föstudagur, desember 30, 2005
I wonder where I am? Who are you guys? Ooh, I like this one, smells good. Will they be able to guess my name?That´s enough for now, good night.
Yes, I`m here in their apt. while they are still at the hospital(second night), sipping my second cup of coffee, having survived the cats one more night, and now actually at their computer which has all instructions in Spanish!! so that sometimes I guess where to clic simply because I remember where it should be! Amazing that I should make it to the hospital and little miss Manuelsdottir should be born within the hour! Manu`s mother and I waited the whole time and had many an interesting "conversation", and stayed til Úlla got into a private room (though I did "sneak" into the salir de partido to take a look and our newest little "alien". And by midnight I was at their apt. trying to go to bed after a long day of mostly waiting and sitting and thinking. And I wasn´t even bored!.
But you guys aren´t interested in my travails.....it´s the baby we all want to hear about. Well, after spending a whole day by Úlla´s side at the hospital yesterday and just talking, and helping the brestfeeding process, I´ve come to see the beginnings of a new little temperment. Yes she already has character. But first, what does she look like? She is very petite in her face, her chin has a dimple just like Manu, her nose is a combo Manu/Úlla thing:top is his and the underside has those little "chiseled" sections like in our family(from Mamma), her lips are Úlla´s just a little thinner, and the rest is all her own. She´s thinner than my kids were, but then she "should" have had another week to gain weight! It´s the hands and feet that are amazing! they´re so long! Long fingers and long toes! She´s a sleepy one, doesn´t want to stay awake to drink, but Úlla is waking her up to get her to take the breast, and the little one is trying and is ok when she can figure out how to grab it, but will get serious hiccups inbetween and even "scream" quite loudly with frustration!...amazing how much sound can come out of such a little thing. jájá. I will try to post a photo (if I can read the spanish instructions). Meanwhile I´ll send a couple email to family, plus address. bless í bili, mamma/ammag
But you guys aren´t interested in my travails.....it´s the baby we all want to hear about. Well, after spending a whole day by Úlla´s side at the hospital yesterday and just talking, and helping the brestfeeding process, I´ve come to see the beginnings of a new little temperment. Yes she already has character. But first, what does she look like? She is very petite in her face, her chin has a dimple just like Manu, her nose is a combo Manu/Úlla thing:top is his and the underside has those little "chiseled" sections like in our family(from Mamma), her lips are Úlla´s just a little thinner, and the rest is all her own. She´s thinner than my kids were, but then she "should" have had another week to gain weight! It´s the hands and feet that are amazing! they´re so long! Long fingers and long toes! She´s a sleepy one, doesn´t want to stay awake to drink, but Úlla is waking her up to get her to take the breast, and the little one is trying and is ok when she can figure out how to grab it, but will get serious hiccups inbetween and even "scream" quite loudly with frustration!...amazing how much sound can come out of such a little thing. jájá. I will try to post a photo (if I can read the spanish instructions). Meanwhile I´ll send a couple email to family, plus address. bless í bili, mamma/ammag
miðvikudagur, desember 28, 2005
Lítil frænka er fædd í Madrid!!
At 19.55 or so tonight local tima, Úlla had a healthy babygirl! Gerður arrived minutes before and called us right away with the happy news. Everything went well, sounds like it was a breeze. At least compared with the horror stories from her relatives, Gerður and Þóra. She has apparently some dark hair but is not as dark skinned as her mother was when she was born. Weighs 3600 g (or 3300).
More details later and hopefully photographs.
So congratulations. Now you are great aunts instead of just great.
At 19.55 or so tonight local tima, Úlla had a healthy babygirl! Gerður arrived minutes before and called us right away with the happy news. Everything went well, sounds like it was a breeze. At least compared with the horror stories from her relatives, Gerður and Þóra. She has apparently some dark hair but is not as dark skinned as her mother was when she was born. Weighs 3600 g (or 3300).
More details later and hopefully photographs.
