20.07.04

Mid July 2004

Well, we have not been writing much in this blogging tool, due to lack of time, other interests and a load of work for me. Raiya has grown quite a lot, and she is growing every day, right in front of our eyes. Now she is a babbling, running little girl, that has started to potty train, ans as the big girl she is now, she stays at least 8-9 hours each night in her own little crib in her own room.

Pappa has been busy busy busy with different web projects, right now 6 of them are running simultaniously, which of one is a major contract that will be covering half my income per year. Others are smaller but are nicer since they have a start and finish in one sense.

Mamma has started to go to the gym since a few months and pappa really needs to go as well, however it's hard to find time. My workouts has been wood chopping in the afternoons when the weather is allowing me to do so. Today it's a HOT day outside, so it will be later in the late late afternoon that I'll go out to do some.

Well, am going to try to do better about writing ... maybe once a month would be a good start :p

22.07.04

A wonderful day with a little girl

Today I had the pleasure to take care of Raiya for the better part of the day. First of all I go to sleep in with her, until 10AM. Mamma was gone to her grandmother to take her to a pulminatory(sp?) test and took Lukas with her, and as Jakob had stayed at a friend of his, Raiya and I were alone in the house. So, we got up, got dressed and down for breakfast we went. Pappa got to work a little bit during that time to take care of the most important calls for the day. After that we went to the library, and did she have fun! There is a boat in the library that she can climb in and out of herself, stuffed with a bunch of stuffed animals, and she is especially in love with the Dalmatian Dog in it. We ended up with five books to bring home. Today has been a really hot Maine day, with the temparature reaching 106F on our porch, so when we got back to our yard, playing in the pool was really fun.

Snacktime was no fun, she didn't want anything to do with anything, not even juice, so finally pappa got a lightbulb (as I was afraid of dehydration) to give her a popsicle (yeah, yeah laugh you all but when you don't have to thik upon it on a regular basis it's harder then you think) that went down without any fussing at all, then it was time for a nap.

During naptime pappa had the time to fix four small errors in pages, and do 3 more phonecalls, as well as talk to Mamma in Augusta and get an update from down there. Raiya is such a good little girl, she takes one nap per day, that lasts everywhere from 1½ hour up to 2½ hours, and when she got up she ate some at least and watched Rolie Polie Olie, she just giggles away at Zoe at times.

Then we colored with crayons for a while until that got boring and she was really 'slow' (because of the heat) so off on to the floor, watching some more TV with a snack and a big thing of juice that disappeared. At the end, the screendoor creaked, and she shouted MAMMA!! She was right, mamma was home, and she said she had missed her. Pappa had to take the poor dog that hadn't been walked for the whole day, and mamma and Raiya followed, during that time we chated about the day, and what had passed, and as we are walking on old railroad tracks Raiya decided to jump of the wood that runs under the tracks, she is ust too cute and soooo proud of herself when she does it.

Off to the store to get some food, we had salmon and potatoes for dinner she doesn't like fish (yet) so she didn't eat much. Between coming home and the dinner, I had time to play with her and PAINT (which is a new word from the last week or so, and she absolutely LOVES it. She got five colors and two brushes, I have one thing to say, all you expressionists like Hans Hoffman, Robert Motherwell et al, ... go do something else! (Yeah they are dead but they are probably two of the most well known of that style).

After dinner, we got to read books, among them her favorite Vimsiga Spindeln (a spider that she can push through the pages at different angles through out the book) and then she had some time to play with her dollhouse and dolls until it was time for tubby and off we went.

I have to mention that she loves to splash me in the tub, and so she did (loads of water on the floor). but tubbytime was as usual fun and in her opinion always too short, but she had fun .. then it was off to her room to read books, always five but then she knows it's time for cribby, so she dives for ANY book and almost throws it at me and puts her hands together and looks up at me with big sad puppy eyes 'Pleeeze', and soft as I am, we read another book.... then it is time to go into the crib.

I am always making sure she has all her friends in there, and that 'tagalicious' is right in her little hand before I kiss her, turns off the light and closes the door, and goes down. We can hear her a few minutes on the monitor, but then it all goes silent, and my darling daughter is asleep.

She is just such an angel, and I am grateful for every day I can spend with her.