Happy 70th

..... and it is the grand fathers who are in focus just now. Bestefar turned 70 on Monday...... his reward.... a week of quality Milly time starting next Monday. If that doesn´t keep him on his toes I don´t know what will!!

Grampy

Friday last week Grampy underwent surgery on his knee. Everything went well and he is now starting the agonising wait for the infection in his knee to clear up so that the surgeon can bang in a new one. Everyone has their fingers crossed that it goes quickly and he´ll soon be back up on both feet. He hasn´t lost his touch as a golf coach..... he pointed out a problem to me at the driving range when they were over to visit and it looks like it´s done the trick!!

Aunty Katie

Last Thursday we had another visit from England. Aunty Katie flew in during the morning to be met by grey clouds and slightly chilly temperatures. Fortunately it didn´t last long and we were soon back to summer. Kate, Milly and I went for lunch and then a bit of a wander round the park at St Hanshaugen. Friday, Marit came home a bit early and we went to lunch up at Ekeberg restaurant, Kate and I then took Milly on a walk down to Aker Brygge and enjoyed a nice glass of wine in the sun. On Saturday we took our normal breakfast at Åpent Bakeri..... and then sadly Aunty Katie had to go.... hopefully she´ll be back again with Del boy in tow later in the year :)

It appears that the post link between England and Norway has developed something of a problem as birthday presents dribbled in extremely late, even though they were posted in plenty of time.... thanks to the Mansers, McVickers and Hubys.

Best friends.... no, really!!

Pictures can sometimes be deceiving. Milly´s best friend during the first year of her life has been Sara. They were born within one day of each other and have been meeting from time to time ever since (accompanied by their mummies of course). To celebrate their birthday´s, Mats and Rita (Sara´s parents) came to visit last Wednesday evening. Usually Sara is the cuddly one of the two.... often trying to embrace Milly.... but on this particular occasion the roles were reversed. We realise that pictorial evidence indicates that Milly should be up on a charge of actual bodily harm..... but we can assure everyone that it was an attempted cuddle.

Birthday girl

As requested.... a picture of Crown princess Milly opening one of her presents.

Yes..... 1 year old already. We don´t yet know how Milly feels that it has gone but Mummy and me think time has disappeared extremely quickly. We had lots of messages of best wishes by post and text, plus a small party attended by Kim and Kristin, Turid, Børge, Tias, Lars and Olive (the daughter of Børge´s brother), and Uncle Kristoffer who took time out of his busy schedule to drop by. Lots of lovely presents...... lovely cake.... and a jolly good time for everyone. Pooh bear / Ole Brumm was particularly popular.... although he did nearly get his nose bitten off (but that´s a sign of affection for Milly!!)

Hamar and the party

Milly is, as many will know already, something of a party animal. She was a little bit under the weather at the weekend though. Not exactly sure what was wrong. We keep suspecting another tooth, but she still only has 2, and we haven´t seen evidence of another yet. Whatever the reason she was a little more quiet than usual. Hege had kindly volenteered to come along and keep Milly occupied as the party went on...... which she did with the help of the Apple Corporation. I suspect that Milly´s first word may well be i-phone. In spite of some not so friendly weather Hege walked Milly around outside until she was sleeping like a stone. She woke up with a bit of a temperature so I took her home at around midnight. By Sunday morning the form was improving...... and she was able to take her place between Grampy and Bestefar on the sofa....

Grand parent visit

A week ago Grampy and Grannie Annie arrived from England. It´s been quite a while since we saw them last. We were grounded by the "ash cloud" and couldn´t travel to England in April, so it was Christmas when we last saw them in the flesh. We had a day at home so Milly could get reacquainted..... although of course she has seen them quite often on the webcam. On Saturday we travelled up to Hamar for Bestefar´s 70th birthday party.......

The weekend

Busy weekend..... Hege and Andrea visited on Saturday. The girls went out for lunch whilst I reacquainted myself with my golf clubs. In the evening we popped down to Ladergården for a pizza. Milly has reached the stage where she wants to taste grown up food.... so she had her first nibble of pizza. We haven´t come across anything thus far which she won´t eat.

On Sunday we went to lunch at Kim and Kristin´s. The great weather continued and so Milly got her first real crawl around alfresco. She also got her first taste of strawberries..... which she couldn´t get enough of. Really nice lunch...... after which I went and played 18 holes for the first time since Milly was born..... probably.... can´t remember exactly. Was very up and down..... only to be expected I guess.

The house

Work has been progressing on the outside of the house. We´re at the stage now where all the repair work is more or less done and they will start to put the finishing layer of plaster on top..... oh how I will miss the scaffolding and all the buckets, plaster bags and general rubbish surrounding the house! All we have to do then is order and get fitted a new front door, have the windows changed and start work again on the garden..... so nearly finished then!!

Memory aid

I´m using the blog as a method of trying to recall what exactly I´ve been doing for the last few weeks. It´s very difficult when you´re home every day.... things do just seem to blend into one another and it´s often difficult to remember one day from the next. Here goes....

I think we were up to last weekend. I have a feeling that Sunday was a bit of a write off..... we slobbed about for too long. Monday we had a visit from a colleague of Marit´s who was over from Sweden.... he bought Milly a Dachshund.... not a real one obviously.... a wooden one which you call pull around. Tuesday and Wednesday were not very exciting. Thursday we visited Milly´s kindergarden for the first time. Got to meet some of the other parents and kids. Milly seemed happy enough.... hurtling around on the floor, playing with other like minded hooligans. It is an impressive facility and I fear that coming home after a day there will be something of a disappointment.... as they have better toys, and all manner of different activities. On Friday we went into town to meet the guy I share an office with. He is on paternity leave too. There was a lot of walking that day.... as Milly only seems want to sleep whilst on the move in the mornings too now. We used to get a morning nap indoors but it appears that those days are gone. Fortunately the weather was brilliant all last week so I walked and worked on a sun tan at the same time. When Marit got home we went for a swim.... the first time I´ve been with Milly. She really enjoys it.... but is a little bit more sceptical than her friend Sara who throws herself into the water with gay abandon.