Midsummer days

Dearest Sunniva,

I find it hard to write because my heart is so full of emotions that my fingers don't quite know where to begin. Every moment with you is so precious, so charged with curiosity, wonder, discovery and learning, that it can leave our heads spinning whenever your give us an hour or two to ourselves and we have a chance to reflect on it all.

Yes, you require constant energy and attention (and we are happy to give it to you!) but you are also becoming more independent now as you grow from baby to toddler into a real little girl! This month was marked by Mamina and Bhapu-ji's visit from America, which we all savored even more this time after the heart attack last year, and by Mommy's birthday, which we celebrated in the mountains of Rauland, where we saw a moose, a wild hare and caught a trout. Here are some highlights:

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/116634188852734304288/albums/6028086044266473649

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9C8z8iq-_M

Mamina and Bhapu-ji brought you lots of wonderful books from America that they read to me when I was a little boy. Now when I read them to you and we explore together the fantastical world of children's literature, I imagine writing a book about you and having Auntie Liv, Tante Kathrine and Mamina do the illustrations. I dream of all the adventures you are going to have in your life, and all the exciting things that we will do as a family, and I want to capture it all.

The balance between documenting precious moments and actually being present to experience them fully is a tricky one in 2014, at least for someone like me who enjoys the ease with which technology allows us to click, swipe and share our lives in the beat of a drum. Have we taken enough pictures and video? Yes. Can we possibly keep it up? No, yes, maybe. What do we do with it all?!

I guess these questions will answer themselves, and the inexorable trajectory of your life will draw us all along in ways we can't imagine now. I remember Mamina and Bhapu-ji saying to each other as they watched you play in our laps, "We know how this story ends," because they have watched Olivia and me grow up and can now sit and marvel at what our family has become. You are our legacy, their legacy, and their parents' before them.

But enough of old people's nostalgia! This blog is meant to be about you, as Dr. John Watson's is about Sherlock Holmes (we are currently enjoying seasons two and three of the exquisite BBC series Sherlock with Benedict Cumberbatch, which premiered when we were living in London).

Back to literature then. You absolutely love reading, and being read to, and as this has been a constant in your life since you were a tiny baby, it is deeply rewarding to see that it has influenced your prodigious spoken language abilities. We remain in awe of how quickly you learn new words, and that you are able to learn several new words in a day. Just yesterday I reviewed the parts of the body we've been working on recently - 'knee' 'eyebrow' 'toes' 'foot' - and you repeated them all instantaneously and with excellent enunciation (Mamina and Bhapu-ji were particularly impressed by this last skill of yours).

You are developing physically as well, and although not quite as quickly, we did buy your first pair of shoes this week - pink suede! You've learned to stand up by yourself now and can stay standing for several minutes, but you get quite frustrated as you don't know how to get down yet! Your army style Komodo dragon crawl is all but gone (sniff, sniff!) and you now shoot across the floor on all fours. You are fearless in your climbing and exploring, and when you tumble (360s, 720s, twists like a freestyle snowboarder that we find most amusing) you rarely cry. When you do all we have to do is clap our hands or sing a song and you're your smiling, confident self again.

How else would I describe you? You are intrepid, curious, highly intelligent, funny, strong, kind, open, friendly and sociable. You love people (and you call them all 'baby' regardless of age) and animals and books and flowers (to eat!). Despite your tummy troubles that have prevented you from ever having a full night's sleep, you have always woken up - every single morning - in the best of moods; our little sunshine, full of laughter and joy, a sparkle in your eyes, ready to play and learn and love. You are a role model for us - the most wonderful little girl in the whole world!

Love,
Daddy

13 months tomorrow!

"Ohhhh, Sunniva!! Ohhhh, Seeny!!" This is the way I love to get your attention when you're crawling around on the floor and about to put something in your mouth that you know you shouldn't:-) I also say it when we have crawling races, which you love. But I fear that your crawling days are numbered, little one, for you have now begun to stand up on your own and support yourself on either your parents or the furniture. You may well skip the true crawling stage entirely; you've developed the cutest Kimodo dragon style army crawl with your elbows and knees, but it looks like you're ready for the big time now as you're now putting both feet forward when you practice walking between our legs.

So much has happened since I last wrote that I'm just going to have to resign myself to the fact that documenting your growth will necessarily happen through several different media, and may never be complete. That's okay, though, because it's up to you to complete your life story, isn't it?! And although it's up to you, you'll have lots of help, support and encouragement because that's what family is for: Aunt Olivia and Uncle Chris had a wonderful time with you when they were here, and now you pretend to talk to them on your toy phone every day, saying 'Biss' 'Biss'!

Olivia and Chris stayed with us during what was just about the biggest week in your life so far, and certainly for your parents - we put in lots of hours of preparation to beautify house, garden and table so we could celebrate you birthday three times - once just us, once with all your baby friends and finally a lovely 17.mai with Mormor, Morfar and Uncle Andre, too. Celebrating you in such grand style was one of the most rewarding experiences of our lives so far, and we are already looking forward to next year! Here are the pics and video that your aunt and uncle took:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/7752650@N03/sets/72157644415062937/

Norway 2014

After they left we went to Rauland for a long weekend and we took lots of wonderful pictures from the hidden but beautiful sandy beaches on the shores of Lognvikvatn, where I caught your second trout! You woke up just about every hour every night we were there (poor baby, you've gotten four molars over the last four weeks) but the beach, the sunshine, the pine forest, the snow-capped mountains and the solitude were the perfect remedy for all of us. We were practically alone the entire time, as very few people visit Rauland in May, and that was a real treat.

The day after coming back from Rauland you and I went up to Blektjern again - no longer in the stroller, now you sit happily in your baby backpack that your great aunt Sissel used with her kids - and the magic of our weekend continued. A school for handicapped people had brought their students on their annual trip to the pond, and you charmed them all with your babbling, paddling and splashing. You were happy to sit with them and play with puzzles while Daddy took a quick dip, and then they gave us a bucket so we could catch tadpoles, of which there were thousands!

Your language continues to explode as you learn new words every day and are able to copy just about anything we ask you to (as long as it's under three syllables:-). Mamina and Bhapu-ji arrive in just 48 hours, and after ten days with them I'm hoping that your English will have grown by even greater leaps and bounds, and that we will have written another happy chapter in your life story.