Tool time

Although you can't tell from the photos, it rained most of the day so we mostly laid low. But then the sun came out so Rhodri finally brought up the BBQ from the garage. The Minx was already wearing her Carhartt overalls, so she was all set to help.Cheeky smile as she runs off with a screwdriver
Everything is "coooool" (Minx and Daddy clap their hands and then spread them out while saying "cooooool")
The Minx loves playing with the "dwr" (water) from the hose

Bob and other words

The Minx has had some funny ideas lately. She has been insisting on wearing her bike helmet while eating supper. I guess it makes mealtime a bit more fun?Rhiannon is saying a strange mix of words now -- some Norwegian, some Welsh and some English. She uses the Welsh words "dwr" for water, "agar" for open and "hett" for hat. Then she is still saying "Nei" for no (of course), as well as "sae" for look, "ash" for yuck and probably more that we don't recognize yet. In English, she says "toast", "done", "bubbles", "bug" (as in ladybug) and more every day. She is getting really good at mimicking words.

However, her favorite word right now is "Bob". She got this from watching a few episodes of "Byggmester Bob" -- aka "Bob the Builder". This cartoon (in Norwegian) is on early in the morning (i.e. before we parents are fully functioning) and she loves the theme tune. She may be a bit confused though, as she has been calling Bentley "Bobby" and other men she sees (including Grandpa Carl via video link) "Bob"!

Decisions

In preparation for the arrival of #2, I have been investigating the options for birth. We interviewed a homebirth midwife several weeks ago and really liked her. Then I went to visit a new birthing center in downtown Oslo and I was really impressed! The birth center visit was initially a token effort because having a home birth was my preference, but I am so glad I went because this is the option that we are going with. Its a little bit backwards to have a homebirth with the first child and then go to a birthing center for the second, but that is what we will do.

The birthing center is called Føderiket, and it means "give birth richly" or something like that. It was created by a team of midwives -- 5 of the 8 of them are former homebirth midwives -- in order to provide a natural birthing option for low risk pregnancies. The reason that the government agreed to fund Føderiket is because they realized that there is no longer enough statistics or data about what a natural birth involves! Most births (certainly in the USA but also in countries like Norway) involve some kind of medical intervention such as epidural shots, labor induction medication, and cesearian sections, so people are losing touch with actually what is normal for a natural (unmedicated) birth. The 5 year plan for Føderiket is to ramp up to 12 midwives and then be able to provide both pre-natal and birth care at the facility and also homebirth for those who want it by always having 2 midwives available to go attend a homebirth at any time. The facility is in an old brick building which feels more like a house, especially since there is a nice kitchen in it. Each of the birthing rooms has a big jacuzzi bathtub, shower, double-size bed, couch and some other stuff.

So I am excited about this option although I am sad about not being able to give birth at home. Then again it may be better in some ways to go away from the house, leave Rhiannon in the care of her Grandma Debi and Aunt Heidi, and have some time alone with the new baby and Rhodri. That's the plan anyway -- what actually happens might be something completely different!

Italian wedding (what were we thinking?!?)

