Today's post is brought to you by Nadja of UNA.dos.tres. Even though I have only met Nadja once - over coffee and giggles at Dromedar in Bergen - I feel like I have know her forever. She shares her life - with its ups and downs, grief and happiness - in a real, honest and beautiful way. Nadja lives in Trondheim with her husband Geir and daughter Una (4 years old). Here is a typical day in their life:
Unfortunately our "day" starts two times. First time it's in the middle of the night, hearing two little feet come running. A second later, Una and her lamb occupy our bed like it is the most natural thing in the world. We are usually too tired to argue. Second awakening happens much, much later, sometimes even too late. Una, like me, loves late mornings. Geir is the early one in our family, so he is up first, while we, the girls, stay in bed. These moments are important, because if our little tiger is waken up too sudden the whole day can turn out wrong.
When we first are up, we truly love mornings. We almost always eat breakfast at home, even though it sometimes make us be a bit late for the whole rest of a day. We usually make future plans at breakfast table, and we draw a drawing or two. (Making drawings is a favorite nowdays. Usually her animal toys are her models. She is planning a grand opening of an exhibition and everyone she ever knew will get their own animal drawing.)
After breakfast we doll up. She hates to do her hair but loves to wear dresses. Regardless of the weather. We live in a green house on top of a steep hill, central in Trondheim city. The tram usually takes us down to the kindergarden, when we are lucky enough to catch it.
If we don't catch the tram, we walk, since it only takes 10 minutes. Sitting on Geir's shoulders is also an all-time favorite. Una goes to Steiner kindergarden. There are 25 kids all together, divided in two groups. On Mondays they have a trip outside (turdag) and then we have to make her her own food snack. Otherwise the kids are served good vegetarian food. Geir and I work full time, it's challenging, but we really enjoy our work, so it is worth it. What Una does during her working hours (in the kindergarden) we really do not know, except that she is happy being there.
We switch on picking her up, and we usually do grocery shopping on our way from work. Sometimes her grandmother picks her up; these girls are the best friends ever. If the weather is nice, we might stop at the nearby park or take some of Una's friends home with us, but most of the time we are all tired and keen on getting straight home as fast as possible.
Una loves to help preparing the dinner. But sometimes she is so tired that we just let her find peace, playing alone with her toys. Since she has no siblings, she is so good at it, and these moments are magic. Her imaginations really run wild, and most incredibel scenarios for her animal toys are put at play. Lego and railway building are her other favorites. Since we have a view to both train and tram, there is a bit of train spotting happening as well.
If the weather is nice, we spend the time grilling and playing in the garden. The dinners we make during the week are extremely simple. Unfortunately Una is a picky eater, and we struggle to make her like food. She has been like that for ever, and it really is no fun. We are quite tired of pizzas and pasta. Luckily she likes fishcakes. (Hooray!) We finish eating by five o'clock. Since Geir and I love food, we sometimes make a second dinner after she has gone to bed. The good thing is that she loves fruit, so we try to give her tons of it every day. Her favorite lately is raspberry.
Before bedtime we still have some time to play, make some more drawings, puzzle (we are so good at it!) or she practice for her gymnastics. In the weekends she is going to gymnastics, and that's why she is trying a lot of acrobatic tricks in the weekdays as well. But to be honest, none of us are very acrobatic.
One thing we are excellent at though is dancing. We love to dance. Unas favorite is Madonnas Confessions on a dance floor. We have also found two children's records that we love to dance to, Linn Skåbers Mystiske kroker og hemmeligheter, and Tullekattesnutenes Vi vil ut på byen. Both kids and grown up can dance to them.
The supper starts around half past six and is usually slice of bread with cheese or liver paté/leverpostei, a yogurt and a big glass of milk. We usually read a book while eating, if we are not making another drawing. We do not have a tv, but sometimes Una watches a dvd or barnetv (children television) on our computer. When Una was younger she always used to take an evening bath every evening. She does not anymore, but it happens that she is sooooo dirty after a day in a kindergarden that the bath is the first thing we do. She always takes her vitamins and tran (d-vitamin fish oil), brushes her teeth and make a trick for us. This means she runs through the apartment and (tries) to make a flip into our big bed. She is in bed by 1930.
Geir and I switch on putting Una to sleep, every second night is mine. As Astrid and Maria, we stay in her room until she is asleep. I love this, for me it is such a precious time. She holds my hand tight; she has done that since she has been a little baby. We do not read a nighttime story, we talk together. Una loves to talk. And I love talking to her. And then suddenly everything gets quite, and I just get feel extremely privileged that this little magical creature is a part of my world. (And then usually I fell asleep on a floor as well.)
When I wake up, Geir is either sleeping in a couch or making us some delicious dinner. We clean up the worst mess, but never enough. (I have big ambitions on getting better in doing this. It is so good not to wake up in a total mess.) If we don't have to do some work, we talk at the dinner table (talking is the favorite for all of us, i guess), I check my favorite blogs or we watch a dvd. Right now we are totally hooked on Game of Thrones. This grown up time is very important to us, and this of course means we go to bed way too late. Only a few house before small little feet come running to occupy our bed.
That was our day, Astrid. I sometimes wish we had more routines, but I also like the unpredictiblety. The weekends are still my favorite, but I must admit that I'm becoming more and more fond of everyday life as well.
P.S: I wrote this post before the long summer holiday and I must admit that our days have changed a lot. I'm excited to see how our daily routines will turn out during this fall. We are still going on our holiday clock.
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