So congratulations. Now you are great aunts instead of just great.
föstudagur, desember 16, 2005
Ok, so it looks like we´re all going to have to wait until January for mamma´s blog, like pabbi said. Maybe I´ll just make her sit down and blog the minute she arrives in Madrid, which is in less than two weeks (ohno, don´t remind me! mamma says, too many things to do!), yay! What fun! Of course, poor pabbi, Darri and Freysi will be without mamma for way too long, but they´ll probably cope sitting up watching movies all night long, right? And New Year´s Eve won´t be so fun with the family divided between countries, it´s mamma´s and pabbi´s first New Year´s Eve separated for like forever, right? That´ll be strange. But soon we´ll all be together in Spain with the new member of the family (whenever it decides to grace us with its presence) in our little appartment, celebrating a late Xmas with all our little furry friends. Houdini by the way (our little rodent visitor/new roommate) has a really neat new cage made out of plastic so he can´t get out, with windows and a plastic on the outside to run through (just leads back into the cage of course, which was disappointing to him at first), a wheel that he uses frequently (but he does poop a lot in it), and a little house where he´s made this incredible nest inside that´s spilling out the door, it´s so big and elaborated. He´s even collected all the sawdust from the floor around the house to make an even bigger nest effect, it´s very funny. We give him pieces of bread to eat, the only thing that you see come out the door is a nose going up and down, whiskers quivering, and all of a sudden he snatches the bread lightning quickly and pulls it into his nest to eat it there, sometimes half of it sticking out the door while he munches away, too big to fit through the door. He´s very funny.
The baby is doing great, never better, probably doesn´t even want to think of coming out, but we´re getting excited over it´s arrival, me more than Manu of course because it´s getting pretty heavy, but we´re both starting to look forward to seeing it, to finding out if it´s fine and of course seeing it´s little scrunched up face for the first time (not to mention what sex it is, but that´s really more of a detail for us, here in Spain it´s incredible how important it is to people to know the sex of the baby, they think it´s so wierd that we don´t want to know).
So, only one more week of school, finishing up all loose ends there since I won´t go back after Xmas vacation, and longing to sleep a good nights´sleep, which doesn´t happen many times these days, and I suspect that it won´t be a habit either after the baby is born :) I still have my siestas which is when I sleep the soundest, so I´ll just enjoy those at least until I can´t anymore.
About Willems, since people wanted a little bit more information about it, it´s a way of teaching music, but it is not called a method, since it does not try to show you steps to how to give a class. What is important in it is the music in itself and music´s tight relationship with human nature, that when teaching music you use music in itself and not extramusical material. That only leads to false associations and can confuse a lot of things for kids (for example, don´t assign a specific color to a sound, note or chord just for the sake of it or for making things "more fun" for kids, for each individual that sound could mean a different color). It´s about teaching music in a very practical way first, like it were a language, first you learn to talk, then later comes reading and writing, well, the same in music, first you learn to sing, to beat rhythms, to improvise, to listen, to move to music, then later comes the theory. It works really well when you can start with young kids, the best age is to start at three so that they have four years of music classes before starting theory, and the theory is always taught in a very dinamic way too, never making things dull.
So now I have the Willems diploma, which means that I´m a certified Willems teacher, but it´s not an official title here in Spain. The good thing though is that a lot of music schools know of it and are starting to recognize it as something good, some even asking for it as a condition for getting a job. So, let´s hope that it´ll be useful, for me personally it has been more than useful, it´s changed my relationship with music, giving me a much deeper perspective of what is music and its relationship with our nature. The course is taught by this French man, Jacues Chapuis (along with other Spanish teachers too), who comes every month one weekend to give the course, he´s already 80 years old, but still very sharp, and he actually knew and worked with Edgar Willems. So the course was actually an amazing source of knowledge.
Anyway, better go eat something, getting hungry already (I´m always hungry these days, but I eat constantly in little proportions over the day). I´ll just use the opportunity now to say: Merry Xmas to everybody, wherever you are in the world!!
The baby is doing great, never better, probably doesn´t even want to think of coming out, but we´re getting excited over it´s arrival, me more than Manu of course because it´s getting pretty heavy, but we´re both starting to look forward to seeing it, to finding out if it´s fine and of course seeing it´s little scrunched up face for the first time (not to mention what sex it is, but that´s really more of a detail for us, here in Spain it´s incredible how important it is to people to know the sex of the baby, they think it´s so wierd that we don´t want to know).
