I was supposed to keep this blogging thing going, and here we are...  T-W-O M-O-N-T-H-S later and I'm finally writing a update. And I keep on asking why. Why can't I keep up? Do I don't have the motivation?

Then I saw Lily Pebbles writting on her Instagram Stories that she has a strange relationship with her blog - even though it's the social media platform that started her career, it's difficult to maintane since it feels so lonely. On Instagram, SnapChat or even Facebook you get more or less a immediate respons from your readers, on a blog on the other hand it feels like I'm writting to myself. As much as I love the concept of a blog, it might just not be for me. I'll probaly check in from time to time, but I imagine that Instagram will be the place to interact, keep intouch and I will do my very best to update that page more often.

XXX

Push along.

When you see that plus sign on the stick there are probably 14k thoughts going in every imaginable direction through your mind. One of mine was "Pram! Which pram do we choose?!" Call me crazy, as my wife often do, but I've dreamt of this family life and everything that comes with it for ages.

Especially after we started the whole journey of IUI, IFV and whatnot to become pregnant and have a child. I relied on having a mental mood board of what that journey would provide us with. The goal at the finish line was a walk along the coastline with Silje, snuggled in coats whilst drinking coffee and strolling with a child in a pram.

I've spent hours upon hours on Google searching for prams, strollers and travel systems. I commented on every pram we say on the street, but for some reason we never had to choose which pram we would like. We had already made our decision, but I kept on looking. I still do! Might be influenced by a colleague who went through 19 prams and strollers during the childhood of her two kids.



Bugaboo Buffalo with seat option.



Our beloved pram, or stroller if you like, is the Bugaboo Buffalo. It's been discontinued by Bugaboo and replaced with the highly rated Fox. We love the functions and look of the pram with the carrycot and the seat that kiddo uses now are perfect for our everyday use. As we don't own a car, or have driving licenses, we knew that our pram had to be flexible enough to be used for the weekly shop, travelling cross country to our families and be comfortable for the child. And it is! It's even so good that kiddo will not sleep in her bed, only in the pram....

Hello, my name is...

I just dived in to this blog and never really introduced myself or the hot topic of this blog - my family. So I thought it would be fitting to give you the low-down this autumnal Tuesday evening.

As the description bar states I'm in my late twenties, turned 29 in February, and together with my wife Silje (also 29 - however six months younger and in her book that's important for you to know!) and daughter I live in Trondheim, Norway. I'm born in Stockholm, Sweden, and moved to Norway when I was eight and my little brother had just turned two. You see, our mother are Norwegian and father Swedish, so we have strong connections to both countries.

Both my parents and brother lives outside of Oslo, about 600 kilometres from Trondheim, and the majority of Siljes family lives far north. So our support network in Trondheim are quite slim. We have a handful of close friends, and luckily Siljes brother and girlfriend moved here this summer.

Just don't go and ask him how "lucky" he feels about the 14k odd jobs he had to help us with. Like changing ceiling lights - no problem with normal height, ours however are over double in height and a mild pain in the a** to do anything with. Anything but the look of it, cause it looks amazing with double ceiling height!

We have been together for five years and married three of them. Our beautiful wedding was in Paris, with the loveliest photographer to capture the magic - just take a look here! After numerous attempts we (Silje rocked that baby bump!) got pregnant in January of last year with great help from this team. Fun fact: on the same day that Kiddos embryo was implanted I had a job interview and got the job (and the baby!)

I'll give you more personal details along the blog journey, and have a post called "She is, I am" coming up soon. It's rather funny seeing on paper just how different Silje and I is...

Jenny

Snotty noses and potential divorces

Another week, another blog post, right?

I've given it some thought and concluded with the fact that I want to keep our weekends free from bloging, perhaps just the occasional Instagram story or post. Even though my work hours at the hotel can be horrendous, I'm so pleased that I always have the weekends off.

However the last two weekends feels like anything but "off time". Having a small child start nursery is a challenge - especially for all of our immune systems. I mean... can't remember the last time I had a cold, and now I've been coughing and feeling sorry for my self for a week. Not to mention the wife... She already has selective hearing, as I like to call it, towards me and in combination whit that, her never ending "ear storm sound" as a result of her brain blood cloths and being full of cold, yeah, she's a dream nowadays.

Somehow we've managed not to get a divorce, all chores and house work has been done - if you exclude all the started-on-projects-that-someones wife-hasn't-finished. We have about eight days to get sh*t done since the mother in law are coming to town! Now, let us just hope that I don't volunteer to be chairman or something under tomorrows parent meeting. I don't have time, but I really do like to organise others.. Gah.

Jenny

(Never) working 9 - 5

It's quite possible that the reason for titling this blogpost after the famous D. Parton song is because I'm both sleep deprived and high of caffeine. You might assume that's because of the youngest member of our family - 11 month old kiddo - but no.. It's cause I'm at work. And no, I'm not a health professional, as many assume when I say the dreaded words "I work purely nigh-shifts". I'm a semi-proud hotel front desk agent and I'm tired.

I tried to calculate how many years I've been on night-rotation and can't for the life of me figure it out. Surely that means I've been in the game way to long! Don't get me wrong, I love to work at a hotel and especially with great colleagues and guests, however there are no colleagues and hardly anyone checks-in after 10.30 pm...

I found going back to work after maternity leave difficult. I had the entire summer with my family - we spent three months on holiday visiting both of our families. It was the best summer to date. Yes, kiddo had started nursery early September, but I couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that I couldn't just pick her up whenever I wanted nor that I wouldn't be able to share the never ending wake-ups in the middle of the night.

Just to clear something up. It was my strong and beautiful wife who carried our child. She gave birth to her last October, and after a few months of the wife being seriously ill (perhaps I'll write more about that another time, if the wife approves) I returned to work shortly after Easter of this year and went on maternity leave in the middle of June through mid September.

However there's always a silver lining and mine are being able to spend time with kiddo. I'm at home when she wakes up (if she wakes up when she should...), I can eat breakfast with her and drop her of at nursery. I'm almost always awake when she comes home and can put her down to sleep every night of the week. And I can put her down for the second, third and perhaps seventh time. As I wrote in the latest Instagram post - she's as stubborn as her mothers.

 

- Jenny