It sounded like a good idea at the time: the wedding of our Italian friend Roberto on a Friday in June in a village outside of Milan. We found there were 'cheap' flights with RyanAir from Liverpool (closest airport to North Wales) to Milan and then also from Milan to Oslo, so we booked ourselves on this adventure. Indeed, the phrase "Italian wedding" conjures up fine food and wine, dancing and revelry for everybody! In reality, we found that "Italian wedding" meant spending nearly 3 hot sweaty hours inside a Catholic church listening to the christening and then wedding vows (all in Italian, of course) while trying to keep our lively toddler semi-quiet. We sat in the back row of the church with the local bag lady, who had at least 4 plastic shopping bags at her feet as well as the "flower bag" shown in the photo. She left before the ceremony actually started.
There were other babies in the church ceremony as well, so when we saw them, we thought "phew! at least Rhiannon won't be the only one making noise". What we didn't consider was that just as in the Welsh christening ceremony, whenever one of the babies made any kind of noise, the Minx would answer back in a loud voice. So embarrassing! And of course she wanted to get down and explore the aisles and lay on the cool tile floor. We took turns taking Rhiannon outside but she kept wanting to go back in and cause trouble/ make noise! She adored the older boys that were there as well and kept trying to kiss them and hold their hands. Poor boys (who were about 7-8 years old) did their best to ignore her and focus on playing with rocks, but the Minx was still able to get her lips on this one's cheek.
The ceremony was an hour late in starting and the Minx had emptied her supply of pumpkin seeds and dried fruit before the bride showed up!
Finally the gorgeous bride Ana arrived and the 1.5 hour ceremony started
No idea what was going on here, but it was towards the end and everyone else was standing up to take photos so we joined in...
After the ceremony, there was about an hour of photo taking outside the church and then we went to the reception. Finally the Minx got to really run around and eat loads of cantelope, savory pastries and breaded chicken. She fell asleep in her car seat at our feet while we grown-ups were enjoying the multi-course meal. Such a good thing! She slept all the way through the meal and until we left at midnight. Back at the hotel, we survived our 2nd night of malfunctioning air conditioning with the company of at least 2 cockroaches and several trails of ants, but it wasn't pretty. The bugs didn't really surprise or bother us because the Minx had scattered rice krispies, pumpkin seeds and dried fruit all over the floor. Feast time with the Lewis family in town!

Honestly, there were more than a couple of times when Rhodri and I looked at each other and shook our heads "what were we thinking??". But it was really wonderful to see our friend Roberto and to finally meet his bride and their baby Riccardo (4 months), and we also got to reunite with some other friends that we hadn't seen for awhile. Its just that an event like this is awfully hard work when its HOT and you have a demanding, loud toddler. The traveling to and from was really hard work too, so it was extra wonderful to get home on a rainy Saturday afternoon -- one day earlier than planned.

Chasing pigeons

Rhiannon loved chasing pigeons in the village of Cernusco Sul Naviglio, Italy where we went for a wedding on Friday!

Last days in Wales

We were able to visit with some friends Bleddyn and Geri and their two boys Ceiro and Meilyr (all good Welsh names!) before leaving Wales. Ceiro is 1 year older than Rhiannon and he hesitantly shared his blue tractor with her when we came to visit.He wanted to push her really fast around the garden and I think the Minx was a little bit scared because he was really running! Look at her hair flying behind her in the picture below.
We had such a wonderful time in Wales and we were very sad to leave. But we had committed to going to this Italian wedding for the weekend and so we had to say goodbye on Thursday afternoon. The Minx didn't sleep one wink on the airplane but we had a good time looking out the window as we crossed the Alps.

The new green chair

Nain Beryl bought Rhiannon a perfect little chair and she absolutely loves it. Of course, the first thing she wanted to do was to stand on it, which was quickly discouraged. It is light enough for her to carry around so the next thing we knew, she had carried it into the kitchen so she could climb up on it and reach the strawberries. Cheeky little Minx!A good girl sitting down

Tricky language situations

One of the aspects of this tri-lingual situation we are in is that words sound very similar in different languages but have completely different meanings. One example is: "nei" meaning "no" in Norwegian, "Nain" meaning "Grandma" in Welsh, and "nice" or "nine" in English...they all sound very similar. Its tricky because although we try to stick to our respective langauges when talking to Rhiannon, there are times when we end up using the Norwegian word for something because we know she knows what it means. We also end up using alternative words when we don't want her to be confused and think we are saying a similar-sounding word. Like I say, its tricky!
For example, we try not to say "Nice kitty" because it sounds a lot like "Nei, Kitty" which would imply that the Kitty did something wrong. Instead we say "Soft Kitty" or "Good Kitty". And same with calling Rhiannon's grandmother Beryl "Nain" -- although we have been calling her this, Rhiannon has been calling her "Nei" or nothing at all and just looking confused until today. Today she somehow realized that "Nain" is her name and so she slightly changed the pronunciation so that it sounds more similar to "Nan". So interesting!
There are loads of other examples that impact our life...for instance, the Norwegian word for diaper is "bleie" and the British term is "nappy". The Minx tends to act fussy when we say we are going to change her diaper or nappy but when we call it a bleie, she is calm. And we don't say nap (as in taking a nap) because that sounds too much like "nappy" since that makes her act fussy so instead we say "go for a sleep" (I have no idea what it is in Norwegian). Whatever works!

