Olga Overseas!

Face time

2012-02-12T08:59:00.000-08:00

I just tried to take a photo of Henry's teeth, because golly gee are they adorable. I didn't get teeth, but I got this awesome expression:

I'm calling it a win.

Hvað ertu stór?

2012-02-12T03:08:00.000-08:00

It's Sunday morning! The men of the house are watching the cricket and sharing breakfast - it is totally cute. Henry's getting much better at eating food in bits, so he gets a bit of whatever we're having. He seems to enjoy food much more when it comes from someone else's plate, but who doesn't?

What else? Henry had a check up with the nurse last week, and all is well with him. He only put on about 300g over the past two months which is:
a) less than usual, because up until now he's been growing like a wildly growing thing,
b) normal, because he's using up more energy now that he's crawling around the place, and
c) kind of a relief, because at the rate he was going, I was worried he'd be too big for the airplane bassinet when we go to Australia... Ah, the things I find to worry about.

The nurse asked if he'd started doing things like waving and clapping (yes and yes), and stressed the importance of getting those sorts of things right in time for his 10 month appointment. Basically, there's a developmental test that the doctor gives, to see if their motor skills and communication skills are all good for their age. This is, of course, a good thing.

And I guess they need to have some sort of standardized milestones, so they can compare babies to each other. But here in Iceland, they seem to go one step further. Not only does Henry need to know how to clap, he needs to clap along to a specific song. That's the prompt that they give him, and if he doesn't respond to it, then he fails at clapping. (There's probably another phrase they use, 'fail' sounds fairly harsh for a baby.)

And there's another thing that I'd noticed other mothers doing at playgroup - asking their babies how big they were, and then the baby would throw his/her hands in the air (this big!) and grin. Aww, how adorable, right? I tried it a bit with Henry, just because I thought it was a bit cute.

Turns out he'll be tested on that. There's a german girl at the mother's group, and she said their daughter puts her hands up every time someone scores a goal in soccer - apparently the nurses warned her that that wasn't an acceptable demonstration of putting your hands up. It must be as an answer to the question 'how big are you?'. Boo.

I can't decide whether I should set aside time every day to practice the 'right' question and answer, or just teach him to high five instead. Maybe I can do both.

Ugh.

2012-02-04T02:45:00.000-08:00

Welp. Bear with me, this is kind of hard to write. I still suffer from trying to be totally perfect all the time, or at least appearing that way to other people. So I find it difficult to expose failures and pain and horribleness - but it's probably good to air it all out, right? Right.

We tried some sleep training last night. Read all the things on the internet, pros and cons, safety stuff, tips for 'gentler' sleep training, tips for staying sane while your baby cries, and so on. Had a big plan, set up his bedroom all nicely, finally put him to bed, decided we would not back down, no matter what...

I lasted exactly five minutes. The first interval we left him for was three minutes of crying (worst. noise. ever.), then I was supposed to go in and soothe him without picking him up. That part was even worse - he was just looking at me and bawling, and holding his arms up so I could pick him up, but I couldn't. Ugh.

Then Ross came up to tell me to leave him again, because you're only supposed to be in the room for a minute or two. I came halfway down the stairs, but by this time I was crying, too, so I asked if we could stop. And we took about ten seconds to make that decision, and then I went back up and rescued my poor little Henry. He took a little while to calm down again, even with me holding him, so I don't really understand how he would have calmed down on his own. I guess he'd have stopped crying eventually from exhaustion, but again, ugh.

Anyway, we decided that that particular method is definitely not for us. Not right now, and probably not anytime soon, either. I know Henry needs to learn to sleep on his own, and in his own bed, but I'm okay with him learning that in his own time.
I'm glad we tried, just so we can say that we did. And I think it taught us more about the way we want to parent - where the lines are for us.

Luckily there were no hard feelings from Henry, he's such a lovely little chap.

Schlaf, kindlein, schlaf

2012-02-01T10:37:00.000-08:00

Henry stayed at his Nanna's house on the weekend, which was both awesome and terrible!

Awesome because Ross and I just spent a quiet night watching movies and hanging out. We watched Things to do in Denver When You're Dead, and 50/50, which made me cry like a little baby. Nina got heaps of pats and attention without the little man trying to pull her face off, and I slept for nine hours straight. It was so so nice.

On the other hand, it was a bit terrible because I don't think Vicki slept at all. Henry kicked up a fuss when she tried to put him in the crib, and carried on about it for nearly an hour. I think that was the worst part, but they both had a pretty restless night. Henry fell asleep in the pram on the way home and then had a four hour nap, which is a new record!

Anyway, we were definitely super appreciative for the break, and I'm sure it's good for Henry to get used to hanging out with people that aren't me. He sometimes has a bit of a whinge when I pass him over to anyone else, but it's not really affecting our daily life in any negative way... Yet.
Plus, it's a bit nice that he likes me so much, and in any case, as a wise woman once told me - this too shall pass.

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What else? Henry has learned how to clap, and as a result he gives himself and everyone else a round of applause for doing anything. Or nothing. It's funny though, it seems like every time he learns a new thing, he stops doing any of the old things - so now instead of waving to you when you leave the room, he claps ('Yay, you're finally gone!' What a charmer.)

In other news, the internet is still awesome. I found a place where you can learn how to write computer code for free, which is kind of interesting and fun. I tend to race through the exercises, but I think I need to set up a way of revising and actually remembering things once I've 'learned' them.

So long, farewell, etc.

2012-01-27T09:34:00.000-08:00

Well, Mum has gone back to Australia - and we already miss her! Henry put his new skill of waving to good use, and we all had a bit of a teary farewell. It's good to know that we'll be in Perth in a few months' time, but it's still pretty hard to say goodbye.

In other news, I've been sorting out Henry's citizenship stuff - I'd like to blame bureaucracy for the delays, but if I'm perfectly honest, it's just because I'm terrible at getting stuff done. Today I tried to take passport photos, as the photographer in town seems to be really hard to get a hold of. Cue cuteness:

He has started getting excited when you take a photos, instead of just staring in awe at the camera. In this one, he took a lunge in my direction just as I pressed the button*. Super cute, but not really a passport photo.

* I just spent about five minutes trying to remember if there's a specific word for that button... I want to say something to do with shutters... Do feel free to help me out in the comments.

I think I got a useable one in the end, now I just need to do a test print to see if the resizing worked properly!

And here's three other photos that I love. They just kind of sum up how nice it can be around here.

Close up

Cuddle puddle


Neighbourhood watch

Tooth and nail

2012-01-19T09:12:00.000-08:00

I already posted these on facebook, but the world always needs more photos of my son posing like a dork, right?

Wearing shoes! Like a dude!

Not wearing shoes! Still a dude!

So what has been going on in your life? I have been little-miss-never-posts, possibly because as I have previously mentioned, I kind of write the blog as a never ending catch up email to my mum. And since mum is here and fully caught up on everything that's going on, everyone else misses out! Sorry!

Things have been happening, though:

Henry has been pretty fussy the last couple of nights, and then last night Vicki noticed he had a little tooth coming through! Exciting times.
He's also getting waaaay too good at crawling and pulling himself up on things, I may need to put a bell on him.

I have been knitting a dress and watching Parks and Recreation. Ross keeps laughing at how excited I am about the show - I love it so much. I love everyone on it, and then they add new characters and I love them, too. Seriously, I cannot recommend it enough, although everyone in the whole world has probably seen it already anyway, so I don't even need to.

What else? Mum is here for another week and then she's off - her trip has gone by so quickly! I keep thinking we should have done some exciting things while she was here, but it has been pretty nice just hanging out at home.

And that's about it! Might be time to try to get the dude to take a nap - again. Why doesn't he just sleep when he's tired? Ah well, he'll get the hang of it eventually.

Water water water...

2012-01-09T12:25:00.000-08:00

Hello again!

Well, it has been pretty busy around these parts - Vicki has a good summary with heaps of photos, so I won't post any doubles.

Actually, I'm writing from my new laptop (birthday present, thanks Mum and Dad!), so I don't have any of my own photos uploaded yet! What I do have are photos from my sister's magical underwater camera - oooh ahhh.

Not taken underwater. Duh.

Anja, Anna and I took Henry swimming last week, it was totally fun. I was a bit worried because of the last lesson we went to, which featured tears and terror. But it all turned out fine and Henry was a water baby once again.

And now all our guests are gone again - it was so quiet in our house over the weekend, which was kind of nice but also a bit sad. The goodbyes weren't too bad because we have a plan to go back to Perth in five months' time, so that took a lot of the sting out of it.
My mum is down south at the moment, but will be back tomorrow to spend some more quality time with her Henry.

Oh yeah, and speaking of the short guy (am I ever not?), he is now crawling around like a little crab man. He goes from sitting to crawling then sitting again, and has started pulling himself up on whatever is at hand. He hasn't tried the dog yet, but I think it's only a matter of time. What a champ.

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T03:46:00.000-08:00

I had a birthday the other day! Guess how old I am?

My answer is in picture form...

Except pretend there's only one of them...

You know how birthdays and New Year's Eve always make you take stock of your life? Here's a list!

In 2011, we bought this:

Then one of these:

And then this guy showed up:

In summary, my year was pretty much amazing and awesome and mostly filled with good exciting things.

Ex-mas, part 2...

2011-12-29T03:20:00.000-08:00

The neverending belated Christmas summary continues!

Henry and Nina were both pretty cheerful on Christmas morning - Nina got a package addressed to her from her Aunt Freyja, which she unwrapped all by herself.

Henry got dressed up like a little man again - I love when he looks like a little person.

Uncle Dom taught him some guitar...

And gave him an amazing present - Walthamstow friends, do you remember the toy stall that sometimes set up in the markets? It had an array of flashy light up toys, and Henry is now the proud owner of a policeman on a motorbike. He seems almost intimidated by it when it's switched on - he can't look away, but doesn't really know how to interact with it.

All the Di Blasio kids skyped with their Dad's family in the afternoon, which was quite lovely - we showed Henry off to their grandparents and aunts and uncles, and I think everyone really enjoyed it.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T03:31:00.000-08:00

I haven't been posting lately, too busy hanging out and catching up and enjoying the holiday season!

Anna is here and we have been having good times - a lot of them made up of watching terrible movies and eating junk food - some things never change. She and Henry are getting along fine, they've been bonding over a shared love of shiny things and making funny noises.

Does this look familiar?

There's just some things you've got to do when you're holding a squishy baby, and chomping his head is one of them...

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Christmas Eve is the main celebration among Icelanders. We all went to Sigga's for dinner, which was delicious and plentiful as always.

Henry slept through the presents, but he woke up in time to play with the wrapping paper.

What, you don't play with wrapping paper? Feel Henry's disdain...

Anyway, I am going to post this so it doesn't linger in my drafts pile any longer... Hee hee, linger longer. I still have so many Christmas day photos to post, though, so maybe I'll post again soon!

I has a happy!

2011-12-12T03:55:00.000-08:00

Guess what? My sister Anna arrives in Sauðárkrókur TOMORROW! You have no idea how excited I am (okay, you probably have an inkling, given how many times I've mentioned it...) I'm picking her up from the airport in the morning, and then we are going to hang out. Actually, she'll probably be completely exhausted from all her traveling, but I'm sure we'll hang out once she's well rested.

When I lived in Perth, I had moved out to a place that was pretty far away from my parents' house, so Anna and I mostly had big catch ups every once in a while. We had so much fun, we'd do intensive op-shop trawling over several suburbs, or go see kid's films during the day, when it's not as busy. We'd drive around, and eat ridiculous foods, and sing all the songs from that musical episode of Buffy (P.S. if you're singing 'Walk through the Fire' and alternating characters, you can pretty much sing all the parts as a duo. Protip from a dork.)

Anyway, those days of fun are one of the things I totally miss from Australia, so I hope we can have some good times while she's here.

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I have a confession: the dude has still been a bit not-keen on sleeping in his room, so we finally caved and moved the cot back into our room. In hindsight, we probably should have kept it in our room for longer to begin with, but he was pretty okay with it up until recently, when he decided he would not, could not, go to sleep in the crib (he would not, could not with a... um... squib?)

So, confession part two: he's been sleeping in our bed at night. Yes, co-sleeping, that thing that I suspect lots of people do but don't talk about, because it's dangerous and wrong and makes your kids fail to develop independence. It probably also causes autism.
Ha, look at how I immediately got all defensive, in anticipation of being told off. I'm sure nobody really cares what I'm doing - rest assured, I'm doing my best to keep my son as safe and happy as possible, and I think everyone should stick to whatever works for them.

Anyway, having the cot in our room is like magic - he's been sleeping in there for hours at night (but not all night, yet), and seems to settle himself more easily without my help. He's even taking longer naps up there, which means I get bigger blocks of time during the day to do stuff and therefore have sanity. Good times.
And then when he does wake up (as he did just now) - he wakes up happy and calm, instead of in tears. Magic, I tells ya.

Still not sure whether to lie to the nurses at his next checkup, for fear of the disapproving looks - I jest, I'm sure they've heard it all before and probably have many tips and tricks for helping us all out.

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Photobooth presents: Post-nap snuggle party on the couch.

Featuring Olga funny-face, Nina licky-chops...

... and Henry happy-pants.

Whoa...

2011-12-08T01:51:00.001-08:00

The baby dude had a half birthday yesterday, so he is now six months old... Are you as weirded out as I am?

He's been changing a lot lately, it seems like just over the past few weeks he's become way more steady and in control of his head and limbs. And now that he realises he can be somewhat in charge of what he does and where he goes, he seems to have developed some strong feelings on the subject. It's pretty awesome to watch him determinedly pulling himself around on the rug - he's not crawling yet, but he pushes himself forward a bit, then face plants, then repeats the process. Very graceful.

He also has a scooty-walker thing that is currently in the kitchen. He used to just hang out in the corner while I was doing kitchen things, but lately he's all over the place - I turned away from him for a few seconds yesterday, then turned back to find him right behind me, looking all pleased with himself. Such a dude.

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Anyway, in honour of his half-birthday and the fact that it's nearly Christmas, I tried to take some photos featuring him and the tree.

It was kind of fun, but I think I may have to get Ross involved next time. Maybe then I can get a shot I could theoretically use in a card (which we all know I won't get around to making, so I guess it doesn't matter too much!)

Ooh and on a related note: we have a Christmas tree, guys! It is pretty cool. This is the first time where Ross and I have had our own proper tree, just for us - I hope it lasts a long time...

The story of my parents' tree is pretty adorable. It's pretty small, and I always used to think it was lame - I wanted a big tree, with matching decorations, like something on display at a store. Anyway, they bought it for their first Christmas as a married couple, and they were pretty poor at the time. They had a little bit of money which should probably have gone on groceries or something useful, but instead they bought this little tree, and they've had it ever since.
Awww.

Party time!

2011-12-05T02:30:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, someone wrote a comic about my dog...

Totally gross, but so true.

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So! I think posting every day tends to wear me out, and I take far too long to recover from it. But it's all good, as now I have things to say!

We had a pretty awesome weekend. Saturday during the day we went to the Red Cross, I got some awesome awesome things, as usual. Seriously, though, I think I need to change clothes several times a day in order to actually wear everything I own. Either that, or just not do any washing for a month. I reckon I could work my way through it all eventually...

Mr. Henry got to stay at his Nanna's house on Saturday night, whereupon he decided to keep her up ALL NIGHT. I think he's still not that good at bottles, he just gets too much air and then feels sick and gassy and cries for hours. Bummer. Then once he got to sleep, he rustled and faffed around so much that he kept waking Vicki up.

Saturday night was our work Christmas dinner, then my cousin Maja bought us tickets to go see Lay Low at the local bar. The work thing was okay but we left quite early, which I felt bad about at the time, but it proved to be the right decision in hindsight.

See, we thought we'd snuck out pretty effectively, but then we ran into a bunch of people who were outside smoking, and they totally called us on the fact that we were going. I think having tickets for the show was a pretty good excuse, but they were trying to convince us to stay anyway - 'There's still dessert! We're going to play games!' Needless to say, that made us hightail it out of there even faster - apparently the Fisk staff parties tend to get a little messy, and the 'games' are all those gross innuendo-filled excuses for the single people to get drunk and touch each other inappropriately. So we didn't miss much... Or rather, we missed a whole bunch of stuff, but that was definitely a good thing.

Lay Low was totally amazing, it was so good to see an actual real band for once. Usually the bar is only populated by cover bands or weird Icelandic jokey bands who play racist songs while wearing matching woolly jumpers. There weren't very many people there, but I think everyone that was there enjoyed it - I just hope they and other proper bands come visit us more often.

After the band finished, there was terrible music and awesome dancing. Everyone from the work party showed up and danced with us, so I think our early exit was forgiven...

Sunday, I realised that I need to work on moderation when I go out - I had almost forgotten how bad hangovers are. I just get so excited when we go out, that I need to drink ALL THE THINGS. Plus I have generous friends and family, and it would be rude to decline a beer someone bought you, wouldn't it?

So we sat around all day and didn't do much of anything. Henry and I had a three hour nap, then I finally made the long awaited banana bread - although I still haven't tackled the resulting dishes... Maybe that'd be a good thing to do right now...

Henry's Rollin...

2011-11-30T06:15:00.001-08:00

Feeling pretty satisfied with life right now - partly for the awesome title pun, partly because of other stuff... I finished a bunch of crocheting today (although I haven't posted it yet, sorry Pat!) and finally got around to phoning work about maternity leave (another six months off, yay!). Dishes are done, and I vacuumed up a bunch of dog hair. But the best one of all - Henry rolled over from his back to his tummy today!

In typical Olga fashion, I left him on the floor in the lounge while I buttered my toast, then came back and went 'hang on a minute, didn't I leave you on your back?' He then rolled back and forwards for ages, seems like he's pretty proud of his achievement.

'Whatevs, dude, I could've rolled over ages ago, I just didn't feel like it.'

Also on the list of achievements - NaBloPoMo! Done! How pleasant. Their blog prompt for today is, predictably, 'what did you learn from NaBloPoMo?' I don't think I learned anything in particular, but it does feel nice to get things done.

It's pretty good that I feel so awesome when I accomplish what most people consider ordinary tasks. So much life satisfaction.

Snowpocalypse!

2011-11-29T09:24:00.001-08:00

Golly gee whiz, dudes, the weather has gotten wild around these parts. It was really blizzardy yesterday and even worse today, although it's not so bad when you're just hanging out at home like I am. My mothers' group thing was cancelled because no one could be bothered shovelling snow out of their driveways so they could get there. It's only a two minute walk for me, but I decided that I didn't really want to go and just hang out by myself - I can totally do that in the comfort of my own home!

Snow is way more fun if there's someone to enjoy it with. Nina is a champion frolicker - if you ever need someone to frolic through the snow with you, she's your man.

Maybe if the weather clears a little tomorrow we can try some sledding and snowman building. And if the weather doesn't clear, we can all invest in snowsuits and do it anyway!

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Maja definitely got the snow she wanted, I just hope they're both okay with a relaxing holiday versus an action packed one. Then again, I guess a four months pregnant lady probably wasn't planning an adventure holiday to begin with.

So they basically get to hang out and take pictures of me and the dude. Barrels of fun, right?

I finally got around to pureeing those carrots that were mouldering away in my fridge (although the bananas continue to moulder), and Henry had a huuuuge dinner of carrot mush. Which he totally loved. So weird to think of tasting foods for the first time - how much would it blow your mind?

The name game again!

2011-11-28T14:46:00.000-08:00

Over on A Cup of Jo, she is talking baby names for Motherhood Monday. She hyphenated both her and her husband's last names for her baby, and asks what other people think, and whether they'd consider doing the same...
Hyphenating hasn't ever really been an option for me, I have the longest surname ever - and then I changed it to something even longer. Basically, the Icelandic last name should be your dad's name (or your mum's name), and then son or daughter on the end. So my surname here is Sigurthorsdottir - daughter of Sigurthor. My brother's last name is Sigurthorsson, for obvious reasons. And of course, you don't take your husband's name when you get married - when you're married to Mr. Jonsson, it doesn't stop you from being your father's daughter. Plus the ending 'son' sounds weird on a girl, if you're in the Icelandic mindset.

When my dad's family moved to Australia in the sixties, however, everyone thought it was too weird for a whole family to have different last names, so they all took the 'man of the house's last name, which was Hermanniusson (take a guess as to what my great granddad's name was...) So my dad got that last name, which my mum then took when they got married, and I grew up not really realising that I had a boy's last name.

Until I lived in Iceland for a year when I was twelve. I went to school, made friends, became more Icelandic-ish - and eventually felt a bit funny about my last name. While I was over here I used Sigurthorsdottir, because that was what everyone assumed my name to be, as a person with two Icelandic parents.
At the time, Sigurthorsdottir didn't really feel like my name, but as I spent more time in Iceland over the years, I grew kind of attached to it. While I was living in London, I decided that it might be nice if my passports for Australia and Iceland had matching surnames, so I changed it when I went back to Australia.

And then I got married, but since I'd only just officially become Sigurthorsdottir everywhere, I didn't want to change it to Di Blasio straight away. And I haven't really felt the need to do so yet... Maybe when/ if we go back to Australia to live, I'll think about it?

