2 YEARS & 6 MONTHS - 27 Jan. 2013

We took Liva & Laia to a museum for the first time ever today, and it was actually a huge success! It was a child-friendly museum with ancient mummies and sculptures of animals and people - Liva & Laia loved the lions and giggled at the naked people where you could see the bum: "He's not wearing any pants", they said... There was also a small rainforest with a little pond with fish, and of course we went to the café to have a snack - coffee, juice and chocolate cake, yummy!!
When we finished at the museum it was Liva & Laia's nap-time, but since we were in Copenhagen we wanted to get something out of the whole day, so we went to a mall where there's an indoor playground, a small aquarium with fish, shopping-cart cars, and entertainment. We spent a couple of hours there, and all in all had a lovely day. The girls fell asleep in the car in the way home, we had a nice couple of hours at home before dinner and bath-time, Liva and Laia slept about 15 minutes after putting them to bed. Definitely a day we'll repeat soon again!

Playing in front of the museum

Looking at the fish

Fighting over who gets to stand in the middle - because we can't just both stand there together....

Looking at the fish from the shopping-cart car at the mall

Fun entertainment at the mall

2 YEARS & 6 MONTHS - 21 Jan. 2013

Time just flies, and there seems to be no extra time for anything...
Well, we had a lovely few days in Barcelona, the flight back and forth went really well, even with girls who wouldn't sleep. They are now so big that books, stickers and - of course, as always - snacks keep them happy and entertained. Liva and Laia loved staying at Iaia's house, I loved seeing Susan and Luca and Emily, Albert and I loved time to ourselves, both completely alone and just the two of us. Seeing Barcelona again was nice, it made me realize how much I miss the city, but also made me realize that I would not live there at the moment; life is just too difficult there, I'm still sure we made the right decision back in April when we decided to leave.
We also went to the doctor once, Liva fell about 2 meters down, head first. She was kind of out of it for a while, so eventually we called our doctor in Barcelona. Liva was checked from head to toe and we were assured that she was just fine.
Though 5 days was way too short to see everyone, especially with 3 Kings and spending time seeing (far out) family as well, we were all ready to go home after 5 days. Liva and Laia were having a really hard time adjusting, I think seeing all the old, familiar places really confused them. We also didn't sleep well, the girls often didn't nap, sometimes because they didn't want to, sometimes because it didn't fit into our plans. So all in all, it was great being back in Barcelona, it was lovely seeing everyone there again, it was wonderful to spend time walking around the city, but it was also nice to be going home again.

And now we're home! Albert and I are busy with our new jobs and both enjoy it. Besides it being below zero degrees 24 hours a day and all of us struggling with the cold (and poor Albert having to walk more than 3 km to the station every morning!), we're all doing good. We're having fun playing in the snow (when we're dressed warm enough), Liva and Laia love being at daycare, and they were thrilled to see Camila when she picked them up on Tuesday. Our routine is working out well, the days are getting longer, and everyone's healthy and happy. I just wish it would start getting warmer soon!

2 YEARS & 6 MONTHS - 3 Jan. 2013

Happy New Year! A new year, a new start! We are not sorry to see 2012 end, it was a very difficult year in many ways. It brought a great change which we are all happy about, especially now that Albert and I both have good jobs, and Liva & Laia are completely settled and happy here and in daycare. But it has taken a long to arrive at where we are now, especially for Albert and me, and it hasn't been easy! But here's hoping for a lovely 2013!

We had a fun New Year's Eve at my brother's, as always the 4 kids had a great time playing and we all had fun. We had talked about whether we'd be able to stay awake until midnight, but that was no problem - we left their house around 2:00, some things I don't remember quite clearly.... For the first time in about 3 years! :)

Today Liva and Laia were back at daycare for the first time since Dec. 22. Though we had been talking about it for a few days, I was still a bit worried about how they would react when I left them there. Absolutely no problem, they were so happy to be back and to see all their friends! My mom picked them up, when I came home I asked how their day had been, they talked about how they had played with pearls, played on the playground and on the swings, the food they had eaten and that they had slept. Such wonderful girls!
Tomorrow we're going to Barcelona for almost 1 week, it'll be interesting to see how the girls react when we are back there - we haven't been there since we left in April. They understand that they'll be seeing Iaia and Avi soon, as well as Luca. But how much they really understand we don't know.
I'm looking forward to it all, the trip tomorrow, Three Kings on Sunday, meeting Susan and Luca on Monday, and hopefully seeing our Barcelona babysitter Emily on Tuesday. Albert and I get to have time on our own together, as well as just time on our own - alone! I hope it'll be a great week, we all need to relax and have some time off. There is of course the sad part that Albert's father is quite sick, he's doing fine but has an incurable illness, and we are very sad about that. Liva and Laia don't know, they would understand if we told them that he was very sick, but so far we haven't told them anything yet. For now we will enjoy 6 days in Barcelona, and spend as much time with Avi and Iaia as possible.