I Just Didn't Know....

No, I didn't know...I didn't know that I could love her without limits. I didn't know that the sound of her laugh and smile on her face would make my heart sing. I didn't know that I would feel so blessed and lucky every night I lay down to sleep and she let me wrap my arms around her little body. I just didn't know that there would be such joy and so much love flowing from my heart for this little human being.

There isn't a day that I don't feel that God has blessed us with Keira. I am so emotional since I've become a mother...maybe that's why I'm writing this sappy post. We lie in bed to watch her sleep. If I go out without her, I can't wait to come home to see her and give her a hug. I know that it's the same for Per. We went to visit Per today at his office and Keira was sleeping in the car. He stopped what he was doing and went downstairs to the car just to take a peek at her. In the evenings, even when she's sleeping, Per likes to tip toe into our room to check up on her and just to look at her.

It's been six months. We still have to pinch ourselves to make sure that it's real and that she is real. There are often times that I just want to cry when I think of what life was like without her. And, there are often times that I just want to cry because she makes me so happy. Ever since Keira came along, I'm much more of a sap and have tendencies towards crying a lot. :)

She is such a joy in our lives. She makes our family complete, our little Keira. It was meant to be.

There's No Such Thing as Bad Weather. Only Bad Clothing.

Ha! Ha! Ha! I'm not sure that I believe in that saying, but I thought I'd give it the good ol' college try. The weather has just been crap these past few days...overcast, rainy, chilly..just basically, no fun.

Keira was dying to be outside and I didn't want to add more dirty laundry to the 3 loads that I had done today. So, I dressed her up in her brand, new rain gear and let her go at it--on the balcony. I was too lazy to take her down 3 flights of stairs since I'd already done it 3 times before. I was getting tired! Here's a few pics of Keira enjoying her rainy day.

Sittin' Back and Chillin'

Hmmm...what do we have here? Oh, yes, it's little Keira enjoying the Backyardigans, sitting in her own little chair in front of a 42" LCD, eating popcorn and sipping her drink. Ahhh....life can be so hard sometimes.

We're Teaching Her Early

Need I say more? :)

Out of the Mouths of Babes....

For a week now, I have heard Keira's little voice calling from the back of the car, "Dis?" "Dis?" "Dis?" I had no clue what she was talking about. I had to point to several things before I figured out that she was asking for her sippie cup. It never clicked in my mind that "Dis?" meant "This." It took me one week to figure that out. What kind of dense mommy am I that I didn't figure that out right away?

And, why would her first word be "This?" Hmmm...that's probably because I forget to call the object I am referring to and I only point at this and say, "this....do you want this? Is this what you want?" That was an awakening for me. I must expand my vocabulary and remember to call the object by it's real name time so that she doesn't just speak in pronouns.

Let's add to her repertoire "mer", which means "more", in Norwegian. And, she can shake her head for "no", and we're teaching her to shrug her shoulders for "I don't know." She'll be a Rhodes Scholar soon, I just know it! :)

Saturday in Münster

What a beautiful day it was today and what a beautiful town. Münster is a gorgeous city in Germany filled with sculputures, bicycles, art, museums, and architecture.

We spent the day wandering the streets, people watching, window shopping and drinking in the city.

Tagging Along with Pappa to Dusseldorf

Per had meeting in Dusseldorf today and us girls couldn't let the opportunity pass. We tagged along and had a great day hanging together as a family, shopping and I even got to eat some yummy, yummy sushi.

A Day in the Park

It was a lovely sunny day and we took full advantage of it. Here we are at Westfallen Park with our new friends, Chetna and Vivaan. Keira is just enjoying the heck out of herself.

Stumbling and Tumbling

We went to our first Kids and Babies Indoor Tumbling day. It was a lot of fun, for both grown ups and kids alike.

The room is pretty big and there were lots of mats, balls, balance beams, and other toys for the kids to play around with. This was Keira's first time around so many kids and she did pretty good. She wasn't so keen on it in th beginning, but she warmed up quick.

She almost got into a fight with a little girl who was trying to steal her hula hoop and another one who was trying to push her out of the toy playhouse. Keira gave as good as she got. You go, girl! Make mamma proud! Kick some baby ass. :)

We're Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

We've been back from our three week Spain vacation for two weeks now. I've been lazy, lazy, lazy in uploading pictures since we've been back.

Due to no internet connection while we were there...you didn't get to share in the frolic, sun and fun! It was a fabulous time! It was sunny every single day and it was HOT! We wore sandals and shorts.

We swam in the ocean and the pool. We drank lots of beer (Keira drank lots of diluted apple juice), we hung out with our friends, Cindy and Espen and their kids, we worked on our tans, Per worked on his golf swing and we took many siestas. Ahhhh...life is good, ain't it?

This is the first year that we've had a non-sailing vacation (shhhh...it was great too, but don't tell Per! We tell Per that we LOVE the boat. We LOVE the boat...repeat after me....) Here is a sampling of photos from our trip.

Ms. Keira, the Little Mermaid

Swimming with Pappa

The Beach Club in La Manga. Gorgeous, huh?

Ahhh....her first jacuzzi experience

Land, A-hoy!

Could there be any more people? 50SPF everyday, baby!

Need more sand for the sand castle

Per working on his golf swing...Here's the set up

And...there it goes!

Wandering the streets looking for the best margaritas

Hanging out at the Clubhouse

Just Another Sunny Day in Norway

We had a few hours to kill before we flew to Germany from Norway, so we took a nice walk in the neighborhood to scope out the different barnehages (daycare). Here's one who's playground looked really fun!