So yeah, that was a very long winded way of saying hyphenated surnames? Not going to happen. I wouldn't want to condemn anyone to that many letters.
Henry could have been some variation of Rossson (Rosssson? Rosson?), or even Olguson, but we decided Di Blasio has a much nicer ring to it.

Man, do you think anyone likes discussing their name as much as I do? I have so many things to say on the subject. Remind me of this next time I think I have nothing to write about...

Giving up the things that get you down...

2011-11-27T14:32:00.000-08:00

Ugh. I am thinking of forsaking Pinterest entirely in favour of Craftgawker. It's been recommended to me a few times - I think it takes at least three mentions of something different for me to give up my old ways and try something new. Basically, it seems to have all the fun DIY things that I look for on Pinterest, but without all the body snark and religious debates.

Seriously, I think it's good that people are starting to move towards accepting different body types - realising that fat does not equal ugly. What is not cool, though, is pinning a photo of say, Marilyn Monroe, and saying this is what a 'real woman' looks like. Because some people are naturally thin and some are bigger but not necessarily hourglass shaped, and neither of these things, or the billion other permutations of size and shape should preclude you from being recognised as a 'real woman'.

And then there's the thing I mentioned in a previous post, with a picture of a thin girl followed by a whole bunch of weight loss 'tricks' including joining pro anorexia websites, because they'll shame you into losing weight! Yay - that's definitely a mentally and physically healthy way to lose weight! End sarcasm.

And whichever body type gets posted - fat, thin, muscular, petite - there's someone in the comments saying 'oh my gosh this is gross! what make a prson want 2 look so disgusting? and b proud of it?!'

GRARGH fellow humans, stop being dicks! Pro-tip: hating your body should not be a totally normal thing, no matter what it looks like. The world makes me sad sometimes.

And then the religious debaters. Someone posts an inspirational religious/ non-religious quote, or a comment on the idiocy of believers/ non-believers, and then everyone piles in and starts just blatantly attacking anyone who holds an opposing viewpoint.

I honestly think that in cases like this, you can argue until you're blue in the face, and you're not ever going to convince people that they're wrong. I remember in year 11, my 'friend' Lisa and I argued for weeks, every recess and lunch break, about whether or not lesbian couples should have access to IVF. It went nowhere, as she wasn't going to convince me that it was right to deny medical technology to people on the basis that what they were doing was 'unnatural'*; and I was never going to be able to explain to her why her homophobic attitudes were awful and offensive and completely full of shit.

* 'Cause making babies in a test tube and then implanting them into a uterus is a totally all-natural process, right?

Ahem, is it possible I am still vehemently angry about that particular discussion? Perhaps. But I guess that makes my point - these sorts of talks mostly aren't about exchanging ideas or listening and learning, they just make everyone all riled up and nasty.

Anyway anyway anyway - crafts are way more fun than being mean on the internet. I want to make a dress out of t-shirts, some homemade sugar scrubs, and a million Christmas decorations!

P.S. Baking did not happen today, nor did crocheting. But maybe I'll get busy tomorrow!

!!

2011-11-26T13:23:00.001-08:00

Today was super exciting - my cousin Maja and her husband Jason arrived in Sauðárkrókur! They came just in time to see the mini street festival where they turn on the lights on the big Christmas tree. Maja and Jason aren't staying long, but I'm so excited - and let's face it, you can probably get through most of the sights in the fjord in a few days anyway!

Ooh, Sigga had us over for a family dinner (lamb that Ross chased around a field in autumn - delicious as always), and Henry got to try some steamed carrots. He really seemed to enjoy them, although he still made a hilarious face with every bite. I wouldn't have thought carrots would be an early favourite, but then I guess they are pretty sweet when they're cooked. I just happened to buy a bag of carrots last week, so guess what I'm pureeing tomorrow?

I have also been planning to make banana bread all week, maybe I'll get around to doing that while I'm being all domesticated and stuff. I was thinking of making a few loaves and giving one to the nice lady who gave me clothes, but we'll see how that turns out. Last time I made banana bread, I made three intending to give two away... We ate them all within a couple of days!

Okay, I'm going to leave it at that - today felt like a loooooong day!

Baby talk

2011-11-25T10:42:00.001-08:00

Here is a slightly funny story which may or may not contain more information than you wanted to know:
Whenever I see my grandma, and also some of my other older relatives, they ask about Henry and such. Then they ask if he's still feeding well, and if there's still enough milk for him. Totally reasonable questions, but it makes me feel a little bit weird, as in my head they are basically asking how my boobs are. And I reply, yes, my boobs are fine, thank you. I don't want to deny anyone the right to know how my boobs are. Boobs.

Okay, I'm done for now.

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Got a package from my mum today, containing a book, some clothes and most excitingly, teething rusks - like milk arrowroot biscuits, only sooo stodgy. We gave Henry one to try and I swear it made his day. He was the happiest dude who ever chewed a rusk and kicked his legs around.

Nina also enjoyed it, as she got to eat the gooey bits that he dropped on the floor. She will henceforth be in charge of cleaning those gooey bits up before I step on them and they squish between my toes. Eeeeeew.

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Ross has gone to drop a friend off at the bus stop in Varmahlið, and he took Henry with him. So I am just strolling around the house doing not much of anything... Not true, I had a 20 minute shower which I didn't feel guilty about, then gave myself a mini-pedicure and patted the puppy. Good times.

And then Ross and Henry came home and we took a million photos! Most of them were a bit blurry - I really need to learn to use our camera properly. I'm just so scared of using the flash, although I guess it's not always terrible.

There were about four preliminary flashes - Henry's expression reflects that fact.

The dude! He wears mini converse shoes that his aunt Eva gave him! He wears jeans and a jumper like a little peeeeerson! (And Nina licks gooey rusk bits off his hand.)

We* have a game we play called 'do you like my hat?' The correct answer is either 'I do not' or 'Yes, I like it. I like that party hat.' I think Go Dog Go is a book that Henry must own.

* Yeeeeaaah, it might just be me. But I am pretty good at this game, honest.

Road Trip!

2011-11-24T13:24:00.001-08:00

Whew. Well, you'll be glad to hear we made it to Akureyri and back with flying colours. Sure, it was dark when we left at 9.30am, and dark when we came back at 5.30pm, but that's what lights are for! The weather was actually quite nice, not too windy and totally clear - I could see for miles, once the sun came up. Makes me much less nervous about driving on ice...

Anyway, I bought a tree and some decorations and lights, although I got a bit paralysed with indecision when faced with the tunnel of lights available at the hardware store. Vicki was talking to a saleslady about how she needed x length of lights, preferably on white cord, etc. She turned and asked if I'd seen anything and I was just kind of stuck in a stare. I ended up getting one box of lights for the tree, as I'd already gotten the ones for the windows from the post office basement (thanks Vicki!), and bought a couple of coloured ones on sale last year.

I bought most of my decorations from Tiger, but I totally regret not buying more of everything. Oh well, I guess Christmas is one of those things where you gradually get more stuff as you go along. We have to save some room on the tree for when Henry is sticking macaroni to cardboard and spray painting the whole thing gold.

Ooh ooh! And! I bought a sled! I decided that if it snows properly this winter and we don't have a sled available, our visitors will never forgive us. It is called a funbob, and is pretty much a plastic bin lid. Funbob. Bin lid. I love words.

Henry was amazingly well behaved as usual. He charmed the pants off everyone he came into contact with, whether that was flirting with ladies in a cafe or making the staff smile as he slept slumped sideways in a shopping trolley seat. That sounds a bit neglectful on my part, but it was totes cute, I promised. And why didn't I take a photo? Because I'm silly, that's why.

The only slight chin wobbles came when we were grocery shopping just before we came home. It was a bit packed, and we were all a bit tired and stressed out, and Henry had just had enough of everything. I went to the checkouts, and the lady in front of me offered to let me go first, even though I had way more stuff than her.

Then while I was stacked and packed and paid for my groceries, she entertained Henry the whole time. Talked to him, wiggled his feet, made him giggle - it was so lovely of her. I was completely filled with gratitude, but then I guess it might have been fun for her, too.

Vicki's dog Perla got to come over and visit with Nina while we were out, and they had a pretty awesome time together. They got to race around in the garden for a bit before we left, which was totally cute. When Nina was little, I remember thinking that Perla was a really big dog, but Nina is now officially bigger. Good thing she's such a sweetheart, otherwise she could probably be a little bit of a handful.

And that was my super exciting day. Yay for buying stuff! Yay for Christmas! Is late November too early to put up a tree?

Snow and lights

2011-11-23T14:13:00.001-08:00

Aw man! The internet wasn't working before, so I decided that I'd just skip the post for today since it was out of my hands... Then I came downstairs just to get my phone before I went to bed, and of course I had to check if the internet was back on. And it was, so now I can't blame the universe for my lack of a post.

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It snowed tonight! And I put up some fairy lights! Which means it's totally nearly CHRISTMAS! I went outside to take a picture of our pretty house all covered in snow and lights, but it didn't work out to my satisfaction, so you can't see it. Here's the view down the street instead - snow and other people's fairy lights. Plus Nina footprints.

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Vicki and I are going to brave the weather and go to Akureyri tomorrow for some hardcore Christmas shopping - not for presents, just food and fairy lights. There's supposed to be light snow, but that's why I have snow tyres, right? We're going to try to head off early, which means turning on my alarm again - boo! But that means we won't be coming back too late at night, so it'll be worth it.

Aaaand I think that's all, really. Here are my travelling partners for tomorrow:

Did you know that today is Start Your Own Country Day?

2011-11-22T04:51:00.001-08:00

My birthday is on the same day as the Festival Of Enormous Changes At The Last Minute - apt, as last minute could be my middle name, if middle names were based on character attributes instead of being regular names given at birth.
My birthday is also National Bicarbonate Of Soda Day, but to be honest I always use baking powder instead. Yes, the internet has told me I'm not allowed to do that, but I haven't had any disastrous results yet. Anyway, what national day is your birthday?

P.S. That site may end up being my go-to for blog inspiration, because NaBloPoMo keeps giving me guest prompts from Ricki Lake, and they're all about passion to achieve or something. I have no passion to achieve.

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We had our last swimming lesson today, which meant videotaping and underwater photography! I believe the instructor puts it all up on the internet and then sends us a password, so if I manage to get copies, I will surely show you...

Except it's probably not going to be a super fun video, as Henry cried quite a lot. Every time he went under. He's never cried in the pool before, and he's usually fine with going underwater, but for some reason today was not his day. I think he may have been scared of the guy doing the videoing - he wore some big goggles and had a camera strapped to his forehead as well as a camera that he held. I can see how that might be terrifying if you met it underwater...

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I saw an essay on my sister's tumblr, reposted from a lady who basically said that being pregnant made her even more pro-choice than she already was. I figured I had to link to it, and talk about it, because I remember thinking the exact same thing when I was pregnant. I had a blissfully easy pregnancy, compared to what I've heard from many other people - minimal sickness, no major health problems, easily accessible and affordable (read: FREE) healthcare, supportive family, stable homelife and loving husband - the works.

Henry was totally wanted and planned and awesome, but even then, I still felt tired and sick sometimes. And achy and moody and swollen up and hungry and angry and teary and everything else that comes with growing a baby inside you. And although I totally loved the little dude even before he was born, it was really surreal and weird to feel him kicking around in there.

So I couldn't help but imagine how it would feel to go through all that weirdness and grossness and discomfort if you were carrying a foetus that would grow into a baby that you couldn't take care of, for whatever reason. That would suck. Big time.

I think what I am trying to say is that being pregnant made me feel like I had very little control over my body - it did some pretty weird and scary things. I got pregnant on purpose, so I chose to live in the out-of-control body for nine months. Being forced against your will to live in the out-of-control body for nine months sounds pretty unbearable to me.
So yeah, pregnancy made me more pro-choice. It's a thing.

Edited to add / clarify / justify:
Gosh darn it I am bad at expressing opinions. I just lay awake in bed for half an hour with the scared 'am I in trouble?' feeling in my stomach. Why? Am I worried I will disappoint someone? Will they hate me if they disagree? And if I'm so worried, why not just delete it and start again?

I am not precisely sure of the answers to any of those, but I do know that I'm not going to delete and start again despite my worries. These are true things that I felt (and feel) strongly about. So I'll leave it up and hope that you get where I'm coming from.

Sweet dreams...

2011-11-21T11:59:00.001-08:00

Henry's sleeping patterns are still a bit wack*, and I am discovering how bad I am at enforcing bedtime. I think we kind of lucked out when he settled into his routines, so we never really built them up on purpose... For the last couple of nights we've been doing dinner, then a bath and a feed and bed, but he wakes up again after half an hour, all refreshed and ready to hang out.

* I always used to think that meant good, or weird-good, like wacky? Nope, turns out it means bad, and Ross thinks it's funny when I misuse slang.

I even set an alarm for this morning, thinking that if he woke up earlier, he might go to sleep earlier... Immediately regretted it when the alarm went off, but hit snooze instead of sleep, so I got woken up again ten minutes later. I think Henry was awake from the first alarm, so it was pretty much time to get up regardless.
Ooh, and I had a lovely almost dream between alarms: I somehow thought Ross offered to take Henry so that I could sleep in a bit more... Then I remembered he'd already gone to work. Sad face.

I don't think it's the teething that's bothering him - he's been wearing some amber beads of Vicki's, and I'm hoping that the two things are related.

I'm hoping that we can get it sorted without resorting to drastic measures. To be honest, I don't think I could stand leaving Henry to cry it out, but I guess it depends on how much sleep deprivation I've had. I'm currently at a level that I can cope with - I'm not crying at the grocery store in my pyjamas or anything (although I did get a bit sad today when the checkout girl forgot to discount my bananas. For real. Ask Ross.)

Nice lady and poky baby

2011-11-20T08:52:00.001-08:00

I have a neighbour called Stebba. Her father was born in our house, so she would have been really keen on buying it had she known it was for sale (but she didn't - phew!)

Anyway, she is a bit of an eccentric character - she has five cats that live in her house, plus another ten or so feral ones that she feeds in her back shed. She has some pretty crazy hair, and wears some amazingly weird things. I guess she has committed to being a bit of a weird old cat lady, and doesn't really care what anyone thinks about that.

She is totally lovely though, always has something nice to say whenever I meet her in the street. She is an 'animal's friend' as they say here in Iceland - aside from the feral cats, she leaves food out on the hill behind her house for the ravens and escaped minks.

Anyway, she sells second clothes from her house and holds little markets there every now and again. I've never actually been, but Sigga said she sometimes has nice things.

So today she came round with a garbage bag full of clothes for me. I was at Amma's, so Ross said thanks, and brought the bag in. She then came round to Amma's, just to explain that she'd given me a bag full of clothes, but that she didn't think I was poor or anything. I, of course, love free things, so I wouldn't have thought twice about it, but she was very adamant that she definitely didn't want to offend me by giving me things.
Nice lady.

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Ross has pointed out that we should probably try to use our flashy camera to take pictures of things that aren't Henry. Not that we'll stop taking photos of the dude, just that he needn't be our only subject matter; after all, we live in one of the most picturesque places ever.

Having said that - here are some photos of Henry!

I will pretty much never get tired of Henry and Nina together in photos. It's my favourite.

Henry is going through a phase of really really wanting to have his hands INSIDE your FACE. In your mouth. Up your nose. In your eyeballs. Fun fun fun.

Happiness is a Kong Foo Sing...

2011-11-19T09:57:00.001-08:00

The NaBloPoMo prompt for yesterday was 'What has been the happiest moment of your life thus far?'

I don't know if I have one single amazing, life-defining moment of pure happiness... I'm probably supposed to say when Henry was born, but to be honest, I was pretty out of it when that finally happened. It was probably the 'most blurrily exhausting and vaguely traumatic moment of my life.'

So I don't think there's any one moment in my life that outshone all the rest. The way I look at it is inspired by this quote from Kurt Vonnegut (who else?):

"I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, 'If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.'"

I actually do this. I make a point of it. I say those exact words.

I have said it while walking with the dog along the fjord, when the weather is nice and still. And when there's a freezing wind. And when it's snowing.
I have said it when I'm sitting inside with my husband watching silly videos on the internet and eating popcorn.
I have said it when I've been snuggling with the little dude, when he's woken up at four thirty in the morning and he's making the most ridiculous noises ever.

I try to say it often, because I think the little moments of pure happiness are much easier to come by than the big dramatic ones.

Early post!

2011-11-18T02:45:00.001-08:00

Saw a very pretty sunrise on my walk today - at 10:20am. Winter is coming. But then again, with winter come a whole bunch of my loved ones, so I'm not too sad about it. Also, it makes a huge difference whether you're working or able to stay inside when the weather is terrible.

Also on our walk, Nina found a piece of gum, and when I told her to drop it, she just looked at me, chewing her gum, like an insolent teenager.

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My friend who was having the party has a sick-at-home husband, so I decided to give it a miss. Also factoring into the decision - Henry didn't sleep super well, I still had to take Nina out for her walk, and I had just finished baking a batch of cookies. Sneaky voice in my head: If you don't take the cookies to the party, then they're ALL YOURS...
Maybe I'll save one for Ross, though.

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You know I have discovered about Pinterest? It's opened me up to a whole new world of annoying spelling errors. Kido? Wounder? DYI? Geez, people. I feel like a jerk because I can't just let it go, but for some reason spelling mistakes have always driven me nuts.

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Oh em gee, are you ready for this meme? So, I got it from Nothing But Bonfires, the latest in the line of blogs that I stumbled upon and rather like.

So the meme is about accents. People make videos of themselves to show off the way they talk - I know whenever I read a blog, I imagine a voice for the author, and it's pretty funny to hear what their real voice is like. I discovered that I almost always imagine bloggers to have American accents*, because I was really surprised to hear this girl's totally posh British accent.

* Don't ask me which American accent. I realise that there are a bunch of different ones, but I cannot remember which one is which.

Anyway, I guess doing a meme like this involves the assumption that there are people reading my blog who haven't met me - hello strangers! For everyone who has met me, I made sure to include a Henry in the video.

My accent is supposed to be Australian, but Icelandic parents plus nearly four years since I lived there means it's a bit mashed up. And just in case you want to make your own, here are the instructions...

Say the following words:
Aunt, route, wash, oil, theatre, iron, salmon, caramel, fire, water, sure, data, ruin, crayon, toilet, New Orleans, pecan, both, again, probably, spitting image, Alabama, lawyer, coupon, mayonnaise, syrup, pajamas, caught.

And answer the following questions:
What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?
What is the bug that curls into a ball when you touch it?
What is the bubbly carbonated drink called?
What do you call gym shoes?
What do you say to address a group of people?
What do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs?
What do you call your grandparents?
What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?
What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?
What is the thing you use to change the TV channel?

lol

2011-11-17T13:13:00.001-08:00

It's Thursday, so it must be time for a meme that I've used before - not the awesome one I talked about yesterday, still haven't managed to make that happen.

Tomorrow: I'm going to my friend Guðbjörg's house for a Pauline-party. I might get up early and make some cookies beforehand, or I might just hit up the bakery...
Feeling: A bit disappointed that I didn't write a proper blog before. A bit tired, as usual. A bit guilty because Ross is walking in circles with our non-sleepy baby.
Happy because: It's nearly the weekend, which means quality Ross-time, yay! Although Ross has to work Saturday, boo! But Sunday, yay!
Today I: should have made banana bread.
Laundry: Ooh, I hung some up before, and I'll put another load on tomorrow. Maybe I should try to put ALL the loads on tomorrow?
Something I know: Baby nails are way sharper than you'd think. Especially on your gums.
Currently reading: I bought a Jodi Picoult book in Icelandic, and started it the other day, so I guess I'm technically reading that? I'm finding it a bit hard because I find myself trying to translate it all in my head. So while I understand the meaning of the word flekamót, I can't actually get past it in the text until I remember that it's called a faultline in English.
Wanting: teething to be over. Thanks for the tips, though, guys. And extra thanks to Vicki for the amber necklace, once it's restrung I will be the happiest person ever.
Favorite gadget: my iPod, good for internetting while feeding the dude.
Thankful that: life is basically good, it could be a million times worse.
Wondering why: the dude is so awake. I had the standard amount of coffee today - one and a half cups - so what is the deal? He's not constantly fretting, just every once in a while he gets all riled up...

That's all the brainpower there is at the moment. Time for more attempts at sleeping - fun for the whole family!

It's the future, Charlie Brown!

2011-11-16T13:26:00.001-08:00

I had a cool meme that I wanted to do, but it involves technologies beyond my capabilities right now. On the other hand, I am typing this in bed on my iPod, which has super internet powers, so I guess I'm still kinda winning at technologies. Anyway, re: meme, maybe tomorrow? It's worth the wait, I promise. I think.

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There's a girl in my mothers' group who is about to go back to work, so she decided to hold a bit of a playdate at her house on Friday. She asked if we could each bring something to eat, and because of this, she called it a 'Pauline party'. I wonder if that's just the Icelandic term for it, or if she just has a legendarily lazy-at-hosting friend called Pauline.

