Magical carpet

There is a magical carpet in my grandparent's house in Iceland- well, my grandfather's house now. It's not a flying carpet, although that would be a lot of fun, but it is really magical! Last summer I started crawling on this carpet. I had been up on my knees for more than two months, but not realized which potentials that positions could have -until I arrived to Akureyri. I hadn´t been there for many days when I started crawling. Now I´m back to Akureyri, and I´ve been up on my feet for months (since the beginning of august to be precise), and I had started to do a few steps without holding anything, but I lacked the confidence to throw myself into the walking business. A few days after I came to Akureyri, on the magical carpet, I decided that it was time to start walking. The first morning I was very careful, but already in the afternoon I could do several meters, turn around, and clap my hands in ecstasy for the acquired skills! Now, a few days later I'm literally running around as if I'd never done anything else. My Icelandic cousins say that if I have problems getting the talking business going, then I'll just have to come to the magical carpet to fix things...I'll keep that in mind :)

I'll use this opportunity also to wish you all a great new year. In the Christmas-greetings that I wrote just a couple of hours before my grandmother died I wished that you had a million reasons to smile next year. Despite the sad events of the past weeks -or better to say, because of the sad events, I want to emphasis this wish:
may you have a million reasons to smile in 2008.
Big hugs to all of you, Oscar et al

ONE YEAR

I'm in Iceland and I haven't been much in the blog-mood lately...so I kind of forgot to write a birthday blog yesterday! But...yes you're right...I'm ONE YEAR OLD!
We celebrated in a small scale yesterday, with pancakes, blueberry-cheesecake, gifts, hugs and kisses, and the birthday-song in several languages!
I have a lot of other things to update you on...but I'll tell you later...good to keep you a bit curious...hehe! Check back soon...
Birthdayhugs from Oscar

Amma Finna

Yesterday my Elsku Amma Finna, my mum's mum, passed away. It was sudden and unexpected by everyone, and we don't know how to cope with the news. I don't really know what dying means, but it must be something awfully sad, for my mum has been in tears since then. My grandmother was good and kind as a saint, strong as an ox, she made the most delicious food that we can think of, and when she laughed, it was so contagious that even people that didn't know why she was laughing couldn't help but laughing as well -it could last minutes, the whole body would shake, tears would be running down the cheeks and in the end the stomach would be hurting. And that's how we would like to remember her. Amma, we miss you.

Christmas spirit

I saw father Christmas (Babbo Natale) for the first time today at the kindergarten. He was really nice and gave me some sweets. My mum says I looked at him completely enchanted, which is mild to say true. I had to see him also through the window after he left, and I didn't want to leave the window for a while, as I hoped that he would reappear! My mum tells me that this was the italian father christmas, and that next year she would like to introduce me to the 13 jolasveinn in Iceland.
Anyway, seeing this good old fellow brought me just the right spirit to send you my christmas-greetings. I don't mind if I'm a week in advance, for you never know when the net is going to work, and then next weekend we are going down to Arezzo to celebrate christmas with my grandparents (and there internet is hyper-slow, so don't you expect me to blog very much from there -that's also why the winners of the competition will only be notified telepathically).
So merry christmas to all of you, and thanks for keeping me company this year, I hope you have a million reasons to smile next year -and be sure, that if I'll have some, then my parents will be there capturing it digitally. I hope to see you all very very soon.
Big hugs, Oscar

walking-talking business

People keep asking my parents, is he walking yet, and is he talking? Well, I'm in no hurry to learn these things, but to tell the truth, there has been some progress lately. With the walking business, I can let go of e.g. the sofa and walk 1-2 steps towards my parents, but the sensation is a bit scary and it's good to get a hug and an applause when it's done. My parents bought me a toddle truck from IKEA (Thanks Tommi for the advice) to encourage me to walk, and the first day I couldn't get enough of it and walked back and forth our small flat, with one hand on the truck and a big smile on my face. But then I fell (the blame goes to my parents that didn't tighten the wheels enough) and my lip started bleeding. Then I steared away from the truck for a week. Didn't want all that blood again. But I'm starting to get confident with it again, and walk when I feel like it. I'll keep you updated!
About the talking business, well, there is a kind of race betwen me and my parents -I learn to pronounce words and they try to guess what I'm saying. If they don't understand, I try to improve the pronounciation, for it seems that they don't improve very much at guessing. One of my favourite words these days is Dla (sometimes Dadla), which is my way of saying Bjalla, and this is easy for my parents to guess, Und is hundur (dog) and my mum understood this at the first go and so on, one word at a time. Slowly we are getting to the point. And I plan to be able to say Merry Christmas and a happy new year...next year :)

