Weekend fun

Here's some pics from this weekend...

Elisbeth, Bente, Ann Kristin

Cheese...!

Opening a gift from Ann Kristin and Elisabeth at TGIF's...ohhh what is it?! :)


Where's that lunch?

Is there more water? Whew!

Picnic break in the woods

Let Them Eat Cake--Or Not

I've been so busy this week with guests, guests and more guests that I haven't had a chance to blog at all. After last weekend's festivities, we had our friends from Germany come and visit us until this morning. Then this afternoon, Per's brother and his family arrived to take in the festivites of the Eurovision contest. Having guests is hard work!

Despite all the stress in the last few weeks in preparation for Keira's weekend, it was all worth it and turned out to be very nice. Everything ran relatively smoothly except for my cake fiasco. Yes, that's right, cake fiasco.

Before I begin my story, I have to explain that cakes are a very important of a Norwegian get together. They are the pride and joy of an event. The Norwegians take great pride in baking th cakes themselves and having a lot of them.

I baked one chocolate cake for Keira's birthday and I baked some pink cupcakes, but I, in no way, baked any cakes on Sunday. I bought a beautiful cream cake, a Norweigan kransekake served with vanilla ice cream and my piece de resistance was supposed to be a French passion fruit cake...all for 17 people.

On Sunday, I sent my niece and the godmother of Keira down to Jerome's to pick up the French cake. When she got there...there was no cake. They had forgotten to bake it!!!

She called me at 12:55pm (lunch is at 1:00pm) and tells me that they forgot to make the cake. And if I want a cake I have to wait one hour for it...which meant that she would have to sit there one hour for it and then drive 40 minutes to my house. Then lunch wouldn't be until 3pm? We couldn't begin without her because she was a godmother. I was SOOO PISSED.

I got on the phone and practically ripped the waiter's head off. How could they forget to make the cake? How dare they tell the godmother that the cake wouldn't be ready for an hour? They had better figure out a way to make me a cake and get it here in time. It wasn't acceptable that they could forget something so important on such an important day...blah blah blah.

First, he just kept saying he was sorry. Well, sorry wasn't going to get me a cake. What was he going to do about it? He said that he would call me back in 5 minutes. Within 5 minutes, he called me back and told me that they had a frozen cake..and I said that the Christening lunch was now. What was I supposed to do with a frozen cake? Then, he said that he would call me back. He calls back and his next solution is that he will give me 17 little passion fruit cakes, but at least they weren't frozen. Since I didn't have a choice, I had to say ok to that, although I was still pissed. He called back again in another 5 minutes to tell me that he had a cake for me but, but how would he get it to me? By that time, Stine (the godmother) had already left. I told him that that wasn't really my problem. He would have to order a taxi and have it delivered to my house and I expected that he would pay for the taxi. Well, we had to pay for the taxi and then I would take the bill into the bakery.

I visited the bakery owner yesterday to get my money back for the hotel and also mentioned all the trouble that he put me through and I expected that he would do something about the price of the cake. Keep in mind that I had already paid for the cake when I ordered it and in reality, I didn't want my money back or any money back for that matter. What I really wanted from him was a genuine "I'm sorry" and at least a token of remorse..Like maybe can I buy you a cup of coffee? or maybe next time you come in, you can have lunch on the house or something like that. Not expensive. Just to show he was really sorry.

First I told the guy that I was promised that Keira's name was going to be on the cake and the guy on the phone said he knew exactly how to spell it and so on, but when the cake showed up, there was no name on it. It wasn't even specially made for her. The owner went into the kitchen and came back with a piece of flat white chocolate with her name spelled on it. He told me that they had done it and here it was. Can you believe that? What good is that supposed to do me when it wasn't on the cake?

Then we started talking about the price of the taxi. He almost had a heart attack when he saw the taxi bill. Where did I live? He asked. There was NO WAY he was going to give me anything for the cake. I should even be happy that he was giving me money for the taxi. The taxi was more expensive than the cake. I have to tell you that I was besides myself I was seeing Red. He made it seem that it was my fault that the taxi delivered the cake. I told him that the godmother was not going to wait one hour for the cake because that is what I was told. He said no, only five minutes. I repeated again, like I was talking to a complete imbecile, that that is not what I was told. It was one hour. he kept shaking his head and telling me that I should be happy that I got the mone for the taxi and the cake only took five minutes.

I mean, really, what shitty, ridiculous bullshit service is that? Trying to turn around the situation and make it like my fault?

I think that he thought I was trying to make it about the refund for the cake. But, i was really pissed off that he was trying to make it like it was my fault that there was such a high taxi bill and that I was trying to take money from him. This all had to do with prinipal and bad service. I wanted a real "I'm sorry" and not his stupid money.

