spring-summer update

Sorry for not posting here for a while; we've just been too busy doing other good stuff! Leighton keeps getting praised at work (and given more and more work and responsibility); Lilly is thriving at her Montessori preschool (the school keeps a photo album of their activities here); and I'm looking forward to the fall publication of my book on feminist porn.

We had a lovely Memorial Day weekend, spent one day family birthday partying, another day at the beach, and a final one at our local Memorial Day service followed by a local afternoon baseball game. We barbequed on the sunny days, sipping margaritas, and felt quite lucky about our lives. (Beach day pictures here.)

Lilly got her first two-wheeler this spring (hand-me-down from good neighbors). Pictures from our first family bike ride outing are here (confession: Leighton and I had to bike really slowly... But it was so much fun to bike together! And we all enjoyed our lunch and ice creams afterwards at the cafe in Welch village.)

I've been teaching Lilly ballet since this past winter when she first expressed interest. Then it got boring for her with no other kids around. In March, she joined (as the youngest student in the entire school) a class that had been practicing for the spring performance since January. I'm proud to say Lilly did wonderfully at the final recital at the high school theater Friday a week and a half ago. Not afraid of being on the stage at all! Just so happy to have her mom and dad there watching her and cheering her on. More pictures here.

It's just wild to us that Lilly will be finishing her first year of preschool on Friday; in three days! Thank you family for your financial support with that. And to think she will turn FOUR two weeks after that (BTW Cheryl: ladybug-swimsuit still fits!). Lilly is writing and reading letters, excited about the pool opening on Friday (goggles are on her wishlist), and speaks enthusiastically about our vacation to look forward to this summer. She is grateful for her friends (and so looks up to her older ones), in love with her mom and dad, and totally into changing clothes every ten minutes, especially dresses. It's that stage. And it's very cute.

Oh, and we got new IKEA patio furniture last week! And we are so into barbequing and eating outside on the porch. Lilly is loving her (cold) hotdogs with ketchup (Leighton and I prefer both those and our chicken grilled). We got a big nice umbrella too for some shade when it gets too hot.

Here's to a good summer to us all!

summertime!

Drinks outside this spring

It's "summmmertime" as Lilly likes to say whenever the sun is out. We've been enjoying hanging on the porch again, planting in the garden, playing outside. It's so interesting to see what a difference a year can make. Whereas last year, we found ourselves constantly worrying about Lilly running out into the street, we can now let her play outside some by herself, close to the house (with a frequent eye on her). She'll find her toys in the garage: her trike and chalk and bubbles. She'll play in the sandbox. And slide a little. Look at the growing plants and flowers.

Mostly, of course, she prefers us to play with her, or, rather, that the girls next door come over to play with her. They are both ten and Lilly so enjoys their attention.

Sorry we haven't posted much here lately, but it's been a busy time. Leighton's gotten more hours at Laura Baker, giving me less time to write. The time that I have been getting, I've devoted to polishing my book manuscript, putting together a proposal to lure the interest of an agent to help me find the right publisher, and developing my three websites: two blogs and an online resource center, which Leighton has been helping me with a lot: we envision it as a family business down the road.

Though we've been busy, never feeling like there's enough time, we've also been feeling truly blessed by the generosity of friends and family in the last few months. First, dear friends decided to bestow upon us their super nice Subaru. Then my parents offered to buy us all tickets to come visit them in Norway this summer. -- We're leaving on Wednesday, and the same friend who gave us her Subaru is taking us to the airport. Are we lucky, or what?

For Easter, Lilly got a garden kit from grandpa Kent and grandma Cheryl. We planted the seeds in the pots outside last week, and she worked so carefully to do it right. -- And fortunately, her idea that stirring the soil again after planting the seeds, did not kill the spirit of these hardy plants: radishes, carrots, beans, peas, lettuce, and spinach are already sprouting.

We've been planting together in my garden too, and though her helping me sometimes feels like it's undoing what I want to get done (or at least slowing it down significantly), her joy in helping me do real work is definitely worth it.

We return from Oslo just in time for Lilly 's three-year birthday, the day after which she'll begin preschool at the Montessori children's house in town. Preschool summer program that is, but still?! Such a big girl. Not a baby. Not a toddler. -- A preschooler.

Big girl on her trike this spring

Other recent landmarks include me not having to lie in bed with her at night till she's asleep. Though putting on pajamas and brushing her teeth are not among Lilly's favorite things to do, as soon as we're through with those tasks, we can go to bed, nurse and cuddle a little, and then I can get up after ten minutes or so, usually by 8:30 P.M. and with her still awake (she always wants the door ajar, just so, just as I remember wanting it as a child: precision is key). -- As opposed to before when I'd have to lie there for up to an hour, waiting for her to fall asleep (and often falling asleep myself).