Old myth

Children need TRAN and books, says this poster. Tran is lysi in iceland, cod-liver oil for the english speaking, and they've just found out that it's not such a miracle oil after all (here you can read all about it...if you read norvergian that is). My mum was just about to order a dozen bottle of Lysi from iceland to make more of a viking of me (to fight all the diseases I bring home from the kindergarten) when she read that those who drank Tran when they were young are more likely to get osteoporosis. They put the blame on excess A-vitamin, that has now been decreased from the tran (since 2001), but still -those (like my grandma in iceland e.g.) who were forced to drink lysi directly from the bottle when they were young have a reason to feel that they've been bluffed!

Mr. Dettifoss

Yesterday was some sort of a record-day for me. I had to change the bib 10 times, and 3 times my mum changed it so late that I had to change the sweater and underwear as well. She calls me Mr. Dettifoss, and I think she believes to be ironical! but this really starts to be a problem! Yesterday after my nap we went hunting for the perfect bib, a heavy duty one that can absorb liters of saliva and still keeping that dry feeling. We didn't find anything suitable, so my mum starts to think that I'm the first baby in history to be drooling that much (or the bibs were sold out because of an epidemy of excessive drooling). My mum considered buying lady pads instead of gags, well, in the advertisement they claim that they have little bulk with great absorbency. They've got special LeakGuard that helps pull fluid deep into the middle of the pad and away from the edges to give you protection where you need it most (!!), also, with the latest tecnology where they are made with cotton-like Dri-Weave and are softer than ever for a more comfortable feeling. Why haven't they thought of making bibs with the pad's tecnology? Well, in the end we didn't buy them, for even if they say in the advertisement that you can discretely carry them anywhere you go, then maybe that is more true for the traditional use of the pads, than if you stick them to the chest of your adorable little boy! In the end we came home with a set of 3 low-duty (and rather ugly) bibs and a pack of swedish cotton sponge for kitchen use that my mum is considering sewing into the new bibs for extra absorbency. In case my mum doesn't find a job once she can get around looking for one, then maybe she will start a bib-production business, where she makes stylish heavy duty bibs for me and my friends! Or maybe I will have done with teething by then, and she will have found some new interesting problems to solve.

BINGO !!!

Once you've completed your bingo-card you're supposed to scream BINGO, BINGO, and wave your arms in the air, right? Well, I would if I had any strength in my muscles, but right now I can hardly keep my eyes open, let alone my arms up, and screaming seems to crave too much energy for my poor reserves. In these compromised conditions I have just completed my bingo card of health. This morning I went to the kindergarten as a happy healthy young boy, but came back home, less than two hours later, white as the glaciers in iceland, weak as a sock without a feet in it, and so far the vomit-counter has arrived to 3. Lets just hope that I've won a weekend in a health spa or a boost of immunoglobins or something that will end this chain of diseases that all seem to be coming my way!

My mum was planning to prepare the christmas cards today, but with me in her arms it might proof slightly difficult. Maybe I should try and give her a hand with the art-work!!

Christmas competition

I've heard that Christmas is coming (I guess I'll soon find out what THAT means), so I thought of presenting you with a nice little Christmas competition.

On the left you can see pictures of two young boys. Which one of them is me, and which one of them is my grandad in Iceland? Please write your answer in the comment system. There will be two winners, one among relative and one among non-relatives. The winner will be notified by telepathy on Christmas Eve.

Rules: The competition runs between 1st and 24th December inclusive. You may enter one answer per day. The competition is open to earth-residents only (sorry aliens)! A homemade christmas cookie will be sent out to the winners, but please note that if it breaks in the post, then you'll have won a Christmas-cookie Jigsaw puzzle ;o)

As not all of you know my grandad in Iceland, I'll add here a picture of the two of us from this summer

New bed

Could you please tell my parents to buy me a new bed -my old one has become far too small for me! If I have a problem falling asleep these days it has got nothing to do with the thousands of red spots that are covering my body, the fact that I'm allergic to the antibiotic used to cure my ear-infection or that I'm on anti-histamins at the moment, it's just because I have a slight difficulty finding the right position for sleeping in this tight space.

