So, Robert has this thing about waking up in the mornings. He sorta hates it. I mean, with a passion. He'd sleep until late afternoon if he could, and does quite often on the weekends. He also blames me if he doesn't get up on time. 'Why didn't you wake me?' 'You could have tried harder.' But, if I nag and poke and kick and throw water, he just pulls the covers over his head and grumbles, 'Now, I'm just gonna sleep longer to spite you.' It's a fine line, apparently. It's worse than waking a grizzly.

We have a routine. He gets up, wakes Catie up, she does her bathroom routine and then I get her ready for barnehage while he takes his shower. When I don't have to get up earlier for work or the gym, I just wake up when Catie comes out of the bathroom and I can get Catie ready before he gets out of the shower and dressed.

This morning, from my half awake state, I could hear Robert trying to wake Catie. Then I hear a (translated) 'I don't wanna. I want to sleep.' 'I'd wake up if you would quit poking me and be quiet.' I laughed so hard I nearly fell out of the bed. 'If you would just leave me in peace, I'd wake up.' Robert and I both knew that if he left her alone, she'd roll over, pull the covers over her head and fall back asleep.

It sounded so much like him, I had to add, 'Now you know how I feel when I try to wake you up.'

'Well, now you know it's not my fault. It's hereditated!'

I was browsing some pictures of the new Blais (from this Season's Top Chef) baby, when I came upon this site.

I must say, this makes me want to have a huge wedding in Atlanta. If I ever do it again, or know of anyone planning a wedding down that way (though most of the people I know who live there are already married), I would so hire these people.

Okay. So, I bought 3 tickets for the 2 pm showing of Indiana Jones today. I thought about it, read up on some of the reviews and decided that since Catie had seen the 3 other movies, the Pirate of the Caribbean movies, the Mummy movies, and the Spider-Man movies, and loved them all, I decided that she could watch the movie. Apparently, that doesn't count in Norway. In the States, it's listed as PG-13, which I take to mean that parents can decide if a child under 13 can watch. Here, the age restriction was 11. I thought that meant that children under 11 without adult supervision couldn't get in. But, it is actually, no child under 8, and 8-11 with adults. Grrrrr! The chick wouldn't let us take Catie into the theater.

Ironically, she could have seen the movies showing today that had sex in them.

I tried to *cough* reason *cough* our way in, and I said something along the lines of 'in the States, the parents would make the choice in this situation' and Catie looked at me and said 'We should have just been living in the States.' Heh. Oh well.

Robert said, it's just as bad in the States. Catie would have been able to see a movie with lots of blood and killing, but not if a nipple was shown. Arg.

I did go later with S and watch the movie. I loved it, but I think I would have rather had 4 or 5 more movies in last 20 years than the wait for the 'perfect' script.

Hey, and my ears aren't even ringing from the concert last night. Not sure if that's good or bad. I mean, I know ringing is bad, but I also think with the noise level there should have been some ringing or something. Whatever. It was a typical concert in Trondheim. Lots of drunks bumping into me, blowing smoke in my face and tall people crowding in the small amount of space in front of me, which I had created to try to have some personal space and not mate with the person in front of me. But, at least, at this concert, I only got a small about of beer kicked onto the bottom of my jeans instead of all down my head and back. Yay for small favors.

I'm going to see Def Leppard in concert tonight.

Tomorrow is the new Indiana Jones movie. We are taking Catie. She loves Indiana Jones. We were watching Temple of Doom last night, and she was telling me what was going to happen before it happened and even saying the dialogue. I didn't realize she was such a fan. How cool is that? :)

Now, I need to start sending hints Robert's way so that I'll get to see the new X-Files and new Mummy movies for my birthday! One opens the weekend before and one the weekend after my birthday. Heh.

Hrm....wonder if I have any friends in town who like Sex in the City. I wouldn't mind seeing that movie when it comes out.

Today was tumble class day, and even though I wasn't the one tumbling, I'm very tired. Very tired.

But, I did have to say that I have pulled a few post-it notes off of my forehead in the last couple of days. (Erm, my memory is so bad that I joke about having to put post-its on my forehead to remember things.)

So, yeah, go me. I now have my summer tires on the car....before June! *falls over*

This is how I feel on a lot of days.

