snow everywhere

We have had a lot of snow here lately. 

my boshi

Today Alia was given a hat, not any hat, but a myboshi hat, which are totally in and hip in Germany right now. Looks like we will be needing that hat too, we have around 40 cm of fresh snow and constantly temperatures below freezing.

Hard to believe that this little girl will grow up in the tropics :-)

Dora and Alia Dora

We knew what our daughters middle name would be before we knew the first one. When I asked Erlend if he would be ok with naming our daughter after my grandma, he just smiled and said OF COURSE, because he is one of the many many people who love and appreciate my Oma so much. She is a diligent, humble, kind, real proverbs-31 woman and if Alia turns out anywhere similar to her, we will be very proud parents.

Oma still has to meet a baby she can't calm down

cold

We have had some seriously cold weather here lately, but we went on a wee walk today anyways.

As a result we had a very chilly pappa...

... and a sleeping baby

U3

Today Alia had a doctor's appointment which is called the U3 (which is code for 3rd check-up).
We are thankful that everything is well with her,  she has gained an amazing 1200g in the last 4 weeks (30% of her original weight) and has grown 5cm.

 getting a hip ultrasound

children blessing

Today we had a children blessing service at church. Both Alia and her cousin Lina were prayed for after my dad preached on biblical family life. Afterwards Opa bought pizza for everybody.

elders praying for the girls

 Alia slept through the whole thing

pizza for everybody

our friend Erik, who is always willing to speak English with Erlend

              Alia chilling with a very tanned Opa who just came back from Abu Dhabi yesterday

supper

We were invited for supper at my sister's house today and even though I am technically ordered to stay in bed by the midwife, it was really good to get out of the house...

Erlend entertaining the little one...

... while the girls sit and chat

church

Today Alia went to church for the first time. It was so nice to have fellowship with other believers after not being able to go for a few weeks.

I forgot to take a picture while we were there, so the ones from hanging at my parents place after church will have to do.

 first family picture

Onkel Philipp was here for the weekend

in the mail

Look what we got in the mail today! A lovely dress for Alia (I can't wait to put this on her, she will look so adorable) and some chocolate for the sleep deprived parents.

Tusen takk for den nyyyyydeligen gaven, Vegar og Line!

late Christmas present

Today we really missed Norway (or better our loved ones who live there). Knowing it will still be a few months before we get to see them all, we went and bought something that we wanted to invest in for a long time and that made us feel like we were doing something to prepare for our trip to Norway. We bought a suitcase, using some of the Christmas money from our Norwegian family.

We think that a quality suitcase is a good investment for our family for there are many trips to come in our future as far as we know.

we picked a colored one on purpose because it is so much easier to spot at luggage claim

getting there

Who would have thought that a few grams could make us so happy? When Alia was weighed a few days ago and the scale showed 2980 grams we were thrilled to bits. Considering the appetite she has had over the last days we are sure that she cracked the 3000-mark!

Here a picture of proof! Love those (almost) chubby cheeks!

Berlin and back

Today we took our first road trip as a family of three. Erlend had to renew his passport and Alia was looking to become a Norwegian citizen. We had to drive to Berlin to the Norwegian embassy to make that happen.

 Father and daughter waiting for their paperwork

 on the way back we stopped at a fake American dinner for lunch

Erlend was very excited about the food...

 and so was Alia, who was the world's best travel baby today

passport

Alia has gotten her German passport at 11 days old - I don't know if there are many people who can say that about themselves :-).

 we even had to take a picture at the photographer, a bit ridiculous, considering that she will look different in a week already

after such a busy day, with all the photographing and passport-getting she likes to do her favorite thing -  chilling on pappa's belly