Back in business

I'm back in business after a week of ear infection and home-with-mum cuddling. It's a pity really, for I had just learnt to clean my nose by myself! It was rather simple after all...rather than letting my mum chase me with a tissue, I just rub my nose against e.g. the sofa or my mum's clothes when I feel the stream of mucous reaching my upper lip. For some reason my mum is not so happy with this discovery (no clapping the hands bravo Oscar bravo) and she calls me the snail!! But if you thought our problems were over with the healing of my ears and throat, then think again! Since monday my body is covered with red spots, from the tip to the toe, tummy and bottom, fingers and toes... and this afternoon we are going to the doctor to check what it is. The first guess is hypersensibility to the antibiotics (which I'm no longer taking), but let's see what Mr. Dr. says. By now I know the doctor's waiting room like my own flat and my mum says that she is going to eat her tongue for comments she made in the past about mums that overreact about their children...after she had me she says that she is not afraid of being considered an overreacting mum, it's always better than being an under-reacting one!!

Haircut-s

Helga made a comment (which not everyone will be able to read, for it is in Icelandic) that I look older than I am because of how much hair I've got! Well, my parents have actually cut my hair twice. First in August, where my dark newborn hair was cut away, and then again in November. I didn't like the haircuts at all, but I guess I would look rather girly if I hadn't had them!!

11 months

Once again we've arrived to the 29th. How time is flying! I'm 11 months old, and although I'm still fighting the ear infection etc. I'm enjoying myself immensely. You can gather from the list from the previous blog that there is never a dull moment in Oscarlandia. And actually, my parents have found out that when things are calm and quiet, there is a reason to be worried! Yesterday, for example, my mum was changing my bedsheets and I was playing by myself. Suddenly my mum realized that I was awfully quiet, so she went to check what I was up to, and found me chewing on the moon from my goodnight-book -with the book nowhere around! She was not happy! Another classical example is that I'm playing around the entrance door and my mum is bizzying herself in the kitchen, happy for every moment that I'm not playing some music on the radiator. Then I let myself disappear behind the corner, and before I can count to ten (which I would do if I knew how to count) my mum comes running Nei nei nei, not the electricity! For she knows that when I disappear like this I'm off to study the electricity-cables in the bedroom -well, the only chance I get to study them is when she is not there to forbid me to touch them!
Today we wont do much to celebrate. My appetite is not yet completely back so there is no use to celebrate through the stomach (although at lunch I did get to taste my mum's kjot ì karry, which was delicious), my dad is away for work, so we can't do something all three together. In the end I decided that the best way to celebrate was to do something I have recently discovered. Something that my mum has been trying to do with me since I was born, but I've never liked very much. Something that I've found out is warm, cozy and a great way to express emotions. Something so simple and yet so great. It's to hug and being hugged. Who thought that I would need a month of buggedybugs to learn to appreciate it! Today I have craved an overdose of it from my mum (being ill and all, I'm allowed to). In the end she had to make a sling out of an old scarf so that her arms wouldn't fall off from excessive embracing with me. What a perfect way to celebrate my 11 months.
Bearhugs to all of you...

Bugged by bugs

November will be remembered as the bugged-by-bugs month. After the fever, cold, and running nose I'm now down with ear infection. Is there no end to this? When they say that kindergarten gives you so much, I didn't think they were referring to diseases! I went to the kindergarten yesterday (monday), but already in the afternoon I was ill. My mouth and my ear were hurting so much that when I was going to drink my mum's milk it was as if my mouth was full of broken glass that was cutting me. I refuted the milk crying, which happens very rarely and so my mum started to suspect things. Then she found out that my ears hurt (it's always the first thing she checks when I behave in a strange way) and off we went to the doctor who prescribed antibiotics for me. I already feel much better. The appetite is back, and although I'm still a bit weak, I've got a lot of energy between my naps. So now that I'm home from kindergarten I play all day long with my mum. Here is a list of the top ten things I like to do.

1. Make noise by throwing or hitting things. The best of all is throwing something heavy like a metal teaspoon to the radiator which makes a super hollow sound (and my mum goes banana!)
   