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A couple of times now, I have noticed Ross shushing Henry in his sleep. It's pretty funny, especially when Henry isn't even a) crying or b) in the room. Just all of a sudden, sleeping Ross says 'shhh'. Poor guy, he must be dreaming of fussy babies.

Speaking of dreams, the other night I dreamt (ah, I can just about hear the collective groan - stop it! No one wants to hear about your dreams!) that I was dating Ice T... At least I think it was Ice T - he's the one from Law and Order, right? Anyway, I eventually figured out that it was a dream (which rarely happens to me), but it wasn't because I was dating a rapper turned TV star - I just didn't believe that I would cheat on Ross in real life. Yay, faithful subconscious!

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Grargh, apologies for terrible formatting, apparently the future isn't as smooth and easy as you'd think. Maybe one day I'll learn HTML properly... But not today!

"You can't give a hug without getting a hug." Jacques Benigne Bossuel

2011-11-15T02:06:00.001-08:00

I never used to be a very touchy feely person. Growing up, we were never that cuddly a family - we all love each other, of course, but we were all just a bit reserved. I remember going through a phase as a teenager where I would hug my friends every time I saw them. I think I made a conscious decision to do so, because being unsure about whether a hug is going to happen somehow seemed more awkward than just barrelling into someone's personal space.

I sort of grew out of that phase as I got a wider group of acquaintances once I left high school, many of whom I wasn't super comfortable hugging. Maybe I got more respectful of people's boundaries? Nah. I think I just got more selective of who received my embraces.

Then I met Ross, who does the best hugs ever, in my opinion. I'm still not a huge fan of public displays of affection (get a room!), but I can appreciate a good rib-crushing hug from someone I love. Speaking of which, I should probably get into training for when my little sister gets here - I haven't seen her in over two years, and we've gotten over our reservedness. There will be one or two hugs.

Anyway, all this talk of affection is inspired by this Motherhood Monday post from A Cup of Jo. It's about how all of a sudden when you have a baby, you do waaaay more physical affection and touching than ever before. So true. And sometimes you do so much baby snuggling, that by the time your husband gets home, you're all affection-ed out. Also true, but I didn't really think about it until it was pointed out to me.

So excuse me, I'm going to go hug my dudes. Both of them.

Teething pains...

2011-11-14T12:05:00.001-08:00

That's literal, not metaphorical teething pains, by the way. The poor dude has been really fussy today, and I'm pretty sure it's because he's getting teeth. We've got a gel to rub on his gums, he's been chewing on toys, and he really seemed to enjoy gnawing on my apple core for a little while, but nothing works for long. If anyone has any magical cures, I'd totally be up for hearing about them.

Speaking of magical cures, I keep hearing about amber necklaces for teething. It seems like one of those ridiculous things I should be completely skeptical about, but then I read another recommendation and so it sticks in my mind... And to be honest, it's one of those situations where if anything seems even remotely likely to work, then I'm almost tempted to try it.
But I probably won't.

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In other news, I decided that since Henry laughs at fart noises, that means that farts are inherently funny. It is an innate part of the human psyche to laugh at bodily noises, and it's something that everyone is born with. Y'know, just in case you were wondering what my take on that was.

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What else happens in the world? Man, it's not even halfway through November and I have run out of things to say. I didn't really realise how much of my life is just the same thing on repeat - don't get me wrong, I love living my life, but writing about it feels like it's not as interesting as it used to be.

Okay, this is getting me nowhere. Time to stop thinking, hit post, try again tomorrow!

Babies and a list...

2011-11-13T12:59:00.001-08:00

Eeeee, my cousin Beta had her baby today - just as she planned! How lucky, or determined, or maybe a little bit of both. I remember reading something recently about how women in the U.S. had fewer than average babies on Halloween, and more than average on Valentine's day. So theoretically, women can sometimes have an influence on when they go into labour. Cool, yes?

Okay dudes, basically, I got nothin'. It's late, and I still need to put away leftovers so I can eat them tomorrow (yay PIE!) The dude is being fussy and I have nothing else of interest to impart...

So! A meme, from the same place I got Wordplay, what the heck happened to that anyway? Answer: I got stuck on 'E'. I do mean to go back to it, but I really can't go so cheesy as to say 'each and every one of you, dear family /friends /readers.' I tried, but I just can't.

Me: A-Z
Awesome. And Australian. Ish. Pretty much.
Barely able to function as a grown up, quite a lot of the time.
Cried three times during 'Up'.
Don't like crowds or being the centre of attention.
Early, pretty much everywhere I go. I really really dislike being late.
Free to do what I want, any old time.
Good at holding a grudge. Forever. Yes, housemate from eight years ago who used to steal my Nutella, that means you.
Haven't kept in contact with many people from school. Not too sad about that.
Icelandic. Ish. Pretty much.
Just a little bit afraid of heights.
Keep a lot of junk. I'm a bit of a hoarder.
Lucky. So lucky, and I know it...
Married to a lovely man called Ross. Ooh, and mother to Henry.
Never been to Berlin, but I really really want to go. And soon!
Overseas, always. I've gotten to the point where no matter where I'm living, there'll be people I miss somewhere else.
Proud of myself when I achieve things, but a procrastinator anyway.
Quite good at Sudoku, if I do say so myself.
Reading is like my favourite thing ever. P.S. Anyone got any book recommendations?
Still love to watch kids' movies. And I can't wait to make Henry watch my favourites.
Terrified of messing up this parenting thing.
Unafraid of getting old. Most of the time.
Very good at sleeping. I can fall asleep anywhere, anytime. And if I wake up early, I can go straight back to sleep. This is a Very Good Thing.
Wish I had been nicer in high school. I think I was mostly okay, but could have been better.
X...
Young at heart, forever, I hope.

Zerberting is my new favourite pastime.

Hello Giggles!

2011-11-12T03:43:00.001-08:00

Had to share these giggles, they are pretty much my favourite sound ever. Also, I think it could be time for a haircut... For me, that is, not Henry. The dude gets to keep all his hair until he's a year old - it's an Italian tradition!

Self portrait, but I cropped my arm off so it doesn't look quite as daggy. It looks like Henry has my eyes, but they might still be baby blue. Only a few more months, then we'll see...

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My cousin Maja is on her way to this hemisphere, and I just found out that my sister has booked her ticket over! We have started getting pretty excited about Christmas, I'm even thinking of doing a trip to Akureyri to buy decorations and bulk food for all the celebrating we're going to do... But we'll see how the weather is over the next few weeks - no amount of discounted fairy lights are worth driving through a blizzard.

Puppy love

2011-11-11T13:35:00.000-08:00

Ooh, what an interesting date. I wonder if there's a record number of people who got married today. I bet there's also a bunch of ladies around the world trying their hardest to give birth before midnight. It'd be especially cool here in Iceland, because the first six digits of ID number are your birthday - so your number would be 111111-xxxx. Pretty awesome, right?
Right?
Okay, maybe not that exciting.

I have a cousin who is due to give birth any day now, although I think she was hoping for the 13th - her grandma's birthday and her first wedding anniversary. Man, I am so excited that everyone is having babies. I'm not ready to have another one quite yet, (sorry Mum!) but I kind of love living vicariously through my family and friends. Plus I get to talk about my pregnancy experience, which I always felt a bit hesitant about while I was living it.

I guess I'm a bit wary of oversharing, especially to people who are either uninterested, or actively grossed out by what I have to say. But if someone asks about it, then it is impossible to shut me up.

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Have I mentioned to you that my baby is in love with my dog? Henry is awake at the moment (hello, 9.30pm) and he keeps getting a bit fussy and teary every once in a while. I'm not sure what the deal is - I guess he's probably a bit overtired, but he refuses to sleep. What can you do?*

*Be a parent, I guess. That's a novel idea.

Anyway, I've noticed that when he's upset, Nina is almost guaranteed to make him stop crying. He likes the sloppy licky end at the front and the happy waggy end at the back, the soft shiny coat and the jingly collar. Most of the rolling over that he's done has been an effort to get closer to her.

Nina, for her part, has realised that if the baby gets to pat /gouge /pull on her fur, then Ross and I are usually nearby and can join in with the patting. Everybody wins! Take that, everyone who said getting a puppy while pregnant was a stupid idea!

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Okay dudes, I should write more, but I think it's time to give that parenting thing a go. Babies like coffee, right? And playing with important documents and permanent markers? I'm on it.

In which I can't sleep, am spoilt, and really enjoy the internet

2011-11-10T13:10:00.000-08:00

We had a bit of a rough night last night - Henry had a bit of a fever, which was totally lame. I know it's a perfectly normal and common side effect of the vaccinations, but in the middle of the night when he was all sweaty and red, I couldn't remember exactly where the line is between an okay baby fever and a not okay baby fever.

None of us got much sleep during the night, but Henry and I slept in until ten, so that was lovely. I've totally gotten into the habit of being up before eight, so I feel a little bit like I missed out on half of the day! Good thing I didn't have any plans... And here's hoping his sleep patterns don't stay messed up!

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Ha, the blog prompt on NaBloPoMo yesterday was a good-ish one: When was the first time that you realized that your home was not like other people’s homes?

There were a couple of cultural differences in our house growing up that I didn't really notice for a long time.
I remember whenever I stayed for dinner at a friend's house, I was weirded out when the mum dished up a plate of food for me. Portioned out brussels sprouts and everything (I hadn't even seen a brussels sprout in real life until I was eleven). At home we always served ourselves from a big plate or pot - if you didn't like brussels sprouts (or if you weren't sure because you had no idea what they were), then you just didn't put them on your plate. Easy! Less wasted food! Why would you do it any other way?

I also read something my sister put on the internet recently about sheets. Why so many sheets, everyone? In our house, we had a bottom sheet, and then a doona (which I have forever called a sæng - one of the few Icelandic words that stuck). Again, when staying at other people's houses, there were a whole bunch of sheets and a blankety rug thing, and then the whole deal is tucked in around you. Don't you feel constricted? What if your feet need air? Weird, man.
To this day I have to completely untuck a hotel bed before I go to sleep.

Oooh, one thing I specifically remember: I was at my friend Pam's house one evening when I was about eight or nine, and we were helping with dinner. I got asked to peel potatoes, to which I had to reply 'I have never peeled a potato in my life.'
This is because a) we usually ate potatoes with the skin on. And if an Icelander needs potatoes with the skin off, they peel them after they're boiled, which kind of burns and isn't really a little kid's job.
And b) I was kinda spoilt.

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Oh man, I need to share this link with the world: Arthur recreates scenes from classic movies. God I love the internet.

Tall guys and bees

2011-11-09T15:05:00.000-08:00

With regards to posting videos of your kids on the internet, I give you a kid dancing to Michael Jackson while stacking the dishwasher - cute. And if you read the little blurb about the video, the poster says that his son was a bit miffed and embarrassed at first, but now thinks it's pretty funny that he's an internet sensation.

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I also saw this while I was browsing Jezebel - it's a news thing about a woman who got groped on the subway, then chased down the guy and picked him out of a line-up. It's good that he got caught and all, but that's not the reason I wanted to share it.
In the comments, lots of people told their stories of calling out dudes who have harassed them in public. And a user called dayslikethis left the following comment, which is great:

"I think I've told this story here before but it's one of my favorites and certainly lightens the mood from all the upsetting stories in the comments. I've been groped on the subway multiple times, making me constantly on edge. Just a few weeks after the last time I'd been groped, I was standing on the train going home from work and felt a hand in my back pocket.
"I had that initial freeze-up and then started to get angrier and angrier. I turned around and was ready to flip out, when I saw a little girl, probably like 3 or 4 years old, looking in the other direction sort of dazed with her hand in my pocket, thinking I was her mom who was standing next to me. It was perhaps the most adorable thing that has ever happened to me."

I totally laughed out loud.

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The dude had an appointment at the hospital today; he was weighed, measured and stuck with needles. The poor little guy got pretty upset about the injections, but I don't think he cried as long as he did last time. He now weighs nearly eight kilos (7.96 to be precise) and is 68cm long - big for his age. The nurse checked his growth chart, and if he keeps going like this, he'll probably end up reeeeal tall.

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Do you know what is a fun thing to do? Check the statistics for your blog to find out where your traffic is coming from. Especially the search terms part. Two people (or one person, twice) got to my blog by searching for 'how+to+inveigle+a+swarm+of+bees'. Awesome.

Hmm, I wonder if by typing that paragraph, I just made sure that I'll always be the top google result for that phrase. Double awesome.

Time flies...

2011-11-08T14:12:00.000-08:00

Did you know that the small man is five months old today? It is pretty wild. In honour of this milestone, I'm going to actually figure out how to upload video. Fun times!

Yay! You can look forward to many more videos of Henry's weird faces.

I wonder how he'll feel about that when he's older? There'll probably be a whole generation of kids whose whole lives are documented on facebook, blogs and youtube. You know how embarassing it is when your mum shows baby photos of you to your friends? Imagine that times a million...

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It's entertaining week* on Cup of Jo, which makes me want to have a party and get all glammed up and drink a fancy cocktail and eat tiny foods... But I'm guessing that'll have to wait until Christmas, when there'll be heaps of people around to party with.

* As in, a week of tips for entertaining guests at your home, not a week that is interesting... Although I keep reading it that way.

Come to think of it, no matter how many people are staying here, it's fairly unlikely that I will throw a glamorous semi-formal soiree. I've never really been into big fancy events, especially not if they're hosted by me. Oh well. A girl can dream...

Grown up?

2011-11-07T15:08:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I pulled Ross' fishy clothes out of the washing machine, but they were still wet! Oh no, I thought, I'll have to run another spin cycle. So I turned that on, then heard a bunch of weird grindy noises, and saw a bit of a flashy blue light coming from under the machine. Disco? No. Tiny police car? No, I'm pretty sure it was sparks.

So I wrung out the clothes by hand - I don't know how damp they were this morning, but Ross seems to have worn them to work regardless. And that means it's time to buy a new washing machine! To be honest, I'm not terribly upset, we got the old one with the house, and I never really did figure out all the settings.

I think being excited about new appliances pretty much makes me a grown up. Let us write down this date and celebrate every year! Or, you know, not.

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I've been feeling weirdly anxious today, and I don't really know why. Do you ever get that? I find myself feeling bad, and it's a really teenage feeling, like I'm scared I'll get yelled at because I did something wrong and am waiting for someone to find out.

It's okay though, once I recognise the feeling, I remind myself that I'm not a teenager, and even if I was, I haven't done anything wrong. Plus my parents are too far away to yell at me. So, in summary, I'm fine.

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In order to not end on that note, I'd like to share some newfound wisdom with you. Here goes:

Baby hands are the best.

This little dude that I have, he has the most amazing tiny little hands. They're like mine, only softer and smaller and chubbier. They're squarish, and a bit blocky. His fingers are so stubby and un-nimble most of the time, but every once in a while he'll deftly pluck his dummy out of his mouth, and hold it delicately between his thumb and index finger, like it's no big deal.

He's grabby when he feeds, and his hands wander around like they have a mind of their own - his free hand pokes my face and grabs my shirt, then always ends up tangled in his hair, pulling on it. Unless I manage to intercept the wandering hand, then he just grabs hold of my fingers and squeezes.

His not-free hand is the one that reaches around behind my back when I cradle him. That hand is tickly, and pinchy.

The other day Ross pointed out that you can tell when he's getting sleepy because his hands get so soft and light all of a sudden. Instead of his usual grabbing and pinching and busy-ness, he pats you, gently holds your fingers, rests his whole little hand in your palm.

Just... so awesome.

Build me up, buttercup.

2011-11-06T13:21:00.000-08:00

Today we are MAKING things. How exciting is making things? Well, for me, thinking about making is way more exciting than the actual making. The sense of achievement if/when you finish is awesome, but I fail a little bit at following through on my plans.

Exhibit A:
My making things consists of trying to alter things I already own, but don't use. For example, I have a bunch of dresses that were awesome while I was pregnant, but are not quite as awesome now that I have to feed the dude on a regular basis. I need clothes with escape hatches.
So, being me, I got all amped up, chopped up a dress or two, and then... never actually got around to the sewing part. Whoops.

Ross, on the other hand, is building gates for all our stairs. The gate for the cellar was pretty straightforward, and he was done in a couple of hours!

Unfortunately, the weird layout of the front steps means that we'll have to get a little bit more creative for the rest of them. And by 'we' I mean Ross, but I'm guessing he'll get plenty of helpful suggestions from every man and his dog (I know Nina has some very strong ideas about interior design).

"Tear it down and start again. That's why I chew on the staircase. I'm helping."

Anyway, I had a good day despite my low productivity, so life is good.*

*If this post feels a little bit truncated, that's because the dude just headbutted me in the throat. Why oh why is he still awake?

Success!

2011-11-05T13:02:00.000-07:00

Dudes, can you believe it? I just found the best thing on the internet - again! The Kitten Covers features iconic album covers, but with kittens. Yay for life.

So the prize for best thing bought from the Red Cross today goes to...

Old school sewing basket, complete with some dress pins and needles, for 200kr (about $1.80 Australian). Win.
Runners up include a black dress, a cotton scarf and a pinstripe suit jacket (size 6 months).

After shopping, we went and had burgers with Gerry the Scot, then Ross went over to his house for handymanning and videogames. Or something. Gerry's wife Edda is working until 10, so I figured I'd just stay home and have a quiet night with the dude.

And because a post isn't a post without a Henry picture:

Early birds...

2011-11-04T12:04:00.000-07:00

Okay so starting a post before nighttime is a good thing, yes? It will lead to many other good things, I'm sure.

I have gotten into Pinterest lately, it's a) awesomely inspiring and makes me want to do interesting things, and b) the biggest time waster in the history of the world. Also c) filled with stuff I love (puppies in costumes!) and hate ('dieting advice' that is actually a fat-shaming screed from a pro-anorexia site - I am not even going to link to it...) in almost equal measure.

Anyway, there are so many cute/cheesy baby photos that I may have to recreate - be prepared for some awesome christmas cards... Or you know, don't, as I will probably not get around to doing any of it. Either that or Ross will stop me in my tracks - he doesn't seem to think babies in hilarious costumes are as cute as I think they are... Although he might make an exception for this guy.

Also, I actually made myself a nice lunch the other day after I saw something on Pinterest... I guess 'onions in beef stock served with cheese on toast' is probably not the official recipe for French Onion soup, but I enjoyed it. Today I made macaroni and cheese, but with real ingredients - the packet ones with orange cheese sauce don't exist here. It was quite satisfactory, but I kind of wish I'd had a sharper cheese - anyone want to post me some mature cheddar?

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What else? We have started feeding Henry! I was going to wait the full six months, but he seems so big and hungry and eager, so we've been letting him play with solid food like apples and bits of fennel. Then last night we gave him some of the apple mush I made... It was pretty funny, he seemed to not be entirely convinced that it was a good thing, so we just gave him a couple of spoonfuls and left it at that.

Vicki was over today, and we decided to give him another go. Again, there were definitely some mixed emotions - he made an awesomely funny face every time, but still swallowed it and leaned forward for more. I took a video, but until I figure out my blogger issues, it shall remain on my camera... Sorry Mum!

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Aaaand... I think that's it. It's the weekend now, tomorrow we're going to go to the Red Cross (YESSSSSS!) and maybe have some lunch afterwards at the 'Hard Wok Cafe' - no, I'm not making that up, and if I haven't told you about it yet, then I promise to do so at some point in the near future.

Apart from that, it will be the usual quiet weekend at home. Lovely.

List-less...

2011-11-03T14:38:00.000-07:00

Oh my gosh, I have rarely felt this uninspired to write a blog post. Good thing I announced I was going to post every day this month, otherwise I would have piked out three days ago.

Basically there is not much going on. Sooooo... It must be time for a meme! Taken from here, about NAMES.

Your name? Olga

Your nick name? Don't really have a proper one. Ross calls me Oggy sometimes.

Do you like your name? I really do. But I didn't always.

If you could change your name what would it be? Now? I'm not sure. If I'd had that power as an eight-year-old, it'd probably be Larissa. Or Melody. Something kind of fluffy.

Mother's name? Unnur

Grandmother's names? Kristin and Olga

Children's names? Henry Thor

Do they have any nick names? Not really... Although I do call him Squishy quite a lot of the time.

Pet's name (current or past) Nina the best dog ever!

Your pet's nick name? Nina Beans - thanks Daisy!

Your best friend's name? Ross - ha, I just avoided that teenage 'trying to choose a best friend' dilemma. I win.

Nick name for your friend? Bunny (whoops, I don't think I'm supposed to use that in public)

Favourite name for a boy? Henry

Favourite name for a girl? Esther

Name of your car? It doesn't have one. I don't think I've ever named a car.

Favorite Place Name? Aaaaand I just got tired of these questions. Good thing that was the last one.

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Sorry dudes, I sometimes feel a bit like posting a dull post is worse than no post at all. But heck, you can always stop reading. Plus my day-to-day life is probably duller than I realise, so silly lists aren't that much of a disappointment.

Anyway, I shall endeavour to do something awesome tomorrow! Maybe!

