Two weeks ago, Ronja, Mads, and I had been to Ronja’s swimming lesson. On the way home we had something to eat, and well at home, I read Ronja a bedtime story, while Mads made tea and prepared Ronja’s lunch box for the next day. I had only just kissed Ronja goodnight when the water broke - well over a month early. Thus surprised, we alerted the grandmothers and packed a bag for the hospital. 11:15 p.m. Mads’ mother arrived, and at midnight Mads and I were at the hospital. After several examinations, Mads and I had a few hours sleep in the hospital, waiting for the labour to start. About 10 hours later, our beautiful little Frida saw the light of day at 11.48 a.m. September 28th after a good birth without complications – though rather well attended because of her being a bit early.

We spent a week in the hospital – the first two days in the neonatal intensive care unit, partly due to her early birth, partly due to the fact that she has a cleft palate. Anyhow, they wanted to make sure, that she would be able to eat and breathe as she should. After two days we were moved out of neonatal, but they still wanted to keep her in the hospital to make sure she gained weight. Finally she had to have light therapy for two days as a treatment for jaundice – at this point I really wanted to go home, because even though Mads and Ronja came to visit for a few hours every day, the days in the hospital seemed terribly long, and a little bit lonely, with hours of just looking at the tiny baby in the light box next to me.

The girls taking a nap with their Dad

Last Thursday we were let loose and it was SO good to finally be home. Ronja was understandably rather confused while Frida and I were in hospital, and from the moment we were home she was much more balanced. She is definitely a very proud big sister!

Because of Frida’s early arrival, we were far from ready for the baby at home when we left for the hospital. My maternity leave had not yet started when the water broke, and all the preparations that I had planned for the remaining month had not yet been made. So while I was in hospital, Mads had been busy, preparing as much as he could, finishing the work in Frida’s room, finding the necessary baby gear etc. I was really happy to find that the house was ready for the baby when we got home. We would have liked to have the living room repainted (and a bit more than that) before the new family member’s arrival, but that’s something we’re going to have to do some other time. Pictures of Frida (and the rest of us) are found here.

The new bathroom

Speaking of the house, I should mention that what needs to be done upstairs now, are final touches. The bathroom and Ronja’s room are finished, and only a few things need to be done in Frida’s room. The hallway is finished, so except for the staircase everything is pretty much done! You can see the updated gallery here – pictures from Frida’s room will be there when it is finished.

Now we’re slowly getting used to being a family of 4. When Ronja was born, Mads planted a tree in the garden – what we call the Ronja-tree. Last weekend, Ronja and Mads bought a tree for Frida, which they planted when they got home, so that she too can have her own tree.

At the moment Frida is sleeping here next to me – we should probably follow suit soon.

We just came back from a trip to the circus – Cirkus Arena – a few hours ago, and we had a great time. It was Ronja’s first time at a circus, and I believe she had sense impressions enough for a few weeks. She was completely dazzled for two hours, and when we got home, she was so tired, she could hardly speak.
Our summer vacation is almost over, and it has been a really welcome break with a combination of work upstairs and relaxation.
We started the vacation with a one week trip to Mallorca. Three days were spent with a rental car, to see some of the island, which proved a really good idea. The mountains in the north west part of the island are just beautiful, and we enjoyed the landscape, the groves of citrus fruits and olive trees, and the picturesque villages (especially Deià ) with the amazing terracotta colours. We also had a lot of fun just driving in the hairpin turns in the mountains, which is something none of us had tried before.
The rest of the time was spent going for walks and relaxing by the pool (not Ronja, she soaked in the pool, going home with wrinkled fingers and toes). Pictures can be found here.

Well back from Mallorca, we agreed that we had to make some progress on the 2nd floor, meaning as usual, that Mads would work, and I would take care of Ronja and the house. Even though we would enjoy more to spend our summer vacation together, this has been working quite ok, with the breaks we have made room for in the last two weeks.

