the plan - routines

[As I have some pictures from my good camera from our Taiwan trip that I haven't posted before, I will be sprinkling them throughout this post.]

While we were in Taiwan, our daily routines - that are totally stable and wonderful in Norway - went completely out the window. There were so many lunches with friends that were totally not suitable for Leona (long meals with tons of amazingly good food...but yeah, not ideal for kids...at all), so many trips in the car around town that dragged into her nap-time, and of course there was the 4-day car-marathon aka family vacation. Because we weren't cooking ourselves her eating suffered tremendously as well, both in terms of volume and nutrition (sometimes she would just eat white rice, maybe twice even in a day, because the other stuff wasn't tempting). Not good.

[enjoying pilot-time with papa @ Oslo airport]

So, we have taken it as a learning experience, and an important one at that as we are now aware of major changes we need to do during the coming months, as the upheavals in her life are going to be huge and not over in 1-2-3.

[endless-sea gazing]

It all basically comes down to those routines. And we have a lot of things going for us to make it work.

First upheaval will be when her little sister is born. I mean, this is true no-matter. I'm so stoked Judge and her have had this past year and a half (almost) to hang out together all day, daily, that my maternity leave starts three weeks before my due date, and we will be staying in Tromsø until the end of June (so until baby is about 4 weeks old...or so). Thus the blessings of stay-at-home-dadness allows for an amazing buffer where we both get to be present all the time (with individual breaks when needed), allowing us to share the parenting tasks and have full focus on our little family during this time.

[family-tripping it on the east coast]

The next big upheaval will be moving to Innvik for 1.5 months at the end of June. I think this one is super simple compared to our subsequent moves, as we will be living at my grandparents' house (that my mom has inherited), and it is a small village where basically all we will be doing is hanging out at home and in the yard, heading to the store to buy food supplies, and taking walks. Simple, wonderful life where routines are going to be pretty darn easy to keep. Plus, my mom will be coming down with us, and so even that part of the routine (hanging out with grandma) can continue.

[rock-heaven!]

The next upheaval will be heading to Taiwan for one or two months. This is where a lot of changes need to be done, on our part. Not have as many lunch gatherings, go grocery shopping and make at least breakfast and lunch ourselves as much as possible, and basically not 'fart around' (as it's kind of called in Norwegian...go cruising/shopping/be out and about during nap-time) too much, but stay home more and make sure she gets her naps and simple kid-focused fun. And again, since neither Judge nor I need to work, we can have all our focus on our little family.

[our little-big girl exploring university campus fun]

[for example, squirrel-feeding]

Then there is moving to China in the beginning of October or so. This is truly going to be the biggest change for us. First of all, we have never seen the house nor the neighborhood we will be living in. And bigger and more important is that Judge will start working, so it will be just me taking care of the two little ones.

Though the lack of own space in Taiwan has me a bit stressed, I'm a bit more nervous about this one, to be honest, as we totally don't know what to expect in terms of living and environment. We just know we will be living with Judge's dad and youngest uncle on his mom's side - both of whom I expect not to be home much especially during the days and afternoons as they are working - thankfully as I need my space as mentioned; that the house is relatively big and we get the biggest bedroom for the four of us as they will most likely still be sleeping with us; that it's a 10 min walk or something to the grocery store.

Nor do we know how much Judge needs to work.

[concentrated sliding]

But having our plans and discussing all this stuff before hand, even plans and strategies for how to cope with post-partum blues when we get to Taiwan (as it tends to flare up stronger for me due to cultural and lack-of-own-space aspects), makes me confident it will all work out just fine. We are together in this, and coming from a gathered place in terms of focus and what we feel is important for our family, which is really core.

[excited to be at the zoo, checking out all kinds of animals]

[and sure, animals are fun and all, but rocks - now that's where the greatness really lies!]

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