8 months and Easter

Nico, you are now 8 months and 4 days old! In this month you became officially mobile.  You army-crawl all around the house, but your favorite places to explore are the kitchen and under the dinning table. We have had to adjust our wire-systems because cables really attract your curious eyes. Out of all your toys, you prefer none.  It is much more fun to play with wooden spoons, mommy's hair brush and key holder. You learned how to clap, pull yourself from furniture and dance on your knees. Mommy and Daddy are extremely proud of you and love you with all their hearts.

This month also marked the end of my classes.  Now I am spending my days at home with you while dad goes to work full time.  I am extremely grateful that you could spend so much time bonding with your daddy, but I am really happy to be the one that gets to be with you all day. I am planning on starting to write for my research project, but for now i'll just enjoy being only a mom for a little while. 

During Easter we went to Helsinki to visit some friends and have a little vacation. We got to stay at a cool hotel with cracking floors that kept us tip-toeing around to not disturb the baby.  We saw some very cool buildings and ate amazing food including Norwegian salmon ;) 

We also took Nico to the Helsinki Sea Life aquarium to see fish, sharks and other creatures.  He really enjoyed it.

Octopus

The Elevator

Sea Horse is funny

Cool baby

We had a safe flight home and then we all slept a long long nap.  This week has been filled with beautiful weather.  Nico strolled in a big boy stroller without his winter suit for the first time! He was very interested in playing with his bare feet.  We are loving Spring!

Sunshine and freedom

At the beginning of this year I had set my mind on finishing all three of my classes and getting started on my thesis by the end of the semester.  I am currently done with two of the classes and my research topic has been approved.  So, i'm calling it a successful year so far.

However, life got chaotic around us.  With Christian back at work, I had  a lot less time to study, and Nico has been more and more active lately.  My first two classes were very challenging, and it took a lot of effort to finish them, not to mention a few tears and lots of coffee.  Plus, the weather in Norway has been so dull that I had no energy left in me. That is why I hand't posted in a while, but...

This week everything changed! I finished my exams, started a new interesting class, and the sun came to visit us again.  I feel a lot more relaxed and I have more time to take Nico on long stroller rides and enjoy the warmness.

Today we visited The Vigeland Sculpture Park and had a lovely walk.  Later, Christian came to join us for the first picnic of the year.  It was lovely and I feel refreshed and ready to finish this semester!

Nico has been a little sick, and needs lots and lots of cuddles.  He was not the best sleeper during my exams week, but he is feeling better now.  My little baby is growing up too fast, he can almost crawl! He has become very chatty and can say "ba-baba-ba" and "ga-ga-gah", but not "mommy" or "daddy" yet.  It will be exciting to see what language he begins to use.

Here are some pictures from our beautiful day,

Love and friendship

Happy Valentine's Day!

This has been quite a busy month, so I haven't been able to post as much as i'd like.  However, I was able to get some very cute pictures of Nico today that I would like to share.

We got up early in the morning after a difficult night.  Christian had been traveling this week and so it was up to me to understand Nico by myself.  I was not sure if he was warm or cold or hungry, so I brought him to bed with me at 4:00 after he has been waking up every hour.  That seemed to do the trick and we both slept until 8:00!

Nico was in a very good mood this morning.  So, I decided to take advantage of this and make a Valentine's Day card for my wonderful husband.  I smeared lipstick marks all over the babe and we had some fun. Later, his grandma came over to babysit while I attended class.

This are the last weeks of my first block in the semester, I am taking two very interesting courses, but the exams seem very challenging!

Anyway, here are some pics from today.  Hope everyone had a lovely Valentine's!

5 months

Today my baby Nico is 5 months old. He is growing way too fast.  I almost don't have enough time to enjoy his babyness! Me and Christian spend some time very night talking about him and we just try to help each other remember all the amazing things that he brings to our life every day.  I just want time to slow down so I can enjoy my little corazón.

This month was amazing.  We went to Ecuador and Nico met lots and lots of family and friends of mine. He also got his first cold, started eating solids and learned to say "bah". I am going to make a re-cap of what the Ecuador trip was, and hopefully he'll have a glimpse of all that was going on.

The main events were Martin's Baptism, Christmas, Nico's Baptism, New Year's Eve and some parties and dinners here and there.

Martin is my brother's baby.  He is 9 days younger than Nico and he had his baptism while we were in Ecuador.  Here are some pictures:

My mom and sister

Our nephew Martin :)

Primos!

Christmas in Ecuador means one thing: family. This year it gathered us together on the 24th of December at my grandparent's house.  We were lots of people.  It was noisy, funny, and loving. It is amazing how much my family means to me.  Spending some time with them every other year is definitely not enough.

less than 1/2 of the people that were there

Happy face :)

Very appropriate 

<3

He got beer from his secret Santa

Beer again!

After the Christmas holidays, we decided to baptize Nico too! We had a very little ceremony at my parents house.  It was very nice! Nico liked the priest and he really appreciated some cold water to cool him down in the heat of Ecuador.

My friends were all happy to meet the baby boy.  Unfortunately it was impossible to gather all of them at the same time, but here are some of the moments we got to spend together.

Being able to spend some time with my nieces and nephew was amazing! I hope the girls enjoyed Nico as much as he did.  They were really good at making him smile and laugh with funny faces and  sounds.  We sure miss their constant desire to entertain Nico during diaper changes.

Look up, Martin!

Look up, Nico!

There we go.

Nico's 5 month birthday was celebrated with going to the doctor, getting him a warm wool onesie and starting him on carrots! He did not like any of it. He got vaccinated in both his legs, the poor thing.  And carrots are not his favorite food at all. But he did get to enjoy mommy and daddy at home most of the day.  Christian started work again, so we schedule our days around my classes.  It is going to be a challenging semester! 

Here are some of Nico's 5 month pictures :)

This busy momma has got to do lots of readings to do.  But I will make a post soon about New Year's Eve in Ecuador through the eyes of a stay-at-home dad.  Stay tuned.