Messes and Summer

When you have a small child, messiness is just bound to happen.  I try to keep our living environment organized and clean, but I will not deprive Nico from learning through his sense of touch and smell.  Therefore, every meal time is just messy, wet, sticky, and very fun.

Nico likes to eat things by himself.  He wants to grab his own food and try to find its way to his mouth.  He doesn't always aim right and his porridge and fruits end up on his hair, arms, legs, the floor, and so on.  I try to give him a large variety of foods to taste, but his absolute favorite are fruits, any fruit.  He began with apples and bananas, but now he has tasted raspberries, blueberries, peach, mango, papaya, watermelon, blackberries, among others.

We give him porridge sometimes just because it is something easy that doesn't take time to cook.  It is hard to tell a baby to wait for dinner when he is hungry.  But porridge is a safe bet and likes it all over the table too...

The weather in Norway has greeted us with some lovely summer days.  Except today, today it's raining and cold. But, we did enjoy going to the beach and swimming in the pools at Tøyen. Nico is a water baby for sure.  He cries when his baths come to an end, and he wasn't very happy when we had to leave the swimming pools either. I hope the rest of the summer is warm and nice so I can take him to the ocean and lakes everyday.

And finally, this is Nico's 9 month picture:

17th of May Weekend

This weekend was filled with friends, good food, colorful dresses and nice weather.  The 17th of May is the Norwegian Constitution Day.  It is celebrated everywhere in the country and this year marked the 200th anniversary of the signing of the constitution.  This was Nico's and mine first time celebrating in Oslo, and we had a blast!
Norwegians wear their traditional clothing, called Bunad.  Nico got to wear one this year and he looked extremely handsome.

We had two Champagne Breakfasts with friends and one Champagne Dinner with family.  All three gatherings were lovely and we felt very lucky to be able to share this day with so many people we care about.  Nico enjoyed looking at everyone's fancy clothes and eating lots of fruits and bread.

On Sunday the 18th we relaxed at home.  By relaxed I mean we cleaned the entire apartment, sorted out the closets and played with Nico. I was able to take some pics of the big boy standing up! He has started to pull himself up from anything he can get a hold of.  It is so much fun to see him learn new things, as well as sad to know he is not going to be a baby forever.

Hope everyone has a good week! 

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.