Twistbread

On the 2nd floor Mads has been making great progress. The bathroom is nearly finished, though right now Mads is concentrating on the rooms and the hallway to bring them up to the same stage. The work that remains is roughly; finishing the walls with fiberglass tissue, laying the floor, painting, and some finishing touches. It doesn’t sound like much, and though there may be a bit more to it, than you would know, we’re not far away from “reopening” the 2nd floor – exciting! As always – updated documentation from the rebuilding process is to be found here.

Besides the trip to Mallorca, we have made room for a trip to Boesdal Kalkbrud, where we made a fire and had fun making twistbread and sausages. Very nice afternoon!

Everything is going seemingly as it should with the young passenger in my stomach – I’m getting a bit heavier, but I guess that’s normal since the arrival is only 3 months away now. I have – as promised long ago – posted some ultrasound pictures, that you can find here.

I put Ronja to bed a while ago. She stopped using her soother 10 days ago, and the last three days she has been sleeping like a baby when we’ve put her to bed. So except for the first week, it really wasn’t so hard. She doesn’t ask for the soother anymore, so I think we can safely call that project a success!

We have a few changes coming up in the house on Lille Stationsvej, since Ronja is going to start kindergarten in the middle of June (which she is looking sooooo much forward to) – and furthermore – the big change – for those who don’t know yet, she is going to be a big sister at the end of October! (The t-shirt she is wearing in the picture to the right says “Jeg skal være storesøster”, or in English “I’m going to be a big sister”) Very exciting! We went to a scan at Roskilde Hospital in the middle of April, and at that time everything looked fine. I’ll try to remember to post pictures from the scan sometime soon.

We’re all excited to add one more member to the family, and Ronja is showing a great interest in the event. She doesn’t seem impatient at all, as you might expect, but rather well understanding, that the baby needs to grow before it enters the world.

View into what used to be Ronja’s room

As a natural consequence, Mads and I have become very aware, that we need to make something happen upstairs, so that our bathroom – as well as the other rooms – will be finished before my little passenger arrives. The last month has been rather slow on the rebuilding, to say the least. Mads has been very busy at work, he has been to Los Angeles for a week, and we have had several other doings. When you’re working on the house in your spare time, you really need to ensure that you have some – at least in order to see a progress. So now we’re trying to get focused again. You will find the almost updated photo album from upstairs here.

This past weekend we had Jolanda and Jakob visiting from Amsterdam, which was really nice, since we haven’t seen each other for quite a while. We relaxed and had a good time in which, among other things, we went to Bakken and Holmegaard Glassworks.

It’s too late in the evening for me to write a novel, but I can tell you that a lot is happening upstairs at the moment.

Today Mads and one of our friends made the concrete floor for the bathroom, and the walls are also shaping up now. The next steps are the walls in the bathroom and the electrical wiring. There’s still lots of work to do!

Check out the new pictures here.

Spring really came today, so we spent quite a lot of time outside and went for a walk with Ronja ahead on her tricycle. The sun definitely does magic!

That’s it for now!

No, you’re right – the picture is almost cheating. We’ve had one day like that this past Saturday, and I just had to post a real winter picture. The rest of January has been all about beating records on high temperatures and rain. Saturday we got out the sled, and Sunday the snow was gone, leaving the sled a sad sight, the way it stood there in the rainy yard, filled with water.

As opposed to December when we took a break from working on the 2nd floor, Mads has been making some great progress upstairs these past weeks, finishing the insulation and mounting the first layer of wallboards – the last part with much appreciated help from our friend Martin.

Mads and Martin at work

It now looks like a room, the insulation keeps the place fairly warm, even though it’s not heated yet – and it’s definitely getting easier to see the end of it. We have a long way to go before it’s finished, but it’s a great feeling to be this far ahead in the process. As always, pictures can be seen here.

Ronja is getting so big – you’ll find a video of her singing “Bro Bro Brille” here. Have patience – it takes a few minutes for it to load, and the quality is not that great – however, the important thing is what’s on it.

