Alexander - 18 months

Alexander had the BEST present for his 1.5 year birthday. My parents, better known now as Nana and Papa, arrived that morning to celebrate Christmas with us in Norway!

The last 3 months have been a nice departure from our usually busy, travel-filled lives. We've spent a lot of quality family time together playing with Xander and preparing for the holidays.

Xander still loves his barnahage. His teachers say that he is starting to both understand and use more Norwegian at school. He even has several friends that greet him by name when he arrives. Although he is always excited to see us when we pick him up in the afternoon, he isn't always excited to leave. Here he is playing outside at school. All suited up for the Norwegian weather

And his first school picture!

The number one advantage for us living here in Norway has been the amount of family time we get to spend together. Arthur's work is literally at the end of our street which allows him to work shorter hours (in exchange for working from home and frequently being on call.) This has allowed us time to eat breakfast together as a family every morning and Arthur and Xander regularly cook together. Xander loves to whip the eggs with Dada's help. He's also very good at sprinkling cheese on top of the eggs and bringing dishes and cups to the table. He loves to help. Just look at that smile!

The days here have now turned cold, dark, windy and rainy but we were still able to get out  and enjoy some crisp Fall weather before it changed to winter. There is a small playground across from our house that we usually visit at leave once a week. Xander loves to ride the rocking horses, play on the swing, and dig in the gravel and sand.

This is his favorite mode of transportation to get anywhere while we're outside...the tractor that his Dada bought for him. He sits on top and makes "vroom-vroom" noises the entire time...don't even try to stop moving! He will not be happy!

We've been so lucky that while many people were dealing with viruses and colds this fall, Xander has stayed relatively healthy. We think his 2 year molars might be on the way in but they don't seem to affect his mood for too long. For once in his life he's been healthy, sleeping well, and feeling great. He is SUCH a happy kid almost all of the time and I really enjoy hanging out with him! He's my little buddy!

I'm very excited for this latest development...our little anti-cuddles boy just might be turning over a new leaf. He now has a pillow, blanket, and a little cuddle puppy that he wants tucked under his arm just so before he goes to sleep at night. He will even give the puppy, and his other stuffed animals too, kisses and hugs. He also likes to greet the dogs with kisses in the morning. If you're lucky and he's in the mood, he'll lay his head on your shoulder while you're holding him if you ask for a cuddle. And he will usually give me a hug and a kiss before going upstairs to go to bed each night. It melts my heart...even if sometimes I get a little slobber in the mix :)

The best way I've found to get him to sit still for cuddles is to let him watch his favorite kids songs on TV. Although TV under 2 was something I said I wouldn't do before I was a parent, I'm totally OK with it now. It's one of the few things that will get him to sit still for more than a few minutes and lets me steal some snuggles.

His favorite song to watch is "Row Row Row Your Boat" which he asks for by name. He will say "Whoa Whoa??" and bring us the TV remote when he wants to watch. Here he is asking...

If its got wheels you can pretty much plan on him wanting to play with it. He's all boy and loves to go "vroom-vroom"! This school bus from his Aunt Charlotte continues to be one of his favorite toys. He loads it up with other cars and pushes it all over the house.

He has finally gone back to enjoying books again. For a few months he couldn't sit still to let us read more than a few pages. However, I moved our reading nook out of his playroom and into the living room and now we usually read at least 30-45 minutes each night. His favorite books are (no surprise here!) anything with cars, trucks, trains, boats, or planes. He also loves to take his books into the kitchen while we are preparing meals and point out things that he knows the names of.

Speaking of...his vocabulary has exploded in the last three months. He says go-go, up, down, hi, bye-bye, more, chair, row-row, mama, dada, nana, papa, yellow, food (and "mat" in Norwegian), yes, nei/no, plane, spoon, fork, plate, wa-wa (water), tea, ball, banana, kiwi, bread, cheese, shoes, eyes, head, ears, cheeks, nose, teeth, belly, baby, tree, color, book and a lot more that I'm sure I'm forgetting. He's also started using some two-word phrases (bye-bye Dada, Nei Mama, Dada go?) I don't know all the words he is using in Norwegian but I'm so happy to see his English seems to be thriving. He does spend an hour a day more in Norwegian than English so I've been very intentionally working on his English mornings, evenings, and weekends. It's so much fun to see his personality and preferences start to emerge verbally.

Looking back on these past 3 months has made me realize how nice it has been to just stay put for awhile and do "the family thing". Xander is at such a fun age! It's hard to believe by his 21 month post he'll be a big brother. He has started to point at my tummy and say "baby" and he will point out babies in books and pictures. We still have some preparations we need to do to get him ready for a little one in the house. I sometimes worry it will be a hard transition for him. But I know that eventually having a brother so close in age is going to be a really cool thing for them both.

Alexander- what a wonderful 3 months it has been. I will always treasure these times we had with just you. Although our time will eventually be divided our love most certainly will not!