Anyway, I told him that I thought that he gave awful customer service and I would make sure that everyone I knew would be told about what a bad place this was. He just looked at me and told me that he had given me the taxi money and that his conscience was clear and I could go do whatever i wanted to do and didn't need to come back. You gotta love that, right?

Asshole.

Video from Frogner Kirke

Keira's weekend

Sunday night. Late. It's 11:30pm. Am tired like hell, but wanted to post pictures. No post today. Just a few pics to wet your appetite. More later.

Grandparents showing up on gifts - Friday :)


Birthday party - Saturday





Christening day - Sunday

Keira's 2nd birthday

She had a great day today. Her teacher decorated the daycare with balloons and streamers. She got to wear a crown and be princess for the day. \

Unfortunately, she got a really bad haircut today, which almost made me cry. But, then she came home to enjoy opening presents and eating a little bit of her chocolate cupcake.

My beautiful, healthy baby likes grapes more than she likes choclate. She made her mamma proud!
Daycare all decorated
Princess for the day
Opening presents
Chocolate cake is ok...
But, I LOOOOOOOVE grapes. Check out my bad 'do and my runny nose

May 17 or Syttende Mai

Today is the National Day of Norway and is the celebration of when Norway became an independent nation dating back to the year 1814.

The day is celebrated with children's parades all over Norway. Each elementary school district arranges its own parade with marching bands between schools. The parade takes the children through the community, often making stops at homes of senior citizens, war memorials, etc. The longest parade is in Oslo, where some 100,000 people travel to the city center to participate in the main festivities.

This is broadcast on TV every year, with comments on costumes, banners etc, together with local reports from celebrations around the country. The massive Oslo parade includes some 100 schools, marching bands, and passes the royal palace where the royal family greet the people from the main balcony.

Afterwards, it's a feasting celebration of hot dogs, ice cream, coffee and cakes...and lots of it!

Congratulations to Norway on it's special day today!

Here's how we spent our day:

Start out the day with a toot on the horn!

Why doesn't it make any sound?

Got the flag. Got the dress. Rready to go.

Getting ready to watch the parade



Gathering at Mølladammen Skole after the parade

Even the dog is dressed in official colors. Check out the collar.

Where's my hot dog?

Baked chocolate cupcakes from scratch for Keira's birthday tomorrow

Finally..a date night after one year and 2 months!

Yes, folks, we had a date night on Saturday, and it was stupdendous! Our 16 year old neighbor babysat for us and we went and had a wonderful time together. What did we do on such a momentous evening?

1. Go see Iron Man 2 at a REAL movie theatreWe sat in a movie theatre, ate popcorn, held hands and snuggled. Just like the good ol' days..not to say that these aren't great days either, mind you! Just different.

It was fun to see a grown up movie in a movie theatre and I didn't have to share the TV with Keira or wait until after she was asleep to watch a movie. We caught the 6pm show and it left more than enough time to get over to the restaurant afterwards.

2. Eat dinner at a REAL restaurant
What do I mean by REAL restaurant? Well, it had nice white tablecoths. We hate "small, fancy" food and didn't have to hear a bunch of noise and kids running around all the time.

We went to eat a restaurant called Haga Restaurant relatively close to where we live. It was a very expensive restaurant and I chose it because I wanted the whole fantastic service experience....from the decor, to the food, to the wine, to the waiters. The whole shebang.

It was a shame that we didn't get any of that. The restaurant was just mediocre at best. The food was ok. The service was blah. People weren't dressed up fancy at all. Some were even walking around without shoes, if you can believe that. The restrooms. Oh, don't even get me started there. Paper was flowing out of the trash bins. It was messy and not at all the 4 star experience that I had imagined for myself.

I mean, really. I had made reservations for 8:30pm. They knew we were coming. But, when we got there, the table was harldy set for us. It had a white tablecloth, two white napkins and two white plates on it. No flowers. No candles. I had to ask her to put something on our table so it could look more cozy.

The waitress brings over the menu, after we had been sitting there for some time and just says, "we serve a 7 course menu. That's what we have. If you want to reduce it to 3 or 5, you can do that." Um, ok....

The menu was printed on a cheapie piece of white copy paper, for God's sake. There was no description of the food. Just a one liner. "Salmon Asia". What the hell is that? How's it cooked? What comes with it? Turns out that it's poached salmon with soy sauce or something like that. Ugh. Gross.

It was like that for whole menu.

The waitress comes back. She takes our order and leaves. During the whole eating process, I don't think she came back more than one time to ask if everything was ok. Was the food to our liking?

When I left to go to the restroom, I expected someone to come and fold my napkin. Pull out my chair when I come back to the table, etc.

