Off to Spain

"Yes, hi, Air Berlin? I need a reservation for three to Alicante, please."

Sun and sand, here we come!! We'll be off to Spain for a long weekend. I will not be posting for the next several days because we don't have an internet connection over there. I'll upload all the exciting things that we did on Tuesday.

Gotta run!

What to do with eight hours of peace and quiet?

This morning, I think I must have gotten the surprise of my life when I hear Per's voice from the bathroom, "What if I take her to work with me today?"

I was groggy and still half asleep. Did I hear him right? Did he just say that he would take Keira to work with him today? "What?" I mumbled.

"What if I take Keira to work today?"

He did say it. I wasn't hearing things. "Ok," I say agreeably.

"No," Per said. "You probably don't want to be without her."

"No, it's ok," I said. I mean, the girl needs to be with her father right?!

Since it was such a surprise to get a day free, I wasn't exactly prepared to take full advantage of the day...like making sure I had the right snacks in the house, a nice bottle of wine, cheese, DVD's etc. But, I can tell you that I took full advantage of the eight hours of peace and quiet..no diaper changes, no interruptions.

How did I spend the eight hours?

1. Surfed the internet in front of the TV for a couple of hours while savoring a hot cup of Starbuck's coffee.

2. Worked out.
I did the 20.5 km ride on the virtual reality Spinning set up we have at home. I beat my last time by 7.5 minutes.

3. Unloaded the dishwasher in about 2 minutes flat.
No stopping every couple of seconds to say, "No, Keira don't touch the knife." or "Don't sit on the door. You'll break it." or "That's not for you."

4. Felt 20 lbs lighter taking out the trash.
If you've read my blog post from yesterday, you will see that I have to go up and down 3 flights of stairs every day in order to get to the apartment. Think that you have to do this with groceries and Keira.

5. Make a big pot of congee and ate it in front of the TV.
Yes, ate in front of the TV. It's been a darn long time since I've done that. We've been trying to teach good habits to the kid so meals are always at the dinner table with the TV off. Ahh...what a decadent thing this was.

6. Resurrected past beauty routines.
Yes. That's right. Girls, you know what I'm talking about. Plucked eyebrows. Exfoliated. Shaved. Manicure. Pedicure. I had a chance to do it all at one time. No more sneaking in a little here and there and always only doing a half ass job.

8. Took a loooooooong shower.

9. Watched two back to back episodes of NCIS.I love this show. I wish I was more like Jethro...He's such a grump, and he makes his staff quake in their boots. Gotta love it.

10. Talked to my parents--uninterrupted.
No little one pulling my pants down or making a lot of background noise. I actually heard and understood what they were saying.

11. Made a new iPod playlist.Keira has inadvertently taken over my iPod. There's nothing but children's songs loaded onto an iPod that was previously stocked with pop, trance, jazz, and latin songs. Approximately $30 and 1.5 hours later, I had a new playlist made especially for my tastes!

8. Looked at my watch and realized that it was 5:00pm and I needed to start dinner for my family. Where did the time go?

How did Keira spend her day? Here's a few pics of a day at work with Dad:

Our Apartment in Dortmund

I've talked about living in Dortmund, Germany, but I just realized today that I haven't posted any pictures of our apartment here. Here's a few pics with commentary:
Here's the outside view of the apartment complex:

These are the dreaded stairs to the apartment on the top floor. There are 3.5 flights of them. Imagine dragging up all your groceries and a child up and down these stairs every day. Then, there's the four flights down to the basement in order to do the wash. I hate these stairs. Why couldn't they build an elevator?

The living room where we all fight for TV rights:

Keira's little play area:

The kitchen where I cook up four Michelin star meals...just kidding:

Here's where we eat the four Michelin star meals:

Here's our bedroom:

Stairs to the second floor in the apartment:

Zoo-a-licious

There was a time change today. We actually gained an hour, but since we're toddler parents, I guess we don't get to reap that little reward. :) After a nice little nap, here are are at the Dortmund Zoo today.