"We turn not older with years, but newer every day" - Emily Dickinson

2011-11-02T14:28:00.000-07:00

Today was Vicki's birthday, so we just had her over for a quiet dinner. I made a Moroccan-ish lamb stew, and a berry crumble for dessert. Pretty wintery menu, but then the weather is getting pretty wintery these days, too. Crumble is pretty much my favourite thing at the moment - I made about twice as much as was necessary, so guess what I'm eating for breakfast?

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In dude news, the little guy just gets more and more dude-like (read: grown up) every day. He's just about sitting on his own, although he's still a bit wobbly sometimes. Lounging on the dad-chair is a pretty good place to be.

He also has this bobbing up and down dance that he does if you beatbox for him. Luckily he seems to have a pretty wide definition of what constitutes beatboxing, so he manages to enjoy my lame efforts almost as much as he enjoys Ross' actual beats.

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And in other news? I don't think there is any. For some reason I felt like I did a lot today, but it was all a bit errand-y and boring, and who wants to read (or write!) about that? Not me, that's for sure.

It's that time of year again...

2011-11-01T13:25:00.000-07:00

I decided to do NaBloPoMo this month, and then promptly forgot to write a post today. Ross and Henry both fell asleep on the couch, and I thought to myself: Can I be bothered staying up late and writing a post? Then I looked at the clock and realised it was only ten past eight, so the answer is yes, I can stay up 'late' and write a post.

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Henry slept at Vicki's house on Sunday night, so Ross and I slept. ALL NIGHT. Can you imagine? I thought I might wake up out of habit, but I didn't. Which was almost sort of disappointing, as I love the feeling of waking up and realising you can just go right back to sleep.

I picked him up around 9.30, and he fell asleep in the car seat on the two minute drive home, so instead of having his morning nap outside in his comfy pram, he slept all squished up in the car seat for an hour. I looked over when he woke up, and he had his hat down over his eyes, and had managed to wiggle down in the seat so his legs were sticking out at a crazy angle. It was quite hilarious, but I refrained from taking a photo and picked him up instead. Aren't I the responsible grown up?

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Forgot to upload this picture last time - I was trying to get a photo of his matching hat and socks and mittens, but the camera was more zoomed in than I thought. Still, he's a cute dude.

He had a scratch on his nose last week, and I've been waiting for it to heal so we can go get his passport photo done. He was looking pretty good this morning, so of course he managed to scratch himself again this afternoon. I should probably just resign myself to getting a funny looking passport photo for him. Or buy a nail file.

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Ooh, my cousin Maja has some awesome news! It seems like everyone I know is having babies, which is totally fine by me. Maja and her husband are coming to visit Iceland in early December, and then we're going to Australia next year, so I get to see Maja's big belly AND meet their munchkin while he/she is still tiny. So excited and happy for them!

Mush. Mushmushmush.

2011-10-29T07:29:00.000-07:00

Today I made food for the dude!

Mush making is fun for the whole family - steam whatever you find in the fridge, then puree it into oblivion. Then feel super satisfied with your housewifely skills, despite the fact that there were a million other things you were supposed to do today. Yay!

Apples! Sweet potato! PEEEEEEEAS!

I put it all in the freezer for now, but I don't think it'll be too long before he starts eating proper food. He's really excitable when he's at the dinner table, basically spends the whole time lunging from his high chair trying to reach whatever he can. He gnawed on a piece of apple the other day, and last night I gave him a slice of fennel to hang onto while we were eating - he was so excited and happy, and nommed on it for ages until it was all floppy and gross. Then the dog ate it.


If I could reach you, I would eat you. Come a little bit closer.

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Tonight Sigga is hosting another big family dinner, featuring smoked lamb, boiled lamb faces and oven-baked trout, followed by skyr cake and rhubarb crumble for dessert - nothing like a bit of variety!

It'll be awesome to catch up with everyone, and there's even a few cousins coming up from Reykjavik. I think Henry has a lot of familial hugs and kisses to look forward to!

Good things are good.

2011-10-27T03:21:00.000-07:00

One of my favourite websites (thanks Anna, for showing me Shakesville) has a question of the day, and I really like this one: What do you like best about the age you are now?

As someone points out in the comments, it's an awesome question - sometimes I tend to forget how many things I am grateful for, and it's a pretty great thing to be reminded of every once in while.

What I like best about being 27 (nearly 28!) is feeling more like I know what I want out of life, and that it's okay to not want the same thing as everyone else. I feel much more secure and happy in my body, and I don't care what anyone else thinks about the way I look. I feel like I have my priorities pretty much sorted, and I don't feel like I'm somehow deficient because of my lack of ambition or social skills.
I'm (mostly) a hermit, and proud of it!

Also, I'm pretty glad I didn't have kids before now, I think I'm more of a 'responsible grown up' type now than I've ever been. I know people have different maturity levels at different ages; there's a girl in my mothers' group who is 21 with an eight month old baby, whereas I can't imagine 21 year old me handling that much responsibility.

How about you?

Sleeping and not-sleeping

2011-10-26T09:31:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine linked to this awesome post about parenthood, it is pretty cool and true and worth a read.

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Henry slept really well last night, I fed him around nine, nine thirty and he slept until four in the morning! It was pretty awesome, although I really have no sense of how long I sleep. Ross took him for a little walk the other night, and I fell asleep again and then apologised profusely when Ross came back to bed - I felt like I'd slept for an hour, but he said it had only been ten minutes... Win!

Anyway, while I was awake, I started thinking about my British bank account, which I never got around to closing when I left London - oops. To be fair, I had to leave it open when we were leaving so that I could pay the shipping company, and it becomes more complicated to close accounts if you're not there in person... Still, that was over a year ago, so not really an excuse.

I did have some money left in the account, but I suddenly worried that maybe I had gone into overdraft months ago, and was now racking up hundreds of pounds of debt. So I got up and phoned them (yay for 24 hour phone help lines in the UK), and it turns out I'm only 15 pounds overdrawn. Sweeeeet. I've been trying to find out how to close the account from here, but now their website has gone a bit weird and screwy.

Plus I couldn't remember my account number - I have it now, but it was a rollercoaster ride of emotions. See, I went through and organised my wool stash yesterday, and found a piece of paper with an account number on it - yay!
Unfortunately, I threw it in the rubbish bin - boo!
Luckily, the outside bins hadn't been taken yet, so I could pull out the most recent rubbish bag I threw in there - yay!
I dug through the bag of meat juice and grossness for a few minutes before realising that the piece of paper I wanted was actually in the (relatively) nice and clean rubbish bin inside - boo! But also yay!

So, all I need to do is write an official-sounding letter and cut up my card, and then I won't need to wake up in the middle of the night worrying about it anymore! Extra double-super-yay!

Snug as a bug in a rug!

2011-10-20T04:32:00.000-07:00

Just a picture or two, for your viewing pleasure...

Basically, Henry adores music. He especially likes it when people play for him, either in person or on skype - he has heard guitar, ukelele, harmonica and glockenspiel. Lately, he has taken to lunging out of your lap if he sees something he likes, and that's what happened here - he saw Ross playing the guitar, and decided that he needed to have the guitar. Also, he kind of purses his lips if he's after something - totally intense.

This is another one of the photos I stole from the girls, of Henry in his shopping trolley, propped up by 2kg of sugar and 2kg of rye flour. Such a neat trick for places that don't have baby trolleys.

And since winter is coming (or is it here already? Seems like no one can decide!) we have dug out all his 'kuldagallar' - I'm having trouble with the English word... I guess they're snowsuits?
This yellow one is pretty adorable and warm, and I'm also partial to a white fleecy one that we got from Steina, my cousin. Winter clothes are the cutest.

v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v

2011-10-19T04:13:00.000-07:00

On Monday I did all the things, and am therefore feeling productive and happy!

1. I opened a bank account for the little man, deposited two jars' worth of change which turned out to be 11,000 kr (over a hundred Aussie dollars, yay!) Also felt a little bit bad for the bank lady as she picked out all the foreign coins, badges and hairpins that I like to store in coin jars.

2. While I was at the bank, I found out that we can sort of deposit money onto our credit card, thus increasing available funds and making it possible to buy tickets from London to Australia next year. Then, with all the frequent flyer points we'll get from that purchase, we should be able to get almost-free flights from here to London! Woo!
I can't wait to travel back to Perth with the dude. I re-read A Cup of Jo's guide to travelling with a baby, and I even looked at all the comments. Everyone tells you that it can be really hard and dramatic; is it weird that that makes me more excited to go?

3. Got some paperwork for Henry's Icelandic passport, I consider this step one in the long process of getting his Australian one. Apparently just being born to Australian parents doesn't necessarily make you a citizen, so we'll have to fill out all the forms and find all the ID bits and pieces and get copies and get them certified - the whole shebang. Grarg how I hate bureaucracy.

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Yesterday was mothers' group in the morning and swimming in the afternoon - Tuesdays are action packed, but awesome. Henry gets more and more confident in the water every week, and all the babies are pretty good at the going underwater part. He's always exhausted afterwards, so he and Ross had a nice quiet snuggle on the couch yesterday evening.

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The weather has gotten all cold and snowy again, which is at least an improvement on the horrible sideways sleet that we had on the weekend. I went for a walk with Nina and the dude this morning, and although I forgot to check the temperature, I'm fairly sure it was below zero. He fell asleep in the pram, which is always a bit scary. Yes, he's wearing a million layers and blankets and a sheepskin rug, and Icelanders leave their babies outside all the time, and I have the baby monitor on, but it still freaks me out a little bit. Actually, I might just run and check on him now...

Old friends and new...

2011-10-14T05:14:00.000-07:00

Oh my gosh, so many photos... But basically here's just a token one or two from what's been going on!

Andy stayed and relaxed, we did not very much and it was totally lovely and awesome. He and Henry got along really well, and many short man jokes ensued.

Daisy and Victoria visited, we did slightly more but still not very much. Again, awesome!

I basically did food-based tourism: we ate horse and whale and fresh-off-the-mountain lamb, and we went to the shop where they had all the slaughter season goodies like blood, sheep faces and testicles for sale. Mmm, yum.

Other highlights included going to Grettislaug, seeing ponies, meeting the New Zealanders from the slaughterhouse and even seeing some Northern Lights! It was a bit cloudy, and we only saw them for five minutes, but as we had pretty much given up hope that we'd see any, it was still totally awesome!

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If the girls had stayed one more day, they would have filled in the final square on their Sauðárkrókur bingo card* - SNOW!

But oh well, we had a lovely time together, and they promise to stay longer next time.

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Snow means yikes, time to get the car ready for winter. I've been faffing about getting quotes for snow tyres, but of course I ended up getting the more expensive ones from here in town, because I refuse to drive to Akureyri on my summer tyres... Also I had to buy a scraper to get ice off the windscreen - weird all the bits and pieces that you forget that you need.
Now I just have to get snow tyres for the pram... I'm only half joking - if they exist I'm totally going to buy some!

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Aaaand, just some random photos of Henry and Friends...

Henry has really become interested in Nina lately. He loves grabbing fistfuls of fur from her back and she likes to lick the drool off his hands. It's a match made in heaven.

* This needs to be a real thing in the world... Don't worry, guys, I'm on it.

Happy face

2011-10-02T04:03:00.000-07:00

It is kinda hard to get smiley photos of the dude; he'll be all cheerful, but as soon as he sees the camera he gets really serious...

So I end up with these photos that are not-so-awesomely framed, because I'm holding the camera off to the side and making faces and weird noises in his general direction.

They're kind of cute, though, right?

Right.

Photo fun!

2011-09-30T05:31:00.000-07:00

I just uploaded a bunch of pictures onto the computer, so in honour of that, a post must be made!

Henry was given a high chair from my aunt Johanna, and he loves it! I thought he might still be a bit little for it, but Johanna mentioned that she always had a cushion or two padding out the seat, and that worked perfectly.

Okay, so he looks slightly unimpressed here, but he's developed this habit of grinning at me like a fool, then stopping as soon as I point the camera at him.

He really seems to enjoy hanging out on our level, especially while we're eating dinner:

And here's another present from Johanna, a lovely quilt for tummy time:

I am constantly trying to convince the dog that tummy time is not really for her, but to no avail. I guess it's nice that she wants to be involved.

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Henry's also been spending a bit of time in his walker - propped up with pillows yet again.

He looks so professional with his toys on the little table in front of him, and he always seems so serious about playing. It's very important business. I guess that hair is pretty unprofessional, though.

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Andy is here at the moment, we've pretty much just being hanging out and relaxing. We did some hardcore reminiscing last night over dinner, trying to recall every song we ever played, and all the interesting shows we did. We had some pretty awesome times, that's for sure.

Anyway, we will probably do a bit of touristy stuff over the weekend - go to the swimming pool in Hofsos, maybe have some nice dinner in Siglufjordur if we can be bothered driving that far. Otherwise it'll just be more relaxing and doing not much. I will take photos, though, I promise!

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Ooh, I finally figured out how to get the photos off of my iPod, so for comparison's sake, here's how very tiny the dude used to be:

Yup, he was not very big.

It takes a village to raise a child...

2011-09-27T14:51:00.000-07:00

I always read A Cup of Jo, and she has this regular series called Motherhood Mondays. And of course she writes questions at the end of each post, and I think about commenting, but then I click on the bit where it says 314 comments, and I think, what's the point? Surely she doesn't read them all. So when she does ask something that I have an opinion on, maybe I'll just post it here.

This week, she talks about where you want to raise your kids. At the moment, she is in New York, which is a totally exciting and awesome place, but she and her husband both seem to be questioning whether it's a good place to say, teach a five year old to ride a bike. And I guess my only comment would have been 'hey, I totally did this thing, too! I was living in a fun-and-exciting place to live, but I just traded it in for a not-so-exciting-but-hopefully-safer-and-happier place to live.'

I vividly remember* having a conversation with my cousin Maja when we were both living here in 2002. We were both just seeing the world and enjoying being free, and I couldn't possibly imagine why anyone would move to Sauðárkrókur (and stay here) on purpose... I mean, there are only 3000ish people here in total, and most of the younger ones have moved away, and many of those who haven't moved away have never even gone anywhere else. Ever!

* Hey Maja, if we never actually had this conversation, feel free to disillusion me. It's entirely possible that I imagined it.

But I guess the point is that it totally depends on what you're looking for; yes, if you are young and want to have a varied social life, then perhaps a tiny town with one bar (and two shitty cover bands that play there) is not for you. But if you're looking for a quiet little place where everyone tends to look out for each other, where there's a tonne of relatives and old school friends and friends of friends around to give advice (and baby clothes), and where it'll be pretty easy to teach a kid to ride a bike without getting run over, then maybe this is a pretty okay place to be.

From my brother's flickr

o.o

2011-09-26T04:46:00.000-07:00

Here's an awesome thing that exists:

The Boardgame Remix Kit - do you own Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, Scrabble and Cluedo? Are you sick to death of all those games? This kit has a bunch of tweaks and mash ups to make them interesting again - such a neat idea.

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Sorry it has been seven hundred and fifteen years* since my last post... I don't have any specific excuse for not posting, not that excuses make much of a difference, anyway. So let's move on!

* No, it hasn't.

What is new? Henry had his first swimming lesson last Tuesday, it went pretty well overall. It's not so much teaching him to swim on his own, it's more like exercises and just getting used to being in the water. I think eventually he does go underwater, but that won't be for a while yet. (I explained all this to my grandma, from her questions it seems like she thought we would just throw him in the water and see how he went.)

The class turned out to be about nine mothers, and one other dad apart from Ross. Since we were up at the (indoor) hospital swimming pool, the change rooms are really small, so the teacher recommended that dads take babies into their change room wherever possible. So Ross and the other dude Einar had to figure out how to shower themselves and the little dudes without hurting anyone, while me and Einar's wife breezed through and waited in the pool for everyone else.

Henry was a bit nonplussed at first, which I wasn't expecting, as he's been really engaging with everything lately. I guess the newness of the whole experience overwhelmed him a little bit to start with. After a little while in the pool, he splashed around a bit and seemed happier.

The exercises were just floating the babies around in different positions, moving them in all sorts of directions (including straight up out of the water, ouch my weak arms!) and just generally letting them flop about the place. After we went over all the moves, we did them again, but this time in song form - I don't know many Icelandic kids' songs, but luckily they're mostly familiar tunes, so you can pretty much just make up your own words.

We also did that neat thing where you grab the baby's feet and boost them out of the water, so they end up standing up on your hand. I must take a photo once we get that one perfected!

I'm going to go and buy a disposable underwater camera today, so tomorrow I can take pictures while still being involved in the lesson.

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Ross helped out at the farm yesterday, as Andres was weighing sheep for slaughter this week. Henry, Amma and I also popped up for a visit and to give Henry his first taste (and smell) of the farm. He seemed pretty interested in the sheep, but then again, he's pretty interested in the cushions on the couch, so let's not jump to conclusions about his future as a farmer.

This has made for the third weekend in a row where Ross is not exactly resting or relaxing - true, some of the weekends have been filled with fun and excitement, but I still imagine it must be a bit exhausting. Anyway, I'm sure he will soldier on as usual, and there'll definitely be a weekend or two in October when we will do NOTHING at all.

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Oh man, I nearly forgot. Saturday night, Henry went to sleep at around 8pm, a pretty usual occurrence. He then woke up at 10pm and was awake and insane and hyper for three and a half hours (NOT a usual occurrence, thank goodness!) It was so bizarre, Ross managed to put him down again around midnight, but he woke up with a scream about three minutes later, then was nothing but wild eyes and darting arms until he finally dropped at half past one. I don't remember eating or drinking anything unusual, unless somebody slipped some crack into my coffee that morning... Totally weird.

Anyway, we got a bit terrified last night that it would happen again, but thankfully, no. Just regular old sleepiness and a couple of midnight cuddles. Yay for sleep! Also, yay for the fact that the not sleeping happened on a Saturday night, which is about the only time I don't feel guilty about making Ross get up with the baby.

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What else? Andy arrives on Wednesday, and he's getting a flight to Akureyri that night so Vicki and I are going to do a big shop and then pick him up. It'll be really good to see him, I think he's looking forward to a relaxing holiday with us and the dude.

And I think that's it for now. I'm off to buy a new wine-making kit and a disposable camera. Plus, judging by the noises that just emanated from my son, it might be time for a nappy change.

Sausages and sheep. And sleep.

2011-09-17T14:44:00.000-07:00

Tuesday was sausage making day at the Di Blasio house* - it may not have run exactly according to plan, but I think it demonstrated how very resourceful we are.

* that's our house, by the way. Just in case that wasn't obvious. Y'know, just on the off chance that everyone else is as confused as I am these days... The Icelandic term for it is 'breast fog' - the vagueness of mind that comes with breastfeeding. But I digress.

First the meat grinder wouldn't turn on, turned out someone (thanks, Vicki!) had to push down on the power cable to make it work - like an added emergency stop button.

Then the casings we were using turned out to be really skinny and inelastic (damn you, slaugherhouse, why couldn't you just sell me lamb intestines?), so Ross did a bit of traipsing around to try and find a nozzle that fitted right.

It ended up working fine after that, and we made these:

We've got a whole bunch hanging in the basement to dry, and because they're so skinny, I think they'll be salami-esque pretty soon - exciting times!

Irma also went to the trouble of learning how to make a fried pizza dough that is Ross' Nonna's specialty. I'm not even going to try to spell it, but it is delicious...

Oh my gosh, deep fried anything is totally my favourite.

Unfortunately, the recipe Irma got was totally old school: you know, about this much yeast, this much water... maybe more water... about this much flour, and so on. Vicki and I took photos of every step, so hopefully we'll be able to recreate it with a bit of practice.

Nonno explains to Henry the beauty of a good piece of salami.

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We had a pretty chilled out week after that; I went to some hot springs with Vicki and Irma, and we all (bar Ross) went to Holar University for a bit of a look see. Apart from that, Henry just got to spend lots of quality time with his Nonno and Zia Irma, which was lovely.

They left this morning in a hire car, and I assume their trip went well - they haven't driven back here, anyway!

Ross had to say goodbye last night, as he went on göngur today. I must admit that I'm very glad I got to skip it this year, since last year was pretty traumatic (although in hindsight, I realised that I was a little bit pregnant at the time, so being hyper emotional and cranky from hunger were totally acceptable reactions to the day's exertions).

Apparently it all went well, Ross and Sigga both had pretty good horses and managed to not fall off too much. The weather was beautiful, sunny and warm with hardly any wind - it's a shame they were both dressed for the cold. I'm sure there'll be a more detailed description over at Sigga's blog sometime soon...

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And that's about it. Tomorrow will be a day of rest, methinks - here's hoping the dude agrees with this decision and has a proper sleep-in!

Travellers ahoy!

2011-09-13T04:29:00.000-07:00

What's up, folks?

Our visitors have arrived (and in Joe's case, gone again - this post has been a draft since last week sometime, sorry)! Joe got here last Thursday, and it has been fairly exciting and also surreal - we haven't actually seen each other in person for nearly a year. I guess Skype makes it easier to stay in touch, and it definitely makes a difference being able to see people's faces, but nothing compares to actually having your friend just sitting in your loungeroom. Fun times!

