Picasso...

Not much new to report here. Life is still fairly busy with work, daycare and everything else in between. Tim and Lexi spent last weekend in Feda. Lexi played hard with her Mormor, Lajla, and Lajla's boyfriend Tom. Tim worked on the boathouse project trying to stay ahead of all of the carpenter's with the electrical drops, etc. I had a great weekend at my church's annual Women's Retreat. As you might be reading between the lines - the camera has not been used much. But, yesterday, little Picasso decided it was time to get the paints out again. So, I snapped a couple of pics. Enjoy!

New Haircut!

Since Lexi won't let me touch her "mop of a head of hair" with a 10 foot pole, I decided it was time for a haircut. So, thanks to the hair salon and their portable DVD player with a Mickey Mouse DVD (why didn't I think to bring my portable DVD player????), Lexi survived her third official haircut with no complaint. Of course, this new "do" can still look a bit rough around the edges, but at least it looks a bit more styled :). I just couldn't stand the ragamuffin look any longer...




Well, I probably could have edited this video clip down a bit, but I'm in a rush today and figured that I would be murdered soon if I didn't upload a new blog entry. So, it's 5 minutes long, but I like it because it shows you a glimpse of Lexi's language development. She's normally a chatterbox, but has inherited the "Tønnessen camera presence" which means that you clam up and don't smile :)

Tim's birthday trip

Ok, so the reason for the "blog silence" is that Tim and I just got home from a 4-day long weekend away without Little Miss Two Year Old. To celebrate Tim's birthday (he's 29 again), I decided that it was time for the two of us to have a weekend away from Lexi. We have both spent nights away from her, but separately - she has always had the other of us around. So, Tim's mom (Bestemor) gladly agreed to come and house-sit / Lexi-sit. Of course, we didn't follow any of the "baby book guidelines" and make our first overnight within a one hour driving radius - we had 7 hours of travel on airplanes, nor did we just have one night away - we had three! Lucky for us, all went well. I told Lexi the night before that Mamma and Pappa were going on an airplane the next day (this is how we explain some of Tim's business trip travel). She looked at me, paused, and said Bye-Bye. So, that was that. I don't think she asked after us at all. Of course, she had Bestemor on the Thurs and Fri and Cousin Luna came to visit for the weekend and there was Aunt Linn and Bestemor's friend Tom and daycare play on Thursday and Friday and pizza on Sunday and the list goes on and on.

So, where did I take Tim to? I bit the bullet, sacrificed my love of big European cities and took him to Svalbard. Haven't heard of it? It is a collection of islands north of Norway that Norway has governmental rights for as per a treaty signed in the 1920s. The main island is called Spitsbergen and the capital city is Longyearbyen (so named by a New York Coal Mining fellow with the last name of Longyear). I digress - it is basically an arctic desert and has some of the most beautiful untouched terrain you will ever see. Of course, it was an average of -20C (-4F) while we were there and we only had daylight from around 9am to 3pm since the sun hasn't fully returned yet, but what an amazing experience.

Here is a pic of us on our 9 hour snowmobile trip...

Here is a pic of me being breathalyzed in Barentsburg (Russian Coal Mining Town). Yes, the Norwegians want to prove that they don't tolerate drinking and driving (any vehicle) - anywhere. We all had a good laugh that we actually got stopped by the local police for a control point.


Here is the only wildlife we saw - a female caribou. We were disappointed not to see a polar bear.

Here is a pic of us in the ice caves beneath the glacier in Longyearbyen

And some scenary (of which our amateur photo skills don't do it justice...)

It's been a while....

Well, it has been a while since my last entry and I can't honestly say where the time has gone. I must confess that I haven't had the camera out much recently to capture any pics of Lexi. So, I decided to upload this video clip because Lexi loves to jump. Tim bought her this jumping castle last summer. It wasn't exactly the coolest thing for her last summer as she had barely started walking solo. We recently pulled it out and dusted it off for her 2nd birthday party. Boy was it a hit at the party - by all! We then loaned it out to a friend for their 4 year old's birthday party. Lexi was one of the birthday guests and had a blast hopping. So, we pulled it out one night a couple of weeks ago and let her hop to her heart's content....

Gifts are always popular...

Since I survived Toddler Tantrum Deluxe from 4pm-6pm, I decided to go ahead and share some of the better memories from today. Lexi received a new sweater that was hand-knitted from Bestemor (Tim's mom) and wore it to daycare today.




She also received a (very timely) Valentine's Day Package from Grammy & Grandpa which was not going to be left unopened until Saturday! So, here is a pic and video clip of the happy portion of the evening.

Snow, snow and snow

Well, we've had snow on the ground since last Wednesday and I must confess that I have done a terrible job at taking pictures. It isn't much snow, but it is so gorgeous when everything is covered in white. Yesterday (Sunday) and today were two gorgeous days with blue skies, sunshine and crispy cold temps (barely below freezing).

Lexi received a new sled for Christmas from Bestemor (Tim's mom) and she was so excited when I pulled it out of the car last Wednesday morning and pulled her up to her classroom at the International Daycare. Despite the earlier battle with which boots and socks she was wearing for the day, it was all smiles and laughter on the way from the parking lot to the classroom.

These first two pics were taken that evening after returning home from work/daycare. We (of course) had to take a quick stroll around the block. ("Mamma pull!")






This picture was taken today when I picked her up from daycare. I really don't know why I was getting the funny face, she was all giggles to ride the sled to the car.



This last picture was taken this evening. We were dashing to make it to a Women's Event at my church and the moon was absolutely gorgeous on the horizon. I did the American thing and stuck my head and camera out of the car window to take the pic :) I'm sure I could have done the moon justice with some proper time and settings on my camera...

Girls Weekend in Tallinn, Estonia

Ok - this isn't exactly Lexi related, but I figure that my girls weekend to Tallinn gives me a refreshed energy to be a mom to Lexi.

Five girlfriends and myself just spend a wonderful long weekend (Fri-Sun) in Tallinn, Estonia. We divided our time between spa treatments at the spa hotel we stayed at and a little sightseeing and some meals at wonderful cafes and restaurants with such amazing atmosphere and ambiance!