It's pretty amazing to me how smoothly this transition evolved; she was just ready for it. Though it was exasperating at times before to lie there with her for so long in the evening, I'm glad we never did the cry-it-out (or monitored crying) method.

In July, Leighton turns thirty. A big day that deserves celebrating in style (please: any creative ideas?).

Speaking of parties; Leighton and Lilly are at some friends for one as I write this post on this warm Memorial Day holiday, giving me some peace and quiet to enjoy myself on our porch. And smell the fresh grass being cut by our neighbor; the lily of the valley in full bloom and the few lilacs holding on. Not a bad holiday.

At the pool last summer

Also to look forward to, is summertime at our city's pool. It opens the weekend we get back from Norway. We've purchased our summer passes and I look forward to picnics and playful (hopefully also some lazy) afternoons there this summer. It's been a wet, cold spring, so I foresee plenty warm summer days. Hey, it's summmmertime, you now?!

Happy belated Valentine's day!

I hope you all had a lovely Valentine's day yesterday! Leading up to Valentine's, Lilly's had a lot of fun painting hearts at "school" (ECFE each Monday morning), making cards, receiving cards and Valentine's, and some Valentine's gifts. But when I told her yesterday morning, "today's Valentine's Day," her excited response was: "cookie!!" Like her dad, our little miss Lilly (who today turned 2 yrs. 8 mos.) is a chocolaholic. We had quite the battle of wills going on over lunch yesterday, me insisting she'd eat just a little more bread and cheese before the cookie. I think it's safe to say she willed me out before devouring this huge chocolate chip cookie within seconds (apparently it has the right consistency of crunch and softness).

I thought I'd also include these little video clips of her dancing in her "Valentine's Dress," a Christmas gift from mormor and morfar that just arrived after being shipped from Gran Canaria two months before.







And then one of her playing "witches" with papa.

holiday season chapter four: Happy New Year!

We've had a jolly good time with the holidays, from Halloween through Thanksgiving, Christmas and then celebrating the beginning of a New Year.

I think to Lilly the tree was the most magical part of it all, and she was so sad when the garbage truck came to pick it up last week, still processing that one.

Lilly helped me bake Hershey Kiss Cookies, unwrapping the chocolate kisses and then putting them on the half baked cookies (before eating some! These cookies were her favorite kind, I bet because she helped make them, and probably the chocolate had something to do with it too).

Christmas eve we had friends over for a traditional Norwegian yule celebration.

Since we're half American around here, we also had a busy Christmas day opening gifts Santa had left in stockings and around the tree (thank you all!).

We had a traditional Norwegian Christmas tree party around Epiphany: Lilly's friends, and ours, came over and we sung and danced around the tree while eating the remaining cookies and snacks, sipping gløgg (Scandinavian mulled wine). Lilly still breaks out singing "Å jul med din glede," "Jingle Bell," and "Twelve Days of Christmas" several times each day.

 

New Year's Eve has always been significant to me, so I wanted us to have a fine night. And indeed we did. We all dressed up and I made a very nice meal for us all with Sockey salmon, saffron risotto and salad.

 

 

Happy New Year to you all!

holiday season chapter three: Christmas coming!

It's a busy season of holidays indeed. As soon as Halloween was over, it was all about preparing for Thanksgiving. And now it's been all about Christmas. We've decorated the house, been to a Holidazzle parade, a Norwegian Christmas service, a Christmasy winter walk downtown, and we're lighting candles, burning incense, playing Christmas music and singing and dancing just about every day. We cross off each day on the calendar, counting down. So much fun! Lilly's so excited about the tree we're going to have to decorate and then sing and dance around on Christmas eve (a Norwegian tradition). We were supposed to get the tree and decorate it this past weekend, but with the 21 inches of snow that fell on top of the 10 inches or so that fell last weekend, we were simply snowed in most of the weekend, and then Lilly was sick throwing up constantly on Saturday, recovering on Sunday.

But back to the fun stuff.

 Sweethearts at the Holidazzle parade.

 Marveling at the parade.

 At the Norwegian Christmas service, St. Olaf College chapel.

 

 With a basket for treats to hang on the tree (a Norwegian tradition).

 Admiring another tree at St. Olaf.

 Winter walk fun downtown.

 Historic train models at the city library.

 Back outside to see the horses with sleighs, and to listen to some caroling.

 At the local pub for beer and food and more caroling.

