Silly

What A Ride

Five years ago today, we began this journey. I always thought that marriage would be the end point; you work up to this when you are dating and BOOM, you're married, end of story. Truly, happily ever-freaking-after. 

Um yeah, I was wrong. What has surprised me the *most* about marriage is that sometimes, in the strangest of ways, it's like someone holding up a mirror and showing your flaws and imperfections. It's raw and real and wow, hard sometimes. 

But the depth of love, oh how it's grown. Before it was dizzying love with wow, this is the ONE kind of feeling and feeling so good to have found HIM, the one I've been saving my heart for. Here he is. And now, five years later, I feel like our love – how we hold each other in this world – has gotten richer and more flavorful and I dunno, just evolved. He's my best friend. He's the captain of my cheerleading team. He has held my hand and held me tight through this incredibly tough last year, promising me over and over we're in this together and we'll make it through. 

Tomorrow, as I get ready to go out to dinner and celebrate with him, I can't wait to bliss out and look into his eyes and remember those vows we said on the beach and the promise and hope they held, and the steadfast way they remain. 

I love you so much Peter Hansen. You are my home. 

New daycare visit

Lucia and I paid a visit to the new day care this afternoon to check things out and meet her new teachers and new friends. Lucia was very excited about this and asked all the way over if this was the way to her new day care.

She seemed a little shy, especially with the older kids, around 4 years old, but she enjoyed it quite a bit when they started making a "bridge" out of some planks and wooden blocks and pretended this was going somewhere, or when they rearranged it to become an airplane going to San Francisco.

A little boy, probably 2.5 years old came running to me as soon as I got there and grabbed my legs, the teacher told me he did this to all men.. Endearing and bitter sweet.

We also got to go inside in the main room where they had put a name tag on her cubby on so she can hang her clothes, keep her lunch box and sleeping bag.

She will start next Monday but only go for half a day first and then have her first full day Wednesday.

Big Weekend Plans

This weekend we've got a packed but exciting schedule: tomorrow is swimming lessons, then afterwards Mommy is going to get a manicure/pedicure with a soon-to-be expired Groupon-thingy with my former running partner Becky. Fun! I never ever go have my nails done (I think it's been 2-3 years since the last time), so it's pretty exciting. Later that afternoon our new babysitter, who we really fell in like with at our church daycare, is coming over for a babysitting test-drive. Since she's 18, we wanted to make sure she was comfortable in the house and with Lucia's food allergies (I'll spring that latter part on her after we're knee-deep in snacks on Saturday). We needed to find a regular babysitter because... 

Sunday is our 5-year wedding anniversary. We can't believe it either. FIVE years. I told Pete last night I must sure like him, since previous applicants for the job only lasted a few years at best. FIVE years. Wow. I think this year has been our richest in terms of depth and bonding and well, solidifying our relationship. Going through tough times will do that, I guess. We are heading to Gary Danko, the top restaurant in San Francisco and where we celebrated that night 5 years ago, for an awesome dinner. Since we met at a Superbowl party, it's fitting that our actual anniversary this year is on Superbowl Sunday. We're excited to spend some quiet time together. We're taking a cab to the BART and then another cab to the restaurant (I think) so we can enjoy their overpriced but incredibly lovely wine. 

Happy weekend. Pictures to come.

One more

One more vaccination before starting at the new preschool Monday. Here she is waiting and playing with the germy toys.

A little update

Its been a while since I wrote anything on here, so heres an update.
With work things are as always crazy busy, the cases are now going to be manufactured at two different companies and thats a split that makes a lot of sense, and we also see a huge drop in time wasted sitting around waiting for the manufacturer to get their asses in gear. The main issue now is just how to adjust the case to that the band can fit snuggly and precisely and I have found a plan that is being implemented now.  The first cases will go to our wonderful supporters on Kickstarter and to sellers in Europe that hopefully will kick off more sales over there.

The trip to Norway was very nice, it was lengthy compared to my previous trips but it had been two years since my last trip and I think it is important to stay a little when traveling so far, it took us 2 weeks to wake up from the jet-lag.. Norway is rainy, cold, and not much daylight to speak of so there was not much to do besides sleep anyway. We did have some awesome days though and lots of good food.
One of the big events this time was celebrating my grandmothers 90th birthday, which happens to fall on the same day as Christmas. With a new internet connection I hope to see her on Skype and stay updated email, who knows, maybe even Facebook?

