Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Preparing for our guests


Slaughtering the lamb

Sledding

Like father

Like daughter

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Too big for my britches


These are my jeans. My jeans with a big, fat rip so wide you can see through to Texas.

How did I find out about this? Well, we were in the grocery store today, in the vegetables section, to be exact and Per comes over to me, leans in and whispers, "do you know that you have a rip in jeans where your butt is?"

I was shocked..What? No. How could that be? I mean, I would have known.

I reached behind me and felt myself. Yes, right, I felt up myself and felt that I had a big rip there. I ask in a panic, "Can you see my butt?

"No," said Per, "it's hidden. it's not that bad."

Ladies, here is a hint. Beware of nice husbands who tell you lies so that you can save face. I believed him and basically brushed it off. I walked around the grocery store and then into the mall,totally oblivious to my anal predicament.

When I got home, curiosity got the better ofme and so I took off my jeans and saw this big, fat rip.

"I don't know how my ass could have gotten that big," I said to Per. "Oh, no,it's because those jeans are really worn. You could probably repair it with a needle and thread." Yeah, right. After seeing the hole, what do you think?

Those jeans have seen its last days. And to those who've seen my butt crack, I hope you enjoyed yourself.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Hanging out at the cabin

Well, it's the Easter holidays and we've been up at the cabin since Saturday. Both the hubby and I are working from here until Wednesday, as well as enjoying a little R&R. The only problem now is that I am sick, Keira is sick and now Per is getting sick. That is no fun...especially when we're expecting two families on Thursday. Come Thursday, this house will be 12 people full! Can you believe it? I'm just stressing out thinking about the amount of food that has to be made.

We went shopping today to stock up, but two cart fulls of food and we're still not done. So, we'll go at it again tomorrow!

Per really wants me to make this yummy lamb tagine dish, but one of the key ingredients is sweet potatoes. Hmmm...that will be really easy to find up here in the mountains.

Now how does this chair work again?

Camping out on the floor

Keira "helping" me make dinner

Sunday, March 28, 2010

After dinner fun

Nothing like a little light reading after dinner

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Saturday morning art fun

Fun activites at 7:00am on a Saturday morning...Good thing they're Crayola washable pens or I'd be having a heart attack!



Thursday, March 25, 2010

Exhaustion is setting in

And it's only 7:30am! I am tiiiiiiiiiiired. Shall I say it again? I am tiiiiiiiiirrred!

Keira has been acting up the past couple of days again. It started with not wanting to go upstairs for her bathtime, to wanting to sit on the potty when she doesn't really need to, wanting me to sit with her during TV time, etc. I guess she seems to need some mamma attention...but, last night? Whew!

She didn't sleep well. Lots of squirming around in the middle of the night. At 2:00am, It was so bad that we had to turn on the lights to wake her up. She cried and cried and cried. I couldn't seem to console her. If I tried to hug her or kiss her, she pushed me away. But, then if I left her alone then she would get even more upset at me. I think she's mad at me for some reason.

She ended up sitting on my lap (not letting me hug her) for a while and crying. Then the crying subsided and she just sat there, but I wasn't allowed to touch her. It progressed to laying her head on my chest and then I was allowed to touch her and give her a kiss.

This is so frustrating. I don't know what's wrong. It seems that she wants me, but she doesn't want me. That's she's mad at me, but then I'm forgiven.

We didn't get to sleep again until 3:00am. I had to get up at 5:30am. Sigh! It'll be a long day today.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Veggies, Mmmmm.....

Have you ever seen a kid who loves her veggies as much as this one? She's eating choi sum (a chinese vegetable) which has been stir fried in garlic. We almost ate up a whole package just the two of us. We sneaked a couple from Per's plate too.



Sunday, March 21, 2010

Hop, Hop, Hop to Hoppeland

Here we are at Hoppeland with a couple of friends and their son, Martin. The kids enjoyed themselves immensely while the parents got to sit, enjoy a cup of coffee and some nice conversation.

Ms. Keira tried a bunch of hew things today which she hadn't tried before. She was so much more brave when it came to the new stuff...trampoline jumping, slides, climbing over things. There were no arguments going to bed tonight! She was snoring before the lights went out! :)

Climbing, climbing, climbing

Success!

Martin making sure that Keira is ok crossing The Divide

Going through the tunnel with Martin

Crossing the Big Divide alone

How does this trampoline thing work anyway?


Bumping into a new friend on the trampoline

Here's Martin, isn't he a cutie?

Giddy yap, horsie!

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Saturdays

What a challenging day Saturdays can be.

It all starts off with the fact that I am still tired from the week and would love to sleep in. Ha! Ha! What does that word mean anymore? Keira wakes up bright and early at 6:30am and she is a big grumpo, to boot. She cries and acts up and nothing seems to make her happy. She wants to dress herself. She doesn't want to dress herself. She wants to pee. She doesn't want to pee. She wants to read. She doesn't want to read. It takes most of the morning to calm her down. I think I get payback on Saturdays for not being around during the week.

