our daily routine

[we had some foggy days this week, clearing up in the late afternoon]

Comfortable, low-stress, leisurly. That's how I would describe the routine we've settled into post summer-vacation and with Eliana's now only one nap per day.

Here's a quick run-down of a typical day - times are not a science, but they are as I said, typical:

5:45am - I wake up with Eliana and she nurses a while, then I let Judge take her while I try to get another half hour shut-eye.

7:00am - Leona wakes up - we eat breakfast and Judge heads to work at 7:25 (he starts work at 7:30).

We then play - perhaps they play with their cars, markers, paint, or play with some rice, maccaroni or flour, depending on what they want to do. And we will also read some books. Maybe we eat a bit more [bolded activities are described in the last post, our current faves].

Depending on wake-up time Eliana takes her nap between 9:30 and 10:30. While I'm helping Eliana fall asleep Leona is downstairs playing with plastic beads or play dough, unless it is Tuesday, which is her 'video' day where she gets to choose whether she will watch Totoro (in Mandarin), Crimson Pig (in Mandarin) or videos of when she was small. Then I come down and me and Leona play a bit more with the plastic beads or play dough and then we play with the train set, and perhaps draw.

I then get some dinner stuff ready if it's me making dinner that day and/or get some snacks ready for our afternoon outing. And perhaps we bake some oatmeal cookies if we are out and haven't already made them with Eliana before her nap. This is usually a golden opportunity for Leona to play with flour as well as help scoup and measure if we're baking something.

Eliana wakes up around 11-11:30 or so, and we eat some more.

We finish getting ready to go outside and leave the house around 12-12:30. We walk - L rides her bike most days - either to the elementary school 1 km from our house to play at the playground there, and then perhaps to the kindergarten for a while to play with the kids - for Leona that still mostly means observe; and then we perhaps stop by the store and then head home, maybe having Judge catch up with us on the way (he gets off work around 3:30pm). Or we head in the other direction to the small playground and/or friends' trampoline down at the end of our road (about 200 meters (?) from our house). All in all we are outside between 2:30 and 3:30 hours I'd say.

Some of the school playground spots the girls enjoy:

[Sand under climbing apparatuses and swings]

[big boulders to climb on...and spot airplanes from]

[swings]

[top of slide - and climbing opportunity...here oh-so satisfied]

[bottom of slide - and snack spot...well, *everywhere* is a snack spot]

Playground down the road consists of a slide and a sandbox:

[great climbing rocks on each side of the slide]

[can also climb on the fence...and I enjoy the view]

When we get home Judge makes dinner (most days) while the girls run around on the balcony, play with their cars, or otherwise occupy themselves just around the house. Sometimes the girls will play outside-outside, but that is not a typical afternoon anymore - was more so during the summer:

[Leona was playing with the hose, Eliana with the ensuing puddles]

We eat around 5pm, and the girls take a long bath. We go upstairs around 6:30 and they play some more. Then we have our sleep routine. Girls are usually asleep between 7 and 8pm.

Now that the weather is turning, though, I am beginning to get a bit apprehensive about the fall and winter. Norwegian's have a saying "there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes", and at kindergarten the kids play outside from about 10am until they go home between 2:30 and 4pm I think, where they just have an inside break when they eat lunch. During the winter - once it gets colder - they don't go outside until after lunch. I, however, don't see us continuing to spend 3 hours outside every afternoon when it's pouring rain or cold. I'm just not that Norwegian. For the sake of the girls (or perhaps for our sanity), however, I may just have to Norwegianefie. If we got the girls some wicked good rain clothes and sufficiently warm winter clothes for all of us, a shorter or longer trip outside may still be a viable option on most days. Time will tell.

[picture taken from website introducing wicked good rain clothes - barnevaderen - where boots are welded to the pants]

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