from across the Atlantic…

Well, the verdict is in and Nell is officially allergic to milk!  Too bizarre given that my brother also suffers from a serious milk allergy!

We’ve been to the pediatritian and allergy specialist and Nell reacted big time to the prick test on her arm…but not to egg, only to milk (those were the 2 things they tested her for at this point).  They also took blood (from a vein in her neck…which was heartbreaking to watch!) and will test her further by her bloodwork.  They don’t see us, and we keep Nell dairy free, for the first year…then they’ll have us back in to test again.  For now we have Nell on Neocate formula and have introduced her to risgrøt as you saw…Most likely this will be something that Nell will grow out of, so keep your fingers crossed for us!

Other than that just gearing up for the big move!  Will keep you posted!

As many of you know…Lars, Nell and I will be moving shortly!  We have bought a beautiful home overlooking the golfcouse and we couldn’t be more tickled!

We take over the 15th of October, so not long now!  And we have a TON of packing (that thankfully we’ve started on already) to do at home before we get our place out on the market!  We’re hoping that it’ll be out in the next 2 weeks…so keep your fingers crossed for us!

There will PLENTY of house updates to come!  I can’t wait to get over there!

(side note: here is a link to pictures of the new house…I’ll try to post plenty from inside during the move and once we get settled!!)

I absolutely hate getting behind on my blog because by the time I sit down to write I have so much to say that I don’t even know where to start!!!  Needless to say, that makes me put off updating my blog and it ends up being like a month until I finally get back into the swing of things….

So…where to start?

The latest updates I guess would be that we’ve started Nell on some formula, and that she also has what we think is a milk allergy.

I’ve been running a little low in the afternoons (in the milk supply area) so I tried giving Nell some dairy free formula that was recommended by the hospital that she was born at.  The stuff smells terrible and tastes even worse…so surprise, surprise…she wasn’t interested in taking it.  So, after days of an irritable baby and tons of screaming after each feed because she just wasn’t satisfied I thought to myself, "I’m just going to buy regular old baby formula (with milk) and try giving it to Nell.  What are the chances of her having a milk allergy like Kristian?"

Boy was I wrong to take things so nonchalantly….at least we had the sense to try this during the daytime and didn’t do the feeding right before bed.

After about 2 minutes of trying to get Nell to swallow the stuff (it just sat like a pool in the back of her throat until she’d spit it out again), and it splashing all over her face Nell ended up with red patches with white hives in them…all around her mouth and neck…and all over her lips.  Not a pretty site.  Lars totally paniced and was afraid that the same thing might be happening in her throat, as the hives were swelling up big time.  So off we went to the emergency room, and the verdit for now is a serious milk allergy.  So they advised us to keep Nell completely off dairy until we’ve done some serious allergy testing…which we’ll do late next week.  That should be interesting!

And Nell celebrated her 1/2-Birthday yesterday…Happy 5 months and 4 weeks old to Nell!  She got her first taste of risgrøt (rice cereal) to celebrate her 1/2-Birthday!  Lars gave the grøt to her while I was busy snapping photos, and he was sooooooo proud!  He thought it was so much fun!  Messy, but fun!

I’ll try to be better about updating more often again…but these days I’m busier than ever!  Tons of errands to run and get done at home…and lots of crawling around on the floor, playing with Nell Bell!  Make sure to check out all of our new pictures (including the grøt face mask) under Nell’s Fall 2009 pictures!

So to be very precise…Nell is 5 months old, one week, and one day…today!

Here is what babycenter.com has to say about her progress…although Nell’s progress should actually tracked as if she were only 4 months since she was born 4 weeks early!

Your baby can’t express her emotions in the same complex way you can. Although she can clearly let you know when she’s happy or unhappy, her ability to demonstrate her love and sense of humor is just developing.  As your baby gets older, she may start to cry when you leave the room and get excited when you come back in. She may also raise her arms when she wants to be picked up and give you pats on the back.  And you’ll probably see her getting your jokes — she’ll laugh at funny expressions and try to make you laugh too. Keep the laughter flowing with your silly faces!

As for additional developments that Lars and I have seen…there are more and more coming every single day!  Nell scream-sings all the time now…she screams so high pitched that no voice comes out at all and she makes herself cough!  So she’s testing her vocal cords BIG TIME!  Nell has also started lifting her head up off the ground when we go to lift her up and/or when she wants to be picked up.  If you hold Nell’s hands, she pulls herself up off the ground into a sitting position.  She is super strong in her legs now and stands when you support her…and Nell is sitting up supported now!  And she is rolling all over the place now…and constantly wants to be on her belly!  I guess it won’t be long until she’s crawling as she’s "swimming" on her stomach already!