Then, there's the errands that have to be run..all the things that I am unable to do during the week. And to top it off, stores are not open late here and so I rush out like a maniac in the morning, with grocery list and 'to-do' list in hand trying to get everything as done as fast as I can so that I can get home and spend some time with my family.

When you're in a rush, you just like things to go like clockwork. No hesitation. No interruptions. Just go go go.

Well, I'm not the only one who rushes out early in the morning to do the shopping. It seems that all the elderly folk in the city have the same idea. They are at the shopping center bright and early at 9:50am, ten minutes before everything opens, hovering in front of the stores waiting for the doors to open. Everthing is so SLOOOOW with them. They drive slow. They park slow. They walk slow. And, when they're in line to pay, it's painful to watch them slowly take their items out of their cart and place each item carefully on the conveyor belt like they have all the time in the world. Meanwhile, I am the one behind them, tapping my foot impatiently, making loud sighing sounds which in secret sighing language meanss, "hurry up! what's your problem?" It's all to no avail, though. They obviously don't get my psychic messages and probably don't care if I'm in a rush anyway.

Urg.

Friday, March 19, 2010

I Can Dress Myself

Well, actually, no, she can't. But, Keira sure is going to try!


It starts in the morning when Keira tries to dress herself.



The look of triumph before the end of the day

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

One Year Today Since We Got Keira

Wow. I can't believe that time has passed so quickly. This time last year, we were in China, touring Beijing for 2 days and then on a plane to Changsha to pick up our little one. Every time I think of that day, it brings tears to my eyes. It brings tears to my eyes today to think that one year has passed since we picked up our little one.

We are so lucky. I thank God every day for this beautiful gift that he has given us...even though she can be a butthead from time to time. :) Keira has brought not only such joy into our lives,but pushed me to become a person that I never thought I was capable of becoming.

I've had to learn patience and to be patient. There have been times that she has stretched me to my limits, but I still perservere because I love her so much and she is our child. In the beginning of our relationship, I gave unrequitable love, not knowing if it would ever be reciprocated. I used to live a life that was very much focused on ME and now I've switched the focus to Keira -- I don't do it with regret. I happily do it in order to ensure that she feels happy, safe and loved.

What a grown up little girl Keira has become since we picked her up in China. She is multi-cultural and she is multi-lingual..although she is starting to say only a few words now, she understands English, Chinese and Norwegian. She has traveled from China, to Norway, to the U.S., to Spain and to Germany. She has lived in two countries. She loves to be outside and play in the snow and look for the birds. She enjoys "reading" books -- at least she likes to look at the pictures. She is able to point to different objects when asked where they are in the book. She is potty trained. Keira assimilated into the daycare system quickly and loves every single moment that she spends there. I think she must be "the boss" of her little posse of 5 at the daycare. She can eat with a fork and with a spoon..although now I think she's picking up the bad habit of eating with her hands from her little friends at daycare. She loves fruit of all kinds...cantaloupe, grapes, honeydew, mango, and bananas. She enjoys watching Backyardigans, Little Einsteins, Dora the Explorer, Sesame Street and Barney. Wow. This little girl of ours has changed so much.

It will be so exciting to see how the next years pan out. She will take the world by storm.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Friday, March 12, 2010

Where did the week go?

My GOD, I cannot believe that a week has gone by already. I've been so busy now that I'm back at work, the days blur into each other. I feel like a staff sergeant in the Army. Everything must run like clockwork. Everything must be according to schedule. No veering from the schedule or disaster will strike.

I wake up at 5:30am, I'm at work by 7:20am, I eat lunch at my desk, I leave to pick up Keira at 3:20pm, we get home at 4:30pm, I make dinner, we eat at 5:30pm, bath at 6:40pm, milk at 7:00pm, Keira must be in bed and alseep by 7:30am. I fall asleep putting her to asleep. I wake up by 8:15pm. Workout. Shower. Do a load of wash. Bed by 10:30 to 11:00pm. The day starts again.

No, I jest. Yes. Everything has a schedule, but the schedule works for our family. Per is great at helping in the mornings. He gives Keira her milk in the morning, changes her clothes, gives her breakfast, cleans up after breakfast, she gets changed and dropped off by 7:45am.

Without scheduling and sticking to it, I think that we'd get quite stressed with getting things done. We would be tired. Keira would be tired. It just wouldn't be any fun.

But, here we are, it's Friday! Finally, I get a little breather to post on the blog, think about the week and get ready for the weekend.

This weekend we're going to drive up to the cabin and fix a few things before Easter vacation starts. I have to admit that I am quite looking forward to going. I wasn't so keen on it last weekend, but I'm ready this weekend. (I have to warm up to it). Yes, there's still loads of wash to do and lots of other cleaning around the house, but it will be nice to get away...have a few hours of quiet time with my wonderful hubby in the car on the way up (four hours, to be exact), enjoy a nice glass of red wine when we get there, have some time to make a nice dinner on Saturday and just hang out together without the hassles of cleaning house.