 

Child-friendly pub this one night at least; eating rice with her best friend Anna.

 

Peek-a-boo with a girl Lilly befriended in the pub.

Good'ol papa.

holiday season chapter two: Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with grandpa Kent and grandma Cheryl visiting. Lilly loved all the play and attention and had a little bit of a hard time readjusting to the emptier house once they'd left, but now she's back to her good cheerful self (except when sick with the stomach flu, which happened for the first time this past Saturday. She was such a trooper though.) It was the first time we hosted Thanksgiving and I had so much fun with all the cooking and preparations. We had talked to Lilly in advance how Thanksgiving is all about coming together and being thankful, different people learning from each other. I found it quite appropriate that the native-Norwegian-fairly-recent-immigrant to this country got to share and learn from people who grew up in this country.

 Preparing the turkey, first time for me!

 Everyone busy in the kitchen 

(which I allowed just this one time; I know, I was kind of strict about that...)

 Having fun playing with grandpa Kent.

 A new book.

 Grandma Cheryl reading about Thanksgiving.

 Around the table Leighton fixed up for us, just in time.

(Thanks, sweetie!)

holiday season chapter one: Happy Halloween!

Lilly was the cutest Little Red Riding Hood on Halloween! You've gotta take my word for it, because at the moment, I'm unable to upload pictures from our camera to the blog (we need to refill our quota). Below are just a couple pictures taken with my friend's cellphone camera (her daughter's in the background) from when she took the girls to the pumpkin patch before Halloween.

Man, everything was great about this holiday this year. I remember last year, she was a little afraid when kids came to the door, but this year she loved it! All about it. I love how Halloween is not just about Oct. 31, but everything leading up to it, the actual day, and then the aftermath. Getting the pumpkin, carving the pumpkin (actually, Leighton carved one and she drew and put stickers on hers; I either helped her or worked on the pumpkin seeds, cleaning and then roasting them), reading about Halloween, talking about what's going to happen, how we'll get into costumes and go "trick or treat" and say "thank you" and "Happy Halloween!" Lilly and papa savoring some of their favorite treat: chocolate. Both some hot chocolate on the pumpkin carving night the Sunday before Halloween, and then some mini-chocolate bars after we'd come home from trick or treating and were counting the treats (I'd told her the treats were just for counting) before putting them away on Halloween the following Sunday.

Ahh, I love how holidays have become even more fun with a child around!

Now we look forward to Thanksgiving, and then Christmas (seriously, I've already start humming carols, but have vowed not to play any till after Thanksgiving). We look forward to having grandpa Kent and grandma Cheryl with us, and hosting our first actual Thanksgiving meal! I've already ordered the turkey from the Co-op and started stocking up on the things we'll need.

our christmas

Our Christmas turned out differently than planned; Lilly woke up with a nasty cold and so we had to cancel our plans with our friends. After shoveling and blowing snow all morning, Leighton took a bath with Lilly after lunch, which helped relieve some of her congestion. Then we kept her entertained for a while opening presents. And then we had some of the yummy meat balls and garlic mashed potatoes our friends had brought us (thank you!). With her congestion and not feeling well, Lilly's not been able to sleep well, neither during the day nor at night. She gets her best rest at night propped on my arm, snuggled up close to me.

Christmas day we played with Lilly's new toys (books, dvds, frosty, train set, puzzle, clothes, and more), went for a walk (in the wet snow/rain) so Lilly could get some rest in the stroller. That night she finally fell asleep in my arms while we were watching a movie (she would not go down any earlier.) Second day of Christmas we headed up to the mall (so Lilly could get some rest in the car...). Today she was finally able to nap in our bed again, for a good hour and a half. But it was still a long day... With all its precious moments too, of course. It's just hard seeing our girl so sick and tired, and now Leighton's gotten down with the cold too.

merry christmas! god jul!

                                                                
Tonight is "lille julaften" or "little Christmas eve," the night we'd always decorate the tree in Norway. We cheated and did it last Saturday instead. Lilly is mesmerized by it. By now, we've cleaned the house, written cards (sorry; those going overseas will be a bit late), wrapped presents, and stocked up on food and drink. We'll be celebrating Norwegian style with our friends Amanda and Matt (who's of Norwegian heritage) and their son Avery who's two and a half. Lilly and Avery play pretty well together now, so it should be fun for all! Since their house is bigger, we're having the party at their house. Amanda has already blogged about how excited (?!) she is to be cooking a  pork roast for the first time in her life (not to mention it being a Norwegian style one, "ribbe"!). We'll have all the traditional sides: the meat balls Matt grew up with, surkål (sour kraut that Amanda made this fall), brussel sprouts, lingonberry jam, potatoes, gravy, salad. Christmas ale and Linie akevitt to help the "ribbe" go down. And a berry cream (can't find multer here so I'll use a mix of red berries instead) with krumkaker for dessert (homemade by another friend of mine in town). Seven different kinds of cookies with coffee. But we don't get to indulge in those till we've sung seven different kinds of carols and danced around the tree after dessert. And then Santa may come with some presents for the children...