2. Hide things under the sofa/bed and then go fetch it.
3. Fill and empty any container/box with whatever I have at hand. My favourite is the box with the (plastic) building bricks and the top is to empty the box over my head
4. Play hockey with the cooking spatula and a building brick (or any other object around)
   
5. Give my parents and Bjalla a big hug
6. Play hide and seek, with my parents or with Bjalla (who is very good at hiding)
7. Study all the "remote corners" of the flat, like behind the cooker (not allowed)
8. Read my books. I alternate on what is my favourite, but at the moment it's "The green hat" a very very simple story about a green hat that is tired of the hat-store where it is on display
9. Let my parents chase me around the house
10. Play the "tunnel" game with the big pillows on the sofa
    

The estetics of parking

I got my first parking ticket the other day. The reason was lack of beauty in the way me and my mum parked our car! Well, I know that Italy is known for style, fashion and architecture and that beautiful things are appreciated here as nowhere else, but I didn't know that it also extended itself to parking! Now I know!
I had gone with my mum downtown, it was raining, and we had some problems finding a parking place. Finally we found one along the Ticino river, and my mum parked between another car and a tree. When we had run our errands (which basically consisted in me washing the floor of the Minerva bar with my hands and trousers while my mum chatted with some friends) we found a parking ticket under the windscreen wiper.
The car DJ832LZ was not parked paralell to the right margin of the driveway.Please pay 36 € within 10 days or we'll do something nasty (ask more money i.e. !!).
I don't think it was even the vigili urbani that wrote the ticket, but the vigili of parking estetics. We would like to underline that the car was not protruding onto the street, it did not arrive to the sidewalks or block the passage of people in any way, and the damn right margin of the driveway was under a 30cm thick layer of fallen autumn leaves. When we drove home, we passed at least 25 other cars parked as our car along the river -probably all with a parking ticket surprise for their owners. Is it possible that the vigili get a percentage of the tickets they write?

CDs

I mentioned my favourite CD in the previous blog (it's a CD for babies by Ragga Gisla). Well, I've got several CDs, from Mozart for babies to lullabies from all around the world (the one of the pigmies is a bit scary!) and we listen to these CDs quite alot. I even know how to ask my mum to play them for me, I just have to fix the CD-player with my eyes and mumble something and she chooses a CD to listen to. Among my CDs there are some plays for children written by Torbjorn Egner. My mum says that she listened to them alot when she was a child, and I can tell, for she knows all the songs and much of the rest by heart. But I've started wondering if she has actually ever LISTENED to these plays. She says these plays are so good for children, but I have started to have some doubts. Let's take Kardemommubaerinn (FOLK OG RØVERE I KARDEMOMME BY) as an example and let's sum up a bit the character of Aunt Sophie (on the picture), which is the major female character in the play. She is unmarried, but is the custoder of her niece Kamilla. I'll fill you in on some of the things she does in the play.

1. Kamilla does not get to go to the annual festival in town, for although it's a festival for children and family, Sophie thinks it's unappropiate that Kamilla goes there and she doesn't go herself, for she can't leave little Kamilla alone at home.
2. When the oldest man of town invites her to the festival, she goes, although reluctantly and takes Kamilla with her. At the festival, all Kamilla gets to do is sit and make sure that no one takes her seat. The major of town Bastian convinces Sophie to sing a song for everyone, and she sings a song about how much better she is to everyone and how terrible the young people and the whole town actually are since they are not like her.
   
3. When the 3 thieves of town rob Aunt Sophie one night (they wanted a female to do the housework for them) but then want to send her back home for she is really a slave driver and orders them to do things by themselves, she doesn't want to go home. Not even when the local police comes to free her does she want to go home. But she thinks nothing of poor Kamilla that is at home by herselfall alone -now it's ok for her to be alone!
4. When one of the three thieves, Kasper, just out of jail is made the director of the new fire brigade of Kardemomme-town and then asks Aunt Sophie to marry him (they'd only met the one day when the thieves robbed her) she doesn't even wait for him to finish to pop up the question when she is all eager to say I do!
   

Now you tell me, is this something for young children? You just wait until I take one of these characters as a role model!!! And don't get me talking about Lille the climbing-mouse, for if there is an annoying little creature in any of Torbjorn Egner's plays, then he is one...!

