Back on line again!

Some of you may have noticed that we have been off line for a little while. This was due to an extremely inconvenient hard drive crash and internet failure which meant that we have had little or no contact with the outside world via email or skype for the last week. Other consequences included the loss of all photographs and personal information stored on our machine. Unfortunately, even with backups of most photographs, all taken during the period Jan-Apr 2007 have been lost. If you have copies of any of the photographs that we took during this period, we would appreciate you sending them to us either via skype file transfer or one of our email addresses. For those of you who are experiencing Grier withdrawal symptons please enjoy her latest photograph. She was at the health sister today for her two week weigh-in (sounds like a prize fighter) and now weighs 4 kilos and 40 grams (you can do the imperial maths yourselves) - since birth she has gained 660 grams which according to the health sister is very good progress indeed. The remains of her umbilical cord have disappeared and she continues to be happy, healthy and at times a handful!

The snow has returned.

Today some snow returned and after blustery showers in the morning, a sunny crisp winter day was revealed- it was beautiful. We decided to test drive the new pram and went for a long walk around part of the island. The scenery was great and Grier seemed to enjoy spending so long out in the fresh air. She spent most of the trip fast asleep all cosied up in her sheepskin rug. The pram passed the test drive with flying colours, covering all sort of snowy terrain with ease. After a visit to the woolshop and grocers, we returned home for some well earned tea and lunch. The snow seems to bring out the best in norwegians as they all venture out to enjoy walking, dog walking, cross country ski-ing, sparking and even power sliding in their cars!

72nd birthday celebrations.

One set of Grandparents/ Parents/ Outlaws are here at the moment enjoying their new grandchild. They can't keep their eyes off of Grier and are doting on her all day whilst helping with the washing and dishes. Bestefar had his 72nd birthday yesterday - so many congratulations from all of us. The weather was pretty poor which meant our plans for a long walk along the coast were delayed for another day. Instead we visited the Notteroey bakery and had some lunch before returning home to eat birthday cake. You may have noticed that we have removed some photographs from the blog. These will return soon in a slide show format, once Craig works out how to do it!

The name's Lennie, Grier Lennie.

As many of you already know, we have named our little girl Grier which is a scottish name that means watchful and vigilant. We have not decided on whether she will have a middle name or not but will keep you posted. Thank you to those who have texted, called, commented and sent mail - it has made what is a very special time for us even better. Ruth-Cheryl is recovering from the birth well and is getting used to Grier's needs. Craig has taken two weeks paternity leave and his duties include cooking/cleaning/changing nappies and bathing. Grier sleeps most of the time and hardly ever cries which allows all of us to recharge batteries after the events of last weekend.

A new arrival.

At 1144 CET on Saturday 26th January 2008, our beautiful little baby daughter entered the world weighing 3380g which in old money is 7 lbs 4.5 oz. Both mother and baby are doing really well and after a 1 day stay in hospital, the 3 of us returned home to start our new life together. As you can see from the photograph, she has some light brown hair and is usually the case with newborns, blue eyes. She is an inquisitive little beau who seems to be adapting to her new surroundings with nae problems, infact, all the norwegian midwives commented on how calm and contented she is. We'll let you enjoy the foties and will keep you in suspenders until the next post with regards to her name!

A sneak preview.

Hello folks, we are back on line again and have finally sorted out our landline problem - hooray! If you want to talk, give us a call on skype or the landline. Ruth-Cheryl still hasn't dropped yet but is enjoying experiencing lots of kicking from the little one. We have started to get the house tidied up which is supposedly called "nesting" - the art of preparing for the new arrival. Craig is enduring his first full week at work for ages and gets butterflies every time the office phone rings as he waits for the "my waters have broken" call! Thanks to Judipudi for being the first contributor to our blog - all nice comments are most welcome. We'll keep you updated on baby events as and when they happen. Ha det bra!

Our house is on fire.

Today we received a text telling us "your house is on fire!" Being in the house at the time meant that we weren't overly alarmed, however, after some detective work and a visit to avisanordland http://www.an.no/ (northern Norway's daily newspaper), our house was actually on fire - our old house in Bodo! For those of you who have visited the website and don't understand norsk, the fire was reported at 4 o'clock today and after having fought their way through heavy smoke, the firemen confirmed that no-one was injured in the fire. Scary biscuits...