Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!  This has been an extraordinary year.  Everything in our lives is just extraordinary after Olivia came to our lives.  She just has made everything brighter and things just make more sense!  So I am thankful for having her here with us and happy for all the years to come.

My mother and my brother are coming to visit this Christmas.  My mom comes tomorrow and my brother on Saturday (on my birthday!!!).  I am looking forward to showing them all of our traditions here in Norway.  It will be so nice to have them here, make them part of our everyday lives and enjoy the holidays with the people I love the most!  (Missing my dad who will be in Costa Rica but hopefully will come to visit in the spring).

So it will be a very special holiday season for us.  Hope you also have a wonderful holiday and that 2013 brings only good things!  For me?  Early 2013 looks busy, busy and more busy!  Then, in the Spring, it will all be over and a new stage of my life will begin.  I am sooooo looking forward to finishing my MA!  

Once again!  Merry Christmas!!!!  

D.

Hi!

We are all very well!  Just a bit busy!  Enjoy the holidays!

A little reminder

Just a little reminder that we are alive and kicking.  This mother has been extremely busy planning this amazing project together with three other wonderful ladies/artists/moms.  The exhibition "odds" will be next week from the 10th to the 13th of October in Odda, Hardanger.   We are working constantly to get it to be amazing and we think it will be.  So hang in there, be patient, and I will be more active in the months to come.

This video is in Odda last weekend.  Jonas, Olivia, Rafa and I went there to check out the places and clean up together with the rest of the team.  We stayed at the coziest cabin and had a lovely Sunday morning with breakfast and lots of hugs and games.  Hope you enjoy it!!

17 months and some days.

Can't believe it's almost been a year and a half since she came to us.  It really feels like she's always been here.  Olivia is just a tiny, funny, loving, strong, smart and strong willed little monkey!  She loves to sing and dance, draw and paint, climb and stump and fill us all up with kisses and funny faces.  She makes herself seen and knows how to call peoples attention.  She is not shy at all and "speaks" her mind.  She knows what she wants and is clear about what she doesn't want.  I am proud of being her mother because I just couldn't ask for more. 

The dailies?  The autumn is definitely here now.  It's been raining a lot and the temperatures are dropping down (not today, today is beautiful and sunny!).  Now she is finally loving daycare and has so much fun!  She loves especially one of the girls working there and that makes us so happy because we know she is very loved and looked after.  All of the staff at the "barnehage" or kindergarden are lovely, they are so good at their jobs and you can truly see how much they like being there.  She goes generally from a little bit before 9:00 and is there until around 3:45 pm.  I deliver and Jonas picks her up.  After I deliver her I go straight to school and work.  Then try to be home around 4:30 and that is usually when Jonas and Olivia also come home.  From then, we try to enjoy the few hours we have until she goes to bed.

It is really little time the one we have with our children once they start daycare and school.  It is really no more than 4 hours a day.  Two in the morning, but that is for getting ready and eating breakfast and hitting the road, and then, the other 2 or 2 and a half are more to just have quality time.  I hate the thought of it, but there is no other choice.  We do have to work and study and make a living, so, I really couldn't ask for more than to have a place for her where I feel she is being loved, looked after and learning all the good stuff.  And that is exactly what we have.

New starts.

It's been a lot lately.  Olivia started at daycare, I started at school again.  A new project took form and now is actually happening so I am really busy.  Therefore, no time to blog.  But here are some pictures of the last month.  Including the last days of summer and the first day or day care for Olivia.
We had a bit of a rough start, but now it seems like she is enjoying herself and having lots of fun with all her new little friends.  There is still a bit of crying when I leave, but that will eventually pass.  All I know is that she is learning so much and that it is so good for her.  I miss her a lot though.  After 16 months of being together every day all the time, it's like a little piece of me is missing but the moment we get back together again, it's perfection, kisses and cuddles and smiles and hops and all that is good in the world!

First day at daycare

Lilliput!

She thinks she's hiding and I can't see her :)

One last summer day.

Mami got a haircut and now we look a little bit alike.

Tired.

and tired on the way to daycare

with pappa <3

FORGOT TO MENTION!

Olivia walks!!!!! 

As usual, summer has been incredibly busy.  Or even busier.  I can't imagine why?!?!  Maybe is the fact that we moved in to our new house, or that we have a toddler that climbs, crawls and now walks all over the place and I need to have my 5-6-7 senses alert at all times, or the fact that there are lots of projects going on! Plus I need to sleep and eat and have quality time with my husband.  And skype with my family and GO TO WORK!!! (only twice a week, but still).  Anyways.  I am not complaining, just pointing out that summers are not at all for blogging.  But, here and there, I will be posting some pictures or videos of the little Ms.  I know it is important for many of my close relatives that are away and can't see her every day, so, I will do my best to keep updating.

Olivia is 15 months today!  It is amazing how much has happened in these last year and almost a half.  My baby has turned into a little girl and she is so amazing.  She is funny, and smart, and stubborn, and sweet and warm, and gives us kisses and hugs, and sings and talks to herself, and draws and plays and loves Rafa and most of all her little cousin Iben.  She is fun and I love every minute I have with her.  Very soon, in only 3 weeks, she will start daycare and that will be a new stage in our lives.  I think she will love it!  And I will enjoy having time to focus a bit on myself, but I will miss being with her all the time.  Suddenly our time together will be cut down to only a few hours.  But those hours will be sacred and will be for her.

Anyways, that is what life is around here these days.  I hope you are all enjoying the summer.  Or rainy season in the tropic where I come from.

Portugal part 2 - Porto

Portugal part 1 - Lisboa

We just got back from a trip to Portugal with my sister in law, her boy and their baby :)  We had the best time!  Iben and Olivia were awesome together.  Had the best of time and we got to prove that traveling with babies can be a lot of fun, its just a matter of not having huge expectations and not making a lot of plans.  Just going with the flow!

Thank you Iben, Olav, Nicca, Jonas and Olivia for an beautiful trip!!! Can't wait for our next one.