So, only one more week of school, finishing up all loose ends there since I won´t go back after Xmas vacation, and longing to sleep a good nights´sleep, which doesn´t happen many times these days, and I suspect that it won´t be a habit either after the baby is born :) I still have my siestas which is when I sleep the soundest, so I´ll just enjoy those at least until I can´t anymore.
About Willems, since people wanted a little bit more information about it, it´s a way of teaching music, but it is not called a method, since it does not try to show you steps to how to give a class. What is important in it is the music in itself and music´s tight relationship with human nature, that when teaching music you use music in itself and not extramusical material. That only leads to false associations and can confuse a lot of things for kids (for example, don´t assign a specific color to a sound, note or chord just for the sake of it or for making things "more fun" for kids, for each individual that sound could mean a different color). It´s about teaching music in a very practical way first, like it were a language, first you learn to talk, then later comes reading and writing, well, the same in music, first you learn to sing, to beat rhythms, to improvise, to listen, to move to music, then later comes the theory. It works really well when you can start with young kids, the best age is to start at three so that they have four years of music classes before starting theory, and the theory is always taught in a very dinamic way too, never making things dull.
So now I have the Willems diploma, which means that I´m a certified Willems teacher, but it´s not an official title here in Spain. The good thing though is that a lot of music schools know of it and are starting to recognize it as something good, some even asking for it as a condition for getting a job. So, let´s hope that it´ll be useful, for me personally it has been more than useful, it´s changed my relationship with music, giving me a much deeper perspective of what is music and its relationship with our nature. The course is taught by this French man, Jacues Chapuis (along with other Spanish teachers too), who comes every month one weekend to give the course, he´s already 80 years old, but still very sharp, and he actually knew and worked with Edgar Willems. So the course was actually an amazing source of knowledge.
Anyway, better go eat something, getting hungry already (I´m always hungry these days, but I eat constantly in little proportions over the day). I´ll just use the opportunity now to say: Merry Xmas to everybody, wherever you are in the world!!
fimmtudagur, desember 01, 2005
Oh well, since noone else is going to contribute to this family blog, I guess I should keep it up. It´s been way to long without any news from anyone and I´m getting bored of my last one.
So, we´re already in December, Mamma will be here in four weeks and the baby (hopefully) in five. I´m as big as a whale and feel like a stranded one every time I lie down and have to get up again, which I have to do frequently during the night, seeing that there´s someone sitting on my bladder, bonking its head once in a while ever so sweetly against it to wake me up. Between that and the kicks I recieve in my rib bones and having to change my position every 20 minutes since my hips hurt so much, I don´t get very much sleep. I compensate by sleeping a small siesta in the afternoon, but that usually leaves me even more tired than before. Oh well, it´s all for a good cause though :)
Well, we thought the newest family member would be the baby, but someone else arrived before it. Last Sunday morning Mishka was going crazy in our little extra room, and we went to check what was going on. Thinking that she had found a cockroach, which is usually the case, we started moving things around to find and exterminate it. Manu pulls out this chair we have there, looks underneath it and sort of freezes. I ask him what´s the matter and he says: "Úlla, there´s a mouse sitting on the vacuum cleaner!" You can imagine my surprise, I bend over to look, and there he was, a tiny little white mouse with red eyes, just sitting there. We threw the cat out of the room, who of course started to throw herself at the door, and stood around for a few minutes thinking of how to catch it. After a while, since it didn´t move at all, I decided to try sticking out my hand, and sure enough, it just walked into my hand and sat down! So there we stood with this tiny little animal in our hands, wondering where on earth it had come from. We still don´t know and won´t ever find out I guess, since we even put up and ad in our building to see if someone had lost it, but nothing. Clearly it´s domesticated because it has no problem in being picked up, but where it´s from, no idea. I think it might be amma, reincarnated to watch over her greatgrandchild.