Gabriel's christening

We went to Cousin Gabriel's christening on Sunday and the Minx was fairly good for the 20 minute event. She wasn't quiet and she didn't sit still, but it could have been a lot worse. I gave her some dried fruit to munch on, thinking that would keep her quiet but I forgot that she likes to hum when she eats! Then she blurted out a few unidentifiable words which must have made sense to Gabriel, because he shouted back from the front row! Here she is on Taid Trefor's lap munching and humming away.She enjoyed the Welsh hymn singing part I think
She did NOT enjoy when Uncle Trystan (holding Gabriel on the left) played the organ, especially when he did so while holding her on his lap! Auntie Nia and Uncle Cristian are also pictured below. Rhodri was away at a "Lad's weekend" so thats why he isn't pictured.

"Allooo"

One of Rhiannon's favorite activities lately has been to drive her Princess-Mobile over to the house phone, pick up the handset and say "Allooooo". Even when the phone is nowhere near her, she still enjoys saying "alloooo"

Simple things

We have been enjoying the simple things in life -- spending time with family, smelling the flowers, and going for walks around the neighborhood. Here is the Minx with her Nain Beryl smelling the lavender in the front garden.With Auntie Sioned smiling at someone on the other side of the windowLook at that cheeky smile! As always, trying to discourage Rhiannon from doing certain things (like climbing on the coffee table) results in Rhiannon doing those very things with great glee! She has been wanting to wear her ladybug boots all the time these days

Big day at the farm

Today we decided to visit a local farm where we could see real farm animals and go for tractor rides and all sorts! http://www.foelfarm.co.uk/ is the website for the place we found. Auntie Nia and Uncle Cristian with Cousin Gabriel came with us. Here is Uncle Cristian with Rhiannon on one of the mini tractors.We got to bottle feed some lambs; ride on a trailer pulled by a tractor around a big pasture scattered with cows, sheep and horses; hold a baby bunny rabbit; feed goats and sheep out of our hands; and enjoy some fresh baked cake and tea (after washing our hands!).
Here we are waiting for our turn to bottle feed a lamb - note the skepticism on Minx's face! Gabriel wasn't too impressed either.
The view from inside the tractor-trailer out to the Menai Straits (between mainland Wales and the Isle of Anglesey where we were).
Getting ready to race mini tractors around the field
Enjoying a really nice sandbox with Uncle Cristian

Summer visit to the Grandparents in Wales

We left Asker Wed morning on the 6:58am train to Oslo airport and Rhiannon was really excited to go on the train. It was a long 47 minute journey because the Minx did not want to sit at all. Then she was even more excited to find the deluxe children's play area at the airport!
As soon as the plane took to the air, the Minx and her daddy both fell asleep and it wasn't until we were coming in to land at Manchester airport when they woke up. Perfect! I had brought a whole load of new things for Rhii to play with but we didn't need to open any of them except the pretzels.
She had some pretty good bedhead after her nap
Once we got to North Wales, we had a happy reunion with the family. Rhiannon's cousin Gabriel is visiting as well (up from Cardiff in the south), so we are enjoying a full house! Gabriel is 9 months old and just started crawling so he is an exciting target for Rhiannon, especially since she was reunited with the "Princess-Mobile" that she got at Christmas. She has been zooming around the house, taking breaks to sway to the music that the Princess-Mobile makes. Poor Gabriel has had some close calls with the Minx and its only been 1 day!

