Warm happy days

Since arriving, we have done nothing too ambitious but we've had a lot of good times (along with some very long and noisy nights). Tryfan loves pushing Rhiannon in the tricycle, or at least trying to keep up. They have been doing circuits around the house and garage on various wheeled vehicles.
Tryfan was VERY happy to meet Pablo, the resident kitty-cat. Grandma Debi even let Tryfs brush Pablo's tummy. Don't know if Pablo was too chuffed about that.
Watching Grandpa replace an electrical outlet on a warm Sunday afternoon.
"Want to share my ice cream? It's really good!" (a non-exact translation).

En route to Cali

We made it Santa Barbara after a long but relatively good travel day. We got up at 03:30 in order to catch the 04:58 train to the Oslo airport, then had no problems on our 07:50 flight to London. I love the Oslo airport, but the best feature has got to be these mini-trolleys that are free to use, can hold small children in the front part, hand luggage in the top and bottom parts and also has a hook to sling bags on. They are so easy to maneuver and you don't have to hand them back until you start boarding the flight! Why can't all airports have these?
Oooh! Shiny things on the floor of London Heathrow airport.
Tryfan gets very excited when he spots trucks, busses, airplanes and trains so looking out the window at LHR was an excitable time.
Settled into our beds - I mean, seats - on the flight to LA! This was a good moment (as evidenced by sleeping cuddly Tryfan and the glass of bubbly, with a content looking Rhiannon in the foreground), although it didn't last as long as I wish it had. Tryfan & Rhiannon both slept for a couple of hours at the beginning and a couple of hours at the end of the flight, but there were plenty of hours (4-5) in between when the cabin was dark and quiet, and it took enormous effort and several bags of tricks to keep these two quiet!
Yeah, we coughed up a lot of kroners for our 3 Bizzo class seats on British Airways, but it was worth it. Aside from the bed-seats, entertainment systems and general special treatment, it is just total luxury to skip the security queues and be whisked down "fast track" lanes and have access to the lounges at Oslo and London airports. So that is what made this trip quite nice, although of course we had some difficult times when Tryfan was tired and grouchy.
Anyway, we landed at 3pm local time and were excited to meet Grandma and Grandpa, who then drove us up to Santa Barbara. Hurray! It's great to be home :-)

Packed and ready to fly!

We are actually all packed and the house is tidy, and its not even 10pm yet! A world record for sure. Our flight leaves at 07:50 tomorrow morning so we will be up around 3:30am to be on the 04:58am train to get to the airport at ~5:50am. Phew - tired just thinking about it! But we are sooo excited. 'Tiny Maria' (the doll Tryfan is holding in the photo below) has fallen out of favor the past couple of days so she is staying home with the monkeys and lizard. Just Tryfan's kitty and maybe Cookie Monster will be accompanying us on the plane. And 'Maria Isabella', Rhiannon's baby, will of course join us.
Catch you on the flip side!
PS. No stinkin' swine flus are going to scare this family out of traveling. No way, Jose!

Babies, bikes and sunshine

This weekend we didn't attempt anything ambitious. We just hung around the house, played in the backyard and up at the lekeplass, changed our winter wardrobes over to our summer ones, that sort of stuff. Tryfan picked up 'the other baby', aka "Tiny Maria", on Saturday morning and didn't put her down until it was bedtime. I love this photo of him -- Rhiannon's hat on, snot running down his face, overalls wet from playing at the water table, casually holding the baby and half-smiling.
Taking Tiny Maria to see what's happening over at the neighbor's house.
Peering over the fence into Gaius' backyard (Tryfs is on his tiptoes!)Playing in Gaius' backyardTryfan's little companion involved with various activities...

We added a water/ sand table to add to our play collection this weekend and it was a good purchase.
Sunday morning, cuddling and watching our favorite "Shaun the Sheep" episodes with 'Maria Isabella' and 'Tiny Maria'. A good way to start the day.
We are also getting ready for our big trip to California at the end of this week! We leave Friday May 1...

The New Bike

After having fun on the red tricycle, we went to a sporting goods store the other day and Rhiannon rode this bike around and around the store. She begged us to buy it for her, but we resisted. However, after another day and a half of asking politely "Mama (or Dada), can I please have a pink bike that is new for me to ride? With a seat for my baby and also a seat for me? And with a basket in front and also a bell? And also with some small wheels on the back?", we caved in and bought it. Since then, she has been happily riding around in loops with her baby "Maria Isabella" buckled into her baby seat.
Bentley has to be quick to scamper out of the way when she is on wheels! And Tryfan has learned to arm himself with garden implements...

Backyard biking

We are at the stage where Rhiannon is eager to ride bigger bikes than the tricycle. Tryfan likes being driven around in it...for now...