I don't think I mentioned it here, but Joe will be Henry's (fairy?) godfather. I feel like we should have some sort of ceremony or event celebrating the fact, but I'm continuing to go off the idea of a christening... It would just feel a little bit hypocritical, given that I'm not going to take him to church every Sunday, and also I don't believe in a God that would send a baby to hell*.

On a less controversial note, it'd be hard logistically to have a big celebration, as Henry's godmother Anja lives in Germany, so I don't think we'll manage to have everyone together anytime soon. Oh well, we'll just celebrate individually and be happy with that.

*Heck, I don't even think I believe in hell.

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Nick and Irma arrived late on Friday night after an epic trip north. Their bus broke down along the way; it was still running, but reeeeeally slowly. Another bus eventually arrived to take them onwards, but this bus driver was so enthusiastic that he drove straight to Akureyri - a bummer, because they were supposed to get off at Varmahlið, an hour and a half before Akureyri.

When they got to Akureyri, they discovered that the bus driver spoke absolutely no English, so he took them to the police station (as you do). Meanwhile, Nick phoned Ross (who was still waiting in Varmahlið) and asked him to come pick them up.
Then it turned out the bus driver felt quite bad about the whole situation, so he offered to drive them halfway, to shorten the trip for Ross and Joe. They met up without any major hassles, and even got to see the northern lights when they stopped - Ross said they were the best ones he's seen so far, I imagine that being out in the middle of nowhere with no street lights helped.

So there's always a bright side, even if your trip to our little town takes about five hours longer than it's supposed to.

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And surely it's worth it all for them to meet the main (short) man! Henry has been so good meeting all these new people, he seems quite happy to be passed around from hug to hug.

Henry and his Nonno Nikola

With Zia Irma

And godpapa Joe

Joe seems quite taken with Henry, and Henry gave him a huge smile when they first met (and then a million more after that). Awesome. This is the first time Joe has seen us in parent mode, after he's known us for all of our early adult lives. His quote? It's so bizarre, you guys are still living like teenagers, only there's a baby here now. So being parents hasn't changed us too much - we are still the people we have always been.

We're definitely going to be taking advantage of having a photographer around - we still don't have any really nice shots of all three of us (four including Nina?), and it's good to have an outsider's perspective...

Although it must be said, we are not exactly geniuses at being in photos...

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Unfortunately, our friend Andy has been tied up in red tape, so he won't be able to make it for this trip. He's been trying to get a Schengen visa through the Danish Embassy in London, and it just hasn't happened quickly enough. I think the visa has gone through now, though, so he'll be along sometime this month or next. It is a bummer that we couldn't all be together in the same place, but it'll just make it more awesome next time it happens. Plus, as Sigga pointed out to Andy, this way he gets to have more one on one time with the little dude!

Tree party!

2011-09-05T14:40:00.000-07:00

So the little man has finally been added to the national register, and he has therefore made his way onto Íslendingabók - the collected genealogical info for pretty much all Icelanders! I don't know if I've told you how much I love that site, it is so neat to be able to trace back all your family members for generations! The earliest relative I've found was my great (x8) grandfather on my Dad's side, Bjarni Nikulásson, born around 1605. He was a farmer in Dýrafjörður, don't you know. I guess this is kind of (almost definitely) completely useless information, but it makes me feel all connected and stuff...

I especially love the way it highlights the Icelandic tradition of naming your kids after your parents. This, combined with the way the surnames work - your dad's name plus son or daughter - leads to awesome lines that look like this:

See, Unnur Magnúsdóttir (born in 1833) named her firstborn son Magnús, after her dad. He then named his firstborn daughter after his mum, making her also Unnur Magnúsdóttir. She then named her son after her dad, who named his daughter after his mum, hence, another Unnur Magnúsdóttir. That last one is my mum, by the way! I love it.

Then if you just follow the male sides, there's lots of switched names alternating along the line. Einar Magnusson will name his son Magnús after his dad, Magnús Einarsson. He calls his son Einar Magnússon, who calls his son Magnús Einarsson. It just keeps going!

Ross was included on the site after we got married, although unfortunately there isn't really a process for adding foreigners' information on there. I know Ross' mum has done lots of research into her family tree, so we could probably make up quite a nice book or chart for Henry one day... Anyway, since they only base it on Icelanders, this is what his tree looks like on the site:

But I like that he's there. And let's face it, if your dad was Ross, what more could you ask for?

Blog-a-day?

2011-09-04T15:14:00.000-07:00

Well then. The answer to: will I post every day this month? is a resounding NO! Sorry dudes, I meant well, honest.

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Anyway, we had an awesome day yesterday. We pottered around in the morning, then I went to the Red Cross as soon as it opened and got a bag of bargains. I did find some black jeans that fitted perfectly around the waist, but when I tried them on at home (and in front of a mirror) I discovered that they were in fact hideously bootlegged. I'm not anti-bootleg in all cases, but these just looked like weird triangles on the end of my pants. No good.

We then went up the hill to visit Gerry and Edda, and had a nice afternoon there. I mentioned the op shopping to Edda, and she said that she had always meant to go, but never got around to it. Given that I cared exactly zero much about the soccer result, we decided to head back down and have a look around. Of course I managed to buy another bag of stuff, in this case including a dark blue pair of jeans that are much less weird. And by less weird, I mean pretty awesome. They are what I would describe as 'Mum jeans', but I think that's more to do with the fact that my childhood happened in the eighties when women wore high waisted jeans, than any inherent mum-ness of the jeans themselves.

I think I'd like to have a go at altering clothes, such as the aforementioned weird black jeans - sewing skills would be so good to have... Like knitting, only you don't have to make the fabric from scratch! Vicki has promised me the use of her sewing machine PLUS babysitting while I figure out how to use it. Good deal!

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Today we had a very lazy morning, then a bacon and egg breakfast, followed by mega clean up times. It feels lovely to have a tidy place, and now we just have to finish setting up the beds for our guests who arrive this week! Exciting!

There are no new photos of Henry, so unfortunately I won't be posting anything of the sort today. I tried again to post a video, but I must need to compress them more before they'll work. Maybe that'll be my mission tomorrow...

Ooh, and finally Happy Fathers' Day to my dad, your dad and of course my lovely husband Ross who is celebrating it for the first time... Although it's not a really big deal over here, so I didn't realise it was happening, and therefore had nothing awesome planned. Oops. Sorry, my love.

Woo!

2011-09-02T14:27:00.000-07:00

We decided to try letting the dude sleep in his cot in his room last night. He grew out of the bassinet ages ago, and he's been sleeping in the cot in our room for a while now. He hasn't been sleeping that well, though, I think because I've been picking him up too much. I know there's no harm in just leaving him to faff about, as long as he's not crying. But then I worry that if I leave him, Ross will think that he has to get up - we have an agreement that while he's working, I do the bulk of the nighttime stuff whenever possible.

Anyway, long story short: the dude hasn't really had a chance to prove how good he can be at sleeping, as I keep interrupting him. Until now...
So of course, he proved that he continues to be awesome in every way. He slept from about eight thirty last night until four this morning. I had the monitor, and I heard him wake up a few times, but then he just settled all by himself. Not bad for a short man!

P.S. Until now I had never considered sleeping a skill... I guess mostly because it isn't. Or is it?

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What else? The Red Cross is open tomorrow for the first time in MONTHS, or so it seems. I am so incredibly excited, which is kind of funny and lame, but mostly funny. I really want some new jeans, but I hate the process of trying on jeans at the best of times, and op shops are not really the best of times... I think the last time I bought pants from an op shop was when I was fifteen, so I will cross my fingers and try not to get my hopes up.

Then after I'm done shopping to my heart's content, we're going to a friend's house to watch a football game. Gerry is a Scottish guy that Ross met at Icelandic class, and his wife Edda is lovely and friendly. Our situations are so similar, it's kind of uncanny: Edda is half Icelandic, but has lived most of her life in Scotland, except for a few summers spent here in Sauðárkrókur with her grandparents - I think her Icelandic skills may be about the same as mine, i.e. coherent, but rarely grammatically correct. They had never really considered moving to Iceland, but then decided it would be the ideal place to raise kids, so here we all are!

Edda is nearly four months pregnant, which of course is totally exciting for her, and as an additional bonus I get to impart all my newfound baby wisdom to someone who cares. And she's yet another person who gets seriously gooey around Henry (but then again who doesn't?). Since I've never been the most sociable crayon in the box (yep, I see nothing wrong with that metaphor), it's pretty cool to just randomly find a potential friend so easily.

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Aaaaand that's it for now. Do you think two posts in a row is enough that I may as well to commit to a NaBloPoMo? I think so... Or maybe not. Tune in tomorrow to find out!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!

2011-09-01T08:35:00.000-07:00

Argh, blogger looks different, what do I do? Okay, deep calming breaths, I should be able to cope with a little bit of change.

Speaking of change, here's a picture with me in it for once! Exciting times.

So, what is up?

I have been trying to get into the habit of taking both the boy and the puppy out for a walk every day. So far I've been pleasantly surprised by how good Nina is on the leash. I guess it's easier to remember to heel when there's a big old pram in the way of your wandering.

She got a little bit bummed out when I went to the mothers' meeting on Tuesday. She got all excited while I was getting the pram out*, because she was convinced that she was coming too. It wasn't until I closed the front door on her that she finally got it, whereupon she whined piteously. Poor little love.

* Which, by the way is about a seven step process - I picked out the pram I wanted on the internet, and Dad picked it up in Reykjavik. He made sure that the pram fitted in the boot of the car, but unfortunately I forgot that old houses like ours have really narrow front doors. So the pram lives in the basement, but it's too steep to just drive it out with Henry inside.

So our leaving process goes like this:
Step one: Take pram outside.
Step two: Bring dog back inside after she chased you out when you took the pram.
Step three: Take Henry outside.
Step four: Bring Nina back inside again so you can put a leash on her.
Step five: Take Nina outside.
Step six: Realise that Henry has just messed up his nappy, take him back in, change him, and repeat steps three to five.

I'm not really complaining, the whole process is worth it once you're outside in the fresh air. I just find it kind of comical how long it actually takes me to leave the house nowadays. So long, punctuality. But then again, hello best excuse ever for non-punctuality!

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In other news, Henry has been a bit fussy lately - today he cried nonstop for what felt like hours but was probably only one... Okay, okay, maybe half of one. I definitely count myself lucky that that happens so rarely so as to be a major event when it does happen. But still, crying sucks. I think it's a combination of a bellyache and maybe even teething? Three months is pretty early for teething, but it does happen, and he's doing things like drooling and trying to chew on stuff like, say, your fingers. Or his own fingers. Or his bear.

I need to go out and buy him a teething ring of some description - I keep wanting to say chew toy, but no, that'd be the dog version. Maybe he and Nina could share? Sharing is a good skill to learn, so the earlier the better, right?

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We'll be getting some more guests soon - Joe and Andy both booked cheap flights, and Ross' dad and aunt will be here at the same time! We're going to try to make sausages while we have the expertise available, although it's been a bit of a hassle trying to source intestines and pig meat in bulk. I talked to the butcher they other day, but he only had marinated spare ribs (ew) and plastic sausage casings (double ew).
I finally called the slaughterhouse direct, and the guy was really helpful - apparently they do process lamb intestines, but only for export purposes, and while they aren't slaughtering pigs anytime soon, they have some meat on hand. So if I phone back next week, he should be able to help us out on both counts. Yay!

Apart from that, we haven't got too much planned for their visit. I'm guessing Henry can provide a bit of entertainment, and then we'll just wing it and see what everyone feels like doing. I think regardless of what we do, it'll just be awesome to hang out and catch up.

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And finally I had to share this, because I realised it wasn't apparent on the previous bear photo:

The bear suit has paws. Oh man, so cute... Also, way more convenient than mittens!

Get out in the sunshine, and get vitamin D; I'm good for your eyes, I'm good for your bones...

2011-08-27T08:45:00.000-07:00

Here's vitamin E!
Ahem.

Got a package the other day from Mum - nursing tops ahoy! I have found it rather difficult to find good quality (but reasonably priced) clothes here in Iceland, so huzzah for overseas suppliers of stuff! Also Henry got an awesome outfit and a book that is a dog. It's also about a dog, so that makes sense.

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The dude and I went to the mother's group on Monday and it was really fun! There were six other ladies there, five with boys and one lonely girl. Henry was by far the youngest, so he mostly sat with me while the other kids played together, but he seemed pretty interested in watching everyone else. Also, it was awesome to get out of the house and talk to people.

And it's good to get other people's opinions: Henry has been taking vitamin D drops for about a month now, I'm not sure if babies all over the world have to do that, but they were strongly recommended by the midwives here. Unfortunately, they play havoc with his stomach, so the poor little dude hasn't been sleeping very well lately.
Anyway, I mentioned it at the group, and the general consensus was that they're not worth the effort. Babies this young get upset tummies, so most of the mums just waited until the little ones started eating real food, and gave them cod liver oil instead.

I did some looking around on the internets, and the idea seems to be that there isn't usually enough vitamin D in breastmilk because the mothers aren't getting enough. But given that there isn't that much sunlight here to begin with, people (including me) are all taking some form of supplement on a daily basis. So maybe I have more vitamin D in my milk than say, someone in Perth - you wouldn't expect to be deficient in such a sunny place, but with the super emphasis on slip, slop, slap, people probably don't get much real sun exposure in the end.*

Anyway, the point of the above speculative rant is: I hope Henry doesn't get rickets, but I don't think he will.

* Did I just become one of those people who bandies about stupid ideas that could do more harm than good? Oops, my contradictions are showing.

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In other news, I have been suffering from the toothache from hell for most of the past week. It started aching a bit on Friday night last week (natch), so on Monday I called up for an appointment at the dentist. They offered one on the following Monday, but that night the pain got heaps worse, so I phoned again on Tuesday, and they found me a time slot for Wednesday.

Tuesday night was the longest and most pain-filled night ever, even worse than that one where I was in labour. I had forgotten how bad toothaches can be - there should definitely be a separate word for that kind of pain. I went on a website to look at home remedies for toothache - my favourite suggestion was Vicodin! Um, yeah... I don't think that counts as a 'home remedy'. I found a combination of things that eased the pain enough to sleep a bit, but by 'a bit', I mean maybe one hour total, in five to ten minute blocks. UGH.

Went in on Wednesday, totally sleep deprived and still in agony, and the guy numbed my mouth, filled a tooth and sent me home. Yay! I slept for a couple of hours while the anaesthetic was still working, then it was alright for a little while longer, then the pain just came back and brought along a bunch of painful friends...

So Wednesday night Ross drove me to the hospital to get some painkillers, which then didn't work (alas, they were not Vicodin), so I got my uncle's wife to phone them for me and demand some better painkillers, or even that they check me in and sedate me. It was such a horrible feeling, nothing was helping me feel better, and I was so exhausted and befuddled by pain that I couldn't even think straight. At least with childbirth, all the pain was leading up to a reward, there were people looking after me and there were intervals where I actually felt okay and could rest.

Anyway, the doctor on call phoned the dentist, so at ten pm I went in and he did what I suspect may have been a root canal? Oh my gosh, that anaesthetic was pretty much the best thing that ever happened to me. So it turns out it was the tooth NEXT to the one he filled that was causing the trouble - well done, dentist man!

So he fixed it all and sent me home, and Ross slept downstairs with the dude so that I could get a proper night's sleep. It was amazing.

My conclusion: toothache = worse than childbirth. Or more accurately, this particular toothache was worse than my particular childbirth.

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I was trying to upload a video so that I didn't have to end on that note, but it doesn't seem to be working... Oh well, nevermind, I've been meaning to post this post for about three days now, no more putting it off for whatever reason!

Exit, pursued by a bear...

2011-08-19T06:07:00.000-07:00

Oh my gosh, my uncle Jon Erik and his family sent us the cutest outfit ever - it's so fluffy, I'm gonna die!*

Seriously, it's like having a live teddy bear, all squishy and soft and warm... Look! Lookit the tail!

* We watched Despicable Me last night, and I may or may not have cried at the end. I do love a good kids' movie.

Oh, that face. It's a bit weird though, because I can't tell whether it's supposed to be an outfit in itself, or something to wear over his normal clothes. If I was wearing a bear suit, it would go over my real clothes, but I have a feeling Henry could wear this as a fuzzy onesie. And he may have to do so ALL the time from now until he grows out of it!

What else? We went to the doctor's for another checkup, and Mr. Henry now weighs 6.26 kilos and is 62cm long! Again, I have no real frame of reference, but I believe that's quite a respectable growth spurt.
There was another mum with a baby in the waiting room, who turned out to be the girlfriend of a guy we work with at Fisk. Her kid was five months old, I think, and he was only a little bit taller than Henry - his head was waaaay bigger though, and he was almost totally bald. Yay for cute Henry and his mop of hair!

The nurse also mentioned that he was still written in the computer as Boy unchristened - we (okay, I) haven't gotten around to trying to sort out a christening, as I don't think we're fussed either way. Anyway, the nurse kindly pointed out that some people don't realise that the baby's name has to be registered in the Þjóðskrá, it's not enough to just write it down at the hospital.
Ha ha, yep, 'some people' would indeed be me. I figured I probably had to do that somewhere, but I don't think they dob you in for child negligence until you have a six-month-old nameless baby.

So I went and registered him yesterday, and then it isn't such a big deal if we have a christening later or not. The main issue is that the people we want to be godparents are a) both living in other countries and b) not especially religious, although that's not really the point for us, anyway. If I could find a good secular word for 'someone who will be a good influence on my child's life, help teach him how to be a kind-hearted human and give him sound advice when he won't listen to his parents', then I would use that... Suggestions welcome in the comments!

What else? I have joined a 'Mums in Sauðárkrókur' group on facebook, and as a result, I will be doing some socializing soon! I am pretty bad at putting myself forward and making new friends. Most of the time I'm quite happy with that, but every once in a while I feel like a bit of a sad case. Also, it'll be good to get some advice from other people, and Henry can play with some other kids! Good times all round, I think.

Three hundred club...

2011-08-14T11:48:00.000-07:00

Hello again.
What is up where you are? It's the same old routine here, Ross is still on holidays so we are living in bliss - we hang out and eat and watch The Wire and try to sleep when we can.

I figured Henry was awesome at sleeping as is, he only wakes up a couple of times, usually around two-ish and five-ish. Then the other night he stayed at his Nanna's house, and he slept from ten til five, non-stop! He has a more spacious cot there, so maybe that made a difference... I suspect the main disruption to his sleep might be me - I pick him up too quickly when he fusses, whereas if I left him, he'd probably go back to sleep. I experimented last night with leaving him a bit longer, and it seemed to work pretty well. Here's hoping for a full night's sleep one day soon.

Henry's super talkative at the moment, lots of cooing and squealing, especially when he's in his crib. He also seems to have a better grasp (ooh, unintentional pun!) on what his hands are and how to work them. He likes to shove his whole fist in his mouth, and lately he's been trying to grab things: noses, fingers, hair, scarves, ears, etc. Fun times.

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What else? Nina betrayed her friend the gross bunny, and ripped him to shreds. We found it comical and photo worthy.

I restuffed him and sewed the ears back on, but then she ripped his face off. Nice doggie.

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We went to the music festival Gæran on Friday night - the music was mostly unimpressive, but it was good to get out of the house. The only bummer was when Ross got racially abused by a random drunk guy (he told me that he was unimpressed that I was dating a black man - what? 'What' on so many levels...) Apparently that guy is a bit of an obnoxious feature around town, so we're not too hurt by it. Whatevs, random man.

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Aaaand, here's some more Henry to round out the post. The rug that he's lying on is one that my great aunt Guja crocheted for him. Amma gave her a bag of mismatched ends of yarn, and she somehow made all the colours work together. Talented lady.

P.S. Did you know that this was my 300th post? Don't worry, I wouldn't have known, either, except that Blogger keeps track for me. Also, it's nearly three years since I started the blog - nuts, hey?

"It's much too late to do anything about rock & roll now ..." - Jerry Garcia

2011-08-07T11:07:00.000-07:00

Not much to report here in sunny old S'krok - although by gosh, it was indeed sunny today, which I guess is newsworthy! We all took a walk to Vicki's house to meet her current visitors, three Australian ladies who are travelling around the world. It's always lovely to hear an accent from home, and they were all really lovely.

On the way home we passed the new pub/ restaurant, and saw that they were advertising burgers! Don't know if I mentioned the place before, it's called the Hard Wok Cafe (har de har), and it's one of the few places in town that isn't owned by the Olafshus monopoly. It opened earlier this year, and I really wanted to support it, but they usually serve a mishmash of Asian foods, and I wasn't really that impressed when we went.

So yay for burgers! They were pretty okay, and it was nice to sit in a cafe and watch the world go by. Some of the world that went by turned out to be Amma and Sigga, and they came in to join us for lunch.
I even left Henry in his pram outside, as per Icelandic custom - although I was a bit paranoid that he'd wake up and cry and everyone would think I was a terrible mother. Didn't happen though, he slept quite happily while we ate. Winner.

