Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Some more about Iceland

My new country is strange. And cool. And always finding new ways to amaze me. I think it is time I started to share some of this amazing weirdness with you poor unfortunate souls who have never been here, or have not had the pleasure to live here year-round...

So when the rest of the world is celebrating Fat Tuesday/Mardis Gras/President´s Day (if you are American) in Iceland, we do things a little differently. On Monday this week (the 7th week before Easter...or whatever....) we eat puffy buns filled with cream and topped with chocolate. They are luscious. Then on Tuesday, we eat nummynummy salty meat and bean soup until we explode. On Wednesday (known in more pious places as Ash Wednesday) little Icelandic children dress up in costumes and go to local business establishments and sing silly songs and get candy...like trick-or-treating on Halloween, without the death and scariness factor.

Elsa dressed up for the first time as a Barcelona FC supporter. She was very cute. Maybe someone in Tumi´s family will finally share his love of the game?

She is sick, which was expected since she has started at a new school with all new germs. We are just trying to delay passing her illness on to her little brother...it will happen soon enough I am sure.

Feverish Elsa snuggled up with Sushi the tiger on the couch. Feels so yucky to be sick!

All of my most favorite people!

Made some blueberry pancakes last weekend for breakfast and Huckleberry Finn enjoyed them on his face and in his mouth.

Bathtime!
Why, yes Mamma; I do enjoy reading. And my sideways hat makes me look so very handsomish...

My menfolk.
She does love that little Sushi tiger!


Finnurface!




Wednesday, February 15, 2012

The joys of childcare

Today was a big day for our little family. Elsa started at a new playschool, and Finn went to his ´daymamma´for the first time. I think it is a miracle that both kids landed in good child-care situations...let me expand upon the wonderful series of coincidences that led us to this good fortune.

Elsa´s current playschool only has kids up to 2 years old, so she was on the wait list at several ´big kid´schools in the area. A few weeks ago, we got a call from Skerjagarður, a lovely playschool that said they could offer a place to Elsa. We let her current playschool know that she would be leaving, and they said we may need to play for all of February if they didn´t get a child to take her place from a daymamma. A few days passed, and they let me know that they had gotten a kid from somewhere, so Elsa could leave in the middle of the month. That night, I got a call form daymamma down the street saying they had a place for Finn! I hadn´t expected him to find a place until at earliest the summer....Apparently, the little boy who was leaving their place was going to Elsa´s old playschool and filling her old space!!! The childcare ecosystem aligned in such a way that that totally benefited our family. I am happy.

Now we are in an adjustment period. Tumi will go with Elsa the next few days, and I will go with Finn while they get used to being in their new places. I hope they will both be happy...I think we´ve found them good fits.

Cool new video of Elsa and Finn on the piano!

We just had a visit from Ryan and Kyle. Finn taught them how to play football

Elsa showing Martin her favorite videos while Anna and Finn chat together!

See Finn´s new beautiful sweater that Gunnhildur made? Handsome guys!

I showed Elsa how she looked with her glowing suit...this is the face she made knowing how shiny she was in her cool outfit.

Elsa´s friend Moritz came over for dinner!

He´s a virtuoso!

Cheeze ham face.




Thursday, January 26, 2012

Don´t forget!

It is amazing how quickly time goes when you have little people living with you. They learn and grow so quickly you can sometimes see changes over the course of a few hours. When I come home from work, Finn looks bigger, more alert, and smarter than he did when I left him in the morning. Elsa is learning so quickly that she is picking up new words, songs, and jokes everyday. I can look at pictures from just three years ago. How different life was then!

What amazes me even more than how fast they grow is how quickly I can forget what everyday life is like with a baby of a certain age. One benefit of having little babes so close together is that Finnur serves as a constant reminder of what it is like to live life mothering a tiny baby and Elsa gives me some idea of what I will be dealing with in a year´s time when Finn will be her age...

For instance...

Finn has started to crawl and pull himself up to standing. I forgot how many sharp and extremely dangerous corners all of a sudden pop out of nowhere. Coffee tables, bookshelves, closets...not to mention sockets, and doors you can open over your little chubby hands. I forgot how you have to sit with a little baby while it cries and cries and then finds its pacifier and eventually calms itself down at night. I forgot the panicky feeling that comes the first time your baby pulls himself up in the bathtub and slips a tiny bit on the edge before catching himself...looking up at you worried. He wants you to tell him if he is okay or not, because he can´t tell for himself yet.