There are still "teefers" on the way too…although we can’t see that any have broken through…Nell has her hands (preferrably both at the same time!) in her mouth constantly and now chews on her smok (pacifier) instead of sucking on it.

We were at the healthstation this week and got Nell’s 5 month stats.  She measures in at:
64,5cm = 25,4 inches
7,600 kilos = 16,8 pounds
WOW!

Nell also adores being outside these days…as her sense of where she is is definitely developing.  She is very curious about trees and seems to enjoy watching branches blowing and to see the sun filter in through the branches and leaves.

As for Nell’s favorite toys…her favs are gifts from family members which makes them extra speacial!  Here are the top 3…for now!  Her rooster - who we call Johnny Cash (from beste and bestefar), her sock monkey - Cooper (from beste and bestefar), and her monkey - unnamed so far (from Annie + fam)!  Her on-the-go stroller favorite is yet another monkey - who we call Mango (from me and Pappa)!

So there you’ve got the Nell-lowdown!  Remember to check out our website for more Nell pics…here’s the link to the folder fall 2009, which I’ll keep updating until winter 2009!!  Ha, ha!

3 years ago today Lars and I were married,
in the presence of 14 of our closest family members!

It was a wonderful trip to Seattle, and we were so lucky to be surrounded by family and friends.  Thank you to all of you who played a part in making our speical days together so memorable…

Here is the link to our pictures for a little reminising!

So this posting is the first since our trip to Seattle and my summer hiatus from blogging!

I don’t even really know where to start…and I’ve got my hands full with a jetlagged Nell…so I’m going to just give a bit of a summary at a time!  Just want to get this first posting out there, with the link to some pictures and then I’ll fill you in more a bit here and there.

Here are just a few of the highlights from our trip…

*getting girls (Nell and Anja Sol) together for the first time ever!
*Kristian, Katrina and Anja Sol’s family blessing party
*Lars’ Birthday
*Nell’s Baptism
*Seeing family and friends! 

The pictures from our trip are hard to upload (because there are about 1.000 of them and it would take me years!!)…so check back from time to time and I’ll try to get them up a few at a time!  I have also started a file in our photobucket album called "Fall 2009"…and I’ve been trying to take a few pics a day for my parents, so they can watch Nell grow!  They’ll be fun for everyone to look back on, and I haven’t been good enough at taking a few pictures here and there since Nell was born…so watch out, they’re coming now!

Phew…so first posting post-summer….UP!  I’ll write more soon!

So besides Nell chewing on her thumbs and teething rings like crazy (we have these two from natursutten.dk) today she started rolling over…constantly! 

Nell had started rolling awhile back…but it seemed just like they were lucky rolls.  Now she has got it down.  She was trying all morning, grunting and groaning as she squirmed around on her side.  Then all of a sudden I realized that I couldn’t hear Nell anymore…so I turned around and there she was on her stomach!  She was so proud of herself!  I got a huge smile…too cute!

So that was fun!  Of course I called Lars at work right away and told him all about it!  And since that first roll, she has been rolling onto her tummy every chance she gets!  Not much action when she’s on her belly though…she just looks around until she gets too tired and then puts her head on the floor!  As soon as I flip her back on to her back, she whines and then starts working on getting on her belly again!  Too funny!

Counting down the hours until our trip!

It is just typical that there is this super contageous flu going around right when we’ll be travelling for the first time with Nell!  We have gotten mixed opinions on whether or not we should travel with her during the outbreak…but we’re going for it!  Figure all we can do is take the percautions that they’re recommending and hopefully we’ll be just fine!  Plus, we’re travelling through Iceland, which is a pretty small airport…so I feel safer doing that than travelling through the Nederlands, for example!

So we’ll soon be flying high with our little Birdie for the first time!  I’ll let you know how that goes!!  Ha, ha!  As for other Nell updates…we’re 99% sure that theres a tooth coming in before long, as Nell is knawing away on her fingers and always on the same side.  We have used some chilled teething rings too, and she loves them!

Alright, have to run!  Company coming for dinner!  All the grandparents want to see little Nell Bell before we take off with her!

Seattle here we come!

bless⋅ed [bles-id; especially for 3 blest]

So this weekend its just me and Nell…Lars and his dad went up to the mountains to do some fishing, so birdie and I are holding down the fort.

