Merry X-mas!

It’s been a looong time since last up-date. And I guess this reflects the extremely busy times we’ve been going through. We’ve still not reached the end of this busy period, but every day is one day closer...

Anyway – it’s only a few days left until x-mas, and I hope we have managed to make December worth to remember for Nina, although my participation this year has been minimal.

On her way to an outdoor adventure...

Drinking chocolate-milk at a café...

"Celebrating" her 2-year birthday again :-) She just loves that crown, I wonder if she'll wear her 3-year crown in March?

Getting all dressed-up for kindy...she just loves skirts at the moment...and pig-tails, I could just try to ask if she wants a pony-tail, NO WAY!

Seeing who can smile the biggest smile, and admire her self in the mirror in her room before bedtime.

Singing x-mas carols on her way to kindy...

Getting ready for a Santa-party in kindergarten, with a matching Minney Mouse to accompany her :-)

Watching a Postman Pat show together with grandma...

And having snow on the x-mas tree that she can admire from her bedroom window...

Then I guess all that's left is to whish all our friends a merry x-mas!

Summer memories

As Heidi mentioned in her last blog, summer is long gone. In fact, we had to scratch ice off our car windows in the mornings all week and it is painful to imagine that it will stay like that for the next 6 – 7 months. Australia, we miss you!

Anyway, here are a few more photos of the past summer as we continue our tradition of blogging what Nina did 3 months ago. ;-)

Most of these photos were taken by Oma and Opa, Nina’s grand parents from Germany.

Here Nina enjoys sitting on the couch together with her two greatest fans in Germany.

Here you can see Nina and her dad (me ;-) at her old child care called Åkebakke, just a few days before Nina had her last day there.

Heidi and I felt how it got more and more gut-wrenching to bring and pick up Nina at Åkebakke. Nina absolutely loved the place, as did we, and we couldn’t get used to the thought to pull her out of this safe and beloved environment. Now, a few months later we know that the whole thing was harder for mum and dad than for Nina. Nina got used to her new child care faster than anticipated and nobody is happier about that than mum and dad.

Nina loves Agira, an Åkebakke employee from Mozambique.

Baby can you drive my car? Yes, I’m gonna be a star … with the right sun glasses anything is possible.

Taking a long hike from the car park to our house. Good to have a full back pack with supplies, just in case …

After the long hike it is great to re-supply with berries from the own garden.

Early morning on a weekend. Nina enjoys her dummy and a good book. Just coffee missing …

Look at me … I’m plastic girl and I fit in a small box. Almost.

Coming back soon with more photos.

Cheers OLI

Let's not talk about autumn

OK, so autumn is really close, although we have had a great September (Nina even went for a dip in the sea a few weeks ago) we have to admit that summer is over, it is getting darker and colder. After a quite wet summer I’m not really ready for the dark part of the year yet...but what can you do.

I guess the best way to cope with this is to blog about summer, right! So here we go...

The last really nice and hot summer day:




After a day at the beach we went home and had dinner and coffee outside, nice.


Oliver's parents arrived a few days earlier to help us with Nina for five weeks...I went to work every day, but it felt like holiday (dinner ready every day, house cleaned, fantastic)!

Nina helped me bake some muffins for her last day in daycare, but she ended up eating half of them at home, he, he!


You can tell who usually is behind the camera in our family, because Nina considers the camera to be mine, and since Nina needs things to be right I have to do the filming.


Anyway, Nina got a Rugby ball from Ireland, and she loves a game of rugby with dad :-)

Nina is not too good with slides, especially the big ones. Therefore, we decided to buy a tiny slide for Nina to have in our garden to boost her confidence, and it really helped. Now she jumps down the big ones too.


Nina figured that since daddy was cutting the grass outside, she wanted to help him...inside (it's too noisy outside).



That was the last of my pics from July (Oliver has got some more from his parents, but that will come another day). I hope my next post will be with some drawings of our house, because they are (finally) about to be ready!

Spain

Ok, so I said something about photos from Spain...and one month later...tadaaa:

First meeting with the ocean...(this year at least)











Nina is training to be a lifeguard in Australia...

Time to take a break from the job and play on the beach...

Nina even caught a HUGE fish!

Breakfast outside, Nina's protecting hear head from the burning sun (in the shade, he, he)...

Nina's stuck...hmmm...what to do, what to do???

More swimming...

Taking a hike...outside our appartment...



Nina on the playground...very concentrated!

Inside...very happy, and not so happy...

Nina practising for her second job...a model of course...

Now it's very hot here too (around 30 deg C), actually it's warmer here than in Spain, so we can't complain...or, we do complain because it is too hot of course, ha, ha. I just love this time of year. We have just passed the shortest nigth, but it's still not very long nights, sun going down around 23.00, and going up around 3.30. I was biking home from work on Saturday at 23.30 and the sun had just gone down, it was nice and warm...and it's just such a good feeling. Even if I work long hours it doesn't feel like it since I come home when it is still daylight. Anyway...I guess the next post will be about summer in Norway. Oliver's parents are coming tomorrow (staying for 5 weeks), and then I'll have a chance to really focus on finishing my PhD...it's going to be a rough summer for me...hope Nina and Oli will enjoy it a bit more....

Easter holidays in Germany

This year we spent our easter holidays in Erlangen, Oli’s home town and place where Oma and Opa (Grandmother and grandfather in German) live. Nina has never before been in Germany and it has been almost 2 1/2 years since Mum and Dad were there last time. So it was great to meet up again with family and friends.

We were extremely lucky regarding the weather. For most of the time the temperature was around 25 C which is unheard of for early April...even in Germany.

The second day we went to the Adidas factory outlet (Adidas was founded only 10 km away from Erlangen) and did some big time shopping. While Heidi and I went berserk in the store Nina and Oma played some footy outside. Looks like Oma is being thoroughly outplayed by the little one.

Inside the store there was an Adidas-bunny giving away gifts to the smallest customers. Needless to say that Nina wanted to back and get more gifts all the time. We couldn’t miss out on having a photo of Nina and the Adidas-bunny together.

Nina loved the German tradition with Easter eggs hanging from the bushes. Maybe a tradition to import to Norway next year?

Nina’s newest toy, a Kawasaki Ninja ZX-14 Monster Energy. Crazy girl, driving without the proper gear....She should at least wear a helmet!!

Nina and Dad singing a few songs for Mum. What you can’t see...Mum is melting away. :-)

Nina on a swing on a big playground nearby with deep thought going through her head. Which carousel to take next?

Opa trying to have a nice shot together with Nina. Unfortunately Nina didn’t plan to stay for long and decided to move on.

Easter egg hunt in front of the building. Look, there’s one...

...hmmm, are there any more eggs out there?

Let’s check how many we have now...

...ah, another one!

Shoot, the basket is still half empty...

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Mum and Dad said the eggs were falling from the sky...any more coming?

OK, Nina got everything for dinner. Let’s go on a ride with Mum before we eat.

Nina’s favourite playground in Erlangen, nearby where Oli’s parents live.

Oma plays with an excited Nina...

...while Mum and Dad are hanging around.

Nina on a rodeo ride on a red hot steel pony.

Nina and Oma getting ready for a slide. Actually, Nina didn’t want to use the slide anyway. I guess it was still a little bit too high this time, but the motivation was there. I guess next year it will be no problem.

Nina after a good night's sleep and ready for another day.

Nina, Heidi and I enjoyed the trip a lot. Nina got plenty of attention and Heidi and I got some free time on our own every day. Good to have eager grand parents.

Cheers

OLI