One of our best days was visiting my family in Voss. (see images below) We took the train and had a nice journey through winter Norway. Most of my mom's family lives in Voss because my great grand father moved there due to the war in 1940s and this is where he started Sølvsmidja, a silversmith company. We got a tour the new factory and see how they make the jewelry, it was pretty awesome. This was also the first time Heather got to meet my mom's extended family and I think she really enjoyed her time with them. It was pretty clear Heather now is in love with Voss and its safe to say we will be back for more.

Another noteworthy occasion was when the clouds cleared one morning and we decided to go to Ulriken, the 2100ft mountain in Bergen.

We also got to see some of my friends, one of my best friends, Frode, managed to invite 30 people to his house for a big party, just like in the old days, except everyone seemed a bit older/more tired than last time we were all gathered.

Heather flew home one week before Lucia and I so for one full week while Heather slept in her own bed at home Lucia heard nothing but Norwegian. Obviously it was during this week she started picking up a lot of norwegian words, and she still use them randomly. Now she may say a full sentence in english but then one word will be substituted with a norwegian.

On the way home we stopped in London due to a flight mismatch and we got a chance to spend time with our good friend Kelly who now lives in London. We all took a little tour of London and saw the London Eye, closed for maintenance :( and walked down along The Thames. Lucia was super excited to see the London Bridge which she keeps singing about from a TV show called Barney. We had dinner at a pub and it was awesome.

The flight home next morning was OK, but the sleep I planned to have was torpedoed by the ridiculous short childrens shows on the inflight TV, being woken up every 20 minutes makes no one any less tired.

 Overall a great trip, and it is great to be back too!

I will post pictures as they are ready

She's a Talker

It seems like overnight, Lucia has begun talking more and more. 

And more and more. 

And more and more. 

She used to always ask me, "Can you tell me 'bout your day?" and the hilarious thing was she would ask this at like 6:30 a.m. when so far my day had consisted of making coffee and praying it would be ready soon. But most nights either at dinner or when I would rock her to sleep, she would ask me to recount my day in painstaking detail. We started to understand that she very much liked hearing about the sequence of things. So last night I asked her, "Can you tell me 'bout your day?" And she began recounting her day, which started out with, "Benjamin pushed me two times today." Me: he did? Did you push him back (because she often omits that part of the story) ? She said, No. No I dint Mommy. But I did tell him, (and she holds her hands out like she's gesturing) that you have to say you're sorry now." Me: Oh. Is that so? Did he say he was sorry? Her: Yes, he did. 

And it goes on and on and on like this. She's picking up conversations now, not just sentences but entire conversations. It's hilarious, and really makes me love my mom more, as I did the exact same thing, and my mom was also dealing with a 5-year-old at the time. God bless ya mom. 

Add Hummus to the No List

I was so excited to give Lucia hummus on Friday night; it was a hodge-podge kinda dinner where we all ate little things. As "dinner" started, and I use that term loosely because I gorged myself on tortilla chips and guacamole, so I wasn't eating (more), she was chowing away on the hummus. Chip after chip. She loves hummus and was really going to town. Then I noticed it. The lips. When she has an allergic reaction, the ridge of her top lip starts to get redder, so it almost looks like she has chapped lips. Then they started swelling. Then she started coughing, good god. We immediately removed the hummus (duh), gave her 1 tsp of Zyrtec and then followed it up with 1 tsp of Benadryl. A few hours later, we heard her coughing and coughing, so we gave her albuterol. She was already taking Flo-Vent due to a cold. Yesterday she also woke up coughing, so albuterol again. :(

This food allergy thing is a trip; she had that same hummus over Thanksgiving and was absolutely fine. Scary, and it doesn't get any easier each time this happens.

Stickers

Lucia pointed to my estrogen patches  (associated with this effort) on my abdomen today and asked, what are those? I said, those are my stickers. She thought about it for a minute, then said, "Because you were a good girl." Yep, I giggled. Mommy was a good girl and got stickers. Kids are funny.

Home

We're all home, but far from adjusted to California time. Please stand by as we recalibrate.