The boy continues to be totally adorable, seen here wearing a Ramones shirt sent to him by his aunt Victoria in London. H&M's baby stuff is pretty amazing - Henry has been given quite a few things from there, and they're all really cute and comfortable and easy to put on*.

* A super good feature in baby clothes. I'm getting better at it, but am still a little bit nervous that I'm going to break something important**.

** Ross just asked which bits aren't important. Good point.

The debate still rages on about who he looks like, we hear different opinions all the time. I can't really tell, he just looks like himself to me. I was thinking, though, maybe people think he looks more like me because of his colouring - it's kind of hard to look past the blue eyes and blonde-ish hair. He definitely has olive skin though. Who knows? All I know is he's the cutest ever.

D:

2011-08-02T15:27:00.000-07:00

I have been reading lots of parenting blogs lately, and I've realised I am totally hooked on reading tips for travelling with babies. Anytime there's an article on planes, trains and minis, I am there. I think it's because I dream* of being on a plane to Australia with Ross and the little dude...

* Not literally. My actual dreams lately have been repeatedly about The Wire. We are rewatching it at the moment, and it's clearly taking up too much of my brain space. But man, how good is that show? I can't believe I forgot how awesome Lester is.

So anyway, when we do finally go to Australia, I promise my fellow travellers the most relaxed flight ever. Hmm, I guess I can't guarantee that, but I can promise that I will try the best I can to make sure that we aren't the ones making an already hellish flight worse. I think that's the main thing - people can sort of forgive a crying baby, as long as you're making an effort to do something about it!

Anyway, apart from lists of what to bring on an airplane, parenting blogs can be pretty insane. Just about every day, I read a new theory on what causes autism.
Actual examples: Pacifiers. Or maybe a lack of vitamin D. Oh yeah, or it might be a lack of pre-natal vitamins maybe? Or taking anti-depressants - again, before you even get pregnant. And don't even get me started about vaccines.
Sorry about the negativity, I guess autism is one of those things that people still don't understand, and it really gets me when people bandy about stupid ideas that can cause more harm than good.

Enough of that. Henry is a bit cranky at the moment, and while I haven't managed to take a picture of his ultimate sad face (hint: it looks like the saddest cartoon sad face you ever saw), here's one I prepared earlier...

Green is not a creative colour...

2011-08-01T04:43:00.000-07:00

Hello again! As Maja said re: blogging - the longer I leave it, the longer I leave it! So here's a bunch of photos.

I think the dude's hair is still getting lighter, it's almost the same colour as mine!

Someone told Amma that sleeping with your arms above your head is bad for you, so every time she sees him like this, she tries to put them down. Unfortunately, that's nearly all the time - I figure if he was uncomfortable, he'd either change position himself or cry until I moved him, right?

Also, this photo illustrates what Ross and I just realised about body proportions in babies - his arms are the same length as his head! How cute is that? A: Very.

Nina has a stuffed bunny with no arms. It is pretty gross, and she loves it.

Henry tried on a christening dress that Amma has been knitting for years... Literal, actual years - I'm not sure who's going to wear it, but I already told her it wouldn't be Henry. He was just the model to see if it will fit a small person, and as you can see, it did!

As you can also see from the photo, he was pretty unimpressed with the whole deal.

Henry and Nina do tummy time, yeah!

So yeah. That's our life in pictures at the moment... And as I write it out like that and then look at the pictures, I realise that maybe I should get out of the house more. On the other hand, although there is more to life than puppies and babies and gross stuffed bunnies, I'll have plenty of time to do all that other stuff later. This life is still pretty entertaining for now.

-------------------------------------

There were two things on the internet today that made us laugh loudly.

This:

And this:

Don't Hug Me I'm Scared from This Is It on Vimeo.

Happy or sad?

2011-07-25T11:55:00.000-07:00

Aw, so that is pretty sad news about Amy Winehouse. I wasn't really a massive fan or anything, but she had an amazing voice and wrote some great songs. What is really gross is people now commenting on facebook with jokes and snide remarks. It's fine if you didn't like her or won't mourn her or whatever, but it's just icky to laugh about a person's death like that.
I dunno, I think I'm maybe getting a bit too sensitive these days.

--------------------------------------------------

Anyway, how about something not so depressing? We went to the doctor today with the short guy, he has put on another half a kilo in the past two weeks! Also, he is 60cm long - what a great dude. He's clearly advanced when it comes to getting big, in addition to everything else.

Someone asked us if we play lots of music for Henry, and I realised that we had hardly played him any at all in the first week or two (remind me to apologise to him if this ruins his chances of excellence in life...)
Anyway, this has been immediately rectified, we're putting on lots of records again - currently listening to the Dumbo soundtrack*. Earlier it was a Studio One compilation, and the other day was DJ Shadow. He'll have broad tastes, if we have anything to do with it.

* Most of it is great fun to listen to, but there is that one song that never fails to make me cry. How effective is it? Just finding the clip to make the link has me in tears. Ack.

--------------------------------------------

Oops, I just uploaded some photos to facebook, which was fine until Ross pointed out that one of them was a total, full frontal, changing table nudie shot. So I took it down, just in case. I'll save it for his friends at his 18th birthday, no need to publish it on the internet just yet.

Here's some other photos:

Four generations of us...

Taken while trying to get the four generations into the same room.

I think it's one of the nicer photos of me and the dude so far.

For Maja: not crying, just frowning in his sleep.

I see where you're coming from on this - his sad face is pretty adorable...

---------------------------------------------------

And finally, some words of wisdom from the internet:

From Visual.ly

GIF!

2011-07-23T03:52:00.000-07:00

I just found out how to make gifs...

The boy, he dances.
Is it possible I might have too much free time on my hands?

Holidays and sleepy days...

2011-07-20T01:46:00.000-07:00

So... What is new?

Ross' first day of holidays is today! Yay!
We're going to Get Stuff Done, like clear out the recycling cupboard, and empty out the shed, and return boxes of clothes to a relative, and get a credit card. Maybe not all today, but at some point these things must be achieved.

We found a lovely old wooden chest in the very back part of the shed - not sure if the guy who owned the house before us bought it, or if it was here before he was, but it's pretty awesome either way. Vicki says it's definitely an antique, so we'll have to be careful when we clean it up.
Anyway, that'll make the rest of the shed-clearing more exciting, who knows what other treasures we'll find?

---------------------------------------------

Mum and Dad have gone back to Australia! Boo!
They volunteered to get bumped from their overbooked Amsterdam - Singapore flight, which means they got a bunch of euros, a free nice hotel for the night, dinner, breakfast and a box of chocolates. Plus an extra afternoon in Amsterdam... It's funny, because Ross' brother once did the same thing at the same airport - seems like they must just always overbook those big flights, just in case.

So, the house feels pretty empty at the moment, although it's better now that Ross is home. I was a bit wary of how we'd all go in a house together again, but it was so incredibly awesome to have them here, and I'm so glad they came. And I can't wait until they come back! I have a feeling it'll be sooner rather than later, but I guess we'll see...

------------------------------------------------

What else? Henry continues to be awesome, although it seems to be a growing concern amongst many of my relatives how much he sleeps. I have heard the phrase 'Wow, he just does not want to wake up, does he?' about a million times. Usually accompanied by some not-so-subtle poking.

It starts off sounding like a compliment, like gee your baby is so nice and chilled out. Then it gets more and more annoyed sounding, as they obviously want to pick him up and play with him and sniff his hair (What? You know that's exactly what you'd do.) But dudes, for serious - if you meet him for one or two hours, and he sleeps during those hours, that does not mean he has a sleeping sickness, so stop implying that he does. It just means he is a baby who naps on and off all day.

Ha, I just read that back and it sounds so defensive. Oops. Oh well, I'm sure you know where I'm coming from.

---------------------------------------------

I think that's probably everything newsworthy, I should get up and start the day already. I've heard that's the best way to Get Stuff Done.

The verdict is in...

2011-07-13T05:39:00.000-07:00

Well. The midwife came over the other day to check on Henry and she confirmed what we all suspected to be true: He is in fact the best little dude ever. This was the midwife who just got back from summer holidays, so it was the first time she'd met him, and she seemed impressed by how grown up he is for his age. He holds his head up, really focusses on things around him, and has started making some pretty adorable gurgly cooing noises.

She said he must have been getting lots of attention and stimulation to be so advanced - true. He hardly even gets put down, he mostly gets passed from one doting relative to another.

He especially loves these dinosaurs next to his change table - thanks, Aunt Anna!

And yes, I'm guessing a big part of a midwife's job is to say nice things to all the new mothers about their babies, but I don't mind and neither should you.

---------------------------------------------------------

What else? It's getting close to when Mum and Dad go back to Australia - boo! They have been totally amazing and helpful - Mum has been doing all the housework and Dad has made the cellar into a bathroom (I'll take some photos, it is pretty impressive work)! Plus they've both been spending lots of time with Henry, burping him, singing Icelandic lullabies for him and watching him so that I get to go do fun things like have showers...
And they've helped me realise how incredibly lucky we are to have such a great little dude - apparently babies are mostly much more difficult than Henry. And nowhere near as handsome.


Naptime

Ross was supposed to start summer holidays last Friday, but he and Gerry (our Scottish friend) got asked to work another two weeks doing bits and pieces around the factory. He gets paid overtime rates, so of course he said yes. It's always good to get a bit more cash to pay off the mortgage quicker, but I can't wait until he does go on holiday!

Luckily, there'll still be three weeks left of summer holidays, and then he's taking another two weeks of paternity leave, so we still get five weeks off together. And it's before we get any visitors, so it'll be just the three of us at home - sounds lovely, yes? I think we'll mostly just potter around, but maybe we'll do a bit of road tripping, too. Henry loves riding in the car, and we've been enjoying seeing more of Iceland on our Sunday drives.

And that's about it for now - time for lunch and maybe a walk? Or maybe some tiramisu ice cream instead...

Title

2011-07-08T11:06:00.000-07:00

Okay, so let's go from a million photos per post to none! You can pretend I'm doing it for your benefit, so my blog doesn't take hours to load, but in fact it's because Ross likes to read new posts when he comes home, and I'm pinned under a sleeping Henry - so I must write a post now, but I can't reach the camera. Also, totally typing one handed, soooooo sloooooooow.

Hey so what is up? I have become the laziest human ever, I just seem to while away time during the day until all of a sudden it's afternoon and I haven't even left the house! The two exciting things I did this week were getting a haircut and taking the dog to the vet.

New hair, and a wave from Henry - no I didn't take the photo while breastfeeding,

although it kind of looks that way... I'm not that good at multitasking.

Anyway, Ross said he likes the hair, I am still kind of getting used to it. I realised there aren't any mirrors in the lounge/ kitchen areas, so I haven't really seen enough of myself to adapt yet. I think it's cute, as long as I ruffle it up the right way - I think maybe it looks a bit too old-lady-esque if I do it wrong.

And yes, poor Nina went and got spayed on Wednesday - she was hilariously doped up that afternoon, then a bit pitiful and sore on Thursday, but luckily she's pretty much back to her normal perky self today. The vet said it was easier on her because she's so young, which is a relief, because it was pretty awful to see her so miserable...
And then I realised that that whole childbirth thing must have been terrible for Ross - take my feelings for sad Nina, multiply them by a whole bunch and then extend it for a day and a night. I almost* feel like I had it easier, because at least I was doing something. Ross just had to watch me be in pain. It was all worth it in the end, though...

*that is a pretty big ALMOST.

--------------------------------

What else? Ross and I went to Skagastrond last Sunday - it is becoming a little bit of a ritual to get out of town, although I don't know what we're going to do once we run out of small towns nearby.
It was a pretty nice place, we went to this pub/ museum/ restaurant/ venue called Kántrýbær - and if you pronounce that out loud and translate the last part, it becomes Country town!
I cannot recommend it highly enough, unless of course you don't enjoy cheesy theme bars, in which case I do not recommend it at all. As for us, we are going there for my birthday this year. And possibly the year after that, too. So cheeseball and awesome. Plus there were some genuine, slightly mad local characters who rocked up and started awkward conversations with some of the other tourists, so that was entertaining.

--------------------------------------

Okay, time to go cook some dinner. What does one make with mince? Maybe I'll improvise and see what we end up with... My prediction? Pizza.

Guess what?

2011-07-03T14:37:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is our second wedding anniversary!

I don't even know what to say about it... I feel so very lucky, I am married to my best friend in the whole world, and now we also have the most awesome little dude to share our lives. I'm pretty much the happiest girl ever.

Hofsos and educational toys!

2011-06-30T11:47:00.000-07:00

Ross and I went to Hofsós on the weekend, it's the little village on the other side of the fjord from Sauðárkrókur. Dad has recommended that we get out of town every once in a while, and we had a really lovely day.

We had a practice run of the Baby Bjorn at home, and Ross was thoroughly impressed. It seemed like Henry's face was getting a little bit smooshed, but I'm informed that's how it's supposed to fit. Plus he didn't seem that upset about it, so we figured it was fine!

(On a side note, I wish I could tell if Henry enjoys things or not - he doesn't really do proper facial expressions on purpose yet, so the only time he reacts visibly to things is by howling if he hates them. Frustrating, but I'm basically assuming that anything that doesn't make him cry, makes him happy! So he loves baths and being nude and the dinosaurs next to his changing table, and hates pooing and having his clothes changed. What a dude.)

The weather was great - it was sunny at home but with a freezing northerly wind, whereas Hofsós was pleasantly sheltered and warm. We still dressed Henry up in about five layers of clothes, from a little woolly singlet to a grey and white hoodie that Daisy sent him - and Ross accidentally managed to dress in a matching grey and black striped jumper. Nice work.

It's funny, I've basically been hating every photo of me that gets taken lately, so Ross chose this one. I just feel like none of the photos look like me - but this is a good thing, because I just don't believe that I look as hideous as the photos suggest. Yay for self esteem!

We got a package the other day from Danny and Lindall, our friends who live in Oxford. They sent some pretty awesome toys, like this rattle bracelet in the shape of a ladybug...

This brand, Lamaze, is apparently really good for all the developmental stages that babies go through - as they get older, they appreciate different things like the colours and textures and noises.

And then there was Bill D. Beaver... I think I need to copy out Lindall's comment from the card:

"Bill D. Beaver - a controversial choice. Danny and I went to buy Henry a gift. Danny saw Bill and was adamant that we buy him. I personally find him creepy as hell. Imagine the hilarious argument in the toy store that followed. Danny won. I guess he is one of those love or hate it things, please do not feel obliged to force him on Henry. Our friends have all since met Bill and agree on the creepy factor. Danny stands alone with his love, perhaps Bill is suitable for geniuses?"

Dan is an astrophysicist. Here's Bill:

To be fair, I think he was crying for other reasons, we just thought it would be a funny photo. Bill is hanging in Henry's pram at the moment, and they seem to be getting along fine - Henry is clearly a genius.

This one is just because it's nice.

The midwife came over again on Monday to weigh Henry - I love her little weighing-ma-jig, complete with stork pouch. He has put on 750 grams since he was born, which I think is relatively a lot. He definitely seems to be getting quite big and chubby, which is nice to see. And it's pretty satisfying to think that he gets all his food from me - we are clearly both awesome at this!

P.S. I keep tagging posts with 'henry', but it's probably a safer bet to go through and re-tag all my other posts with 'not henry'. Oh well. You all love it, really.

Of course there's more pictures...

2011-06-25T04:37:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to not swamp my blog with nothing but baby photos (although if you do want to see them all, they're on my flickr), but I haven't really taken the camera outside the house yet. And the main awesome thing to take photos of here is HENRY!

I promise I'll take the camera out today, there's a festival on at the moment called Lummudagar - pancake days! Everyone in town is supposed to decorate the streets based on where they live: downtown is blue (yay!), up on the hill is yellow, on the other hill is red and so on. My favourite part is that the colour for all the farms in the area is pink - take that tough guy farmers...

There are also street markets and all sorts of events on, so hopefully there'll be some interestingness to photograph. Also, the Red Cross is open! I am pretty excited, I used to go op-shopping (or browsing, at the very least) on a daily basis in London, but the store here is open once a month, if that.

Poor Ross has got the flu, he was a little bit under the weather last week, but then he had to go back to work on Thursday and Friday, where he inhaled fish dust and somehow managed to develop a full on cold. Boo! He's taking it easy at the moment, and I'm trying to get him to call in sick on Monday, but I doubt he'll do it. Tough little trooper.

What else? Henry continues to be pretty fantastic, although he's a bit sniffly at the moment. So he was a bit grouchy last night, but I still think he's the best little dude I've ever met. We went to Akureyri on Thursday for a hearing test, which he passed with flying colours. He got a touch grouchy at one point, but I saw first hand the awesomeness that is white noise's effect on babies. Seriously, he went from whimpery and fussy, to staring into space, to totally asleep in about three minutes. Good to know.

Anyway, I think it is time to get up and get dressed and go find some bargains! Not sure if the weather is summery enough to take Mr. Monkeypants out, perhaps his first op-shopping expedition will have to wait...

Multitasking...

2011-06-18T11:59:00.000-07:00

We continue to do not very much at all - yesterday was Icelandic Independence Day, but it was also freezing, so instead of going out to celebrate, we just hung out at home and snuggled on the couch watching Arrested Development and the Wonder Years.

Mum and Dad went to Reykjavik for the weekend, they'll be visiting relatives and doing a bit of shopping along the way... Anyway, here's a nice photo of them:

The most exciting news of the day is that Mr. Henry is wearing cloth nappies, and I am wearing jeans! I really missed having jeans that fit properly, these ones are the slightly bigger pair that I bought in early pregnancy, but it is still very exciting - trousers that aren't pyjama pants!
Also my feet are back to normal, my belly button is nearly back to its former glory and I've been enjoying all kinds of unpasteurised cheeses and uncooked salmon. What a good life!

And while I get to look more like a real person again, little Henry gets to look... well, a little bit like a hobo, to be honest. Nah, he's got more than enough personality to pull it off. We have been using disposable nappies up until now - a friend gave us a whole stack that his baby never used, and we figured we could be a bit slack while we were getting into routines.

Now though - it's all on! Mum brought nearly a whole suitcase full of thick towelly ones, we bought a stack of lineny ones, and Mum also sent over some new fangled bamboo ones with press studs and fancy patterns on the outside. At the moment we're just using the big towelly ones, will experiment with different combinations over the next couple of days.
Riveting stuff, hey?

On a different note: this is a cool site, people take pictures of old photos in their original locations. Very nice - I may have to dig through some of Amma's pictures and see what I can find...

Seven days and seven nights...

2011-06-15T06:38:00.000-07:00

So today we have a one-week-old little Henry man! Just realised I didn't write all those details that people write down - he was born at 5.35am on Wednesday the 8th of June, weighing 3.985kg and 53cm in length.

Proof!

It has been a pretty crazy week - in writing about it, there may be some instances of waaaay too much information. I'll try to keep a bit of a lid on it, but let's face it, I know some people have a morbid sense of curiosity like my own, so surely you want one or two gory details?*

*On the list of gory stories NOT being told today: that whole giving birth part. Maybe later, but for now it's all still a little bit too fresh.

This suit makes him look like a muppet. Go Bonds!

We went into the hospital on Tuesday afternoon, finished all that pesky labour business by Wednesday morning, and then spent the next day and night in a happy daze. Mum, Dad and Vicki came to visit us in Akureyri, took lots of photos and did lots of oohing and aahing and almost crying.

With Nanna Vicki

We wanted to head home as soon as possible, so we started talking to the midwives about that on Thursday morning, but of course there were various tests for me and Henry before we could go. I had three separate people come in to take blood samples - the first guy was a bit awkward (possibly because of my exposed boobs), but really careful and gentle. The second lady was one of the lovely midwives, and she managed to draw blood from the same spot completely painlessly.

Then came the doctor. I offered him my other arm, because Henry happened to be sleeping on the first one. I have no idea what exactly happened, but for some reason it took him four tries, in four different spots up and down my wrist to find a vein that worked. It was almost funny, except that I'd already been through the previous night and all that entailed, and then there was this totally avoidable pain from a careless doctor guy - pretty much the definition of 'the last straw'.
So while I didn't cry during labour, I totally bawled then, and again every time I spotted the four bits of cotton wool sticky taped to my arm.

Not bawling in this photo, obviously.

Anyway, we were allowed to leave the hospital that afternoon, and there followed the slowest and most careful drive home ever. We were a little worried that he'd be fussy on the way home, but then we remembered all the stories we'd heard about car rides being so soothing to babies. So he slept and we relaxed a bit and then we were home!

The next couple of days were a bit of a haze again, Henry decided he had some issues with putting effort into breastfeeding. He'd been alright at the hospital, but I think I wasn't really making lots of colostrum, and he fairly quickly lost patience with even trying to feed, so he'd just cry. Really loudly. There's something about the pitch and tone of that cry, it is just absolutely paralyzing. Made my brain freeze up completely. So that wasn't really that much fun.

Anyway, our awesome midwife came by for home visits, and reassured us that it was okay to feed him formula just to take the edge off his hunger before trying to breastfeed. She used the term 'pour it into him', which I thought was just a figure of speech, but then she clarified that it was better to avoid a bottle, and just fill him up!

