I’m sorry, is it now 2012?

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Two things that we have not officially said to our family and friends who update themselves on us here. So once again, for good measure, Merry Christmas, and Happy New year!

There have been so many things that have happened in the past months that have warranted a blog post, or at least some kind of written record. Oh time, how you elude us! And brainpower while looking at the computer screen — also elusive. But I have a few minutes now and have already accepted that the cleaning I had planned to do will not get done. So without further ado, in my favorite, linear-thinker, bullet-listed form:

(cue music) December and January: A review

Oh, December. How I waited for your first day to put out Christmas decorations. How early I embraced your baking responsibilities. How quickly I learned to not overestimate my abilities.

• Emil starts barnehage. Emil likes barnehage. We suspected this would be case and were so, so, SO relieved that it was so. They, at barnehage, like Emil. Well really now, who wouldn’t? Have you seen this guy? (now patting my maternal pride back down to a reasonable size)
• I start ”work.” I will continue to keep it in quotations marks until I have real responsiblity and a real salary. As it is (and this is mid January talking, not early December), this lazy mama isn’t so opposed to minimal responsibility and a fake salary. Administering nursing care without having to talk to doctors’ offices and supply places and arrange appointments? I can handle that.  Seriously though, my fear of not being able to commnicate with the elderly residents of this assisted living community was put to rest on day 1. These ladies have mastered ‘patience’ and use it liberally and kindly with me.
• Karel gets sick.
• Karel stays sick.
• We go to Arendal to have Christmas with Ivar and Torunn, which was lovely, and spend 3 hours at urgent care with Karel.
• Emil get sick, but gets over it in a couple of days. One of our nights in Arendal I was puked on by Emil, and then shortly afterwards accidentally tipped a glass of cold water right onto Karel. Karel screams, of course, but then thinks it’s funny when I apologize for giving him a shower in bed. Ivar and Torunn are left with a lot of laundry. Bjørn sleeps through all of it. Actually, I kick Bjørn out of bed to sleep on the mattress on the floor, so I could be sandwiched by sick boys.
• I spend an evening baking time-consuming things in a child-free kitchen with my friends Heidi and Susanne.
• We spend Christmas Eve with Bjørn’s family in Verdal, after a lovely Christmas Eve service in Steinkjer Kirke.
• We celebrate the 80th and 85th birthdays of Bjørn’s grandparents with a formal dinner and coffee with family. A very nice evening. Karel doesn’t feel good, so spends the entire night on my lap, while Emil sees his chance to steal center stage and takes it. What a ham I have given birth to!
• We decide this is long enough with being sick, and go back to the doctor, who agrees and makes us an appointment to have further tests done at the hospital. So we have our first all day outing to the hospital, for x-rays and blood tests. Everything came back okay, thankfully, and we leave with penicillin in hand. Praise the Lord. I was about ready to figure out how to make it myself.
• We remember once again that our children are gifts to us, and to treasure them every day.

January! 2012! How did this happen? Could the months slow down just a bit? Although I am actually ready for a bit more routine…

• We ring in the new year with the neighbors and mini-progressive dinner party. First course: hot dogs while sitting on reindeer pelts in the snow near a fire. Last course:  shots of ”Fisherman’s Friend.” Oh, Norway….
• Karel rings in his first days of penicillin taking (and cuts short my shot-drinking) by coming down with the stomach flu. Jan. 1 was not a quiet day for our washing machine.
• Work resumes for all. I start to recognize old people around town as day users of the Eldresenter. Bjørn remains commentless on this developement of my social-horizon broadening
• It snows!
• It rains!
• It snows!

That’s about it for now. Karel recovered fully, though it took a couple of weeks. We knew he was getting better when he started negotiating for more bedtimes stories. Yesterday when I picked him up from barnehage he was running around in circles — ”with TWO motors.” So he’s back in action. Emil had a nasty virus over the weekend, but seems to be coming around. Miraculously enough, neither Bjørn or I have been very very ill. I just don’t understand it.

The real event I felt needed more attention than it was able to be given in real life or in written word was Emil starting barnehage. So, future-Emil-reading-this-blog, don’t think that just because your social little self adjusted so easily, I didn’t carry ‘the day my baby started barnehage’ around with me for a while.

And I’ll end with an apology. I really, really, really wanted to send out Christmas letters this year. And I failed. Unfortunately, I accept my failures much too easily, but I hope our friends and family will accept this apologize with equal ease. We think of you all often.

Hugs– the Lyngstads

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