Not too much news…took it easy yesterday and now today just gearing up for a walk.  Nell has a hard time taking a good nap in the afternoon (when she goes down about 1430), so I find its best to get out and go for a long walk at this time.  She sleeps fantastic in her stroller…and wakes up whenever I stop!  So shopping is out of the questions, its got to be a constant stroll.  Too funny!  But if she doesn’t get a good snooze in at this time of day, then she’s ready for bed about 1700…and hour too early.  So we’ll see if I can get a good hour and a half walk in this afternoon and then keep her up until 1800 or so.

Our "routine" is a fairly good one too…something that Nell has fallen into on her own, actually.  Here’s an example of an average day (-ish of course, all of these times flex by an hour or so depending on the day!)
*0600 up for a feed, then straight back to bed
*1030 awake and feeds, then she plays for about an hour and starts showing signs thats she’s sleepy again
*1200 Nell takes about an hour snooze on the sofa, in her little cozy corner that we have set up for her
*Feeding again about 1300
*Nap time at 1400
*After this nap (which is about an hour and a half if I’m lucky), Nell has a feed and then has a very active period where we play pretty hard
*Bedtime about 1800
*Then after she goes down, Nell sleeps until 0600 the next morning when I give her a "dream feed", which is a bottle (of pumped b.milk) at 2300. 

She’s been on this "routine" for quite awhile now and I feel soooooo lucky to be getting so much sleep at night!  And fabulous that Nell goes back to sleep right after her first feed…it gives me time to shower and get my day started before she’s up at at’em!

This week doesn’t bring much action…we have a physical therapy session for Nell tomorrow, so will be interesting to see how that goes.  Her neck flexibility has gotten so much better and she now turns her head to both sides without a thought, so this is just a follow up to check that she’s still doing great before we go on vacation.  Then on Tuesday I’m picking up Henriette and bringing her out to Drøbak for a few days…so we’ll have some time together before she takes off for her year of studying in Seattle!  Of course we’ll see when we’re there…but she won’t be back to Norway until next summer!  Too much fun!

Alright, going to get ready for our walk before long!  Hope you had a lovely weekend!

Took these pictures of Nell "crawling", last night!  Isn’t she just a doll?!?  I am just having too much fun being home with Nell and I feel so extremely privilidged that I get this year at home to watch her grow!  There is nothing I love more than walking into her room every morning and getting that heart-melting grin first thing!  Who knew I’d be this ga-ga for my girl?! 

This afternoon we were at the healthstation for Nell’s 3 month appointment and everything is going great!  Our jordmor was impressed that Nell is so active.  I told her than Nell is already baby-talking back to me and Lars, that she loves being on her stomach and that she is already rolling over! 

Its so fun that Nell is getting to be at an age where she can show love too…that she smiles at us, coo’s at us, and even puts her arms around our neck to hold on while we’re walking around home!  The other morning Lars went to get Nell out of bed and came out beaming…"Look!  She’s hugging me!"  It was so darling!  He even told his golf friends that he got his first hug! 

Nell also got her first vaccines today, the first of the series of three.  In Norwegian she got difteri, stivkrampe (tetnis), kikhoste, poliomyelitt and Hib-infeksjon (DTP-IPV-Hib), Pneumokokksykdom.  One in each thigh.  And she screamed bloody murder for them both!  Our jordmor said she was impressed with Nell’s pipes!  "Does she always have such a high pitched scream?" she asked me!  Ha, ha!  I told her yes, that Nell has screamed like a tea-kettle since the day she was born, but that we rarely hear her scream these days…she is such a good girl!  So dose 2 (of 3), Nell gets in October…more screaming to come!

As for stats,
Nell weighs 6,835 kilos (15 pounds)
she is 61,5 centimeters long (24 inches)
and her head circumfrance is 41,8 (16 inches)

So Nell will be gracing the beaches of Hawaii at the tender age of just 10 months!

We have booked yet another (our 3rd) trip to Hawaii for this winter and we couldn’t be more tickled!  For those of you who know us well, you know that Lars and I just fell harder than hard for the Hawaiian Islands when we first visited there for our honeymoon in 2006.  We returned in 2007 and had plans to return in 2008 but had to cancel when we got pregnant with Nell…not complaining there…what a GREAT reason to stay home!  So now we’re back on track and have Hawaii as our va-cay destination for 2010!

This year we’ve even convinced some friends to come with us too…so we’ll be two families (with 2 kids!) gracing the beaches (and the golf courses!) of Hawaii!  I can’t believe they want to come with us…what fun!