Unnur Amma likes to make him burp...

... and Nina wants to help.

And in the meantime there were all the tips on how to make your milk come in, every man and his dog and the internet has them! I had oats, hot compresses, soup and my first beer in aaages. It was pretty nice, even if it was a Guinness - mmm, medicinal.

The formula kept us going until Sunday morning when we ran out. Oops, never mind, we'll go to the convenience store up on the hill right? Ha ha, um, nope! Sunday was Whitsunday, apparently even the convenience stores are shut! So some of us may have indulged in a minor meltdown, but then all of a sudden: MILK! The timing was just impeccable, and Henry overcame his fear of the boob and drank like a champ.

And since then, he's been the mellowest baby ever! He's been sleeping really well overnight, and just chilling during the day. It probably helps that Ross and I are both in total holiday mode, as Mum and Dad have been staying and taking care of the washing, cooking, shopping and everything else!
So we all just hang out and relax and enjoy life - and talk amongst ourselves about how clever and exciting Henry is. For example? He just did five sneezes in a row. What a great dude.

Life is sweet.

Henry!

2011-06-13T01:49:00.000-07:00

Two days to go...

2011-06-03T10:27:00.000-07:00

... until the due date, anyway. I think I read somewhere that only about 5% of babies are actually born on the right day, but here's hoping! Otherwise I would totally settle for tomorrow or Monday morning - Ross doesn't really feel like going back to work on Monday. Also, we read a book at Sigga's about your personality based on the day you were born*, and the 4th of June seemed better than most of the other days surrounding it.

* Probably not completely accurate, the entry for my birthday talks about my love of outdoor sports... Yeah, no.

Oooh, in other exciting and somewhat related news, Ross and I bought a new camera! We decided it'll definitely be worth it once Henry arrives, and Ross has spent all afternoon getting up to speed on how it works. May have to set up a mini-tutorial on skype with one of you photography-skilled kids. I'm pretty sure even the auto settings on the new camera will take better photos than the ones on my little camera, so we'll win either way!

What else? Mum and Dad arrived in Iceland this week; Mum came straight north and Dad is still in Reykjavik completing various goose chases around the shopping centres. Poor thing, we even made him go to Ikea today - I think Ikea is one of those places where if you're in the mood to go, then it's awesome, but it can get really tiring really fast if you're not really into it. Still, they have some neat stuff, and it's cheaper than anything from ye olde overpriced co-op.
Anyway, it's awesome to have Mum around, and I can't wait til Dad arrives, too! They are the first of our many guests planned for the next six months, so it'll be good to sort out what we need to do to the house to make it more hospitable.

Well, yeah, I think that's it... I'm trying not to get into the whole 'waiting waiting' mindset, but it's kind of difficult - so impatient!! Oh well, shall try to relax and enjoy the bumpy belly for just a little bit longer...

Dum de dum...

2011-05-26T10:26:00.000-07:00

So, not really much going on here in Sauðárkrókur. The weather has brightened up a lot, the last two days have been pretty gloriously warm and not windy. And when I say 'gloriously warm', I mostly just mean 'not bitterly cold'. Hey, it's all about perspective.

What else? Mum and Dad arrive in less than a week, and Henry is due the Sunday after that, but I'm not sure of his timekeeping skills, so who knows? I do hope he's a punctual dude, I think punctuality is a pretty awesome quality in a human. Also, to be honest, I have pretty much gotten over the pregnant belly thing, it is getting the teeniest bit uncomfortable at times.

I had an appointment with the midwife yesterday, she said that everything was so normal and fine that I could skip next week and just come in for an appointment the week after. That was good to hear. Here's hoping for a nice, dull, uneventful birth to follow my nice, dull, uneventful pregnancy.

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Ooh, and I just got back from the loan office to file the last of the paperwork for the house... Wait a minute, wasn't that all sorted out ages ago? Aren't we already living in the house? Haven't we started painting? Isn't that the sort of thing you do after you own a house?

Haha, no. Good old bureaucracy has given us a couple more hoops to jump through, but fingers crossed that today's was the last one. Even the people in the offices that we're dealing with are kind of incredulous as to how it has to work out:
For some reason we are now the buyers and the sellers of the property, because the sheriff who seized the property never actually owned it, which is good because the loan place never pays out loans to the loan applicants (i.e. the buyers), only the sellers. And now that we've paid the last of the money to the sheriff, he has filled out the paperwork to allow us to get the loan we needed in order to pay the last of the money (in the meantime, hello, 6.5 million krona overdraft!)

Phew. Anyway, Sigga has as usual helped us to navigate the miles of red tape and explain the situation to all concerned, so it should all be sorted by 4pm tomorrow! Yay!

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I think that's pretty much everything. I'm having a pretty lazy time of it, in direct contrast to Ross who is working heaps of overtime plus renovating and working on our pallet bed when he comes home. Hopefully he'll be able to take it a little bit easy while he's on paternity leave!

The waiting game...

2011-05-19T14:15:00.000-07:00

Puppykins has realised that she gets more pats if I don't have to bend down to reach her... And in other news, she's lost three teeth at the front and looks kind of like a hobo.

I think my bendy abilities are at their worst ever: socks, shoes and tights are all becoming severe obstacles in my day-to-day life. As Mum said when I talked to her today, though, can you imagine having octuplets? Where would your organs go?

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Had a meeting with the midwife yesterday, it was sort of an informal ante-natal class for just me and Ross. And then seeing as the midwife's English is fairly terrible, it was pretty much just for me. I got lots of good out of it, though! I had figured that I knew next to nothing about childbirth, but then I got scared and did lots of reading, so it turns out I know quite a bit now.
Lots of it is horror stories, but I figure that's for the best. And hey, here's a new word I didn't know about until recently*: lochia - but please don't click the link if you're eating, squeamish or just grossed out by things that are really gross.

* But this is definitely the sort of stuff they should teach in sex ed if they really want to reduce teen pregnancy rates... Ew.

The midwife talked a lot about the really realllly basic nuts and bolts of pregnancy ('Here's a placenta. It gives nutrients to the foetus, and takes away waste products'), which makes me wonder how many clueless teenage girls she talks to. I heard a story from a girl at work, about a young (16-17ish?) friend of hers who was having a baby - her water broke, and she had no idea what was happening... How does anyone get to that point without knowing at least that? Surely movies alone have taught you that amniotic fluid happens. Oh well.

The other reassuring thing about the meeting was that childbirth in Iceland seems to be a pretty laidback affair, and you can pretty much take control of what you want to do. At Akureyri, they have the usual drug options, epidurals and whatnot (and laughing gas - yes!), but they also have acupuncture and stuff like that. Given that there's not much choice of which hospital I go to, I'm glad this one has options.
I think that's the thing that worries me most about the birth, I don't want it to be completely out of my control. Anyway, it sounds like they let you do whatever feels right at the time, which sounds good. Surely it's a natural thing and instinct takes over a bit, yeah? Yeah.

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Tomorrow is my last day at work, I am very much looking forward to not being there anymore! Had a chat with my boss today, and he said he was happy for me to stop, and was generally awesome about it. I'm glad I stuck it out this long, but I guess I'm mostly grateful that I have been healthy enough to do so!

So now it's a week or four of hanging out and playing the waiting game... The midwife warned us against getting into that frame of mind where you're only focussing on the waiting, so I'm just going to enjoy the time to myself - knit, chill out and have naps with the puppy. It's a good life.

I want a Sunday kind of love...

2011-05-15T06:39:00.000-07:00

... As I just realised I have become a Sunday kind of blogger. Oh well, never mind. There's not too much going on at the moment, we are just chilling out and playing the waiting game! Only three weeks to go til Henry's due, I am both looking forward to it and completely terrified.

Ross has been hard at work this weekend - we've discovered the awesomeness of upcycled pallet furniture and he has been pottering out in the shed trying out some ideas. He also tidied up in there a bit and discovered some pretty neat old things in amongst the junk. Looks like we might do some more creative recycling in the near future...

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Yet another realisation that I'm living in a very small town: I was out in the garden with the dog yesterday, and one of our neighbours stopped to chat. She obviously knows exactly who I am, and as always I have no clue as to who she is or what our relationship is - do we even have one?

Anyway, she seems to be the neighborhood watch, and commented on the pallets that we got delivered, the furniture that she remembers being inside the house, our dog-raising methods, the trees in our yard, whether I was working, and so on forever. She was nice and all, but she did remind me a little of the 'nosey neighbour' from some American sitcom. So now I'm totally paranoid anytime I'm outside - good times!

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What else? I have started reading this awesome blog called A Cup of Jo, it's just full of really beautiful design and fashion and photos, plus she had a baby a little while ago, so there's lots of that kind of thing, too. I could sit for hours just looking at pretty things.

Happy Mothers' Day!

2011-05-08T10:09:00.000-07:00

That's where I decided the apostrophe should be, so that's where it's going.

Anyway, hope all you Mums had a lovely day, although I realise with the time difference, today is over in a whole bunch of places... But surely gratitude for awesome parenting lasts longer than one day a year!

Must remember to get some better shots of me and my mum while she's over here, only 23 days til she arrives! I can't wait!

And of course while we're talking about motherhood, here's how mine is shaping up at the moment:

36 weeks today, so only four to go - in theory! Ross painted the ceiling for the baby room today, so we're gradually getting there in terms of being ready. My half days at work are pretty awesome, but I tend to be a bit lazy when I get home, so I haven't really been doing much. Must write a list and start working on it!

Yay!

2011-05-01T04:28:00.000-07:00

It worked!

Daffodils and daisies

2011-05-01T04:16:00.000-07:00

D is for...

Days like today... And the day before, and the day before that, actually. Just having time to spend pottering about the house, hanging out with husband and dog and relaxing with my feet up.

Doggy friend! Nina is getting bigger and cuter and more awesome all the time. I've been trying to post a video for ages, but it seems to have stalled, so I may have to put it up in a separate post... Rest assured she is great fun and quite a character, and we're all in love with her.

Wow this letter actually has more options than I need... Let's go with Daisy, one of the awesome ladies I lived with and became friends with in London - I love that sometimes you just end up meeting people that you know you're going to love forever.
- Also, The Drones, my previously mentioned pretty much favourite band, if I have to pick just one.
- Doctor Who - I don't want to start watching the new series, because then I'll just have to watch one every week, and oh, the cliffhangers! I don't know if I can handle that kind of tension right now.

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What else? We have just been enjoying life, really. Ross finished three coats on the baby room last weekend, and we have declared this weekend a paint free zone - might do some sanding of windowsills and door frames at some point this afternoon, but we also might not.

I'm finally cutting back my hours at work. It was pretty cool, I had already decided to just accept the loss of income in favour of rest, and then I talked to the midwife, and it turns out I get a doctor's certificate for the time off! So I continue to get money, and also get to leave at lunchtime AND possibly even get Wednesdays off. Life is good.

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We continue to get free/borrowed baby stuff from all over the place - a lady at work offered me a baby travel cot, it folds up and is ideal for sleepovers.

Then a guy at work offered Ross a bassinet made out of an old wool washing basket - it is adorable and practical, and came with a bunch of free newborn nappies! Ross ended up working overtime on the day we were supposed to pick it up, so I went and found that they were really nice people. They had their first baby in November, and were full of good advice and reassurance that even if you have no idea what you're doing, it'll be fine. They're moving to a farm down south in July, but they said to drop round anytime soon if we have any questions or just want to hang out.

And then Jóhanna was clearing out her attic and found an old fashioned wooden highchair that we can use once Henry gets a bit bigger - I swear we won't have to buy anything new if we don't want to!

Gleðilegt Sumar!

2011-04-22T00:57:00.000-07:00

Happy Summer, kids! Yesterday was the first day of summer here in Iceland, and with that you wish everyone a happy summer and thank them for the winter you guys just shared. Nice.

I went to church last night with Amma and Guja, because there was this singer songwriter guy playing guitar and ukelele - his name is Svavar Knutur, and I went to see him last year at this little festival here in the fjord. The ad kind of made it sound like he was going to play old Icelandic songs, so Amma and Guja decided to go, and I got brought along as driver.
Turns out he just played his own songs, so I think I might have enjoyed it more than they did... Win? It was a totally bizarre night, because at the end of the day, he was playing a show in a church on Easter Thursday - so during the interval, the priest came up and did a communiony type thing, and we all ate bread and grapes during the second half.

Also, apparently this dude has done some pretty extensive touring in Australia of all places, and he was chatting to a girl in the pew behind me about it for ages. She had gone there on holiday once, so they were talking about all the stuff they knew about Australia - how hot weather is unpleasant, how the Nullarbor is really big, how the wet season up north is unpleasant, etc. Lots of weather talk.

And then the girl mentioned that there was some family from Sauðárkrókur that she knew of that had moved to Australia in the sixties, and I almost wanted to turn around and tell her it was my grandma, but I'd been eavesdropping for way too long by that point. Anyway, it all felt a bit odd.

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What else? We started painting Henry's room white - well, Ross painted and Nina and I got in the way... It's going to take a while, the walls are the original wood panels, and they're, well, old. It'll all have to be painted with brushes, and it'll probably take a few coats, but I think it'll look amazing.

Plus we have five days off for painting, so I think with Ross' work ethic we can definitely get it done. If it were up to me, it would probably be one coat now, maybe one on Monday, and then three the week Henry is due. Or I'd just squint every time I went in there.

Anyway, I'll post photos later, but for now I should just put this on here before I procrastinate some more!

House photos! Lots of them!

2011-04-16T10:13:00.000-07:00

Ross just moved his drum kit into the cellar and is playing, Nina seems confused, but not terrified. Good.

So here are some photos of the house that Ross took earlier, when the weather was nice - it is now still sunny, but snowing at the same time. What, that doesn't happen where you are? Weird.

Anyway, the house:

Lounge room, and our really comfy sofa.

Lounge room again, and that little semi circle thingy goes through to...

... the kitchen!

Kitchen window to backyard - there's a deck out there, then grass that goes halfway up the hill, I'm assuming it's all ours!

Our bedroom, slightly dark in this one, but pretty roomy.

Henry's room...

... and a better photo of the view out his window.

Garden on the left hand side of the house - it's full of birches, which people keep asking us when we're going to cut down. Turns out trees make some Icelanders uncomfortable...

From the top of our garden down - someone started painting the back of the house red, then got bored and walked away. As you do.

There's another couple of bedrooms upstairs, and I also left out the cellar and the dining room, but they shall all just have to wait for another day...

So yeah, we are still pretty excited and happy about the house. We went to the hardware store today, and Ross has been replacing screws in door handles and light switches and things, just little bits and bobs that need doing.

We also got paintbrushes and sandpaper for Henry's room; there were a couple of buckets of white paint that came with the house, and we also bought some in Akureyri! Not sure if we'll start painting tomorrow or next week during the Easter holidays - we get five whole days off, I am very much looking forward to it!

Dogs are the best people...

2011-04-12T13:23:00.000-07:00

So it has already been a week since we moved into our house, and it already feels like home.

Because nothing makes a house a home like...

A PUPPY FRIEND CALLED NINA*!

She is the best ever, I'm fairly sure she is the most adorable puppy anyone has ever seen... I could be slightly biased, I guess, but never mind. Neither of us have ever had a puppy before, we've always had second hand dogs, so we're a bit new to this training thing - thank goodness for the internet is all I can say.
Nina is three quarters labrador and one quarter border collie, so she's really eager to learn, which makes life easier. She really seems to want to be good, so it's just a matter of communicating to her what 'good' is. Such a sweetheart.

* Because she's young, gifted and (mostly) black.

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I really need to get around to taking better photos of the house, although we haven't really done much so far apart from moving suitcases into their various rooms... Well, I say 'we', but Ross has lugged furniture up and down the stairs on his own, I am pretty much banned from lifting anything.

I'm not used to feeling so weak and sissy like, I didn't realise that my sense of independence was so important to me. Today at work, for example, for some reason the factory line where I usually work got turned off, so I went and did other work - sewing cod heads, woo!

Anyway, I then got asked to cover some breaks arranging fish for the freezer (remember fish origami tetris? Of course you do. No one forgets fish origami tetris.) I know that working at the freezer hurts my back these days, and I should have said no, but I didn't. Then one of the old ladies gave me a severe talking to about working too hard, which was sweet. I promise I'll say no next time.

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What else? We had another sonar last week, and all is well. Henry is slightly below the average size for his age, but still well within the normal range, so I am happy with that - would much prefer to have a slightly small baby than the biggest one they've ever seen!

And that's about it. We're pretty much just working, and then spending our free time alternating between pottering about doing things to the house, and snuggling with the puppy. So life is good.

So close!

2011-04-03T10:39:00.000-07:00

From stuffnoonetoldme.blogspot.com.

Ross and I just had a lovely weekend in Akureyri, did lots and lots of shopping and ate nice foods and enjoyed just the company of ourselves... We bought heaps of baby and house stuff - a cot, cloth nappies, blankets, sheets and storage, and then we also did a bulk food shop. Unfortunately we didn't find any anchovies, but such is life. We may have to start experimenting with some sort of homemade substitute...

Anyway, we got home before lunch (as neither of us are sleeper-innerers these days), and I called Ingólfur to see if he's planning to be out this weekend. AND HOLY CRAP HE IS! He said he reckoned he could drop the keys around by the 'later part' of today, so Ross and I have been impatiently trying to distract ourselves all afternoon. He went to play the drums and I watched TV on the internet and darned socks - satisfying, but gosh it takes me ages to darn a sock.

We've decided that no matter what time the 'later part' of the day is, we will be moving stuff over and staying tonight - for one thing, the car is full of all the awesome things we bought, and we'd rather not unload it all twice. Also, there's some Icelandic superstition that you shouldn't move into a new house on a Monday, and I'll be damned if I'm waiting two more nights until Tuesday!

Double plus good.

2011-03-31T14:14:00.000-07:00

A list of awesome:

1. Just heard about this awesome food blog, One Hungry Chef, when someone shared a post on reader. Gosh I cannot wait to have my own kitchen. I will be making jams and storing frozen casseroles like you wouldn't believe.

2. I have been achieving things! Talked to my boss about maternity leave, sent some emails regarding house buying and leave, and bought some fillets at work today. These may not sound like spectacular events, but I tend to get really anxious and terrified of talking to people in authority and/or bureaucracy. I realise it's ridiculous - my boss is a really nice dude, he just has a kind of stern face and I get really panicky and forget how to talk. I know I work myself up into the panic, but I just can't seem to help it.

So when I do get stuff done, I feel like I did good!

3. Hot on the heels of my realisation that I probably can't have a cat, there was an ad in the TV guide/local news guide for FREE PUPPIES! Border collie cross labradors, free to good home, five of them!

Okay, so I went and had a look... Oh my goodness puppies are adorable! But I misunderstood the ad - it said they would be ready at the end of the month, so I thought that meant the end of April... This would give us enough time to move in, do a bit of fixing and settling, and then have a month or so of puppy training before Henry arrives.

Oops. Turns out the ad was just copied from the one they had put up at the shops, so end of the month = now. And so theoretically we should wait a bit and see what other free puppies turn up...

BUT awwwww.....

Not a super good photo, but I think this is the one I liked the best - a little girl puppy with a white chest and white toes... Apparently the owners have called her Obba, may have to change that one if we end up taking her.

4. We are of course counting down the days until Henry, I just realised Ross' birthday is coming up soon, then about a month after that (ish), it'll be Henry time!
And of course with Henry comes...

5. Maternity leave! Six months paid full wages, or maybe nine months on 70% wages, followed by my summer holidays (because they're in July, and will have to be postponed!) I have yet to figure it out properly, hence the need to chase down bureaucracy some more, but anyway - guilt free time at home! I'm going to be realistic and not call it a 'holiday' as such, but I'm looking forward to it, anyway.

6. This weekend is our belated honeymoon type dealie in Akureyri! I will enjoy being in the big smoke, I think it'll be the first time I've been in a proper town since we came to Iceland... How bizarre.
Anyway, we plan to do lots of shopping, mostly home and baby stuff, maybe get some bulk food staples while we're at it? I think there's a pretty huge price difference between the Akureyri and here, not to mention the range available: if we find anchovies, we're stocking up bigtime!

7. If all goes to plan and Ingó does some heavy lifting over the weekend, we could be in our house on SUNDAY NIGHT! Yes, this will be after our driving and being busy and doing things, but if that house is available, we will be in it! So what if the financial bits aren't all completed, possession is nine tenths of the law, right*?

* That's a Dad saying, I never really understood it - sounds like it's some sort of justification for squatting, unfortunately that's not a law here... Oh well.

8. Can't think of anything else in particular, but basically everything is great. I have an amazing family, a gorgeous husband, a baby and house and possible puppy on the way! Good.

Catch 22...

2011-03-28T12:05:00.000-07:00

Well, now that I've started rambling about the house, I must continue, yes?

The latest drama is: I got an email from the loan people, saying that all our application bits and pieces are fine, and based on that info we should be fine to get the monies for the house...

BUT!

They need a form from the sheriff (ha ha, sheriff!) confirming that we made an offer that has been accepted. This is necessary for home loans here in Iceland, instead of getting pre-approved, you make an offer on a house, and then once it's accepted you can apply for the loan.

