Mikkel is here!

Our nephew Mikkel was born today, February 24th at 3:00 in the morning!

Princesses

Charlotte has a little lunchbox with princesses on it. She thinks a lot about her little buddies at Solhellinga. The other day she looked at her lunchbox, pointed to the first princess and said the name of her little friend Andrina (a nee na!) and then to the next princess and said Cecilie (cee ya!) and the last princess Frøya (fru yah!). It melted Nils heart.

Ski shooting

"VM" and "skiskyting" have been in the news a lot lately. This is a big deal for Norwegians. VM is the World Master competition, if I can translate it like that. And skyskyting is ski shooting, where the athletes are cross-country skiing with a rifle that they use for target shooting along they way at certain points. Big, big stuff here. Norwegians are often expected to bring home lots of medals.

Let there be light

And now that the shortest day of the year is long behind us, the days are filling up with light! It is wonderful to see more sun and have more light. However... now I can't sing in the car in the morning in the dark without anyone seeing me.

How about us?

And some adult news too... Nils wrote a chapter in an engineering book recently, and I have been accepted as a member in a committee that is compiling a new global ISO Standard for project management.

Hat!

The "owa" incident proved to be just the first of many times Charlotte will see something once and remember it for weeks. We like to look outside the windows in the morning. We say "good-morning" to things we see, like neighboring houses, passers-by, cars, etc. And we do the same in the evening to say good-night. One time we saw a dog at the neighbor's house. We have never seen the dog again. But, each and every time Charlotte looks out the windows she says "foof?" And we saw construction workers once wearing yellow hard hats. So every time since she exclaims "hat!" though there is no hat to be seen.

Boller

Mardi Gras and Fat Tuesday are celebrated a little differently here. It is Sunday that is the big feast. 'Boller' are baked, which are sort of a Scandinavian sweet roll or doughnut. But not at all doughnut-like. More like dinner rolls, but a little sweeter and made with milk and cardamom. They are eaten year-round plain or with raisins, but during this feast they fill them with marzipan, whipped cream, or all kinds of other sweet creations.

Groundhogs

I did not hear any reports here in Norway about the Groundhog. Did he see his shadow? I sure hope there will be more winter in Norway since there has been so little of it so far. I want snow!

Audio books

How have I been missing out on these for so long? I just listened to 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' over the past couple weeks while I sit in traffic to and from work and it has been so fun! I look forward now to all the time I spend in the car. I have come to the end, so now I need to find a new story to enjoy. Any tips?