bits and pieces

It's strange how time can seem to pass fast AND slowly simultaneously! Each day passes with our small errands, playing and growing and learning a million new things, and before we know it months have passed and we don't know what has happened to all that time we had on our hands but that we have now archived in the past! We would like to think that we've used the time well but sometimes the thought nagges my mum that she could have been more efficient, she could have done more things, learnt a language, knitted a sweater, made a website about walking with babies in the province of Bergamo, written a book or decorated our house, but she tries not to let these thoughts trouble her more than necessary and continues her idle life...!

Last week mum learnt the important lesson that it's useless keeping your baby away from kindergarten for a week in order to escape a stomach-flu outbreak if the bug is a virulent one! On the evening of the second day after my re-entry to kindergarten I efficiently delivered half-digested broccoli-pie and blueberry-yogurt all over my bed, my teddy-bears, my mum, the floor in my room and..well, you get the picture. It took one night, two full washingmaschines and a lot of hugging my mum to get over the bug, but a day later I was ready to join my friends again at kindergarten as if nothing had happened! And mum couldn't help thinking: was I keeping him home for a week for THIS!
I got back to kindergarten just in time for the annual carnival-party! Me and the other kids got dressed up in ridiculous costumes and got some sweets to eat. Mum actually thought it was a waste of money to buy me a costume, she believes I might like it in a couple of years, but that at the moment dressing us up like that only serves the parents so that they can say "oh how sweet they are". But then she felt the social pressure on her and finally bought the cheapest thing she found, and then spent a considerable time convincing me to wear it! And I was cute...!

I have been busy lately adding to my vocabulary. I love to pick up phrases from the books my parents read to me and then use them in daily life. The other day for example I got my mum's heart smiling when I threw my latest construction on the floor (THAT actually didn't make her happy) and said "Brotnadi i thusund mola" (broke in thousand pieces), showing that I had understood and remembered a phrase that mum had read to me days earlier. And I've also started to try and sing along with mum. I particularly like "Litlir kassar" and sing "annar raudur, annar gulur, annar rondottur" until my mum's smile reaches about 360° around her head.

Irene is making alot of progress as well. She can sit upright and spends hours watching me play while she licks my toys! Mum says that she is a little bit lazy, which can also be read as "used to have things done for her". She is for example quite capable of doing the rollover both ways, but unlike me, she doesn't find it the least entertaining (I was unstoppable after learning the trick) and only uses it when it's strictly necessary -which means that first she tortures us with her high-pitch scream for a while, and only if mum doesn't give in and roll her around, does she do it by herself. But she can be quick if she wants to, and when she sees one of my toys lying around, but too far to reach with her hand she throws herself after it like superman. I don't even stand the chance of removing the toy before she has started chewing on it, so if the toy belongs to the category of my toys that I don't let her play with (yes, it's ME that decides), I have to rip it from her mouth!
One last thing...I think the spring is on it's way..and I can't wait! It's still cold in the morning here, but there is something in the air that tells me that soon we can leave our heavy winterclothes at home...

Email...

Mum sometimes calls me a name that sounds like email, and says that once I can hold a sharp knife without cutting myself she will buy a small hut to put outside our apartmentbuilding!

Irene's nights

If mum thought that being able to fall asleep by oneself was the recipe for problem-free nights forever, then she has had to think again!
Mum says I'm lovely, and that being able to put me to bed awake and counting on me falling asleep by myself has been one of the keys to the good times we've been having the past 5 months. But lately I've started waking up more during the night. First mum thought that the reason was that I was hungry! In fact I WAS beeing more distracted while drinking during the day, and so mum thought that maybe I had to recover the drops of milk lost during the day with some night-time sipping. But recently she got more of the idea that my night-time drinking was making me less hungry during the day and therefore more distracted during the daytime-breastfeeding. Then, when I added a couple of more wake-up moments to the night, accompanied with loud screams (NB. not cries, screams) that would fit more to a film forbidden to under 18yrs (and that scared the shit out of most of our neighbours (and our good guests from Iceland), than to the throat of a 5 months old cuty, then finally she added 2+2 and got the right result. I was waking up to socialize (whith whom, you may wonder since I called for attention by screaming). When mum decided that she was not going to breastfeed me 4 times a night she started to listen to the way I was screaming, and realized that I was not calling for the milk tanks at all and therefore, without further a do (and no warning whatsoever) cut the after-hour feedings to zero. Now I wake up happy as a bliss int he morning and feed well during the day, and mum wakes up with two bricks in her bra and a smile on he face. She thought it was about time to recover a good night's sleep.

Bugs are in the air...

2 weeks ago I stayed at home most of the week with mum and Irene because I had a bad cold. My nose was running and my ears hurt, but for the first time I managed without having to take antibiotics (quite a milestone). Last week we had a visit from Iceland. Raggy and Hakon came to see us, and I looked forward to busy days with them...but again I was forced to stay at home, for I got influenza, and was actually quite ill with body-temperature near boiling-point. This week I was looking forward to seeing again my friends from kindergarten. Monday morning I strawled with mum and Irene to kindergarten (it's about 6-7 months since we parked my stroller for good and took up good and healthy walking) but were almost run down at the door by one of the teachers who was going back home vomiting... leaving only one healthy teacher at the kindergarten, as the others were already busy emptying their stomach-contents into the WC at home! Needless to say we were sent straight back home, were we are still...hoping that the postponing of me going back to play with my friends, will let me pass the turn and not bring the stomach-flu-bugs home. We are also waiting for one-size-fits-all virus-proof overall that mum bought on Ebay and which should make me less appetizable for the bugs!