Catie has been writing her name, my name, Siris and a few other words for a while now. Sometimes she'll ask me to spell something for her and she'll write it down as I spell it, or if it's a sentence, she'll ask me to write it first, then she'll copy it. The teachers at her barnehage are impressed; she's the youngest one there who can write her own name. They are also impressed with her singing and text remembering abilities in both Norwegian and English, but that's a different story, but I'm bragging anyway, because I'm the Momma!

...I read recently that actual sit down learning is not stressed in any state run barnehage in Norway. Instead they use learning by play. Also, they don't do standardized testing in the elementary or middle school ages here. Just a test at the end of these years to see where the child is at. Just a little FYI....

At home, we've been working on making sure she has letter and number recognition when she sees them, and also working on the sounds that each letter makes. I spend more time doing this in English, but I have caught Robert sounding out letters for her in Norwegian, too. She has a Leap Frog toy (one of those fridge magnets) that does a little song ('Every letter makes a sound. B says BUH.' etc) when you put in each individual letter brick. Today, I was pulling out letters, asking her if she knew what it was and what sound it made, then after three, I had a word spelled out and asked her if she knew what it was. First, I put down B-U-S. She sounded it out. T-O-Y. Sounded it out (with some help from the toy for the Y). Next, I put out C-A-R. Before I even asked her to sound it out, I asked if she knew what that spelled. 'Car!' Cool, I said, how did you know that is 'car?' 'Because, that's how it's spelled, Momma.' Okay then! My child can read a bit. Yay!

Okay, I know this doesn't sound like too big of a deal, and she does have two friends in the States who are a bit younger than she is who have already passed this stage, but are still working on things, but you know, Catie is fluent in two languages, working on sounds of letters and reading in both, and I'm damn proud of her.

Tomorrow is the 17th of May, Constitution Day here in Norway. Parades, national dress, hot dogs, ice cream....stuff like that. I haven't been able to find the frilly fancy shirt for Catie's bunad, but she has the over dress and shoes. Maybe if I stick a plain white shirt under, no one will pay too much attention. I should iron the outfit at some point, soon.

Hrm. Should salmon give one heartburn? Urg.

I have a headache.

I don't quite remember what all happened yesterday as it passed in a blur of tiredness. I do know that Robert thinks he nearly broke his toe, yet would not go to the doctor about it. He passed up several rides home because he thought I would pick him up from work. But, I couldn't. Catie was supposed to go to tumble class, but when I sent her off to wash her hands before supper, she got sidetracked by my bed and I found her asleep, and slept just long enough to miss class. Then, she didn't want to go back to sleep, so was up until 10 pm or so. I couldn't leave Catie sleeping here to go pick up Robert, so I told him to take a cab home, if it hurt so much to walk. So, he walks all the way home at 3 am or so. Men?!?

Catie's stubbornness in not wanting to go back to bed lead to her not being able to ride her bike to barnehage today. She informed me this morning, 'When I behave again, then I can ride my bike.' Okay.

I think I may have been to the post office to mail back a dsl router, but who knows. I know that I feel asleep in my chair at around 6 pm or so last night. Blarg.

Today, I met M in town for lunch. She had a meeting afterward, so no real lingering to chat, so I did some window shopping. And a tiny bit of sales shopping, but, shhhh, don't tell anyone.

Picked up Catie from barnehage and she and I did some puzzles and played some memory games. She went outside to play a bit while I cleaned up some and made supper. She came * * this close to getting a sticker on her Chore/Behavior Chart today. She just refused to turn the light off and go to sleep. I usually give her a few minutes at the end of the day to wind down with her looking through a book and then she 'writes' in her journal. (It's very cute, as she can write about 5 or so words, but she likes to pretend she's writing other things as well.) But, tonight, after the allotted time, she wanted to continue on. So, I refused the sticker. She was doing well up until that point. I think I may have to revise the system, so she has the possibility to get two stickers a day, one for chores and one for behavior. I'll talk to her about it tomorrow.

We went by the corner kiosk today to get us a drink on the way home from barnehage. She sat down on the steps outside the store and chatted with the owners. She is so friendly. I noticed at the playground last week, she talked to all the children and the adults with them as well. I like that she is friendly, but I want her to be cautious, too. But, how do I do that without making her frightened and shy and unsocial? A book about talking to strangers, maybe? I'll have to think about that and check some books out.

I've been watching Jericho and Firefly. I'm trying to take them slow, as I know they are both canceled and I want to prolong the joy. How sad.