Yes, you may think that I am snotty for wanting all of that, but let me tell you, it was supposed to be one of those snotty restaurants where you get treated like a king or queen. I wasn't eating at Steak and Ale or Outback Steakhouse. And, for the prices they charged, they pretty much should have been kissing my ass. I WANTED someone to kiss my ass.

And the bill? Hehem. I could have bought myself something VERY nice for that price. Let's just say we will NEVER go back there again. Such a shame though. We were there three years ago and thought that it was a pretty classy joint. Too bad that it's gone so downhill.

However, let's not let the restaurant experience cloud the evening. Despite that, we still had a great time being together sans child. We will definitely do that again. I'm expecting a monthly date night is in order. :)

Nervous Breakdown

I swear that I feel like I am going to have a nervous breakdown soon. There's nothing like an almost two year old's(2 years old on May 18)bad antics and behavior to bring you down to your knees.

I'm getting a "bad mommy complex". I feel like I can't do anything right with this kid. She cries and cries and pitches a fit for no apparent reason. All I did was ask her to get out of the car the other day and just that simple request started a 45 minute long crying tantrum. I left her on the ground next to the car and took my things into the house thinking that, surely, she will follow me or ask me to come and get her. NOOOO, she sat on the ground and refused to come in. When I went to pick her up and bring her into the house, she started another crying fit. I just had to leave her in the hallway and walk away.

After 15 minutes of continuous crying, I went to see if she was ready to stop crying. She wasn't ready to stop, of course, so then I was going to leave again. That wasn't the right thing to do. No, not according to Keira. She came and dragged me back and so I thought, ok, I'll try to give her a hug and see if we can kiss and make up. Well, that just started her crying even more. She pushed me away with this "get away from me attitude". Then when I go away, she cries even louder. It's like this. Go away. Come back. Go away. Come back..but don't touch me. YOu can only x inches from me.

This goes back and forth and back and forth for almost everything. Every day. I have no idea what sets her off to a crying fit. I can't seem to do anything right. She's the model child for her father. Now what is up with that?

I searched on the internet today under "My 2 year old is driving me crazy", thinking that maybe I might find others who are in the same situation as me. It was AMAZING. There are tons of mothers in the same situation as me with terrorizing 2 year olds that act in exactly the same way. Some of them have dealt with it for several months now and I am only dealing with her behavior for a week.

I can't believe that a two year old can make me feel so incompetent as a mother. I wonder every day if I'm doing something wrong or if I've done something wrong to make her act this way. Come to find out. It's probably the terrible two's. Oh yeah.

I guess I'll have to dig in my heels and wait this one out. I am the adult. I am the boss. I will prevail. Gulp!....

Catching up

Argh! I see that I have been remiss in keeping the blog updated this week. I have no clue where the time went. I can't believe it's already Wednesday.

Well, let's see...the weekend was nothing to write home about. The weather on Saturday was the shits. It was rainy and cold and windy. In addition to that, it was a holiday. May 1. That caught me by surprise. I think that it caught everyone by surprise. The little corner grocery store on Friday evening was jam packed full of cars and people. I had gone to the store around 4:00pm to pick up some milk and was thinking to myself, "gee, wonder why it's so busy...."

Per called me later to tell me that Saturday was a holidy. What does that mean? EVERYTHING IS CLOSED. That's right. Nevermind the fact that it's a Saturday and that people will most likely like to shop...spend money....stores have a chance to make some good change. NO. No one wants to work on that day. So I had to go back to the store around 8pm to shop. By that time, the store shelves were pretty picked over. Nothing much left there.

Saturday, as I said, was not so nice weather, but Keira and I had a great time while Per was downstairs working. We put on some dance tunes, danced around the room, played hide and seek, made pancakes for breakfast, colored, put stickers on everything that didn't move and watched some TV. That daughter of mine is a really good dancer. You never know..she might even show up so "So You Think You Can Dance."

Sunday was great weather. We had a nice picnic at the local barnehage and Keira went up and down a very steep slide. I was impressed that she did it because when I went up to the slide to try it out, my heart was in my throat. It was scary!!!

I've started a new workout program called P90X. I have been good about it since Sunday. (you're supposed to workout 6 days week with this thing). It feel SOOOOOOO good to workout again and I hav to say that the DVD's are great. The guy is motivating and fun and I feel like I have my own personal trainer right in my living room. Love it!

Ok, here we are at Wednesday. I can't believe that it's already Wed. I was in Denmark yesterday....up at 4am, if you can believe that. I even managed to workout last night when I got home. :)

Here's some pics from the week:

MMMMMM..I love BBQ ribs!


Coloring fun on a Saturday morning!

Look! Horsie! Pee yew!

Picnic!

I can go down this slide...yes, I can!

Ok pappa, let's go...

Being dropped off at the barnehage...so cute with her matching lunchbox