We’ll start our trip by spending 12 nights at the Park Shore Waikiki Hotel, where we’ve never stayed before.  We usually stay at the Waikiki Beachside, but they didn’t have room in the rooms to accomodate a rollaway bed for our kids.  Soooooooo we’re moving down the beach, but the view from the balcony will be the same…ocean front!  Lars and I (and Nell!) will have 4 days together before our friends join us (they’re flying directly from Norway to Hawaii, phew!), and then we’ll jump to Kauai and spend 9 nights there, sharing a condo at the Poipu Makai…again, right on the water.

We are already counting the days until our trip…and as fall, and then winter, settle in…we’re going to be more and more excited every single day!  Plus, this trip to Hawaii means that Nell will be visiting her Bestemor and Bestefar in Seattle just after Christmas!  A bonus visit!

Alright…so I am back on track and following Dr Joshi’s regimen once again!

If you have been following my blog since forever ago, you’ll remember that I started my first round of Joshi’s detox just before I became pregnant with Nell.  If you’re interested in catching up and finding out what this detox is all about, you can always read all my detox postings by clicking on the "detox" link under the title of this posting.

To sum it up…from August 1st until October 8th of last year, I lost 16 kilos…thats 35 pounds!  And I did that by just changing my eating habits, almost NO exercise what-so-ever!  I stopped this manner of eating (I can’t call it detox really because a detox has a start and a finish…) when I found out I was pregnant, mainly to reintroduce dairy for Nell’s sake!

In a nutshell, this lifestyle means that I’m only allowed to eat chicken and fish, no diary (except for natual, probiotic yogurt), no sugar, no caffiene, and no wheat or gluten.  It sounds very restrictive, but it is extremely easy and I swear I feel better after just a few days of being on the "program" again!  The only thing is that you have to give up all your store bought sauces, etc.  I was really startled when I started this last year and actually started reading the labels on things…there is sugar in EVERYTHING sold at the grocery store!!!

So far Lars and I have been doing Joshi since Tuesday of last week and I’m already feeling 100% better and am watching the numbers drop on the scale every single morning!  Definitely check out this book if you’re interested in taking charge of your life and just feeling better about what you’re putting in your body!  I saw changes in my waistline, my skin, my hair, energy levels and my attitude!  And I’m looking forward to reeping the benefits of the diet all over again…this time I’m making it my permanent lifestyle…GO JOSHI!

My Nell update is so overdue that I don’t even know where to start!  Yesterday marked our 3 month, 3 weeks old Birthday!

Nell is changing and growing up even faster than I ever thought I could even imagine!  She is laughing, rolling over, trying to crawl when she gets on her belly, and she is just talking up a storm…just jibber jabber of course, but its constant!  And wonderfully enough, Nell is sleeping 12-13 hours with a dream feed…which means that after I put her to bed between 7 and 8, I feed her a bottle in her sleep at 11pm…which keeps her sleeping until 7 or 8am!  NICE!

Nell’s latest measurements (which were taken 3 weeks ago at her 3 month mark) were 6,49 kilos = 14 lbs and 61 cm = 24 inches!  Nell was at the 75th percentile in both her length and weight…so she’s a growing girl!  This Friday we have our three month check up at the healthstation…and Nell will be getting her first vaccines.  Will be great to check in with our jordmor and to hear what she has to say about Nell’s progress!

We are very busy giving our little girl all our love…I never knew I could love anyone this much!!

So I know I said I wasn’t going to blog much this summer…but I just had to post this recipe!  Plus, I want to have this recipe on my blog so I can make it at my parents during out visit…Yummy!

Just made this for the first time and it is absolutely delicious!  Lars even loved it and he’s practically terrified of lentils!  Personally, I think that most lentil recipes are fairly boring…and almost all cold lentil salads call for vinegar, which Lars also isn’t too crazy about…so I’m tickled to finally find one that is just fantastic…hot or cold!

I was looking up recipes for baked lentils and came across this website.  As the blogger shares, this is an extremely low cost meal…and its sooooooo insanely easy to make because you just throw everything into 1 baking dish and walk away from it!  Its really that easy!

Here’s the breakdown

Honey Baked Lentils

1 cup red lentils (rinse them, but no pre-soaking necessary!)
2 cups water
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp tamari (a type of yeast free soysauce)
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp fresh grated ginger
1 clove garlic (I used a dash of dry, didn’t have fresh)
1 small onion
salt & pepper to taste

Bake in a covered dish at 350 until tender, for an hour and a half.

Other tips from the blogger "you could also substitute 1/3 cup of rice or barley for some of the lentils…and add whatever "winter" vegetables you have on hand. When I made it, I used squash and potatoes."