The G Word

I am sick and tired of feeling GUILTY. Yes, good, ol' Chinese ridden guilt. Or, maybe it's just ever since I became a mommy type of guilt.

There isn't a day that doesn't go by and I wonder if she's bored. Or, maybe I'm not doing enough for her or maybe she's not learning enough or maybe she's watching too much TV or maybe she's eating the too much/ too little, etc. The one thing that keeps popping up and is a thorn in my side is the TV discussion.

TV! Ha! There's a stickler for you. Everyone has an opinion on TV. All the books out there say that too much TV is not good. Well, yeah, if you watch TV 24x7, then it's probably not good for you. But, then, if you eat nothing but burgers and french fries all the time, that's not good for you either.

No, I don't limit Keira to only 30 minutes of TV a day, but we're not watching it for 5 hours at a stretch either. You try entertaining a 16 month old all day long by yourself and the weather is crap most of the time. Keira treats her toys according to the 5 minute rule...she flits from toy to toy every five minutes until she has gone through the whole collection. Her attention span is about the size of a gnat...then she's done and moves onto opening drawers, twisting dials and eating plants. So, then what?

I let her watch Barney in the morning and I let her watch Backyardigans in the afternoon. She's learning her colors, her numbers, she sings, she dances and she's having a good time. I'm not taking that away from her. I watched a lot of TV when I was young and I don't think I turned out that bad. Hmm...graduated towards top of my class, got good grades, great job, I can speak like a human being...put on my pants one leg at a time. On good days, I can even tie my own shoe. So, I don't see what the big deal is. Everyone has an opinion about it and this is mine.

But, what do we do when we're not watching TV?

One Asshole Does Not a Country Make

It's not a secret. I'm just not that big a fan of Dortmund, Germany. There isn't a whole hell of a lot to do here. It's not international at all. Shopping sucks. High quality restaurant selection is almost nill. And, the most exciting thing to do around here seems to be to go watch a Dortmund soccer game. Yippee.

I'm pissed. It was again, a beautiful day today and so Keira and I went to the park. That girl. Whenever she sees people, she immediately gravitates towards them. She is so curious about the things that are going around her. She was running around and saw a little boy that was about her age and she walked towards him. I tried to steer her in another direciton, but she wanted to say hi. So, she ran up towards him. This little boy was with his father who was walking beside him. The father saw that his little boy was coming towards Keira. He took one look at us. Physically picked up his son and turned around and walked off. He walked 1/2 way around the park to the other side. You'd think that maybe he was leaving. No, he wasn't leaving. He just didn't want to be around us.

Well, in a fit of anger, I could easily generalize and say that all Germans are as much of a dickhead as he was, but I'm going to take the high road now. I know better. So, let's focus on some of the positives of this place, shall we?

What do I like here?
1. The grocer on the street corner. He doesn't speak too much English, but he and his wife are really nice. They have the freshest produce and they hand pick everything for you. I went in there today to buy some fruit and saw that he had strawberries. He told me that they were sweet and asked me if the fruit was for Keira. He then proceeded to pick the best quality one that he had for her.

You see the little missy enjoying her strawberries in the video.

2. The friendly, neighborhood pharmacist. This lady is nice. She speaks some English and tries hard to communicate. I went into the pharmacy yesterday and ordered some creams from her. I needed to buy some Calcium and she spent the time to bring out several different types and explain them all to me. She smiled. She was kind. I left feeling good.

3. The nice people at the Thursday Gymoboree session. This is where we go once a week for Keira to be with other children. Most of the parents there are very friendly and nice and no one treats us like second class citizens.

4. Neighbors downstairs. They say hi to us in the hallway and stop to talk to us every now and then.

5. The Asian store on Hohestrasse. Ok. They don't speak English, but they're Asian and their store has a really good selection of Chinese products.

6. The Mongolian Buffet restaurant we go to once a week (almost). Girls in there are so friendly and nice. Food is very fresh and high quality. Good prices.

