Spring cleaning

Needless to say Daddy is ecstatic to have his beautiful girls back at home - life is much more fun with you two around! This week spring has come to Drammen, the sunshine bringing everyone outdoors to play, marvel, bask, and of course, clean. I've started swimming once a week and was inspired to get a family pass to Drammensbadet, where we all went on Friday to begin our weekend. You loved the water and your mom and I had great fun passing you back and forth between us, making sure to dunk you just enough so you could splash, paddle and kick, but not so much that you would swallow water!

The day before we went on a lovely, long walk along the north side of the river (keep on the sunny side;-) underneath where the highway intersects with the train tracks and past the industrial area to the mouth of Drammensfjord. Yesterday we put up new blinds in everyone's rooms (a must with the everpresent light of this half of the year in Norway) and today we started our spring cleaning. Mommy cleaned out her closet - none of her clothes fit anymore because you've kept her so busy this past year - and I spent the morning in the garden assessing winter's damage: 3/4 of a rhododendron snapped off, one old blueberry bush broken beyond repair, and several other berry stems similarly ravaged by the cold and the weight of the snow and ice. 

Not as bad as I feared, actually, and I think the berries will do fine after the pruning I gave them, as I saw many new shoots and buds on their stems. I was also delighted to see the rhubarb beginning to unfold its giant leaves, the tiny lupine leaves poking their way up through the dead litter from last year, and these burgeoning bluebells that will surely bloom this week if they can handle the still-freezing nights.

My first week alone

Dearest Sunniva,

My nature blog has become an homage to you; a place to record milestones in your life as well as my thoughts and feelings (when I have the time) on becoming a father. You and your mom have been in Haugesund this week, and it has been very difficult to be without you both. We all flew over together last Friday and had a very pleasant weekend with Mormor, Morfar and Tante Kathrine (and visits with the Børtveits and Edvardsens) but I had to return to Drammen on Sunday night in order to work this week.

Saying goodbye to you for the first time ever simply overwhelmed me. All day long I was ill at ease, and when it finally came time to kiss you on the forehead one last time and wave goodbye (you're just learning how to wave now, and to stretch your arms out lovingly, inquisitively, to us) the floodgates broke and I ended up crying all the way to the airport, a good twenty minutes. I couldn't - didn't - want to speak, not even when Mommy asked me to.

I was full of a mess of feelings - sadness, loneliness, emptiness, regret, longing, nostalgia - and as has been the case throughout your entire first year of life, the lack of sleep magnifies everything and tends to make reactions stronger. Not that I have the right to talk about lack of sleep, as the sacrifices your mother has made night and day for you dwarf my contributions, and she's the one who deserves eternal recognition and gratitude for all her hard work, love, patience and care.

Despite my shortcomings, your reflux, teething (seven!), and not yet sleeping through the night we have had the most wonderful time since you came into our lives ten and a half months ago. You are without a doubt the greatest gift we could ever have, and you have changed us, enriched us, educated us, and most of all, entertained us with your charmingly hesitant laugh (ever bolder now), your quickness to learn, your burgeoning language (Ma-ma! Pa-pa! Gugg! Baum! Di!) and your unfettered joy at discovering yourself and your surroundings.

We are so thankful to have such a beautiful baby daughter, our Gentle Seen, for whom we would do anything and everything. As I reflect now on our week apart, I am filled with renewed energy and determination to be there for you, to be present with you, to listen to you, talk with you, sing with you, play the guitar and banjo and piano and harmonica and Tanzanian whistle with you, watch you clap and wave and crawl and grow more and more into your own person every day. I've put together some new furniture for your from while you've been away, so I hope you like what you see when you come home tomorrow!

Love,
Daddy (Pa-pa!)