introducing: Sverre Johan

Two days old and ready to leave the hospital and go home.

Four hours old and treating his mamma very well.

Big sister Sara mets baby brother Sverre for the first time.

First family photo as a family of four.

Just like his big sister, our baby boy Sverre Johan, decided to make his entrance into this world two weeks before his due date, Tuesday morning September 15. He was in quite a hurry too; born less than an hour after we arrived at the hospital. We are happy and excited (plus a tiny bit terrified) to start adjusting to a new life as a family of four. 

what's for dinner, week 38

Rhubarb from the garden. There still is a batch in the freezer - maybe I should made a crumble during the weekend? // Agfra Precise 100, Canon EOS 500N

Getting slowly back to it. Slowly being the keyword. It has been 14 weeks since the last time I planned the weekday dinners (if I remember correctly, we actually followed the plan that week). Time to give it a try again. As always, the menu is mostly based on what's in our fridge, freezer and cabinets.

Monday: pasta salad with salami (I use this one; small dices, panfried), tomato, red onion, green bell pepper, pesto and mozzarella

Tuesday: steketorsk (crumb-coated cod filets) and roasted potato, carrot and beets topped with feta and sliced almond

Wednesday: omelette with leftover greens from Tuesday + garlic bread

Thursday: pasta with grilled salmon (from the freezer)

Friday: tacos

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PS: my pantry essentials // thoughts on dinner planning and grocery shopping // lots more what's for dinner posts + the 2010 dinner project 

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What are you planning to have for dinner this week?

things I like lately

from the archives, Bergen apartment // Kodak Portra 160, Canon EOS 500N

- another week of gorgeous early autumn weather - warm enough for a t-shirt during day and fresh, crisp autumn air during night
- keeping up the summer time mood with this song
- #MisheardLyrics (I wish they would tell what the lyrics actually are though because I'm really good at mishearing lyrics...)
- homemade cauliflower soup with homemade croutons, bacon and freshly grated parmesan
- Vitviu - well done, Sigrid!
- a gentle reminder to myself: low light
- also (from my blog archives): a new photo project: darker mornings - maybe I should do something like this again
- Elin ba om å få brukte gaver da sønnen fylte fire år
- lunch date with my girlfriends two days in a row - yay maternity leave!
- said girlfriends brought gorgeous housewarming flowers (it's embarrassing to say we haven't been able to meet since we moved to Stavanger a year ago)
- this looks good
- pyjamas from Berg & Berg
- 10 hverdagsgleder
- tåkehester
- digging out a gift card that I got for Christmas and stocking up on a few new flannel shirts for the upcoming (autumn/winter) breastfeeding period, including this pyjamas
- these two photos together and this

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Things I don't like lately

- baby boy made us believe he was making his entrance into this world yesterday - it was false alarm
- the uncertainty of when baby boy actually will come - I'm not yet impatient, I just like to be in control

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Question asked in the comment section:

A while ago ALittaM asked on this post: Does Sara eat all the greens? My Lucia will send back every dish of pasta with anything green in it...

Sara is the same. Any green that is green is passed over to me. She is still rather picky when it comes to greens, but she does eat things like carrots, corn, cucumber and potato.

thoughts on organising photos (of my children)

I got this comment from a reader yesterday:

I'm wondering if you could share how you organise and store photos of Sara? I'm expecting my first baby in November and am anxious that the inevitable large number of photos we take don't get forgotten about on our phones or memory cards. I would like to put them into albums, but not sure whether to do this monthly, seasonly, in blurb books or slot in albums. Just curious about how you have done it!

I'm pretty passionate about organising in general (is it ok to be passionate about such a thing without being a bit nuts?), and I have a well tested routine for organising my photos (of Sara). Of course I'll share my method!

I transfere photos from my cameras (these days it means my iPhone) to my computer once every week. (It is also part of the preparation for my weekly "life, week x" posts - a kind of journaling that keeps me grounded.) On my computer the photos are organised in folders labeled with week number, month and year. The folders are automatically organised chronologically.

Sometimes I'll add extra keywords like "Easter" or "summer holiday" to make it easier to remember what the folder contains. Folders with film photos are labeled with type of film, camera, month and year, for example: Kodak Portra 160_Canon EOS 500N_Aug15.

I try my best to only keep the best photos; I delete those that don't make the cut. Still the total number of photos is overwhelming!

I currently have a Mac and use iPhoto for organising my photos. It looks like this.

And this is how it looks on my external hard drive plus how it used to look when I had a pc. I upload all my photos to Flickr (privately) as backup plus I have two external hard drives that I use regularly for backup.

I do not organise photos of Sara in a special way; they are just part of the weekly folders. I do however make Blurb books of each year. I have done so for a while. After Sara was born, the photos are mostly of her - and these books are the perfect Christmas gift for Sara's grandparents!

Sometimes I'll make books from special occasions like "Our first month with Sara" and "Sara's baptism" (the two small books to the right).

It is quite a big job to make a book with photos from a whole year. I find that as long as my photos are organised regularly as described above, and the order of the photos in the book is chronological, the task is much more manageable.

PS: book making tips

By the way, "uke" means week.

life, week 36

almost 37 weeks

Putting my feet up as often as possible. Also, still sunny and summery enough to have summer coloured nails.

People who bring flowers are always welcome in my house. (Welcome back, colleague T!)

An early September evening sky that made me look up from my book and go outside to take another sunset photograph. Because it is always worth it. Not necessary to take that photo, but to pause and enjoy.

September 1st and the first day of autumn. I ignore the rain and wear sandals. Because when your are 37 weeks pregnant you need easy slip-on footwear.

new in - just in time for more rain // just a tiny bit better than wearing sandals in the rain // my love for Birkenstocks continues - swollen feet, not so much

last day

A fast and beautiful delivery from the lovely Fjeldborg (who unfortunately is closing her shop).