I feel so blessed to have our home, our friends, our child during this holiday season. Christmas is filled with so much nostalgia, such a sense of wonder, but also with wounds. Lilly puts a new spin on everything, her joy is a marvel to me!
And, to top it all off: it'll be a very white Christmas! We've already received lots of snow and now we're in the midst of a snow storm! Could be tricky to get even from here to Amanda and Matt's, but we'll make it!

Leighton and I also look forward to some quiet time at the house. Last year we had Christmas in Gran Canaria / Oslo, this year we're in Northfield, Minnesota. We've both submitted the written work that was due by end of this year. Since we got here in September, we've taken turns heading over to the Carleton College library in town to write (you can see us there in the above picture). Lilly's been at the City library almost every day for "classes" there: reading books, singing songs, playing with other children her age.

trick or treat!

(Minnie Mouse! aka our big little Lilly)

Lilly had a good long nap today: 2 hours and 40 minutes. She woke up with a smile and wanted into the living room to play, right away (sometimes she needs a little boob time in bed first). Leighton had text messaged right before she woke up to see if we could Skype, and so we did, and this time it went really well! Lilly laughed and smiled, showed papa her puzzles and books and other toys, mimicked his sounds and made her own for him to repeat. It felt really good to talk for me too; after this morning I've been feeling so out of it. Talking with my man made me feel more grounded again.

We also got to Skype a little with my Danish friend Kristian after that. He and I met in grad school in Seattle; he's now back in Denmark and has two little girls. We spent last Christmas with him and his family in Gran Canaria.

Then Lilly was done with Skyping, we played for a while with her puzzle works, it was four thirty and I wanted to get dinner ready and done with, especially seeing it's Halloween tonight! I had pasta salad, green salad and some soup. Lilly ate my cherry tomatoes and some more I got out; she was not interested in pasta or cheese or any of the other food.

It was time to change into Lilly's Halloween "costume;" a dress with bloomers and tights that she got from mormor & morfar in June for her one-year birthday. (It was funny to see how snugly it all fit her now! The bloomers used to stick out way down. She's stretching out, for sure.) And some mouse ears I got while I was out in Seattle. She was not happy being changed into her Halloween outfit and so I'm left wondering if it was worth it... We only had two groups of children come by, and Lilly seemed almost afraid of the other (bigger) children. She was getting so tired as well... At one point she went into the bedroom and rested her head on her arm on the bed! But I was really hoping we'd get a visit from my friend Lori and her 5-yr. old son, Sam. But they must either not have made it or arrived after we turned off the light, around 6:45. Lilly fell asleep on my arm with her bamse in her arms, so cute! She still has a bad cough though, and that kept waking her up. And then she woke up as I transferred her head to a pillow. And then again, and again!, when she heard the door as I tried to exit the room as quietly as possible. So it took about 45 minutes for her to fall asleep. Longer than these last few nights, but more like before.

She did have some fun too with Halloween though: I showed her pictures of Minnie online and she kind of got it, who she was supposed to be. She pointed to the TV and wanted to see the DVD we're borrowing from the library with Mickey's Club House where she could also see Minnie. And she did enjoy having her picture taken. And so I include them all, for you, papa, in particular! Next year she'll kind of get it more, you know, and not feel so sick, be so tired, and so intimidated by it all. And we'll all be together. And hopefully none of us will be sick (the sore throat I woke up with feels only worse tonight, and, now that I think of it, you, Leighton, were ill too last year! I remember you came home early from the library as I was heading out for coffee; I had dressed Lilly in a polar bear fleece suit for Halloween).

(Lilly really got a kick out of taking her ears off, and then putting them on again, or trying to do so.)

(And here they go, off! See how short those bloomers and dress have gotten?)

I had bought a value pack at Cub's with candy: 100 pieces of mixed chocolates (Heath bars, Reese's butter cups, Almond Joy, and Whoppers malted milk balls). Seeing we only had five kids stop by, we have lots of chocolate in the house now... (so Leighton: another thing for you to look forward to in terms of coming home to us!).

The moon is out, almost full (full moon on Monday). Tonight we set the clock one hour back.