Thanksgiving family dinner-date

Living here in Innvik (population 700, one convenient store/gas station, one clothing store - now a big chain but originated here in Innvik, one cafe, and one hotel), without a car, has meant we don't get out much. Like, at all really, except for when my mom was here this summer.

So when we got the village fall/Christmas write-up in the mail box of what's been going on and what is planned, and saw that there was going to be a traditional American Thanksgiving buffet dinner held at the hotel Saturday and Sunday of last weekend, where it would start at 5pm on Saturday and 3pm on Sunday, we didn't have to really consult much between the two of us to agree that this is something we were up for.

I mean, it is hard to get more perfect than that when you have kids who usually are in bed by 6:30-7:00pm, have no car, and no income (so to speak) - a 3pm start (we arrived at 4pm), walkable distance (15 min or so), and reasonably priced (NOK290 per adult, and the girls were free).

It was wonderful!! The food tasted delicious---most of it at least, and since Norwegians are not a fan of dark meat we got to eat oodles of it from the turkey. There were mashed sweet potatoes, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, potato wedges (girls love it), carrots (E loves it), several different kinds of salads, bread, and then several different kinds of cakes and puddings.

Then there was the fact that the atmosphere was great too - candle-lit tables and surrounding environment. The girls were in heaven - we've been house-bound for a couple weeks now - so we were not only not at home, but we were inside where it wasn't cold, and they could run around as we had a back-corner table beside a large open area where they didn't disturb any other diners.

And Leona got to eat some cake. When she heard there was cake and she was going to get to eat some, she almost immediately said she was done eating dinner. We said she had to eat more dinner before she could have cake (it was just a few minutes into the meal), and she complied - ate lots more potatoes and then she was done. Judge asked if she was full, she said no, so he asked if she wanted more of this-that-or-the-other, she said no, and it went back and forth a few times before I explained to Judge that she thinks that if she is full, then she shouldn't eat cake, so she is not full, but she is done eating dinner and more than ready for desert. What a cutie!

So we went and checked out the cake-get-up, and she chose some chocolate pudding and some white sponge cake with marzipan on top. Didn't like the marzipan, but looooooooooved the rest.

Home by 6pm...what a perfect - and sorely needed - night out for the four of us.

[bottom two pics:

trying to keep Eliana still enough for her not to be blurry]

[waiting patiently for us to finish eating and get some CAKE]

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norsk i hus

Up until recently, whenever we were home and I would speak Norwegian with Leona, she would say she wanted me to speak English, and if I persisted, she would start crying. Sometimes I would do the whole "it's ok that you don't want me to speak Norwegian, and that your are angry/sad I am speaking it; I am going to speak Norwegian because I want to, it is important that you hear more Norwegian so your Norwegian can improve and you can more easily play with kids, etc." and let her scream about it, while often I haven't had the energy to go that route and just pretty quickly slipped back to English.

Then, last week or so, Judge came home from school where they had read an article about how kids who are not in kindergarten, when they go to their four or five year check up, also get their Norwegian skills checked, as this is important for when they start school both in terms of learning and in terms of integrating themselves with the other children.

For those who come from bilingual families, it said, about half do not pass, and are then offered a space in a kindergarten or an open kindergarten, as well as some professional help if necessary.

Since I've noticed Leona have a hard time integrating herself in the play of others when they come visit us---partially due to them not understanding what she's saying---I took this as a kick in the butt to really start speaking mainly Norwegian at home.

At first she was really unhappy about it, but didn't scream as much as before because both Judge and I explained repeatedly why it was important. Whenever I would slip up and speak English though, she'd be super happy and say "you can speak English now?" and I would say that, no, I am still going to be speaking Norwegian, I had just forgotten. And at the end of the day she would be crying again sometimes, wanting me to speak English, I think because her brain was tired.

For the first few days she mostly spoke Norwegian back to me, but these last few days she's almost solely spoken English to me. Sometimes, though, she'll still switch to Norwegian - and her vocabulary is actually pretty decent; it's her rhythm and pronunciation that I think makes it hard for other kids to understand her.

Judge has actually started speaking mainly Mandarin with the girls as well, as he noticed Leona's Mandarin is not as good as it should (could?) be. Previously he's mainly spoken English with them, so I think this is a good turn of events as well.

Oh, the bumps along the way of multilinguality.

[Leona's latest development within her plastic-bead journey

- more complex forms and (a)symmetry]

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Halloween

Yep, that's right. Halloween. Better late than never, right?

In Norway, Halloween started to infiltrate society after 2000, with more TV channels that showed American movies and TV shows, and with the push from retailers who saw a golden cash-op.

Now, in Tromsø we didn't have to do anything for Halloween, as no-one could get in our apartment building who didn't live there, and so we had no trick-or-treaters. I really have no recollection of Halloween there at all.

Here in Innvik, though, I asked our neighbor if kids usually come around, and he said oh yes! Maybe 15-20 or so usually come by. So we had two choices - turn off all the lights and pretend we weren't home, or get with the program.

We decided on the latter, of course. But only in as much as staying home and handing stuff out, not getting the girls all costumed up and hitting the streets, because (1) the kids start their touring about when we eat dinner (and after dinner is bath, and then sleep), and (2) we don't eat candy...especially not the girls.

