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.

National Day - morning

May 17th started out with a clear sunny sky and a cool wind blowing. We caught the 9:00am train into Oslo and met our friends Leendert and Annike who are both Dutch but have lived in Oslo for 10 years (we work with Leendert). They had already staked out prime real estate at the Royal Palace so that we would have the best view of the big event of the day -- the Barnetoget (which means "Children's Parade"). Nearly every single person in the city was dressed in their finest clothes, and those that had Norwegian national costumes (called "bunad") wore them. Here is the Minx and her Daddy in front of the fountain at National Theatre.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.

The day before National Day

Today was Norwegian National Day and it was such a big event that I cannot even begin to post photos of it or tell about it! I will first post some photos of yesterday (may 16) when Rhiannon's barnehage had their own National Day celebration (since of course today it was closed). The teachers told us to have Rhiannon "dressed up" which we interpreted as wearing the national outfit. However, it turned out that she was the only one wearing it! Everyone else was most likely saving their good outfit for the real National Day and instead wearing just dressy clothes on May 16th. At least she wasn't old enough to be teased.
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.

Number 2 on the way!

Well, we are adding another Lewis to the clan in early October! We have known this for awhile, but today was the ultrasound. We did not peek at the gender so the new Lewis will be a surprise to us all. I have been already feeling a lot of movement for a few weeks now but I am also still feeling the nausea - yuck :-(
I am 19 weeks now -- almost halfway there -- and I am already quite large!

Preparations

Well, its all happening here now! Everyone in Norway is busy making preparations for "Norwegian National Day", which is on May 17th. There are mandatory community clean-up events going on at home, at school, and at work -- called "dugnad". There are new flowers planted all over, lawns mowed, roadside trash picked up, cakes being baked and all sorts in preparation for National Day. It seems this holiday is even bigger than Easter (which was pretty big!). We have been participating in all this of course, and otherwise we are just ticking along at school and work. Here is one of the 10 seconds that Rhiannon kept the headband on her head...
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!

Inside the canoe

This weekend my friend Rob came to visit from Massachusetts. As soon as he arrived in Asker, we dragged him into the canoe for some Saturday afternoon paddling. Rhiannon loved being carried down to the dock inside the SS Meerkat!
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?