Because we bought it at auction, though, we needed to pay a quarter of the total cost as a deposit, and we need to come up with the next quarter before the handover date. At that point, we'll get the paperwork from the sheriff that will allow us to get the loan.
So to summarize, to get the loan, we need the paperwork. To get the paperwork, we need to pay the sheriff the money from the loan.
ARGH!

Oh well, we are in the midst of finding solutions right now, and I'm not convinced that it'll have any affect on when we move in - if Ingó gets out by next Sunday, we'll be in there five minutes later!

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And since I've got a title that already fits:

C is for...

Cats - because we all know I am one of those people who is at high risk of becoming a crazy old cat lady. I absolutely adored my cat John Malkovich - he was one of the kittens that Dad brought home from work, and he somehow became my cat, as opposed to ours. Can't wait til I can get another kitty of my own, but not sure if it'll be anytime soon. I'll just have to settle for Snotra for now...

Creative outlets - music, writing, knitting, drawing, taking photos - I have decided talent matters little (yay!), it's all about just doing stuff for fun and stress release and interestingness... And I like the sense of achievement you get when you make something. I think that's one of the things I'm most looking forward to about our house - building things, painting, and just making a place that reflects who we are.

Crows - my brain is a bit blank at the moment, but I've been meaning to mention it anyway: there are a tonne of crows here in Sauðárkrókur. And I love them. You see them everywhere, perched on top of the gates at the graveyard, on the steeple of the church, and flying around in big, creepy, creaky flocks.

Lots of people I've talked to here seem to like them, too. I feel like they usually represent ominousness and doom, but they are almost respected here, from what I've seen.
Amma told me a folk story about a girl who used to feed the crows near her farmhouse, and then one day one of them stole her glove and hopped away. So she followed it, it hopped away some more, and so on, until they were quite far away from the farm. And then the farm was swallowed up by an avalanche.
So the moral of the story is, be nice to crows and they'll save you from a snowy death?

'Don't buy the house; buy the neighborhood.' Russian Proverb

2011-03-26T09:07:00.000-07:00

I was looking for quotes to title the previous post, and I couldn't resist this one. I took a photo out of what will eventually be Henry's bedroom window:

Not as clear as I'd like it, but I promise to take a better photo once we've moved in! The point is: the pine tree on the right is in Sigga's back garden, and you can just see Amma's little red roof and kitchen window at the back there. Everybody needs good neighbours!

House progress! And a reflection!

2011-03-26T09:00:00.000-07:00

So, things are moving along - hooray for progress! The loan people apparently need a little bit more information, but we're hoping that it all goes through properly next week.

In other house news, Ingólfur is up here this weekend clearing out his stuff! We had a bit of a chat about his furniture and things - he has a fully furnished house in Reykjavík, so he is pretty keen to get rid of all the extra beds and fridges in Sölvahús*. He had originally said that we could just take it when we made the first offer to him in December, but I think maybe his girlfriend convinced him that no, there was actually some value in all those things.

So we're hopefully going to be getting a nice leather couch, two fridges (one pretty old and awesome looking!), a washing machine, a dryer and a couple of beds and mattresses - will be very convenient to not have to buy all those things to set ourselves up. Of course it's also convenient for him, he has less stuff to move down south, and I can imagine it would be kind of time consuming to sell it all piece by piece.

He offered three TVs as part of the deal, but I think we'll be pretty happy with the one that we already have. We didn't have a TV in London for a while, and it was kind of awesome - it's so easy to just get sucked in and watch crap for hours on end, even though you don't mean to. I felt like I got some pretty good stuff done while I wasn't watching British reality TV.

There's also about a million shelves and desks and wardrobes around the place, but we basically told him that we can take it or leave it - we don't want to pay extra for clutter that we don't really need, but on the other hand if he thinks it's easier to just leave it behind, then he's more than welcome to do so. He's going to get back to me sometime today on whether the offer works for him, so fingers crossed (yet again - my fingers are going to take a while to go back to their regular shape after all this hoping!)

*That's the name of the house, by the way, named after Sölvi, the guy who built it in 1927. Figure I may as well start calling it by name, I'm still a teeny bit wary of saying 'our house'.

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This is a neat little video - wait for it...

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And that's about it. Ross and I have our trip to Akureyri next weekend, and it's possible that Ingólfur will have finished emptying out his stuff by Sunday afternoon, so we may be able to move in then! Exciting times.

Bandery!

2011-03-24T13:02:00.000-07:00

Shameless self promotion! The new single is up here, if you would like to listen to it. There is also a new bio that I'm assuming Joe wrote, it is pretty entertaining and honest.

Apparently they've been playing it on triple J, and someone heard them talking about the band, the album and the break up. Sooo, did anyone else out there get their pregnancy announced on national radio? No? Bummer for you!

Bear with me...

2011-03-20T07:34:00.000-07:00

Sigga called me out on my not posting, so here's photos from yesterday!

Me and Mr. Henry Thor Short-man, Esq., as I've just decided to nickname him.

It's 29 weeks today, so only eleven to go! That is fairly insane, yes? I've been getting a little bit of a back ache at work, probably due to my terrible posture, but I must admit that I'm thrilled with how lucky I've been in terms of pregnancy discomfort.

It really just seems like the luck of the draw, some people spend nine months throwing up constantly, and some people don't. I'm glad I don't, I am a complete sissy when it comes to feeling sick or in pain. I'm still feeling good all round, a bit tired sometimes, but that's nothing an afternoon nap doesn't fix. Plus, having the perfect excuse for lounging around having afternoon naps? Priceless.

Back row, from left: Dísa, Maja, Amma, Guja

Front row: Andrés, Stebbi, Mundi, Þóri

Yesterday was Guja's birthday party, she is my grandma's eldest sister , and just turned 90! She definitely does not look or act like it, she's one of the most chipper and active old people I've seen around. Plus the rest of these siblings look pretty good for being mostly in their seventies and eighties, so I'm hoping I inherited some of those good genes...

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Oh hey so I started doing that alphabet thingy, didn't I? Having a bit of trouble thinking these days, so let's just make it a list of say... Three things.

B is for...

Bass guitar - I've been playing for over ten years now, and I've had my beloved Fender for nine of those. I am clearly not a gear head who requires the bestest newest thing, my trusty bass has served me well over the years. Can't wait to get it set up in our basement and play again, I am actually missing it!

Boys Boys Boys! - that other band I got to be in before I left Perth for Iceland. They are super top people, and I had the best time ever singing harmonies about army men and prawns with them. P.S. they are doing really well for themselves, of course, and just won a WA screen award for their clip for Ticky Ticky Boom.

Babies - I never ever thought of myself as a person who's into babies. Y'know how some people just go all googly when they see little dudes? That never happened to me in the past. But at some point in the last year, some part of my brain broke, and now I get all incoherent around small children.

Plus I'm looking forward to mine so much that it's hijacking my blog, but I think that's a good thing, otherwise I'd have nothing to write about! So yeah, small people, I'm pretty much on your side these days.

Everything is nice...

2011-03-14T13:42:00.000-07:00

Things are pretty awesome these days, it's amazing what a weight has lifted off us since we heard about the house. I think Ross is hoping we get to get in there earlier than the actual handover date (8th of April), and I hope so, too, but I think it's unlikely... I'm just glad there is a set date now, it's not just something that'll happen eventually!

I filed a tax return for Ross and I yesterday - the financial year is just the regular year, so the deadline is March-ish... Anyway, it was the easiest tax return I've ever done! Ever! Your employer forwards your group certificate straight to the tax office, and they seem to be able to find out about all of your bank accounts, loans and assets, as well as those of your partner.
So all I did was put in my social security number and tax number, and it showed me a bunch of already filled out forms to check over and approve. And that's it. Yes, I guess this system is a little bit big brother, and it makes it difficult to cheat on your tax return, but on the other hand, it makes life so much easier...

Also weirdly easy and doable online - home loan application. Did that one on Thursday night, and again, it consisted mostly of filling in codes to represent me, my loan-taking abilities, and the property itself, and voila! The relevant info was all filled in, please press send form, we'll contact you if we need any more information. Pretty cool, I thought.

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Oh yeah, Ross and I were supposed to go on our belated honeymoon weekend in Akureyri the other day, but unfortunately the weather has been insane the last few days. Blizzardy Friday, sunny on Saturday, snowy on Sunday and then 50km/hr winds and rain today.

Bit of a bummer that we had to cancel the hotel and stuff, but I was really pleased with how easy it was to postpone the booking. I called them on Thursday night, half-expecting it was too late to change it penalty free. Instead, the nice man said that he totally understood, the roads were a bit treacherous, and would I like to let them know on Friday afternoon, just in case the weather got better?

Different worlds, I guess, and it may have been a different story in summer, but it still made my day.

Bless our house and its heart so savage...

2011-03-09T12:41:00.000-08:00

I believe the term might be 'heck yeah'.

We are all grown up, given that we've just volunteered ourselves for a mortgage! Yes, dream house is finally almost ours, although as always I am still a bit too terrified to say it out loud, just in case...

What happened was:

Surprise auction?! Basically, in making our latest offer to buy the dream house, Gusti the real estate guy was mostly talking to Arion bank, the one that Ingolfur owed the most money to. He was, however, having a hard time getting in contact with the other lenders, and in some cases couldn't even find out who they were.

So, while the biggest lender was still thinking things over for an extra two weeks, one of the small time* lenders decided that they'd had enough, and called an emergency auction of the house. We found out about this from various sources, all of whom seemed weirdly pleased to be the bearers of such up-to-date gossip (unfortunately, it was also heartbreaking gossip, so I was unable to share their joy.)

* small time in this case being roughly ten thousand Australian dollars - believe me, a pittance in comparison to the rest of the debts. Yay Icelandic financial system, you are clearly not flawed at all.

Anyway, there have been at least three other emergency auctions called on the house over the years, but they were all postponed for one reason or another. Not this time, of course! My awesome cousin Maggi accompanied me to the house this morning, and convinced me that we shouldn't bid more than ten million kronas (about $85,000) for it. Even if the bidding went above that, we could probably still buy it from the bank for that amount, it would just take a little longer.

The way these auctions work is kind of weird. Apparently there are usually just representatives from the banks that are owed money, and it's quite rare (but allowed) for the general public to come, much less bid. So it was us and the dude from Arion, a dude from another company, the auctioneer guy from the sheriff's office and Gusti. Man, I was relieved that Maggi came with me, all those professional Icelandic dudes in suits give me the creeps.

So Arion offered two million, Maggi told them that I could bid ten at the most, and then Arion guy said he'd offer up to twelve and a half. And then regardless of all the sensible decisions about how much we should pay, I decided we'd rather bid thirteen million now, and get the house, than postpone it for another couple of months, and then possibly lose it to another bidder after all that.

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Well. Thirteen million ($110,000 ish) is arguably 'too much' for that house - it's old, and there's a lot of work that needs to be done to make it all fancy and shiny. But it's livable, and it'll be ours. I've been thinking about the value of things for a while now, and I decided that value, especially with regards to house prices, is pretty much all in your head anyway...

Housing markets in general are weird. The price of a house seems to depend more on who wants it than anything the house itself has to offer. How insane are house prices in Australia at the moment?

For now, although my grandma and aunt are amazingly generous in their hospitality, we really really really want a place of our own. So for someone else the value of the house could be in how nice and fancy it is - i.e. not very. But for us, the value of that same not-very-fancy house is multiplied by hundreds, because of how happy it will make us to finally have a home.

So I am prepared for the many comments of 'you paid too much', which I am sure are on their way from all kinds of well meaning friends and family. But you know what? I think we made the right decision for us and Henry, and I'm really really happy right now.

Blankety blank!

2011-03-04T11:57:00.001-08:00

What was my list for today? Oh yeah!
Song titles: ______ and ______!

# Coffee and TV
# Monkey and Bear
# Ellen and Ben
# Judy and the Dream of Horses
# Jenny and the Ess-Dog
# You and Whose Army?

Man, I could keep going all day. It's basically like I'm on a really long car trip, and no one wants to play eye spy with me any more...

So let's put on our classics and we'll 'ave a little dance, shall we?

2011-03-03T12:56:00.000-08:00

The Streets' first album is awesome for occupying your mind while working inside a fish factory.

Ooh, also, here's a list of UnderSea Invertebrate* songs:

1. Prawn Dream - Boys Boys Boys
2. The Mollusk - Ween
3. Octopus' Garden - The Beatles
4. Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie - Joanna Newsom
Edited to add: Rock Lobster - B-52's! How did I even miss that?

And a bonus:

5. Under the Sea from the Little Mermaid - cause duh, it's sung by a crab!

*This is totally how I'm going to make playlists for work from now on.

-------------------------------------

What else? It is Friday tomorrow, and now I'm one of those people who only works from Monday to Friday. Therefore, I am pleased at this (predictable) turn of events.

Ooh, next weekend, Ross and I are going to Akureyri, as a late honeymoon type dealie! My lovely great uncle Bjössi's family gave us a weekend away as a wedding present, and we're finally using it - exciting times.

I totally love hotels. An exciting new bathroom with tiny shampoo, someone whose job is to make your bed for you and hang up your towels, and... Hmm, I don't really know what it is that I like so much. It's just one of those things that feels like a super extravagant treat to me, although I'm sure if it was something I did all the time, I'd get sick of it. But for now it makes me feel like a special human, so I'm looking forward to it!

Also, Akureyri: it's the only place apart from Reykjavik that qualifies as a city. Everything else is a town or smaller. So we'll do some shopping (but probably more 'looking at shops' than actual buying), eat some exciting exotic food from a restaurant that isn't Ólafshús, and maybe even go to the movies!

Can you tell I'm very excited?

---------------------------------------------

In other news, I have decided that sloths are my new favourites:

From here

And one for Henry. I'm pretty sure he also likes sloths.

Dog Blog!

2011-02-28T12:54:00.000-08:00

Dogs 101 today is featuring miniature pinschers, they look like little dobermans, and will always be evil in my mind. We had one when I was little, and it was a bitey, yappy, horrid thing. Funnily enough, I think I quite liked her at the time - I clearly hadn't had an awesome dog before that point.

Anyway, a couple of years ago, I was laughing at a friend who had been told that their dog had been 'taken to a farm' when it got old - I just couldn't believe that anyone actually USED that line! And that anyone believed it! Then I realised that Cathy had been 'given to an old lady who wanted a nice little lap dog'. Awww... Well, at least my parents were creative.

After that, we got Misty! She was a kelpie x red heeler, and the best dog EVER. She was not that nice to strangers, but that was sort of the point, as I think we got her after our house got broken into in Maddington. She was a rescue dog, so she was pretty messed up when we got her, but she grew to be really lovable and protective and part of the family.

She absolutely adored Amma when she lived with us, I guess because she took her out for regular walks! And then the dog was so distraught when she moved back to Iceland, that she ate a lopapeysa Amma had left behind. Aw...

Anyway, we also got Jessie at some point while we still had Misty, we figured she might kind of like a doggy friend. Jess was Anna's dog, another one we got for free from a broken home, and she was also a bit nutty, poor love. We probably could have done more in teaching her not to be crazy, but hey, at least we gave her lots of love and affection and human food.

And then we got Millie, who still lives happily with Mum and Dad - she was being given away because she barked too much, so of course we had to take her. She is a pretty awesome dog, one of those ones who fetches balls and everything! Just like on TV! She quickly dominated all the other pets in the house, but I hear she's gotten close* to Anna's cat Robert Smith.

*Maybe a little too close? She's apparently very licky, but I think he likes it.

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And those are all the dogs I remember owning - we also had a one-eyed dog called Snoddas when we lived in Manjimup. The story goes that Dad bought a car for fifty dollars and got the dog for free, but value-wise, it should have been the other way around. I don't really remember him, but he was apparently quite the dude.

Ross and I would like to get a dog sometime, but I guess we'll need a place to keep it first...

----------------------------------------------------

Ooh, this morning I had my first ever dream where I knew that I was dreaming - except I didn't manage to do anything super exciting, I was just quite upset by the whole situation. I seemed to be in Amma's house, but everything was all wrong, and I couldn't wake up. Bummer.

------------------------------------------------

Hey guess what? February is over, and therefore I am free to not post tomorrow, depending on how I feel! It's a nice feeling, although I do rather enjoy the sense of achievement I get from putting lots of things on the internet.

I have decided that that whole A-Z business will be a weekly-ish thing, or whenever I want to post but my brain is fried*. And here's a scary thought - if I do one a week, I will get about halfway through by the time Henry is born. Holy crap, time flies.

*This is pretty much always.

All the amazing things I love...

2011-02-27T11:05:00.000-08:00

Ooh, found an ongoing meme called Wordplay - look forward to seeing it every time my mind goes blank... Which is pretty much all the time these days! Yay!
Basically, you go through the alphabet and write about things that are special to you - it fulfils my love of lists and trying to remind myself to be grateful for stuff...

So without any further ado: A is for...

Anna, my dear little sister who I love to pieces and miss like I'm missing a limb.
Amma, my grandma who has been looking after us so well for the past five months... And heck, the twenty seven years before that, too!
Andy, my bandmate of ten years - he's such an enthusiastic guy, so hardworking and disciplined and awesome.
Anja, one of my best friends in the entire world. Whenever I see her, it's like no time has passed since last time - she is a lovely human and it always makes me really happy to see her.
Australia - awwww, I miss it! I think we've managed to work our way into a situation where no matter where we live, we'll always feel a bit homesick for somewhere else. On the other hand, two homelands? Pretty sweet.

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Hey, we've been watching this show called Dogs 101, it showcases all these different dog breeds. They sometimes have interesting examples of the breed: the current story is about Uffizi, the Italian greyhound belonging to Todd Trainer, the drummer from Shellac.

Ross says I should mention that the examples are usually not semi-famous musicians' pets. They should be, this one is just hilarious. The man is clearly in love with his dog. Proof?

The cover for the latest Shellac album, entitled Excellent Italian Greyhound.

You look like a lego man, with lego hair, and lego hands...

2011-02-26T13:26:00.000-08:00

Nooooooooo!

Don't mind me, just reminiscing:

Aw, Ross was totally at this show, whyyyyyy did I miss it?

No really, what was I doing that was more important than going to see these guys? It must have been work or a Boys show - man, I am bad at memory and timelines...

ANYWAY!
There was a piece about Lego on the news today (sandwiched between stories about the various political shenanigans going on). I figured that it may have been a story about an anniversary, but apparently Lego's fiftieth birthday was in 2008! So yeah, I'm a bit late, but yay Lego for being so awesome!

K had tonnes of Lego when we were little, I remember these big blue plastic boxes just full of blocks of all shapes and sizes. He had quite a few airplanes, a fire station, space station, and then just a bunch of plain blocks. And of course he was lovely enough to let his little sister play, too - most of the time.

Dad even built a big workbench on one end of the verandah where he could a) keep works in progress so that they could get massive and complicated, and b) spread everything out without the perils that come from working on the floor - ouch, my poor bare feet!

I really loved the sound, too. Like when you're digging around in a big box looking for a two by four blue, and there's that awesome clinking and rattling noise. Nothing like it.

Man, Henry is going to own a giant lego collection, just so I can play with it. That's the point of kids, right?

Olga Overseas!

Face time

Hvað ertu stór?

Ugh.

Schlaf, kindlein, schlaf

So long, farewell, etc.

Tooth and nail

Water water water...

Happy New Year!

Ex-mas, part 2...

Merry Christmas!

I has a happy!

Whoa...

Party time!

Henry's Rollin...

Snowpocalypse!

The name game again!

Giving up the things that get you down...

!!

Baby talk

Road Trip!

Snow and lights

Did you know that today is Start Your Own Country Day?

Sweet dreams...

Nice lady and poky baby

Happiness is a Kong Foo Sing...

Early post!

~~~~~~lol~~~~~~

It's the future, Charlie Brown!

"You can't give a hug without getting a hug." Jacques Benigne Bossuel

Teething pains...

Babies and a list...

Hello Giggles!

Puppy love

In which I can't sleep, am spoilt, and really enjoy the internet

Tall guys and bees

Time flies...

Grown up?

Build me up, buttercup.

Success!

Early birds...

List-less...

"We turn not older with years, but newer every day" - Emily Dickinson

It's that time of year again...

Mush. Mushmushmush.

Good things are good.

Sleeping and not-sleeping

Snug as a bug in a rug!

v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v

Old friends and new...

Happy face

Photo fun!

It takes a village to raise a child...

o.o

Sausages and sheep. And sleep.

Travellers ahoy!

Tree party!

Blog-a-day?

Woo!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!

Get out in the sunshine, and get vitamin D; I'm good for your eyes, I'm good for your bones...

Exit, pursued by a bear...

Three hundred club...

"It's much too late to do anything about rock & roll now ..." - Jerry Garcia

D:

Green is not a creative colour...

Happy or sad?

GIF!

Holidays and sleepy days...

The verdict is in...

Title

Guess what?

Hofsos and educational toys!

Of course there's more pictures...

Multitasking...

Seven days and seven nights...

Henry!

Two days to go...

Dum de dum...

The waiting game...

lol