So, what is Katherine up to?

Nana requested that I post pictures of Katherine and tell about how she is adjusting to life in Norway. I guess I had been concentrating on things that were different about Norway and moving to a different culture and I had left out my sweet baby. So, here are some pictures and stories about what Katherine had been up to for the last week. It is really not much different from her time at home. A lot of cuteness!

We live about 20 minutes from the main park in Oslo called Frogner Park. They have a huge sculpture garden that we have not explored yet and they also have a playground. Today we went to the playground. It was a great one. They had an area for smaller kids with a sandbox. Katherine loves to dig in the sand and get dirty. (Note the heavy wool sweater that her playmate is wearing)

They also have a huge castle that forms almost a complete square. It starts off low and as you move around it, it gets higher and more advanced. Katherine was able to play on about half of it.I was actually surprised at how many kids were there the same general age as Katherine. I had heard that since the state pays for one year of maternity leave most moms go back to work after that one year an the kids are in day care. I had been told that not many mom’s of 18 month olds were still staying home. At the park I would say that half the kids were with moms, a fourth were with dads and a fourth were with their au pair (nanny). I had hoped to meet parents at the park to get together with later but of course the two kids that Katherine played with and therefore I tried to start up a conversation were dead ends on that front. One was a rare mom who did not speak English. The other was a very nice dad but I don’t plan to make play dates with dads.

It was fun to see Katherine interact with the kids. Kids are the same everywhere. We were working on sharing and playing nicely in the sandbox just like at playgroup at home. Looking around the sandbox, Katherine fit right in with the other Norwegian kids with her blond hair and blue eyes.

Sleeping has been a bit of a challenge for us. Our Fed Ex shipment with Katherine's pack and play has not come yet and we did not receive her travel bed until Tuesday so she has been sleeping on our bed. She looks so tiny taking a nap on my bed. The weird thing is that when she wakes up she just gets off the bed and walks into where we are. I think I like her being confined ina crib much better.

Here she is in her travel bed. The first night that we had her travel bed she slept in it until about 3 and then woke up. I could not get her back asleep in there so she finished out the night with me. Unfortunately she fell off the bed in the middle of the night. You can see her bruise on her face.

Baby doll also has battle scars from the trip. She rode to Norway in a suitcase. We did not realize that she was packed next to Daddy's black shoes and the shoepolish has given her arm a tattoo.

Katherine sits at her seat at the kitchen table. Her booster seat has not arrived yet but she has done amazingly well at the big table. Sometimes she tried to stand up but we are working on that.

You can see that she loves her morning bagel and cream cheese. Here it is not so much a bagel but a soft roll with raisins. She still loves it.

She also enjoys sitting in her spot to watch her Baby Einstein. She does not watch much TV usually so it has done a great job at keeping her occupied while mommy is trying to cook dinner. The problem is that now whenever I get out the computer she thinks it is to watch her video. I limit her to one a day.

Today we went to another park close to our house. It is not as cool but only a 5 minute rather than a 20 minute walk. We all walked there the other night after dinner and there was a fenced in playground with a building. They have all different kinds of official day cares here and I thought this was maybe one of the drop off ones. I was hoping to find something here one or two days a week to keep Katherine's social skills developing and to give me a break but apparently they are hard to get into. This one is a 4 hour a day outdoor daycare. They go inside for diaper changes, singing and lunch. It meets outside no matter what the weather - even snow. In Norway they say there is never bad weather, only bad clothing.

Katherine loves to swing. This was a new kind of swing for her but she did just fine. Notice the pretty church in the background.

She climbed up the stairs to the slide and went down all by herself. Wheeeee!

Look at the determination on that face as the rocks!

Here she is trying to climb our bookshelf. There are all kinds of holes and places to squeeze and climb. It is a new adventure in babyproofing.
We have an ergonomic office chair. Katherine likes to use it more as a desk.
Here she is very upset because Mommy will not let her have some brownies. What a deprived toddler!

So Nana, are you happy with all the photos? We sure are having fun!