18 months old

Tryfan is 18 months old today.
It feels like he has been almost 18 months for a long time - somehow he seems wise beyond his months! Tryfan continues to be very agile, coordinated and strong. He can climb up to Rhiannon's high bunkbed and back down unassisted and even unsupervised (gasp!), and he can imitate movements after observing for just a few seconds. He loves water, as evidenced by the photo below when he sat in the fjord despite the temps being ~5 deg C/ 40 F today.
Tryfan also loves animals, especially kitty cats, dogs, and monkeys (probably in that order). He always has to cuddle with his favorite 3 or 4 stuffed animals + blankie when he lays down to sleep. And if we happen to see the neighbor's cat when we are walking from the car to the house, it will take many minutes of persuading and bribing with chocolate before Tryfan will say "ha det" (bye-bye) to kitty. Tryfan is also very compassionate and sensitive to the people around him. He doesn't like others to be excluded, whether it is a serving of grapes, an M&M, a kiss on the cheek, shouting 'hello' into an empty bowl to prove that one has finished their dinner...whatever is happening, he likes to make sure that everyone participates. 'Na-non' is always the first person he looks after though - he adores his big sister!

Tryfan also likes to laugh at his own jokes. He seems to do things just because they feel funny. So he will, for instance, walk backwards around in a circle, keeping one foot relatively still. And when he gets dizzy, he falls down laughing and then does it again. But he doesn't laugh because other people are watching him and laughing and so he is performing -- he is oblivious to other people and instead just entertaining himself. He also loves reading and is quite often content to choose a book, sit himself down somewhere and look through it. But I think he prefers to sit on someone else's lap and have a book read to him - he is a real cuddler.

But alas, Tryfan is not all sweetness and giggles - he has a fierce temper and once he is mad about something, it takes a long time and a lot of distractions before he calms down. This has been true ever since he was a tiny baby. I hope he will learn to handle this temper as he matures over the years. Yikes. But fortunately, we rarely see this temper and he is most often a happy, cuddly, giggly little guy :-)

Foreign affairs

Things have changed during my partial week away: most of the snow has melted away and some brown plants have new buds of life on their tips. But spring is happening slowly -- just small changes every day and in different places -- and I am grateful for the slowness so I can have the chance to observe.

During my time away, I had several glimpses into other cultures by way of conversation with my colleagues from around the world who are working in foreign places themselves: a girl from Zimbabwe stationed in Siberia, a girl from Russia stationed in London, a Brazilian guy stationed in Congo... I love how perceptions of normal vary so drastically from one place to another. Take the Sudoko puzzle that my Zimbabwean colleague stationed in Siberia showed me -- just a typical looking Sudoko puzzle ripped from the local newspaper, but the difficulty rating was shown in sketch drawings of Child, Woman, and Man. This particular puzzle was rated Man, which meant it was Difficult!!! She showed it to the girl from Russia stationed in London, and there was a sigh and a shaking of her head as Russian girl said that nobody even blinks at such things.

And then I stumbled upon this mattress commercial from Spain which features an actual homebirth taking place on said mattress, with the slogan "The bed, the most important place in the world". Can you imagine this being shown on US television? Ummm, not me.

"We should remember that the world is wide; that there are a thousand million different human wills, opinions, ambitions, tastes, and loves; that each person has a different history, constitution, culture, character, from all the rest; that human life is the work, the play, the ceaseless action and reaction upon each other of these different atoms. Then, we should go forth into life with the smallest expectations, but with the largest patience; with a keen relish for and appreciation of everything beautiful, great, and good, but with a temper so genial that the friction of the world shall not wear upon our sensibilities; with an equanimity so settled that no passing breath nor accidental disturbance shall agitate or ruffle it; with a charity broad enough to cover the whole world's evil, and sweet enough to neutralize what is bitter in it, determined not to be offended when no wrong is meant, nor even when it is, unless the offense be against God. Nothing short of our own errors should offend us." ~ Excerpts from the writings of Mary Baker Eddy