SO. Because I don´t want to forget. Now, at 22 months, Elsa is a parrot. She repeats absolutely everything you say, which is sometimes lovely, like when she says the sunset is ´GORGEOUS!´ but sometimes not so nice, like when she says, ´OH SHEET!´ when you drop something on the ground. She can sing the ABCs (the playschool ladies say that sometime she keeps the other kids awake at naptime, because she likes to keep singing). She enjoys puzzles, and is very good at playing by herself for some while. She uses the toilet on her own every once in a while. She takes one nap a day, usually for an hour and a half or so. Finnur Atli, at almost 8 months old, is growing like crazy...He has been has one big ole tooth on bottom and two coming in on top. There is a purple, ugly lump on his bottom gum where the next one is coming, but it is taking its sweet time. He is drooly. He chews on everything. Last night for the first time in his whole life, he slept all night without waking up to drink. He still woke up to cry a bunch, but didn´t eat until 7am. Sadly, now we know he is capable...

And, Tumi has uploaded the videos he made for each kiddo around their first Christmas to youtube...Elsa´s and Finnur´s. They are pretty fantastic :)

Finnur Atli visiting Elsa in the early morning hours

Elsa playing with her new toy...her toy basket!

Sup little girl!

Danger mouse. Crawling up on those shelves...

This is what dinnertime looks like at my house

This is Elsa´s ´Oh snap, I got caught!´face

Aaaaaaand...they are both standing.

Elsa María took this one.

Starting to play together! Well...kind of.

Food faces!



Not sure if you can tell, but Finn has a bloody nose. Battle scar. Pretty bad-ass, eh??



Sunday, January 8, 2012

Silence


´Silence´seems an appropriate title for this blog post. It is what has been heard on this blog for the past several weeks. It is what I have craved in the middle of the night as both children are adjusting to the time difference between the west coast of the US and good ole´Reykjavik, Iceland. And, ´Silent Night´is the lullaby of choice for the kiddos these days, so SILENCE it is!

We had a marvelous trip to the US over the holidays. That was our 3rd year in a row in the US for Christmas, so certainly next year we will stay at home in Reykjavik. It is time to start our own holiday traditions as a family :)

We spent most of our time in Tacoma living the life of a family with two very young children. We made excellent use of the new playground just down the street from Gramma and Grampa´s house. Elsa and Pabbi paid daily visits to the pet store down the street to check in on the puppies and chat with the parrot-in-residence, called Magoo. We connected with all those loving relatives Elsa has been learning about from a distance via photo albums. I miss family already.

In developmental updates, Elsa is speaking both Icelandic and English. She knows her ABC´s and can count to tíu/ten. She is the bossy-big-sister in our house, and enjoys telling any adoring grown up who is willing to listen where to sit and how to draw and what to play with and what to fetch her to drink and eat. She had a fabulous time tinkering around with her Grandma Julie´s iPad. She has a new best friend, a microwavable stuffed Tiger that smells like lavender which she has named ´Sushi´. Our trip to the US gave me an opportunity to introduce my little lady to some classic American kid food that is hard or impossible to come by in Iceland...Mac and Cheese, goldfish crackers, graham crackers, peanut butter, string cheese...all fine delicacies for the preschooler´s palate!

Finn learned to crawl in the US, much to the delight of his aunties uncles, grands, and cousins. He now eats (and eats and eats and eats) solid food, sometimes spooned-out mashed-up versions of grown-up person food, and sometimes grab-able bits with his own chubby little fingers! When we arrived back home in Iceland, he started pulling himself up to standing...so now begins the era of big falls, bruises, and Mama´s fear of all sharp edges and wobbly bookshelves...

Now I can hear Finn starting to wake up, so I´ll do the rest in pictures :)

Getting ready for our flight out to visit Gramma and Grampa!


Tumi and me with Lil Brother Thomas at our first ever midnight Rocky-Horror Picture Show. Thomas was Riff Raff that night. Strangest. Night. Ever.

Finn napping at Shirley Street with Marley standing guard.

Happy little boy on our trip to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle

And Elsa at the zoo!

Hanging out with Hiro in the U Village

Elsa helping Grandma Julie decorate the Christmas tree!

She calles them Kissmaslies, and they do NOT go in your mouth!

Hola, Senor!

Baby boy blue eyes

Skyr-face.

So nice to hang out with UNCLES! (and pizza to boot!!!)

Real live somewhat larger version of Sushi-Tiger. There are now 2 tigers at the Point Defiance zoo...this one, and one in another enclosed area. When I asked the zoo volunteer why they were not together, she explained that this one is the Mama of the other one (who is just about as old as Elsa) and he got to be too energetic for her to handle, so they moved him to another cage so she can rest. How well I understand her situation....

Gunnhildur v. Polar Bear

At the Point Defiance Zoo :)

Ahem....that was a fun game :)

Digging through the stocking Christmas morning

Happy girl in a Santa hat...AND....

Happy boy in a Santa hat!

Snuggling up with Gunn-gunn at the airport before we all went home

Back at Amma and Afi´s house for New Year´s Eve!

Elsa learned about how to give gifts this year

Happy family ready for 2012!