Family time

 I've finally finished my exams, and I'm off to see my sister and her family next weekend

 specifically, my niece Dina and my nephew Andreas

 Here pictured at Easter (ahem ahem)

"Does anyone want to go to the hairdresser?"

The most glorious cherry cheeks that ever existed

Christmas 2015 at my sister's house

 My niece and nephew had a lot of christmassy energy going on

 Even though my sister had limited their number of presents this year

 Andreas, two and a half years old, will be a famous portrait photographer

 Or a famous paparazzi?

 Andreas, me and Dina waiting for the opening of presents. 

Andreas was wearing a shirt, but it disappeared.

 Some indoors skiing, trying on his sister's new ski boots and skis

 Sister helping out, documenting her brother's skills with an ipad

 "I'll film you first, then you can film me afterwards"

 Trading of skis and ipads

Andreas with his paternal grandfather (i.e. not my dad), enjoying his new books

Christmas with my sister, brother in law, and niece and nephew (respectively five and two years old) was a rollercoaster of an experience, as it is when you throw expectations, sweets, sugar, presents and late bed hours into the mix. It was so good seeing them again, and realising how much they've grown in the past two months. Also being with children at Christmas is beautiful - the past two Christmases I've spent in Colombia and Spain with all grown-ups. Being with children I get to show more of my childish side and go back to my own childhood Christmases, which is nostalgia heaven. 

Family times

 Andreas has gotten so much bigger since last time - two months of his life is actually quite a bit

 And he's getting up, falling down, walking about, climbing, fidgeting and enjoying himself

 not to mention throwing soap bubble containers into coffee cups and laughing

 While Dina and I had an entertaining show for "the adults" (I don't count as one of them).
Said show consisted of singing, playing drums with spoons and drinking water from a bowl

We also had slightly creepy mask scenes in the middle of the day

As these children seem to have a neverending energy. That never ends.

While the rest of us fell down into chairs and sofas and dozed on every available surface at different points of the day, these two kept going until a little past bedtime. I love my niece and nephew, but I must clearly build up some stamina.

Mountains and babies

 A few weeks ago my mum and I took a roadtrip

 From Tromsø to Setermoen, to see my sister and her children

 Namely, Andreas, aged almost nine months

 and Dina, aged almost four years

 And let's have another photo of Andreas because of baby cheeks

What did we do? We bought food, we made food, we ate food, and then we played around and watched films and baked and sang songs and pinched cheeks. Oh, and we celebrated mother's day, so Dina and I both made cards for our mums.

Dina Sofie

 Dina and me, March 2012

 Her being adorable

 Dina and the old family dog of her dad

Dina and me on my birthday last year (yes, this was taken on March 25th)

Gratulerer med dagen Dina!

Today is my niece's third birthday, and I just realised I haven't been there for any of them. When she was born in 2010 I was in England, same in 2011, last year I was in Spain on her birthday, this year I'm in Nicaragua. I'll try to be home when she's older though, and she'll actually remember it. Please note that all the most adorable photos of her were taken around her second birthday, when she was old enough to pose for the camera, and young enough to still love being photographed. Nowadays, the elderly lady of three gets a bit tired of all these cameras and phone cameras in her face all the time.

Superglad i deg!

Angry bird

 Dina deciding to switch chairs every two minutes when we were at the library last Friday

 Dragging the table to the chair, climbing into it

 Then realising the table was too close. ADORABLE, YES

Later: refocusing her energies on drawing

My niece is wonderful, especially when she gets annoyed about the tiniest things. We had a really good day together, hiding behind the armchair to keep away from the lions, whilst drinking "coffee" from water bottles, then going to the library to pretend to read books, and change seats every two minutes.

A few weeks ago

 I went to visit my dearest

 Who has the most amazing hair, only surpassed by her mother

And I sat inside in the sunshine and pretended it was warm outside

We watched Pippi in the South Seas, (childhood memories!) and when I asked Dina whether she wanted to sneak up on people like a goshawk, she replied yes, although I'm not quite sure whether she understood what she was agreeing to do.

 When I came home from the autumn camp on Sunday,

I wasn't prepared for my sister and niece still being there, happy surprise!

Dina is "reading" The Forgotten Affairs of Youth, which I think is very fitting for a two-and-a-half-year old.

Always surprised by how sophisticated and clever children can be. Today I was photographing the daughter of my workmate, and she was also very well reflected and perfectly aware of everything that was going on, even if she's only one year older than my niece.

Family, family

 Dad to the left, old farm building being brought by man in tractor, to the right

 Dina getting chocolate from her great grandmother, look at her shifty eyes

 Brother visiting from Svalbard

Sister and grandmother being serious cats.

This has been a massively family-themed weekend. My sister, her fiance and my niece came up from Setermoen, my brother came down from Svalbard (Longyearbyen), and our grandmother visited us even though she lives quite close.

I don't know if I said, but my brother is a chef's apprentice at Svalbard (which is far away and makes Tromsø look southern, warm and bright in the winter). He left at the end of July, which isn't that long ago, but he leaves again on Tuesday, and we shall probably not see him before Christmas.

Wednesday Morning (now we have rain)

 homemade bus shed

 homemade, tiny apples

home, home, home

Today is work, then home to see my sister and niece and my sister's man. Also my brother, who moved to Svalbard one month ago, and is now visiting us because he misses us so much. 

Dina

 "This is moon" "But he's a banana?" "No auntie, it's a moooon" 

 Mississippi Mud Pie, very very much recommended (dark, sticky chocolate cake)

Far too aware of cameras at this age

I went to see my niece last weekend, as planned. She is far too adorable and far too clever and we were playing all day long. I also got to spend time with my sister, playing a trivia game from 2006 - mostly with questions about who won So You Think You Can Dance in 2006 and so on, watching a film and making chocolate goodness.

Back home

March 2012

I spent yesterday and today unpacking, and I can't believe how many things I own. And so much random stuff too, which I can't throw away because of reasons (mostly nostalgia).

And now I'm going on a two hour drive to see my lovely niece and give her a book and maybe get some exercise (which has been down on my priority list during this moving period) by running around the house with her, and stay there a few days.

I promise you, regular blog posts will be back soon!