Easter Monday

Monday was a public holiday so everybody was off work/ school. Most people came home from their Easter holiday travels on Sunday, so we had quite a good turnout for our 2nd Annual Easter Party! The final head count was 14 kids and 19 adults, for a grand total of 33 people. Unfortunately, we also had steady rain all day so all normal rules for foot and outerwear didn't apply as we staged the preparations for the Egg Hunt. It was a cozy but energized atmosphere!
Klar, ferdig, ....GAA!! (Ready, set, GO!!)
Hunting for real and chocolate eggs in action, Rhodri supervising.
Tryfan just stood there holding his lawnmower and watching everyone else look for eggs. I think if anyone thought to ask him, he would have told where the hiding places were since he watched Rhodri hide all the goods!
Once everything was found, we retreated back inside for polser and lomper (hot dogs and potato tortillas), coffee, Jello and bunny-shaped cookies. All the 'big' kids played really well together. Here are Magnus, Finn, Sofie, Sofia, Tilda and Rhiannon engrossed in something relatively peaceful.
Our party started at 2pm and the last guests departed at 6pm. It was a really fun afternoon! But the absolute best part was when Rhodri and I came downstairs after putting the kids to bed and found that Taid Trefor and Auntie Sioned had completely transformed the living/ dining/ kitchen areas from chaotic mess into a clean and tidy space. Thank you so much!
Now for the rest of this week, I am away at a training course in France and Rhodri is holding down the fort with the kids. But spring is almost upon us, so it shouldn't be too bad of a week.

Easter Sunday

Today was a really nice day. We had a quiet morning (no visit from Easter Bunnies or anything) and then when Tryfan went down for his nap, the rest of us colored the hard-boiled eggs for the party tomorrow.
The Welsh flag inspired egg that Sioned decorated won first prize in our own little contest.
After painting, we made some good use of the leftover egg dye. Last year we had spilled some orange egg dye onto our landlord's rug, and I have been thinking about doing this art project for a year now! Sioned, Rhiannon and I did it together. Don't worry, we bought a replacement rug for our landlords and this will become a new bedroom rug for one of the kids when we move out of this house in the summer.
When Tryfan woke up, we went on a family bike ride up to Asker Church. Rhiannon fell asleep in the Burley so she didn't make it to the photo.
This was the first time that Tryfan got to ride on the back of my bike! It was a bit more wobbly than I expected and it took some getting used to, but I think we have many more bike riding days ahead of us now.
We made it back home in time to cook a nice Easter dinner that started at 4pm and lasted until the kids' bedtime. Our friends Phil and Emily (almost newlyweds now! They are getting married next weekend) came over for the occasion as well.
All in all, it was a very successful day and we look forward to our 2nd Annual Easter Party tomorrow!

Road trip! (Rjukan adventure part 2)

Saturday morning (after our early rising and a late breakfast at 8:30am) was sunny and lovely. We checked out of the hotel and headed for Rjukan, about 1.5 hours away since the mountain road connecting Tuddal with Rjukan is closed during the winter. Here are the troops ready to continue our road trip.
The mountain called Gaustatoppen, thought by many to be the most beautiful mountain in Norway, is situated right above Rjukan. There were many oohs and aahs in the car as Gaustatoppen came into view.
Rjukan is a town situated at the bottom of such a deep, narrow valley that the sun doesn't shine on Rjukan between November and March! Because of this, the company Norsk Hydro built a cable car for the residents to take them out of the valley to the top of the Hardangervidda plateau for some sunshine in winter. We took the still-operating Krossobanen cable car up to the top. Here is the view of Rjukan from the cable car, with Gaustatoppen on the opposite side of the valley.
There were plenty of people skiing and generally enjoying the day up here. We didn't stay too long - just enough for some lunch and warm drinks and playing a bit in the snow. I was impressed with these people who were knitting, laughing and BBQ'ing on a small grill while lounging on a makeshift snow couch made of insulated pads.
After we took the cable car back down, we visited the heavy water plant (the Norwegian Industrial Workers Museum, as detailed in a previous post) and then headed for home. It was a long day and the last hour in the car was especially painful - thank goodness for chocolate bribes and children's songs that we could sing and clap to!

Road trip! (Rjukan adventure part 1)

