1 YEAR & 11 MONTHS - 13 June 2012

As mentioned before, Liva & Laia now go to daycare and love it. So far they've normally been there from around 8:00 to about 15:00, but now that Albert is also working, their days are a lot longer and I feel horrible for leaving them in daycare for almost 9 hours! Albert drops them off shortly before 8 on his way to work, once a week my mom picks them up and drives them home, we do this on days where I finish early. On Fridays I normally only work a few hours, so I drop them off in the morning and pick them up in the afternoon. These two days they are picked up at 15:00 at the latest. But the remaining 3 days they have to wait for Albert to come after work, meaning they're not picked up until around 16:45. They are some of the last kids left when he comes, they are tired and crying, and can hardly get through the afternoon and evening. I hope I can soon stop teaching late and be home most afternoons, the days I teach late I only see Liva & Laia in the morning; they're asleep by the time I get home.
Now that I'm not with them 24 hours a day (as I was most days in Barcelona!) I have so much more patience with them. I suddenly understand what people mean when they talk about "quality-time" compared to "quantity-time". Quality-time is so much better, and so much easier when there's less quantity-time! I also suddenly understand those people who do this whole baby-thing two or three times! Too bad I'm already in my late-thirties, otherwise I'd have considered more kids in the future.... But it'd have to wait another 2-3 years until Liva and Laia can do many more things on their own, by then I'll be very close to 40 - I don't want to be a new mom at 40! Especially since we'd might get two again... I'll spend all my quality-time with Liva and Laia, I can't think of a better way to spend it! :)

1 YEAR & 11 MONTHS - 09 June 2012

It's been ages since I've written, though I've thought about it 100s of times!
Well, we're living in Denmark, all four of us! We've rented a lovely apartment just outside Elsinore in a huge house with only 5 apartments in total. We have a big private balcony and a lovely garden which we share with the other neighbors. The apartment itself has two floors, on the first floor there's an open kitchen and living room with exit to the balcony and a fireplace! :) There's a bathroom with a tub and a combined computer room / guest room. On the second floor is our large bedroom and a huge room for Liva and Laia which is kind of divided in 2 sections so they have their sleeping area and a play area. We all love the house. The beach is a 2-minute walk away, we can see the water from our apartment, and there's a forest just behind the house.
I work as an English teacher and it's great because I can choose my own hours. I haven't worked much these weeks, I've had time to be with Liva and Laia and help them adjust. Albert's working as salesperson in a small private company, he only just started one week ago and so far it's ok, nothing super exciting or anything...
Liva and Laia go to daycare and absolutely love it! Unfortunately the daycare is located at the other end of town, and though Liva and Laia love it there and the people who work there are really sweet, we're going to move them when there's space in the one just behind our house. The one they're in now is very focused on being outdoors, which is great because it's healthy. But they don't do things like painting, music, clay etc, which is something I would like for Liva and Laia to do, and which is something they do at most daycares here in Denmark. I feel horrible about moving them since they're so happy there, but I keep convincing myself that they'd be just as happy in the other one after a month or so. Also, their days there wouldn't be so long, at the moment Albert drops them off in the morning on his way to work, and picks them up on his way home, meaning they're there for about 9 hours. They are some on the last kids left when he comes to pick them up. Some days I teach at home and could theoretically go get them, but we have to take 2 busses to get home from there, the one to our house only leaves every hour, so if we miss it, we can't really get home. Twice I've taken a taxi, but we can't afford that! Liva and Laia are always tired and usually just cry on the bus, they want to go home. It's easier to have Albert get them with the car. If they were at the place behind our house I could walk there with the stroller and pick them up.
But all in all, things are good. We see my family loads and Liva and Laia are so happy to be with them all always. One of our neighbors has twin girls of almost 18 years and an 11-year old son, they're here every second weekend and they all have a great time together. Another neighbor has grandchildren Liva and Laia's age who also come visit sometimes, and I guess soon they'll start getting friends in the daycare as well. At the moment their best friends there are 4-year old twin girls. I guess twins just have some kind of connection...
Tatanka is here with us as well, and also enjoys it. He's already caught his first bird on the balcony, which he hid under our bed. Nice.... He can get into the garden, but did so one of the first nights here which Albert and I hadn't realized. We closed all doors and windows and went to bed. At 3 am I woke up because of a cat meowing outside. I recognized the meow and went out to look for him. It took us about 15 minutes to find him, he had been in a fight or something and was hurt. Poor thing survived a 7-storey fall in Barcelona, then gets into a fight with some animal after just a few days in Denmark. He still loves being outside, but he stays on the balcony now.
I hope to be a bit better at posting again from now on, so much is happening with Liva and Laia's development these days. They talk loads, especially Laia. She repeats almost everything we say, and is starting to use several words to create sentences. They play really well on their own and with other kids, they eat loads, they pretty much dress themselves now, they love helping with everything around the house and they want to do more and more things on their own. Unfortunately they are VERY attached to their pacifiers, and potty-training is just not happening, though we try. They also don't sleep enough, we put them to bed around 18:30/19:00 every night, they wake up anytime between 5:15 (yes, 5:15 am!! WAAAAYYYYYYY too early!!) and 6:00, they nap around 12:00 but only for about 1 hour, if we're lucky 1½ hours. This means they're constantly tired and so very often cranky. We're hoping it's just a phase, and they just have to adjust completely to this new life. Considering what they've been through in the last couple of months they're doing great! If we have to deal with them being tired and sometimes cranky we can't complain, they're absolutely wonderful and have adjusted amazingly to this new life!