Being good

After the successful completion of her reward chart, Sophie became the proud owner of a pair of Lelly Kelly shoes. These came complete with free make-up kit. She likes to liberally apply the make-up to herself.

Fun fair

The fair came to Stavanger a couple of weeks ago.

Day out at the farm

Higher!

Climbing

Sophie has become a fairly keen climber. She has developed a strong desire to ascend any obstacle she comes across. We went into the woods yesterday and I turned my head for a few moments (to locate The Beast) and when I came back she was making her way up a tree. Here she is in a local park. She's certainly as accomplished at climbing as other kids her age which is pretty remarkable given her history. She full of energy at the moment and has been running rings around us. However, today I took her to Vaulen Beach and, after a lot of walking and climbing, managed to tire her out. That's a score of about Sophie-10 Dad-1 for the Easter break.

Easter

Sophie has enjoyed the Easter break. We've done lots of stuff around Stavanger but I think she's ready to go back to school tomorrow

The Beach

Today we took a trip to the beach for the first time this year.

Water-related entertainment

Here's Sophie and her friend Ember having fun expanding some sponge wildlife in the sink. Don't tell me you've never tried it. Also, Sophie has become the proud owner of a set of bath flutes and has become quite proficient at filling them to the appropriate levels and playing the colour-coded sheet music.

A name for Fuzzy

The reason things have been rather quiet on this blog recently is because we haven't done much and that is because of the little chap in the picture. Jo is now 28 weeks pregnant with a brother for Sophie who can be seen here, on his 20 week scan, sucking his thumb and biding his time. At first Sophie seemed rather non-plussed by the prospect of a little brother ("I want a sister") but passing time and the sight of mum's expanding bump have made her more interested to the extent that she now asks lots of questions and shows genuine interest. With only a few weeks to go we're feeling quite prepared in everything but the name. We simply can't agree. Here are some ideas (... of mine):

1. Fuzzy - his current name based on an unfocused appearance on earlier scans (verdict: rejected)
2. Beastly - to save having to change the blog name (verdict: rejected)
3. Victor - my favourite (verdict: rejected)

So, if you have any good ideas please drop us an e-mail or leave a comment. However, if your idea is a current Top 500 name, a deity (Germanic, Greek, Roman, Irish or Norse) or in the Bible it is likely to have already been considered. We haven't done the entire Old Testament but the world is probably already full of Ogs.

Snow White

Today was the first day for about 3 months that the temperature in Stavanger stayed above freezing for the whole day. The snow still lies thick everywhere but it now has the consistency of a big Slush Puppy. Hopefully Spring is just around the corner. Here's a pic of Sophie just before the birthday party of one her schoolfriends yesterday. The party had a theme ... I'll let you guess that one. She was very pleased with the curls mum put into her hair. She would really like naturally curly hair but will not chew within one inch of a crust to achieve her goal.
Both mum and Sophie have been rather ill of late with tonsilitis, sinusitis and bronchitis all rearing their ugly heads over the past two weeks. Sophie is now recovered and will be back to school tomorrow (after a 2 weeks absence ... the phrase "coiled spring" er springs to mind). Jo is still rather poorly although is definitely on the mend.