Change is Hard

Change is hard, my friend and I agreed via text tonight. Lucia starting kindergarten has been incredibly stressful on us. There's the uncertainty with the teachers and if she's making friends and if she eats her lunch and NEWTOWN NEWTOWN NEWTOWN and if she falls on the playground will anyone be there for her and gahhhhh it's a lot. Then there's the logistics: her school is on a hill that gets craazy super busy every morning, so while her class doesn't start until 8:45, you have to arrive by 8:15 if you don't want to get caught in insane traffic and/or not be able to find parking. I tested this on Friday and was so frazzled having to park so far away and speedwalk down a sidewalk-less hilly road jam-packed with cars and Lucia wondering why are we walking so fast mommy? So this requires a hour-long drop off and timing feeding Espen strategically so he doesn't melt down. There's also the fact that we are 37th on the waitlist for aftercare program.

I could go on. It's a lot to process.

So I'm trying to focus on the good:

• We love the school. She started at another school and after a few days we did not like it. We didn't like her teacher (frosty), the principal (out of touch) and the other parents weren't particularly friendly or eager to make friends, it seemed like. At the aftercare program they handed out juice boxes and put on a movie one day, unlike what they advertise in encouraging the kids to play or do structured activities. So after taking lots of advice from other parents I hustled and made a million phone calls and sent persistent emails to principals and in the end, got her reassigned. She started at the new school last Wednesday and we're still getting used to it. But we like it a lot better so far and I'm sure we'll feel more adjusted in a few weeks. 
• We like her teacher a lot. We hear she's amazing and so far we really like her. We hear she takes the kids on 12 field trips a year (!) and that we'll be amazed by how much she has learned by the end of the year. Great!
• Lucia seems to really like it. She's happy to do her homework and happy to go to school each day. 

I guess we'll just continue to hang in there. It'll get better, I know. It's just the adjustment period that feels so hard. 

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

Pictures from April 9

Click on the image to enlarge it.

April fools

Heather has the AP Mobile app installed on her phone, it sends her textmessages whenever big news are breaking somewhere in the world.

This morning I changed my name on her phone from "Pete" to "AP Mobile", and sent her a short little text message:

Needless to say, her facial expression was priceless.

Sunset

Heather took this nice image last night walking home from work.

The Hansen Sandwich