There was some sort of origami dog team competition in Anna’s class. It had something to do with making lots of dogs out of two sheets of paper to get points, but you had to make many sizes of dogs because each size prompted a new point-level.
The rules were pretty confusing, but Anna attacked the problem with gusto and I was really tired, so I didn’t dig too deep. (3 images total)
Here are Anna’s dogs.
Anna started complaining of an achy heel a few weeks ago, and it only got progressively worse as time went on. Since it just didn’t seem like it was getting better, and she’d starting limping around, I took her to the health clinic on 1 October, where she was diagnosed with “Sever’s Disease“.
Basically (if the diagnosis is correct), there’s a growth-line in her heel bone which is inflamed (and so are bits of the Achilles tendon). This is apparently pretty common in kids that are growing fast (going through puberty) and practice sports with a lot of jumping and running (such as team handball). It’s supposed to completely go away on its own as the growth line settles down, but until then she was told to take it easy for 2 weeks in the hopes that it would get better.
So we tried that. Having Anna take it easy. And it. Just. Didn’t. Work.
She’d literally come home from school every day (or every other day if we were lucky), and tell us just how she’d somehow managed to re-strain her heel. It was an impressive list of mangling techniques.
In order to save her from herself, we therefore decided to elope to the countryside for the weekend, armed with a ton of Donald Duck comics from the library. And by golly, it worked! She got through the weekend without re-injuring herself, and we got a nice weekend at Laugarvatn for our troubles. (16 images total)
At Finnur’s parent’s summer house by Laugarvatn.
The snow left almost as quickly as it came. Only a few remnants remained a little longer than others.Read more
Emma’s been teething and thus unusually unhappy about life, the universe, and everything. To give her a different view of the world, I sat her up on the sofa with a view of the snow outside, which calmed her down.
And since the light was nice, I grabbed my camera. (8 images total)
Here’s my favorite photo of the bunch:
Emma Ósk, four days short of being 8 months old.
The first snow fall of the winter was AWESOME!! Instead of the usual dusting that comes and is gone in five minutes, we got a ton of snow overnight, easily enough for sledding!
That was great for me because the kids had a huge incentive to get through the morning routine and out the door as quickly as possible. (Finnur’s in Berlin on a short work trip.) Yay! (12 images total)
Bjarki all geared up, wearing Anna’s old snow-suit.
[Written 8 October 2013]
Emma’s been working hard on her motor skills, and this past week she’s been perfecting the art of sitting up by herself. Well done, Emma! (6 images total)
Emma goes from her tummy to sitting up. Easy piece-y!
I continued my quest for a suitable dinner outfit that day, and found something not quite terrible at Fröken Júlía – Búð fyrir konur (Ms. Julia – A Store For Women) in the tiny Mjódd shopping center. Afterwards I patched my injured soul via sugar and caffeine:
Shopping for clothes really drains me. This was the first Swiss Mocca I’ve had in two years!
[Written 8 October 2013]
I was in need of some new clothes, because I was about to venture out to dinner in a couple of days, and I’d gotten really tired of my ‘old’ clothes.
That morning, as luck would have it, a flyer from our local shopping mall arrived, announcing a five-day long mall-wide-ish sale, so to the mall I went. (4 images total)
I was car-less for the first time in a looong while, because Finnur’s bike tire had burst quite violently the day before and needed professional attention. Since I apparently much prefer biking to walking, Emma got to revisit the bike-stroller.
I dragged the kids outside to take a few photos of them and the fall colors, before all the leaves blow away. (5 images total)
Emma was decidedly unimpressed by the proceedings.
Pictures from Unnar Steinn’s 30th birthday celebration. (He’s the oldest son of my mom’s sister.) And the second one of ‘my generation’ to cross the 30-year threshold. Click here for the whole photo album. Read more
Emma’s sleep training last week went so-so.
She remained frustratingly inconsistent in her post-midnight behavior, but seemed to mostly stop waking up in the 2 am to 3 am range, so we figured we’d made some progress, and I moved back upstairs.
This past night she pushed her boundaries again, and wanted food at 2:30 am. An hour and a half later, and quite a few unhappy noises as well, she finally gave up and fell back asleep. So here’s hoping she learnt her lesson.
And in retrospect, the biggest progress may have just been me catching up on some uninterrupted sleep time.
The screaming screwed up the usual morning routine, meaning we overslept for our usual gym class, and ended up attending the second one (there are two, back to back). (5 images total)
Stretching time after a pretty strenuous workout.