some point. But whatever. It wasn't to be, and there we go. Still, I love this time of year for all of the chilliness and colors, and my memories of walking walking trying to encourage this baby to leave the womb (for he was 12 days late in the end) are still so vivid.
This photo is a little out of context, but it shows Tryfan's giddy face as he hems and haws over which M&M to choose. He looooves M&Ms, and so we bust them out on special occasions (or not).
As for this day today, I can say that we all miss Daddy/Rhodri and look forward to him returning really really late tomorrow night. We have been a house with lots of sleep lately. Tryfan and Rhiannon both love their beds, but Tryfan especially loves to snuggle in with his kitty, llama and blanket. There is no protesting from these two (touch wood!), although I remember the struggles we have had in the past. The true darkness comes at a civilized time of ~6:30pm now and goes away around 7:15am, and these kids are sleeping about 12 hours every night. In fact, I had to wake them up today for the first time because since I have to be at my new job for 8:30am, we have to leave here by 8:15 at the latest.

New job...

Today I worked at the barnehage for the 2nd day in as many weeks.
During the day, I was asked if I could (and wanted to!) work every day next week. I agreed to it, and so I have a new job, even if temporary. I have been and will continue to work in the "other" big kids class so that I won't be looking after Rhiannon. It's better for everyone that way I think, but of course we see each other and play outside together during parts of the day. I don't see much of Tryfan because the little kids are on a different routine.
The hardest part is the language aspect because these 3-5 year olds speak so fast and so much in Norwegian! I reckon by the end of next week, I will be fluent in playground speak. The other teachers are really helpful because they go out of their way to speak slowly to me and make sure I understand. They also (at my specific request) correct me when my words or grammar are wrong. I've had a really great time so far - I think it is so fun to be with kids this age! It's like a part of me is still about 4 years old -- so I fit right in regardless of my language skills.

Not a typical evening

Last night (Thursday), Rhiannon was invited to her best friend Sofie's birthday party from 5-7pm so Tryfan and I made the best of it. I took this photo of Rhiannon just before leaving to [try to] convince her that she looked pretty with the hairband in her hair (she kept pulling it off).
Since Rhodri is away, we need to do everything together or not at all, so Tryfan and I escorted Rhiannon to the party and then drove down to Trekanten shopping center in town. First we went to the library and practiced using our "inside voices". Yeah, right! Tryfan is very excitable and he talks nonstop now. He found a book about fire trucks and boy, was he ever stoked! Combine that find with an empty climbing wall (with crash mattress below) and stuffed crocodiles, and he was literally happy-dancing and chattering noisily for all to observe! A bit embarrassing, but the library was about to close anyway so I wasn't too worried. After we checked out a couple of books (the fire truck one and "In the Night Kitchen") and a Fireman Sam video for him, we went to the grocery store to buy some deli food for dinner along with other groceries to take home. We rode the escalator a couple of times (always great fun to do), then played at the toy shop for awhile. Since his birthday is coming up, I wanted to see what things specifically he was keen on. So after enough of that, we ate our spring rolls under fluorescent lights right next to the ice cream shop. Tryfan eventually ate enough of his dinner to warrant a special treat of ice cream. He chose pink, of course.
We try to avoid bribing with the treat of dessert, but every now and then I reckon its okay. Anyway, we had to hurry to finish so that we wouldn't be late to get Rhiannon, and poor Tryfs got his first ice-cream-headache! But then we got to ride the escalator back downstairs and everything was okay again ;-)

Høstsuppe

Today was the annual "Autumn Soup" gathering at barnehage. Yesterday Rhiannon's class walked into downtown Asker and bought vegetables to turn into the soup, so it was extra special to eat it today. Here we are in Tryfan's class - Rhiannon's is visible through the door behind.
"Cheeeeese!" says Tryfan while showing off the shirt that he got to decorate for Autumn Soup festivities.
Rhiannon and Tryfs just being cuddly in our kitchen.

Turn-ing

Rhiannon is taking gymnastics lessons now every Monday night, but here in Norway gymnastics is called "Turn". And so last night we went turn-ing with our friend and neighbor Kristoffer and his Mama Monica.
Of course, all of the little girls in the class wear pink leotards with pink foofy tutus, pink tights and pink ballet shoes. When we went to the first class a couple of weeks ago, Rhiannon didn't have the get-up but somehow she already knew that girls are supposed to wear the pink uniform. She insisted on wearing her old swimsuit (size 2T!) which is mostly pink and sparkly. I talked her into wearing a shirt over the top of it but then vowed to myself to buy her a proper get-up that she would be excited to wear. So when I was in the US last week, I bought her this pink (but not too gaudy) leotard and ballet shoes which are quite a bit too big for her. She was really happy to get to wear it last night (although she had already been wearing it around the house the whole weekend).
Rhiannon and Kristoffer are the oldest in the class and they are really into it. One of the benefits of this is that they don't really want their Mamas by their sides - they want to run and climb and jump all by themselves, so Monica and I get to chat and watch. I thought about signing her up for a 3-5 year old class, but since Kris had already signed up for the 2-4 year old class, we figured that's where we should start.
I brought Tryfan to the first class also, thinking that he would probably want to do it too, but he wasn't ready to let go of my hand. However, I think I will bring him along in future weeks and just let him join in when he wants to.

Changing of the guard

Well, as soon as Rhodri came home last weekend, I left to spend the week in Cape Cod, Massachusetts working on a project. So the troops got to spend the transition week into October speaking only Norwegian and Welsh (except for when they talked to me on the telephone every night). I think its good to take turns being away sometimes. I really missed all of my sweeties, though, and it was wonderful to come home on Saturday afternoon for a happy reunion. Here they all are when we went on a walk Sunday morning.
Lately Rhiannon has been really into climbing trees, particularly this one in the backyard which has a rope ladder going up the trunk. The rule is that she can only go as high as she is able to climb back down. So she goes up and down and up and down, each time going a little higher or putting her feet in slightly different places. It's so fun to watch her progress and build confidence in herself.
Tryfan is just itching to get up there too, but he is only allowed on the first rung - after all, he isn't even 2 years old yet! But look at his adoring eyes as he watches Rhiannon up in the tree -- you can just see the wheels turning inside his head!
Now this week Rhodri is going away again... in case you were wondering, we really do like each other! These separation trips are not intentional, its just the way the schedule worked out.