A Winter Start

We don't have pictures, but this last weekend we all went sledding. DOWNHILL sledding. And while Lilly was hesitant at first, I think she had a good time. It helped that, as we were pulling up to the sledding hill, friends of ours just happened to be doing the same. Lilly went down with papa; she went down with mama; and she went down with friends too. Never alone, but we think she was very brave.

We end up leaving because she was cold. And hungry too. We were all hungry after all that fun and cold, fresh air. Before settling in at the table for a special helping of mac & cheese, Lilly warmed up on the couch with mama.

Rosy cheeks!

After lunch, we all went out as a family to shovel snow. Lilly has her own snow shovel and did her fair share. And while papa shoveled the long driveway, mama shoveled the front sidewalks. (It all goes a lot faster with help, I can tell you that.)

Mama and Lilly made the first snømann too. Although, I think that's debatable. I could say they gave a good and creative go at it; I'm still a proud parent, after all.

See the blob to the right!

Then, after all the fun with snow--and not wanting to to end the fun-- we went out as a family to pick out the perfect little juletre a whole two weeks early. (We've even decided to host our tree party before the holidays this year.)

The traditional and only accidentally ironic monkey on top!

We brought up the holiday music, and had a fire going. A good start to winter. All after the first big snowy day.

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!

february summary

Nighttime weaning
accomplished: Lilly goes to bed in the extra bedroom between 7 and 8 p.m., then transfers in to me between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. and Leighton goes in to sleep in the extra bedroom so Lilly and I can have more room in our bed. She settles quickly, without nursing, I often can't remember her coming in to me. She doesn't nurse till 4 a.m., often it's not till 5 a.m. Typically, she nurses at 4, 5, and 6, and then we get up for her to pee & poo in the potty. Sometimes she wakes up between transfer and first nursing, could be teething pain, gas, or discomfort, but will most often settle soon again on my arm. Such an amazing change since we started this in January and how things were before with nursing every couple hours from bedtime till morning.

Winter wonderland
Temperatures finally warmed up a little to entice me out on some amazing skiing in the white covered prairie land, blue sky and sunshine. We've gotten lots of snow this winter. Driving out into the country side yesterday, I saw flocks of pheasants and wild turkeys looking for food by the roadside.

Child swap
I've finally found two moms to swap child care with. So far, this has gotten me two mornings with yoga and Leighton and I have one brunch/lunch date to look forward to and are now also planning an early dinner date. (Keep in mind, we've only had one dinner date so far, when Leighton's mom came out to visit in November, so we are very excited about this.)

Urban living
First weekend of the month, we house sat for some friends in Saint Paul. We splurged and ate out, got to visit with good friends in the city, went to the Walker art museum in Minneapolis where they have free activities for children every first Saturday of the month. We headed up to the cities again the second Sunday of the month, Valentine's day, for some sushi. We'd planned on happy hour, but it was canceled with all the people there. So we splurged again; it was worth it.

Manuscripts submitted
I submitted the second half of my manuscript on feminist porn to my editor and launched my next book which will be a collection of mamas' stories about their children's sleep. Leighton received positive feedback on the story he wrote for Lilly from a professor of children's literature at Saint Olaf College and a friend of ours in Norway whose expertise is children's literature and who works with promoting Norwegian literature abroad. We sent the story to my editor who passed it on to the children's department in the same publishing house.

Got a grant
I finally received a big grant I've been applying for; maybe third time really is a charm? I know my proposal kept improving as I got further into the project, and I received helpful feedback from friends. It's a boost to the project and my self-esteem.

Stay or go?
We put our house out for sale this month with mixed feelings. There's so much that keeps us here, so much that draws us to go there. The pros and cons seem to outweigh each other, leaving us rather handlingslammet.

Lilly
has all four corner molars now, but teething's still a pain. She loves books, music, dancing (she's obsessed with Strawberry Shortcake's Let's dance these days), baby MacDonald and farm animals. She has three friends she repeats the names of: Avery, Addie, and Anna (pronounced Annie). She speaks a lot, more Norwegian than English, a lot that sounds like Chinese to us. She loves hugs and kisses, cuddling and playing with mama and papa.