Update

The picture that I've added to this blog shows what would have happened if I hadn't started kindergarten recently! And it tells you a little bit about what me and my mum are going through these days. Last week, on monday, when I'd just got better from my cold, I went to the kindergarten where the good ladies said to my mum: now you just go out for a walk or something! and then I got to play with the good ladies while my mum went heartbroken into the autumn breeze. I heard her say to my dad later that as she walked outside she felt that the umbelical cord had finally been cut and she had to fight the tears. I didn't do much better and cried a good bit even if I got tons of toys and babies to play with and the good ladies were really nice to me. The day after the same scenery repeated itself. When I got back home around lunchtime I played a little bit, then I fell asleep but when I woke up it was if the end of the world was happening to me personally. I cried and yelled for about an hour (53 minutes to be precise, but then, who's counting!) and my mum held me in her arms and explained to me everything about the kindergarten and told me that she loved me and then she sang a bit for me and we read a book, and then I cried some more and then she played my favourite CD and finally I calmed myself. Now I'm starting to get a bit more used to the kindergarten and I know that my mum always comes back when she leaves me there. I'm still not accepting the place completely, but mainly because I'm not used to having 17 other babies running around me while I'm playing, it does disturb a bit my poetic being. I'm also the youngest one in the group. All the other babies are 4-12 months older than me, they all know how to walk and many also how to talk. My parents find it strange that I didn't get to be in the youngest group of the kindergarten, where there are 6 babies, 3 of which are 1-3 weeks younger than me. I would have fitted in there just perfectly, but I was born 2 days too early to be in that group so there is nothing to say about that. Fortunately my mum has not started working yet, so we have all the time to take things slowly with the kindergarten. If I could just get around to learn to walk without holding something I guess my situation in the kindergarten might improve alot!

A thought!

I was just wondering why somone hasn't thought of making non-slip socks that DON'T actually slip off your feet when you wear them?

HAPPY
40 (forty!!!)
YEARS
WEDDING
ANNIVERSARY

to amma and afi in Iceland

I'm thinking to you

Kindergarten

This week my mum brought me to a place that she calls kindergarten. It's a really really warm place that is full of toys and other babies. In fact there are so many babies that I wonder why they want me there! But they do, so I went there with my mum monday morning. In the entrance hall I met Filippo, a big white soft teddy-bear. We made friends immediately and he told me a bit about the place. Then one of my girlfriends arrived, it was also her first day at the kindergarten. Her name is Alice and we meet regularly when she is out for a walk with her grandmother -she is really really sweet. Me and Alice went with two nice ladies, Giovanna and Letizia to a room where there were several other babies and we got to play with all the toys. Vow!!! On monday and tuesday my mum got to play with me, or stay in the room with me, although she is no longer a baby, but on wednesday she had to leave the room for some time. I cried a little bit when I realized that she had gone, but then I got distracted by some toys and I forgot about her until she was back. Yesterday, thursday, I didn't go to the kindergarten. That's because after lunch on wednesday I had 39°C fever and did not feel so well. My mum said it might be related to the immunization that I did early wednesday morning, but when my nose started running last night she had to think again. My parents tell me that all kinds of diseases pass easily between babies at the kindergarten, but I think I've made some kind of a record, for after only 3 hours of kindergarten I've got my first real cold! Today I got to go back to kindergarten, for I had no fever, and the nice ladies that my mum call teachers say that it's no problem going there with a running nose. In fact there are so many children there with the nose running at any time, that they are considering putting a turbine under their nose and use the mucous-flow to produce energy to keep the lights going at the kindergarten! Today my mum left the room where I was playing with the other kids for almost an hour. It was ok for me in the beginning, but be it the cold or the fact that I didn't sleep so well last night because of a blocked nose, but in the end the nice ladies called my mum and said that it was enough for today! Lets see how things proceed next week! Now I'll just concentrate on get rid of the cold, for kindergarten is much more fun when you fell good.
I also hope that tonight will be better than last night when my nose continued to congest so I felt that I couldn't breath and woke up many times. My mum always took me in her arms and tried to let me blow my nose, but I don't know how to do that. She said: how does the dog say? for one of my latest animalsounds is my own invention of how dogs do when they meet you out for a walk and sniff at you. But I was too tired to "do the dog" well, so I didn't blow my nose hard enough and in the end my mum had to use some solution to clean my nose. That was awful!! The worst thing I've tried!! But it did help, and I managed to fall asleep again...until my nose blocked again! Now my mum has bought also an equipment to suck the mucous from my nose. It's rather horrible as well, but it does help a lot. But now I have two days to cuddle and be cuddled by my parents, and if that doesn't scare away the virus then what will...?