Status check

Rhiannon has had two favorite activities lately: climbing and putting on / taking off clothes. These are not really new - especially the climbing - but she is getting really good at them! She lifts her foot to about the height of her shoulder and uses her toes to grip the top surface of the object she is climbing. Wish I could do that! Fortunately she has not figured out how to climb out of her crib yet but I am afraid that day will soon arrive. 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!

Rhiannon's belly and Mama's belly

Shopping on a hot afternoon

We stopped by the grocery store yesterday on the way home from work/ barnehage. It was a hot afternoon so I figured we could buy a popsicle along with some other stuff. We discovered the toddler-sized shopping carts because Rhiannon literally squealed as we walked in and said "ME!" while pointing to the cart. So we had to give it a try...



What you don't see in the video is the final minutes of the shopping expedition....The Minx threw a proper toddler-sized tantrum as I was trying to bag the groceries, and I finally gave her a popsicle thinking it might help the situation. She ran off (literally ran!) with the popsicle in her mouth into the produce/ dairy area and plopped down on the cool floor, refusing to budge. So I had to carry her out dripping sticky stuff and screeching, along with 2 bags of heavy groceries, my purse and my big belly. Not the smoothest of shopping expeditions but at least it was entertainment for the other shoppers!

Warmth

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.]

Eating strawberries

This is from our camping weekend a week ago.
The Minx loves strawberries and she has a big mouth like her Dad to stuff a lot in

First camping trip

It wasn't completely disastrous, but we wouldn't describe it as "fun"! It was really hard work! We used to go camping a lot, but this was the first time with Rhiannon and also the first time in Norway so we only planned to go for one night as a sort of practice run. Thank goodness we did because it is taking us the rest of this long weekend to recover from our 24 hour outing! Here is the gorgeous location though - a place called Ula which is about 1.5 hr drive from where we live. There are endless camping options between here and Ula but I wanted to go somewhere out of our immediate vicinity - mostly just for a change of scene. The campsite was just behind the small sandy patch in the middle of the photo.
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!

Sand Gard

Last weekend we went to visit a farm called Sand Gard. This is not just any farm - it is the farm where a potential homebirth midwife lives! Her husband is the one doing most of the work and running the daily activities at the farm, so she is free to do all the activities that a homebirth midwife does. Sand Gard is about 30 minutes drive from where we live and it is open on the weekends for selling fresh bread and other baked goods as well as organic eggs. As you can see from all the cars below, it is a popular spot on a Sunday afternoon.
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?
I am still learning about options for birth here in Norway. Most women have babies in hospitals that are run by midwives. However, its going to be hard to beat the option of giving birth in the privacy and comfort of home, so that is my/ our preference. But I am keeping an open mind and will be visiting a new birthing center in early June which is downtown Oslo. I still have a few months to go yet...

New skills

The finger has found the nose! It requires intense concentration in order to really get in there, but we have made it to the nose-picking milestone. And yes, she does try and eat her findings.That's where her next new skill comes in. Actually, its not a new skill - its a new (Norwegian) word: ASHHHH
She has been saying this word so carefully and repeatedly all the time the past couple of weeks and finally we found out what it means: YUCK! She must be hearing this word at barnehage several hundred times a day as she happily attempts to suck on gravel, chew dirt and then eat her boogers that she digs out. Rhodri would say that she takes after her mother....

A happy pre-bathtime swing in the backyard this evening (below)

National Day - afternoon

The story continues... we had to rush home because the neighborhood parade started at 1pm and went right past our house! We went out to join our neighbors and watched the parade go by. The tradition is that as the parade passes you, you are supposed to join in and continue along the route until the party at the end. Rhiannon loved seeing our neighbors in their fancy clothes and watching the parade go right past us.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.