Evening sunlight on table top clutter and the beautiful orchid gifted to me by my students.

Friday 7:15 am // first day of maternity leave // I'm turning more and more into an early bird

Sunset supper and her new favorite book.

Not at all ready to go home; too busy drawing roads all around kindergarten.

 And then she got busy drawing on the whiteboard in pappa's office.

Saturday morning with Doc McStuffins and Jussi Adler-Olsen.

OMG! Homemade After Eight!

Saturday playdate location - always the best!

Sunday 8:30 am // baby boy's room gets the morning sun

 Sunday candy store visit

And then we went shopping for a big green indoor plant.

Just like that she is biking - thanks to lots of practice on the balance bike. We are SO proud! And also a bit shocked that she learnt it in just a few afternoon hours.

Autumn arrived on Sunday. It was a beautiful warm and sunny Sunday - accompanied by that special fresh, crisp autumn air. The light has changed and the shadows are longer. In the evening we drew the curtains and lit candles.

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Week 36: August 31 - September 6

start of maternity leave to do list

from the 2011 archives (shared in this post) // Kodak Portra 160, Canon EOS 500N

- frame some of Sara's drawings plus the Apple Papple poster for baby boy's room
- visit IKEA to buy a book shelf for one of the rooms in the basement suite
- make baby boy's bed
- assemble and make baby boy's cradle for the living room
- clean living room windows
- get a bigger pot and replant the new big green indoor plant
- make a new batch of taco seasoning
- pack the hospital bag
- buy newborn diapers
- put my feet up and read a book - as often as possible

things I like lately

candle season is upon us // Agfa Precisa 100, Canon EOS 500N

- today is the first day of my maternity leave* - only three weeks until my due date - Sara was born two weeks before her due date, so I'm very curious about when baby boy is planning his arrival
- a surprise goodbye party for me from my students - complete with delicious homemade cakes and a beautiful orchid
- napping every day
- clean kitchen windows
- Lukasz Wierzbowski's beautiful yet sometimes surreal photos (PS: he shoots film)
- Mini House (via Ingvild's Pinterest)
- 5 times IKEA looked deceptively elegant
- my 5 current IKEA favorites: Möckelby table, Knagglig crate, IKEA 365+ pitcher, Sittning kitchen towels (bought today when doing errands at IKEA) and Molger bench (we have one in our main floor bathroom; it will move to the hallway soon to make room for the baby's changing table)
- in my fridge by Mariell // ps: my pantry essentials
- need to make Mariell's millionaire shortbreads soon
- slow living: a beginner's guide
- the temperature is still quite nice; yet the transition to autumn is slowly noticeable
- finished my first crime novel by Jussi Adler-Olsen earlier this week; started the second one right away - glad to have discovered a new favorite
- getting the push and inspiration to finally share our DIY daybeds

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Things I don't like lately

- heartburn - glad it came so late in the pregnancy though
- getting up numerous time during night to pee - oh the joys of late pregnancy!

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* I got a comment/question about the length of the parental leave in Norway. I wrote a little bit about it in this post: thoughts on being a stay at home mom.

DIY: corner daybed

Here is a follow up on the post I did yesterday on the first daybed we built, for our Bergen apartment. That one was a straight line design, while this one is a corner design. 

The materials are the same as for the first daybed: two by twos, four by fours and "hobbyplate".

The challenge with this daybed was to make a good looking yet functional corner. I know nothing about the technical side of how this was built, but I know Sølve is proud and happy with the result.

The daybed fits two mattresses that are 2 meter * 90 cm. Just like the daybed in our Bergen apartment, this one doubles as guest bed for two people.

We used the same IKEA UTRUSTA hinges for the fronts. This time we oiled the whole thing instead of painting it. We used floor oil from Trestjerner in the color skyggegrå.

I got a good and relevant question on the daybed post yesterday: Do the mattresses slide off? No, they don't. As you can see in the photo above, the two by four in front makes sure the mattress stays put.

Result: a cozy place for watching films (we don't have a tv on the main floor, only here in the basement living room), work (pictured above), play, read, nap, etc.

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PS: our Stavanger home renovation // our Stavanger home

DIY: daybed

I got a comment/question today regarding our homemade daybed. Do I have a "recipe" for how to build it? I have thought about doing a post on our daybed ever since we build the first one (seen below) in our Bergen apartment. It has been a long time coming, but here it is - at last! 

My husband Sølve is the mastermind behind the construction of the daybed. If he were to explain the design and construction of it, he would probably do it in a way that would make people actually understand it and then possibly be able to build one themselves. I'm mostly just into the aesthetically aspect of the design/construction, so I'm hoping these photos will be explanation enough.

The materials we used are simple two by twos and two by fours plus what in Norwegian is called a "hobbyplate" for the front.

We bought the hinges for the fronts at IKEA. They are called UTRUSTA for horizontal door.

The daybed measured 4 meters in length and had room for a 90 cm wide mattress. When we had guests, the daybed was easily transformed into a guest bed for two people.

The area underneath the mattresses were used for storage.

Done! But not yet painted.

Done and painted (nøytral from Jotun). I kept spare duvets (for guests) in the big pillows. I planned to get special covers sewn for the mattresses, but instead I used a extra long wool blanket.

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I'll do another post tomorrow on the daybed we built for our Stavanger home. It is mostly the same; the biggest difference being that it is a corner design.

PS: our Bergen apartment renovation // our Bergen home on Flickr and the blog // our Bergen apartment before and after the renovation // DIY: dining table