Did I just say that? I can't believe I just said that. That sounds so damn Norwegian. What's happening to me?!?!?!? :)

So, sorry for not having posted in a week. I haven't turned on the computer in the evenings and so the posting hasn't happened. I endeavor to be much better next week.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

I'm in love...

with my car...or, ok, the trunk of the car.

I love how I can just push the button which symbolizes "trunk open" on my key and the trunk magically opens. The stroller fits in nicely. I don't have to hunch over or twist my back as I lift it in or take it out. I love how I can just set the groceries in the trunk side by side with the stroller and it all fits.

The best feature so far? The button on the trunk door. All I have to do is to push that button and the door closes by itself. No more getting my hands dirty on the trunk. No more shoving it down and wondering if it's really closed or not.

The trunk of my car is great. What can I say?

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

5:30am

I'm a single mother for the rest of this week and in order to make sure that I get to work at a relatively decent time, I woke up at 5:30am. Yes, that's right folks, 5:30am. Do you really know how early that is? There's still frost on the windows. The sky is still black. My towel is still damp from the shower last night.

Why do I have to wake up so early? Well, it takes me approxmiately 45 minutes to an hour to get myself ready without rushing..and I HATE to rush. Then, I have to make Keira's lunch, get her milk ready and then starts the looong process of waking her up, and giving her breakfast and out the door. And because I hate to be rushed, I dont' like to rush her..not that it would do any good other than to make her cry.

Keira's been crying a lot and pitching a fit these past couple of days. It's probably because she's so darn tired and she wants a some lovin' from her Mommy. This Mommy forgot her rules and got so busy with trying to get everything done that I forgot to sit down with her and give her cuddles.

So now I'm going to pick up my child and totally focus on her for the rest of the evening until she goes to sleep. Then, I'll try my very best to workout for 30 minutes before I konk out.

I tell you, this mom stuff is hard work. :)

Monday, March 1, 2010

The 5 P's

Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance

I think that this whole work thing would go off without a hitch with proper scheduling/ planning and everything went the way I imagine that it would go. But, no, of course not, that would be too easy.

Today was my second day going to work. I woke up at 5:50am. That's damn early. And to top it off, I couldn't sleep all night because I was worried that I was going to miss waking up at 5:50am.

When the alarm goes off, I tip toe to the bathroom and groggily start the day's preparations...shower, makeup, hair etc. Now that I am on a very tight time schedule with the little one, the clothes that I want to wear that day have to be chosen and ironed and put in the bathroom the night before so that I don't waste time trying to figure out what I'm going to wear in the morning.

Keira's milk is already poured in the sippy cup the night before. Most of her lunch is made the night before. I just like to make her sandwich in the morning so that it doesn't get too mushy before her lunchtime. Her clothes for the next day are also chosen the night before so that I dont' have to figure out what she's going to wear in the morning.

Once I'm ready, then there's the task of waking up Keira. I feel so bad that she needs to wake up so early. Poor little thing. She now needs to wake up at 6:45am rather than 7:30am. 45 minutes is a lot for a little thing like her. 6:45am only works when Per is in town. When he's out of town and I have to do it by myself, then she needs to wake up at 6:30am. Gee, that's early.

She wants to sit on the toilet FOREVER. She likes to read books and point at objects and have me tell her what they are. This is all great when I didnt have to work or on weekends, but this is not so great when we have a tight time schedule to keep. I keep looking at my watch, worried that I'm going to be late for work.

I run downstairs to turn on the milk warmer while she sitting on the toilet. Run back upstairs to be with her. Run back downstairs five minutes later to put in the milk. Run back upstairs to change her. Brush her teeth. Wash her face. Comb her hair. Run back downstairs to get the milk. Run back upstairs to give it to her. Whew! And I haven't even gotten to breakfast yet.

We go downstairs and she takes about 20 minutes to eat a little tiny bowl of Cheerios. She is a super slow eater sometimes, that one. When she's done, we have to sit on the potty again so that she can pee. Then, I have to chase her around the house to put on her clothes and shoes.

By the time I get to work, I'm much more calm and can quietly enjoy a cup of coffee before I begin the day. It's somewhat weird to be back at work. I can't remember how to book a meeting in our CRM, and my brain doesn't seem to be working at full capacity either. I think I must have left it at home in between the Cheerios and the vacuum cleaner. It's nice to see other grown ups and talk about grown up things, but at the same time, I miss my little one and wonder how she's doing. I need to leave the office by 3:15pm in order to get home in time to pick her up. I can't believe that I even have to leave that early when I used to leave around 8pm! I feel guilty as I go out the door, but hey, WTF, I have more important things to get to!

The whole dinner thing when we get home is kind of stressful too because I need to prepare dinner, eat, clean up, shower Keira and she needs to be in bed by 7:30pm. And then, of course, it starts all over again...where does the day go?