And she can sit for relatively long periods of time (5 minutes or so) trying to put on shoes or pants. She loves wearing her bike helmet around the house (though she has yet to actually ride on a bike) and sometimes she even tries to put her purple headband on!
It is warm here now. Like, really warm... want to park the car in the shade warm; sleeveless shirts, shorts and sandals warm; hard to sleep at night warm! And by warm I mean around 80 deg F, hotter in the sheltered sunny areas like our backyard. I honestly didn't think it got this warm here! When we moved in October, we saw summer patio furniture in peoples' yards and I remember thinking "yeah, right -- they probably don't get much use out of those, except for the 1 or 2 days of real summer each year!". Boy was I wrong. Not that I am complaining, mind. It is rather nice but since the sun wakes up at 3am or so and doesnt go to sleep again until nearly midnight, there isn't really such a thing as a nice cool morning. By 8am it is definitely warm outside. But we are coping just fine -- no sunburns, no real discomfort, just days filled with work for us and barnehage (playing outside all day) for the Minx, then evenings hanging outside in our yard and enjoying cold snacks with cold glasses of delicious Norwegian tap water (not being sarcastic!). AND we bought a little wading pool of course for Rhiannon to climb in and out of every few seconds as she busily transfers measuring cups, sandbox toys and clothing items into and out of the pool in her birthday suit. [** By the way, I realize this picture doesn't go at all with the text, but I haven't taken any photos since our camping trip and this one is a little bit cute.]
One of the challenges was that you had to walk about 0.5 miles from the parking lot to the camp site and so it was a big effort for us with a crazy dog, a excited little girl and a trailer full of gear.
Once we got settled into our spot, we had a really nice walk and exploration on the beach. One of Rhiannon's favorite things to say is "ha det" (pronounced "ha duh") which means "good bye" in Norwegian. Here she is saying "ha det" to the ducks that were playing in the small surf while I keep Bentley a safe distance away. He really wanted to go for those ducks.
There was a family of 4 young boys with their parents camped next to us. The 2 youngest were twins about Rhiannon's age. They were so intrigued by each other. It looks like she is flashing the little boy in this photo but I can assure you she is not!
There were some crying times as well. I think in this picture, the Minx wanted to play by the stove and she was being told she couldn't. But it wasn't the first time that tears were shed this outing!
We had a long night. Rhiannon went to sleep fairly easily around 8pm but of course it was light until nearly midnight and then only dark for 3 hours before it was light again. There were kids playing soccer by our tent until 11:30pm. Since Bentley was tied up to a tree outside, he took his job as Guardian pretty seriously; anytime someone walked by or another dog tied to a nearby tree moved a muscle, Bentley barked. So there was a lot of "Quiet, Bentley! Hush, Bentley!" going on until about 1am when we finally brought him into the tent with us. All the while, Rhiannon slept like a log inside of her little baby tent inside of the main tent. Here she is playing inside her baby tent before we moved it inside the main tent for the night.
The Minx woke up at 6:15am and we all hung out in the tent eating cold bananas for awhile before we ventured outside.
Then we made breakfast and played on the beach for a few hours before packing up and leaving. 
Overall, it was a worthwhile trip. It was "a bit of a nightmare" to have Bentley unhappily tied to a tree, barking at the other dogs and getting tangled in the rope while Rhiannon kept wandering off into other families' campsites. I think next time we will camp at a non-designated campsite so there will not be anyone else around. In Norway, you can camp just about anywhere as long as you are 150m from the nearest dwelling (there are probably a few other rules which we will have to look into before our next expedition). And so we made it home around 2pm on Sunday. It started raining about 4pm and hasn't stopped since so we are doubly glad that we decided to only camp one night!
We all really liked her. Okay, well Bentley didn't get to come on this visit because we didn't want him worrying the chickens. But the rest of us really liked her. She said the right things and had a very calm, competent demeanor. We were most impressed when we learned that she was the sole midwife for Princess Martha Louise of Norway when the Princess decided (controversially at the time) to have a homebirth in 2005. How cool is that?
That's where her next new skill comes in. Actually, its not a new skill - its a new (Norwegian) word: ASHHHH
Here is the marching band that has been practicing for the past several weeks going past our house. It was followed by the local barnehage (not the one Rhiannon goes to) and various other groups.
The end of the parade route was at the local school where there was food, games and socializing. We stayed for about 45 minutes and then went home to prepare for the next activity.
The final activity of the day was a BBQ with our close neighbors set up in our private playground area. Everyone brought their own food to grill but we shared salads and desserts. After dinner there was a big soccer game which most people participated in (though not Rhiannon or me) and other games.
All the dogs were free to run and play and beg for scraps, so Bentley had a really great time! Rhiannon also did some begging - she is mad for strawberries so she was climbing up next to anyone that had them visible.