24 Weeks - Small Fry #2

Check out my 24 week post with Alexander here

Thanks Darcy for letting me
borrow your full-length mirror :)

How many weeks: 24

What size is baby: ear of corn, 12 inches and 1.32 lbs

Movement: His favorite position is standing straight up and down with his head pressed into my ribs and his feet tap-dancing on my bladder. Let's just say I've got to be very careful if I feel a sneeze coming on.

New symptoms: The less than glamorous symptoms of the late 2nd trimester are setting in...hello heartburn my old friend. Also, with a rather large head in my ribcage I've found myself out of breath just laying in bed. I know the big question is "how are my back and hips"...Well, I'm definitely not mobile anymore. I now have a wheelchair for any outing longer than a few steps. But between my doctors, chiropractor, and massages I'm managing to stay out of the red zone of pain. It's frustrating basically being on bed-rest but it will hopefully be worth it to not have a year of recovering after our baby is born. Thank you all for your prayers and please keep it up!

Cravings: SUGAR! Get in my belly! Oh man...it's bad! I've had to rid the house of all sweets. But if you happen to walk in on me shoveling plain white sugar into my mouth by the handful please let's just pretend it never happened!

Sleep: Yeah...I'm a terrible sleeper. And so is this boy. We both toss and turn all night. I'm not sure who is keeping whom awake. Just preparation for the months ahead I guess.

Rings on/off: on

Best memory of the week: Sibling rivarly. I am now lucky enough to be kicked by both my boys, one on the inside and one on outside. I think Xander has felt this kid move more than anyone else because nothing gets him kicking like Xander's swift kicks from the outside. I feel like a human punching bag sometimes. Lord help me when these boys decide to wrestle me at the same time in a few years!

Looking forward to: decorating his nursery while my parents are here for Christmas :)

Morning at Tananger Kirke

It's been a hot minute since I've updated y'all! Sorry! I promise a pregnancy update very soon. In the meantime...

One of the mom's in Xander's class just happens to be the Children's Minister at the church connected to his barnehage. While chatting at drop-off she mentioned that they were going to be making Christmas cookies at church one Saturday morning. We're constantly looking for activities to get our wild child (who has recently discovered a love of climbing) our of the house...so we agreed to join in!

This is the third time Xander has joined in the much loved Norwegian tradition of making cookies. He's now a total pro at rolling out the dough, pushing in the cookie cutter, and then..........eating the extra dough!!!

After making our tray of cookies, and way more than his fare share of tasting the dough, we headed to the church basement to play in the ball pit. Talk about the ideal place for a bunch of sugar-loaded kids to work off some energy!

The little kids played with the balls while the bigger kids went after them with hockey sticks! I tried not to be that over-protective momma but it could had been a disastrous combo. Luckily, only one kid ended up sustaining minor injuries.

How perfect is this! A climbing wall! And Xander was eager to make good use of it. We're need one of these at home!

After all that climbing and ball-chasing Arthur and Xander enjoyed a couple of big, warm bowls of risgrøt. It's a traditional Norwegian meal made from rice and milk and topped with butter, sugar, and cinnamon...basically a rice pudding eaten for lunch. Not really my thing but Xander scarfed it up!

Just a little music making with a friend from his class before heading home.

Since we are not able to go back to Texas for Christmas it's been nice to get involved in Christmas traditions here. Everyone at the church was very warm and welcoming and most already knew Xander since he went to school there. It ended up being really nice morning for us all! And after all that fun it was time to head home and take a nap...oh and Xander was tired too :)

All About Barnehage

In Norway, all mothers are given a year of paid maternity leave and it is expected at the end of that time the mother will return to work and the child will start barnehage. Getting a spot in your top choice of barnahage can be difficult and we were advised to submit our application to our kommune (municipality) as soon as we had Xander's Norwegian number (the equivalent of a social security number) when he was just a few weeks old. While many of our expat friends choose to put their children in English speaking kindergardens, we felt that he would benefit from the exposure to the language and culture of the country that he was born in and requested placement at only Norwegian barnehager.

In July, we received our placement letter at our #2 choice. After speaking with another English speaking mother with a child at the same school we realized that we lucked out and were actually very happy with the placement.

Our barnehage

I agonized for a few weeks if he was really ready to start school, and spend much of his day away from me. However, I spoke to MANY people who put my mind at ease at what a great experience it had been for them and how much their children loved it. At the same time, I found out we were pregnant and the prospect of caring for my wild and busy toddler while pregnant was not a pleasant one. And on top of all that, my business was growing and I was getting many referrals and therapy requests so we thought we would give it a try. We could always change our minds.

Xander's first day of barnehage was August 18. We were required to bring him for just 2 hours the first day to ease him into it. In fact, it is required of all parents to be present for at least the first 3 days and more if needed.

First day of school

Playing with his teacher on his first day of school

The next day he was there for 3 hours, and the following he stayed until just after his nap. I feel like this slow, relaxed introduction made it easier on ALL of us. There were no tears (at least from Xander). I felt like we had time to get to know his teachers, the structure of his classroom, and to see him explore and enjoy it and know that he was happy there.