October 1st I started my new work at VIA Travel. Since then I have been going through a well planned learning program, well aware that I have no knowledge up front about business travel. Now, three weeks later, I know a whole lot more, even though I still have a long way to go. My first time with the company has been very positive, and I’m looking forward to get going on my own – even though, I guess it’ll be a while yet. Everybody has been very kind and forthcoming – not to mention patient! ;o)

Last weekend I celebrated my 31st birthday, starting Saturday night with a girls’ dinner. We had a cosy evening with lots of girl talk and good laughs! I have never had a tradition of doing something special for my birthday, but I think I’ll keep doing the girl dinner-thing – and it’s also a nice opportunity for some great girls to get to know each other. Sunday morning Mads and Ronja woke me up with a birthday song, gifts, and breakfast. Mads got me tickets for the show “Gasolin“, which I’m looking so much forward to seeing. I’ll have to wait until December, but then we’ll make a long evening out of it. The weather was really good (of course), so we spent the day in the garden building the swing set that Ronja got for her birthday. In the evening we went to a small restaurant – nothing fancy, but we had a really nice evening.

Pumpkin man

Today Ronja and I made a pumpkin man, since Halloween is coming up. We had lots of fun doing it, and I think he even turned out quite handsome! Later, some of our friends came over for coffee, and in the afternoon Ronja and I went to Vallø Castle, just walking in the park, kicking the fallen leaves and talking to the ducks. Great day! Mads of course has been working upstairs – I’ll include more about that next time! ;o)

The new windows arrived

It was a great feeling to come home yesterday to find the new windows for the entire house in the driveway. They look really good – Mads and I have been going over each and every window to see if everything is as it should be – and they are just perfect. Excactly the way we wanted. Now I can’t wait to see what the house will look like once the new windows have replaced the old ones.

We want to install them as soon as possible – however, there is still some work that needs to be done upstairs, before we can start with that project. The first priority right now is to get ready for making the floor upstairs, which is really important since part of that process is the floor insulation. It is starting to get a little bit chilly in the house now, but we would rather not turn on the heat before we have the floor insulation upstairs in place – that would be a waste of heat.

Mads is working upstairs at the moment – I should probably get him to come down and have a cup of tea before bedtime! ;o)

I did this! ;o)

I have posted some pictures from our 2nd floor and the way it looks at the moment – you can find them here. For those who don’t know, we’re tearing everything down upstairs to rebuild it the way we want it. Take a look!

Bathing in the garden

A lot of things have happened since I last wrote.

Summer has arrived, which is a great thing. The house is expanded into the garden, and much of our time is spent outdoors – working, relaxing, playing, etc. Mads’ birthday was the 3rd of June, and among other things he received a Weber fireplace, which has already given us several cosy evenings in the garden around the fire. On the evening of his birthday we celebrated by going to a nice restaurant without Ronja – and we had the best time. House of Souls as the restaurant is called is always good for a guaranteed positive food experience in a wonderful and friendly atmosphere. We rounded off the evening with “The Da Vinci Code” – my personal opinion of the movie is that it’s better than its reputation – though not a masterpiece. We definitely had a really nice evening!

Mads finished his education as a technical designer with a fine result two weeks ago, and he’s now permanently employed, modelling 3D in the plant space design department in DONG Energy where he also worked as an intern. So that’s the end of fulltime education for this couple – at least for a little while… ;o)

Now we’re going to concentrate on our house. The plan is to rebuild the entire second floor on the inside, and that is actually what Mads’ final project on his education was about. Good thing he got a good grade – now we dare use the drawings… ;o) Take a look here (pdf) if you want to see a 3D drawing of the house the way it will look – when we’re done! Notice that you can rotate the drawing, look inside and other cool stuff (if you have Adobe Reader 7.0 that is – otherwise you can get it for free here)! We ordered the new doors and windows yesterday, which is a big thing. The choice fell on Outline Vinduer after researching the market thoroughly, and now we’re looking forward to seeing the windows arrive in approximately 10 weeks.

Ronja is learning new words all the time, and she has also started combining them, which makes way for a good laugh once in a while. She enjoys the good weather as much as anyone – running around in the garden finding snails, picking flowers and making sand cakes.

Everything’s fine – though at the moment Ronja and I are both spending a few days at home with severe sore throats, which is less amusing. Well, well – it’ll pass, and I do believe the summer is still there when it does.