Hmmm...that's all of I can think of now. Maybe the list will grow longer. Maybe not, but that's ok. In the meantime, the guy from today can just ESAD. There. I feel better. Aggression is sorted out. Have a nice day.

My Cup Runneth Over...

I must be hormonal or something. Or, maybe it's just the gorgeous weather today. Sunny. Crisp. Cool. Not a cloud in the sky. Waiting excitedly and with baited breath for the new dishwasher to come. I mean, what is there not to like today?

There isn't a day that doesn't go by that I am not thankful for the life that we have and for having Keira in our lives. It's a miracle that she is a part of our family...an amazing, fantastic miracle because we thought that we would never have a child in our lives, much less one as beautiful as her.

Another thing I'm thankful for? One year maternity leave. Yes, that's right. One year maternity leave. When I first came to Norway, I thought that it was ridiculous that this was available for mothers. I mean, what was one supposed to do with one year off? People would say...oh, but one year passes fast. It will be gone before you know it. And, here I was, the lifetime professional woman who thought that one year was way more than enough to spend time with a child. What was wrong with day care? What about an au pair? Nanny?

I'm here to suck up my words. 6 1/2 months have passed now. 6 1/2 months. We are leaving for the U.S. in mid November and not coming back until January 2. Next thing you know, I am back to work towards the end of February.

Where did the time go? What did I do? Is there anything I can put on my resume for the things that I accomplished during the time I was off? That would be a big, fat NO.

What I can be proud to report is that Keira is happy and cheerful. She laughs. She smiles. She giggles. She's affectionate. This is a far cry from the quiet and soulful baby we brought back from China. For every day that goes by, we become closer. She hugs me from the front now. She wraps her arms around me when we are about to fall asleep. She lays her head on my shoulder when I pick her up.

Many of our friends and family think that we are spoiling her because we let her sleep with us in the same bed. We look forward to bed time together with her...feeling her warm little body next to ours. Listening to her sweet breah as it goes in and out and in and out. It's magical when she wakes up in the morning and comes to give each of us a hug and puts her face next to ours. It is wonderful. Especially for a child that didn't want our face anywhere near hers 6 1/2 months ago.

Our family is complete. Life is great and we are so happy. Yes, I must be hormonal. Otherwise, where did this total outspill of happy emotions come from? No worries. I'll be back to my usual, biting, sarcastic self tomorrow.

Enjoying her latest Ikea Purchase

Here's what we got after standing 35 minutes in line, two hot dogs and one drink later.

I've been lazy, no other excuse

Yes, I've been lazy these past couple of weeks. There's just no other excuse for not posting something.

Keira has been sick for two weeks and Per also came down with the bug last week. I've spent the past two weeks just taking care of my little family, stuck inside this apartment and with nothing else to occupy my mind, I've worried myself to death about little mundane things that probably have nothing to do with anything.

These mundane thoughts are mainly focused around Keira and if I'm doing enough for her, is she eating enough, is she learning enough, is she bored...etc. My sister thinks that I have nothing else better to do than to worry about these kinds of things and I think that she's probably right.

Out of boredom, I dragged Keira to Ikea yesterday to look at a table/ chair set for her, and we had a nice lunch of hot dogs (very cheap at Ikea). Then, in the afternnon, we went to a type of Gymboree day and let me tell you, I feel like a whole new person today. We saw people. Yes, actual people. Someone at the gymnasium talked to us. It was sunny and it was gorgeous yesterday. Keira was happy. Per came to join us at the Gymboree session. I spent some money. Yes, life is good. Life is great.

Being cooped up inside, bored and lonely can do really drive one crazy.

Snow in Kvitfjell

Here we are at our cabin in Kvitfjell. It was a quicky "in and out" weekend for us. It was a good thing that we had changed to winter tires or we'd have been in big trouble!

Brrrr!!! It's Cold in Kolbotn!

We came back to Norway last night because we had to change to winter tires today. Can you believe it? Winter tires. It's only freaking the beginning of October.

After we changed them, we went to see Eva at The Terrassen Restaurant in Kolbotn. Lots of yummy food and good laughs with good friends.