He has now been attending barnehage for almost 3 months. I bring him in the morning around 9 AM and we go into his classroom's clothing area. It is full of winter suits, gore-tex boots, gloves, and hats in tiny kid sizes.

Clothing area and Xander's spot

We remove his coat, shoes, and hat and take him into his classroom across the hall in just his socks. No shoes in the classroom. There are about 15 children ages 11 months-2.5 years in his class and 5 teachers.

Our lovely teachers

And he usually runs into his classroom without so much as a backward glance at me! From 9-11 they are either outside or indoors doing a craft, reading a book, going to the chapel to listen to bible stories or sing songs, or into the basement gym. A few times a week they go "på tur" which means nature walks and exploring the local forests.

Xander's classroom på tur

Xander på tur in the forest

Xander's class på tur

Lunch is from 11-12. His barnehage serves hot meals 2 days a week which are prepared in their school kitchen with fresh, real ingredients from the local grocery store and include homemade pizza, baked salmon and root vegetables, fiskboller (fish meatballs), or Xander's favorite...havregrøt (oatmeal). The other 3 days a week they have pålegg (open-faced sandwiches) on bread or crackers with a variety of Norwegian cheeses, meats, butter, leverpostei (liver spread!) and vegetables (carrots, bell pepper, cucumber, tomato, etc.).

The snack cart for the day

Fresh bread and boller from the Rema 1000 (local grocery store)

Most children also have a glass of milk with their meal but we've requested Xander just have water. He is a BIG water drinker just like his momma! For snack he usually has fruit, cheese, bread, or yogurt. No sweets are allowed to be served or brought into the school. We've been told that he eats VERY well and usually has at least 2 portions of each meal. The children eat at a table all together and are served family style. They have to request if they want more of something and Xander has gotten very good at pushing his empty plate at us and asking for "MORE MORE!"

After lunch they nap in their strollers outside. I was a little worried if Xander would be OK with this but he seems to have adjusted fine. He's one of the longer nappers in fact and some days he's just barely woken up and had his snack when I arrive to pick him up. He usually sleeps from 12:30-2:30 in his stroller lined up along the back wall of his school.

The teachers take turns sitting outside with them the entire time but they're outside rain or shine. The only time they'll nap inside is if it is excessively windy or the temperature is -5 ºC or below (23 ºF). He sleeps warm and snuggly in his stroller sleeping bag (vognpose) with a terribly ugly green bear that apparently he has swiped and insisted on sleeping with.

This is really interesting to me considering he usually throws anything soft and cuddly immediately out of his crib when he is sleeping at home.

Outdoor play is a HUGE part of Norwegian barnehage and the goal is to spend the majority of the day outside. Most days he is outside from 9:30-11 and 12:30 (while napping) until 3, when I usually pick him up. So they're really only inside to eat! In a country where the weather is usually a little uncomfortable year round (either too cold or too wet) the right clothes are extremely important and Xander has an extensive set of rain and winter gear. In the rainy Fall and late Spring season he wears waterproof, Gore-Tex boots or rubber rain boots, a thin cotton hat, and a full body rain suit.

Rain gear

More rain gear

In the cold Winter and early Spring he wears an under-layer of wool, full body fleece jumpsuit, all underneath a windproof winter suit, fleece lined winter boots, triple layer gloves, a wool hat, and a scarf.

His Norwegian woolies

Wearing his winter gear out with his class

We've spent a small fortune getting him the right clothes and it's taken me some time to figure out what he needs but it's worth it to never worry about him playing outside. No matter the weather he stays warm and dry. And when he's ready to come inside, we strip everything off and he's clean and I don't have to worry about him ruining his "inside clothes".

Our experience with Xander's Norwegian barnehage has been wonderful. He loves going there and I know he's having so much more fun than he would if he was stuck with me all day. He is learning another language and they say they can't tell a difference between him and the regular Norwegian kids based on what he understands. That makes me a proud momma. He is a VERY social kid and he is absolutely energized by spending his day in such an enriching, play encouraged environment. His teachers love on him with hugs and kisses and it warms my heart to see other people love my sweet boy.

Xander's teacher texted us this picture one morning. That is a happy kid! 

Fall Fun

We've been celebrating the fall season and getting ready for the dark period here in Norway. The days have already gotten shorter and the sun goes down around 4:45pm! Although it's been a fairly nice fall it seems like the clouds, rain, and wind are rolling back into town now that the sun is gone. So we've been spending a little more time inside.

Xander enjoyed painting pumpkins again this year.

We also took a trip out to the local pumpkin farm. Thanks to our friends Darcy and Jason we got some great family pictures too! Xander was NOT in a great mood. I swear he has toddler PMS...cranky one minute then happy-go-lucky the next!

Happy Fall Y'all from the Stautzenbergers!