Now, since we don't eat candy I didn't want to buy some just to give the kids that came by, so we opted for tangerines, knowing the kids would be extatic (ha!).

But I wanted to do something. Something to make up for the tangerines I guess. So I used some ideas I had seen show up on my facebook feed from some "toddler-crafts" pages I subscribe to, and set this little scene up at our front door.

There were:

coffee-filter ghosts

 

TP roll vampire bats (inspiration from here)

and then the mini-pumpkins to hand out.

The girls - especially Leona - were really excited about kids coming and ringing the door-bell. She only got to see the first three kids and then a later lone kid (accompanied by mom in the background) come by though, as for the second and fourth batch she was taking a bath and sleeping.

The kids didn't seem toooo disappointed. Only comment was from the last batch of kind of older kids (fifth graders maybe?) who came by at 9pm. As they walk away "Two apples and a tangerine. We're gonna be good and healthy after tonight."

I really would love to go all out - like set up a haunted veranda they have to maneuver through to get to the door-bell, with me sitting on the chair by the door dressed as some kind of scary something that looks fake and then when they ring the door-bell jump up towards them. Make them think twice about coming again next year :P

Ok, so sitting there for an hour or so between the batches of kids that came by wouldn't be so much fun, and the pressure to outdo myself year after year would be just way too much...and I know there's no way I'll be doing this really, but it's fun to imagine giving them a proper North American Halloween welcome.


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sleep, it does a body good

Oh how I wish it was that easy, that you could pour sleep into a tall glass and just gulp it down to satisfaction.

I struggle with a little lady who for some reason has her internal wake-up clock set to between 5:20 and 5:40am (if I'm really lucky 5:50). Sleeping earlier doesn't do the trick, sleeping later doesn't do it either.

There are of course some random days where she may sleep longer, but then again there are random days where it is before 5am.

We have that great star-and-sun clock, and I use it now with her as well, saying she can nurse (aka nurse and then get up) only when the sun comes out. Sometimes she can lay down and be patient a little while, but often not so much. When, finally, the sun comes out you should see her reaction. The suprised joy. Yes, cute, but hard to appreciate when all one wants are some more zzz's.

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an Eliana moment

Post-bath with just a towel-cape E happily comes into the kitchen and says "ji" (sounds like the ji in Bahji, her English for finished).

Finished? I ask.

"Ji" with a big smile and emphatic nod, followed by "shhh" (her pee-cue).

I follow her look behind her to the carpet in the living-room and the tell-tale dark spot.

"Yes, yes indeed."

[taken yesterday during our stroll]

 

 

 

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three is the new two

Ever since I was little I've always figured I'd have two kids. Well, no, that's a lie. I never really thought about marriage and kids and where I'd live and what I'd do when I was little - not even so much when I was not so little. But getting married has always been a given, as has having kids. Two kids.

That is until I was pregnant with Eliana in Tromsø, and suddenly started seeing all these families with three kids. Everywhere. And I suddenly felt that that is what complete looks like. Blessed happiness bundled up in three little bodies.

That is when three became my new two, mentally, heartedly.

And now. Now it is coming to fruition, physically. Or rather in June 2015 I should say. And I'd be lying if I said I wasn't an eansy weansy bit nervous about this undertaking, because sometimes two seems on the verge of being too much for sanity to take. Luckily the girls rock, as does Judge, and so those bouts of near-insanity are short lived.

Sleep, you say? I've been lacking these past four years or so, what is another three?

We are excited!

[and then there will be three!]

holding our breaths

Last month Judge applied for a trainee position within Elkem, a company that seems made for him.

Taken from their website:

"Elkem is one of the world’s leading companies for environment-friendly production of materials. Its principal products are solar grade silicon, silicon, special alloys for the foundry industry, carbon and microsilica."

Judge has a BSc and MSc in Material Science and Engineering, and has worked with carbon and other related stuff in the process of getting those two degrees.

He's applied for positions with them before, prior to having Norwegian work experience, but never got an interview even, perhaps because of his limited work-experience in general. But this trainee position, it would be perfect for him. (Of course if he got a non-trainee position with them we'd be more than happy, but the prospects of that happening...in any company it seems, are slim, we have found).

With the trainee program, he would start next August, which would allow him to complete all his free Norwegian classes. It seems so perfect! And then for the next two years he would work in three of their locations, getting mentored and trained and molded into the perfect position for him based on his background and skills.

OK, so the moving three times in two years isn't super enticing, but it lets us check out more places in Norway, right?

Anyhow, yesterday he received an email from them asking for his transcripts from Taiwan (! good sign!).

So now our fingers are even more crossed, and we are starting to hold our breaths in hope, while trying not to get too attached to this.

And so I need to ask you all a favor. If you are someone who prays, please say some prayers for us, for this to be the right position for him and for him to get it, so we can finally lower our shoulders and breathe more freely again. And if you are someone who is into sending positive thoughts and energy, then please send those our way. We need this. Though we have a solid plan B (for if he doesn't get an engineering job within the next year) it isn't one either of us really want as the plan we execute.

[These two pictures were taken from approximately the same spot - just high and low tide differences and a slightly different angle. The log floated over here (in the top photo you can see where it originally was parked...where it's been for ages) during the floods we had last week.]

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