Rhiannon loves the sandbox so when she was dissuaded from begging for strawberries, she was happy to come play here. You can see the soccer game going on behind her and the picnic tables to the left of the pitch.
The games and BBQ went on from 4pm until about midnight. I ducked out around 7:30pm to put Rhiannon to bed and then I took a bath and was not keen to go back outside. Needless to say, National Day was absolutely exhausting! Fortunately the next day was cold and rainy -- such a contrast to this fantastic day. We stayed home and laid low all of Friday.
The city was absolutely gorgeous with everything in full bloom
It was pretty crowded along the parade route, but especially up by the Palace. We were right in the front row, though -- straight up from the lady in red (below).
When the parade arrived at the Palace, the King and Queen (by the red banner), along with the Prince and Princess (back to the left), came out to the balcony to watch.
Then the thousands of children started marching past with their schools. Everyone flying their flags and many of them playing musical instruments.
We watched the parade for about 30 minutes and then abandoned our prime viewing location for others to enjoy. After awhile, everyone looks about the same! We walked down to Aker Brygge (the waterfront) and had some ice cream, then took the train back to Asker for the afternoon activities. The parade went on for hours because every school in the area was marching in it. I was so glad that we went to the effort of getting dressed up and going into Oslo because it really was amazing to see the whole city looking their best. I think Rhiannon enjoyed it too although we left her flag at home (intentionally)! She was the subject of several people's photos when she wanted to sit down and suck on bits of gravel while wearing her fancy dress.
Getting ready for the parade
About to start walking...notice the Minx pestering some much larger little boy with her flag! There was a lot of flag poking going on this day.
Here is the school parading through the neighborhood. There were several other parents there and we just walked around the block singing (okay, I didn't sing because I don't know Norwegian songs!) and shouting "hip hip HooRAH!!" with great enthusiasm. Rhiannon liked the "hurRAH" part a lot and would wave her flag while shouting this.
I am 19 weeks now -- almost halfway there -- and I am already quite large!
You can see our lawn hasn't been mowed but its nice to have lovely green grass for Rhiannon and Bentley to play on.
We went to the "hundelufting" (leash-free dog area) yesterday at Semsvennet lake and Bentley got to play with lots of other dogs.
Semsvennet is such a beautiful place and yesterday the patchy dark clouds made the lighting spectacular (although you can't really tell from this photo). We learned from a fellow dog-owner that this lake has the largest variety of fish in all of Norway -- 22 species!
As soon as we were out on the water, the Minx fell asleep even though she was mostly standing with her head propped up by the life jacket! I think she liked the motion of the rocking canoe and the sound of water going past us. It turned out to be rather windy and choppy out on the fjord though, so once we got out from behind the shelter of the Konglungen peninsula, we headed straight for the Holmen Fjord Hotel for some tea and cakes.
One of Rhiannon's favorite places to play lately has been this blue plastic bin. She climbs in and out and in and out, bringing various items (shoes, finger puppets, snacks...) along and cackling to herself all the while. Maybe she is pretending to be inside the canoe?
We didn't, but we did play hookey yesterday (Monday) morning...we got up as usual and got ready for the day, took Rhiannon to barnehage and then raced off to play golf at the Asker Golf Club! Yesterday was a stunning day with clear views over the Asker valley and down to the fjord, sunny and warm but with a crisp breeze that reminded us we are in Norway. It was a perfect morning for skiving off work and sneaking in 18 holes. I hadn't played golf in about a year so it took me a few holes to get going. And of course, there are no golf carts in these here parts so it ended up being a lot more walking than I am used to (sad to say!). We finished in time to get half a day of work in at the office (which is a mere 2 km from the golf course!) and then we had all day today as a real holiday. Nice!
Occasionally I try to put a hair clip in Rhiannon's hair. As long as she doesn't notice me putting it in, the clip will stay there for awhile. But on this day she noticed herself in the mirror and then she noticed the clip in her hair - of course she pulled it straight out.
As we are getting the final bits and pieces ready for nursery school and work in the morning, Rhiannon usually pesters Bentley.
Rhodri, Phil and Richard went fishing for a long time and then came back and let Richard's son Alex climb in for the photo below. The "three oafs in a boat" situation led to some reportedly sketchy moments when they encountered speedboat wakes and the SS Meerkat got excitingly tippy.
Rhiannon really wanted to go in the canoe as well, so we took her out for her first ride! She was so entranced by the water flowing past the boat that she forgot all about her cookie until we were back on land. Sadly, we don't have a photo of this outing but there will be others. Rhiannon wanted to keep the life jacket on until we had to leave for the day!
And she kept climbing into the canoe as we were getting the car packed up. I think she is hooked! 
But the BEST part of the day was that she was fast asleep for the night by 6:30pm and slept all the way until 9:30am Sunday morning! I think we will be having more days at the beach...