I must admit, I still get a little bit giddy when planning for a road trip - even if it is only a couple of hours of driving and staying out somewhere new for just one night! This is what we did on Friday- Saturday this weekend. We left Friday morning at 10:30am and drove to our lodging for the night near Tuddal. Since we can't all fit into our car, we rented a van for the weekend. Here is the view of the 4 back seats.
Our lodging for the night was Tuddal Mountain Hotel, which is the oldest wooden hotel in Norway. It turned out to be a very special and intimate place -- 20 bedrooms plus lots of common areas that had cozy alcoves, board-game playing areas, sitting/ socializing nooks, and even a library.
We ended up spending quite a bit of time in this library, especially on Saturday morning because Breakfast didn't start until 8:30am and both kids woke around 6am. That is a LONG time to tiptoe around trying not to wake other people, and it was great to have a closed off place to not only browse through old books, but also to play with old trains, trucks, and even a wooden children's desk with the top that lifts up!
The hotel is situated on the edge of a [still frozen] lake and there were many x-c ski trails in the vicinity.
When we arrived on Friday afternoon, first we went sledding. Here is Taid Trefor about to go down a hill with Rhiannon. He didn't quite get the steering correct and they both tumbled off into the soft snow but nobody got hurt!
Here is the little lookout perch where we set up camp for the afternoon after sledding. From here (~30 ft from the hotel), we could monitor the skiers and sledders on the hill below but also Tryfan and Rhiannon could conduct snow relocation activities using their buckets and shovels in a relatively containable area.
For some reason on this day, Tryfan was acting particularly irritable, whiney, and generally un-fun to be around, and he didn't want to be out of sight of Mama or Daddy. This foiled our x-c ski plans, but we were able to take turns going. I went for a little jaunt first, then Rhodri and Sioned went afterwards. This was Sioned's first time on skis and she did great! No photos on my camera unfortunately.
But the highlight of the day was after the kids went to bed and we adults got to enjoy a 4-course dinner that was an entire evening affair! The hotel owner, Rune, is also the head chef, with his son Einar as the sommelier (a knowledgeable wine professional) and his wife Elsa as the hostess, so the formal set-menu meal with different wines to go with each course was superb! Earlier in the day, Trefor and Sioned chatted a bit with Elsa about Wales and singing and so forth (we don't think they get many foreigners staying here), and Elsa then assigned us to the best table in the dining room, with unobstructed views out to the lake and the mountains beyond. We had accidentally left the baby monitor at home, but as luck would have it, Rune's mother Cecilia was also staying in the hotel for the weekend and she offered to sit outside our room knitting with the promise to come get us if the kids woke up! Needless to say, we were exceedingly grateful for our temporary grandmother. Anyway, it was a really special evening.

On a mission...

As we were preparing for our Welsh family visitors last month, Rhodri planned a mission to go visit Rjukan, the location of the "Norwegian Industrial Worker's Museum" (actually the museum was nearby in Vemork). Yawwwwn...or so I thought before visiting!
It turns out that this destination is where one of the most prolonged and effective secret operations during World War II took place, as it is a heavy water plant that the German Nazis had taken over with suspected plans to build an atomic bomb. During 1943 and 1944, four different missions were undertaken to [successfully] destroy this capability. The film "The Heroes of Telemark" [1965] and the book "The Real Heroes of Telemark" by Ray Mears [2004] describe this true story. Needless to say, it was fascinating and really amazing to visit this place, especially after hearing Rhodri describe the story on the drive over.
We had some other adventures along the way that deserve their own posts, but this place was the real destination and I am so glad that we made it there today.

Quiet on the streets of Oslo

Today we took a family outing into the city of Oslo for some touring around. First we went to Vigeland park and it was coooold and for some reason we were not quite bundled up enough :-( Tryfan & I hung out in the car while he slept for a bit, then we high-tailed it to the cafe for some warmth and nourishment, and met the others there. After some lunch and a scamper around the playground, we visited the Akershus castle/ fortress. The light was very flat and Oslo wasn't looking her finest, so I wasn't too inspired to take photos. Here are the troops sitting atop a cannon, though.
We walked around for quite awhile and then circled back up Karl Johans Gate (the main street in Oslo). When we saw the Movenpick ice cream shop, we made a pit stop and indulged in some yummy Swiss ice cream while sitting outside.
About this time, the skies started clearing and the air warmed up to a balmy 40 deg F or so, and we headed back home for a spot of tea and some quiet sunshine. We busted out the beach toys for some snow relocation activities.
The scene in the backyard on Thursday evening ~6pm
Tomorrow we are off to Rjukan in Telemark...

End of winter visitors for Easter

Winter is indeed finishing, but spring is not here yet...at least not in any pleasant way. It started raining last night after Trefor and Sioned arrived -- they brought the rain from Wales with them! -- and continued all day today. Most people (Norwegians, anyway) have left town to spend the Easter holidays at their hyttes (cabins), and nearly everything is closed until Tuesday now. Easter is a big deal here! Since barnehage and work finished today at noon, the kids and I hung out at home while Rhodri, Trefor and Sioned went into Oslo. We took a trip to the 'good' grocery store downtown Asker, and Rhiannon wore her new trenchcoat while coercing Tryfan to wear her purple hat. They have started holding hands now as we all walk together down to the car from the house.
It is so great to have Auntie Sions and 'Taid' (Grandpa) Trefor here! They brought with them the entire first season of 'Shaun the Sheep' episodes, so we hung out on the couch watching some together.
We have a few things planned for this long weekend. Tomorrow we plan to go into Oslo and see the sights, then Friday & Saturday we are going to the village of Rjukan in Telemark to visit a historical place and hopefully get a last bit of x-c skiing in.