But that´s not the end of the story. We go out and buy it a cage and it´s all happy in its new home, until last Tuesday we come home, we look in the cage and there´s no mouse. We couldn´t believe it. Mishka came into the room, and went directly into a corner sniffing around, so we threw her out again, took out all the suitcases that were there, and sure enough there it was, running around on the floor! We picked it up, put it back in its cage, and it couldn´t have been happier, started to eat and drink like crazy, poor thing was famished. But we couldn´t understand how it had gotten out, I was even more convinced than ever that this was some magical spirit. Yesterday I finally saw how he does it. He had found a place in his cage where the bars were a little more separated than others and he just stuck out his body, wriggling and wriggling until he finally got out. It was the funniest thing I had ever seen, because his back legs took longer to get out, and he pushed on the bars with his front paws to get them out, it was just like a cartoon!! So, no magical powers, just a stubborn little mouse who likes to be free. Maybe we´ll call him Houdini. I went straight out this morning and bought a little plastic box with a lid to breathe and there he is until further notice, already trying as he can to get out of this one.
So, we´re actually turning into a numerous family, what with two cats, a mouse and a new baby!! This´ll be lots of fun! Let´s just hope the baby doesn´t know how to do disappearing acts like the mouse, that´s just what we needed (not yet at least, that´ll come later, right?)!
Úlla.
So, we´re already in December, Mamma will be here in four weeks and the baby (hopefully) in five. I´m as big as a whale and feel like a stranded one every time I lie down and have to get up again, which I have to do frequently during the night, seeing that there´s someone sitting on my bladder, bonking its head once in a while ever so sweetly against it to wake me up. Between that and the kicks I recieve in my rib bones and having to change my position every 20 minutes since my hips hurt so much, I don´t get very much sleep. I compensate by sleeping a small siesta in the afternoon, but that usually leaves me even more tired than before. Oh well, it´s all for a good cause though :)
Well, we thought the newest family member would be the baby, but someone else arrived before it. Last Sunday morning Mishka was going crazy in our little extra room, and we went to check what was going on. Thinking that she had found a cockroach, which is usually the case, we started moving things around to find and exterminate it. Manu pulls out this chair we have there, looks underneath it and sort of freezes. I ask him what´s the matter and he says: "Úlla, there´s a mouse sitting on the vacuum cleaner!" You can imagine my surprise, I bend over to look, and there he was, a tiny little white mouse with red eyes, just sitting there. We threw the cat out of the room, who of course started to throw herself at the door, and stood around for a few minutes thinking of how to catch it. After a while, since it didn´t move at all, I decided to try sticking out my hand, and sure enough, it just walked into my hand and sat down! So there we stood with this tiny little animal in our hands, wondering where on earth it had come from. We still don´t know and won´t ever find out I guess, since we even put up and ad in our building to see if someone had lost it, but nothing. Clearly it´s domesticated because it has no problem in being picked up, but where it´s from, no idea. I think it might be amma, reincarnated to watch over her greatgrandchild.
But that´s not the end of the story. We go out and buy it a cage and it´s all happy in its new home, until last Tuesday we come home, we look in the cage and there´s no mouse. We couldn´t believe it. Mishka came into the room, and went directly into a corner sniffing around, so we threw her out again, took out all the suitcases that were there, and sure enough there it was, running around on the floor! We picked it up, put it back in its cage, and it couldn´t have been happier, started to eat and drink like crazy, poor thing was famished. But we couldn´t understand how it had gotten out, I was even more convinced than ever that this was some magical spirit. Yesterday I finally saw how he does it. He had found a place in his cage where the bars were a little more separated than others and he just stuck out his body, wriggling and wriggling until he finally got out. It was the funniest thing I had ever seen, because his back legs took longer to get out, and he pushed on the bars with his front paws to get them out, it was just like a cartoon!! So, no magical powers, just a stubborn little mouse who likes to be free. Maybe we´ll call him Houdini. I went straight out this morning and bought a little plastic box with a lid to breathe and there he is until further notice, already trying as he can to get out of this one.
So, we´re actually turning into a numerous family, what with two cats, a mouse and a new baby!! This´ll be lots of fun! Let´s just hope the baby doesn´t know how to do disappearing acts like the mouse, that´s just what we needed (not yet at least, that´ll come later, right?)!
Úlla.
