Stine Kuskner

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By Stine Kuskner - Fri 15th Apr 2011

 

ALMOST 8 MONTHS - 25 February 2011

What a great day! This morning we went to a playground - well, that was a bit of a hassle at first, the girls were cranky after their morning nap and the elevator still wasn't working. Another fun adventure of carrying stroller, babies, bag, etc down 6-7 floors, at least nobody came out of the elevator and told me it was working just when I had carried everything down this time!

At the playground we met up with other moms from all over the world, there was an American mom who has a daughter only 1 day older than Liva and Laia, and an Italian mom who has twin girls 1 week younger than Liva and Laia. It was great meeting moms with children the same age and sharing stories, experiences, thoughts, worries, etc. If the weather is nice we'll meet up next Friday again.

We were gone most of the morning, 30 minutes after we came home Heather and Jenn came, the girls were thrilled (and so was I). They were here for an hour, Albert came home shortly after they left.

When Albert got home I had to go to a marketing course at the school where I'm employed. A 3-hour course where the whole management team was present. It felt sooooo good doing something else for an afternoon, using different parts of my brain again - or just using my brain again! It's nice to know I can still do other things, and concentrate and focus when I have to.

By the time I came home, Albert had bathed the girls and they were both sound asleep. My little angel girls + my wonderful angel husband = my incredible angel family!!

ALMOST 8 MONTHS - 26 February 2011

I love Saturdays!! The four of us spent the whole morning in the botanic garden of Barcelona, the weather was great, Liva and Laia were wonderful, Albert and I had a lovely time together as a family. We came home at lunchtime, fed the girls, played with them for an hour, then put them down for their nap. While they were sleeping my mother-in-law came over. We talked until the girls woke up, then she fed them their fruit. We all hung out and played until Albert and I left. We had a great afternoon in the center shopping followed by a wonderful sushi dinner. When we got home and said goodbye to Iaia we looked at the photos from the botanic garden once again, now we're off to bed. Tomorrow is another busy day, I have a meeting in the morning reg. a possible Scandinavian school here in Barcelona, my father-in-law is coming over for lunch and my mother-in-law will join us for the coffee in the afternoon. I love weekends, the only problem is that they're too short!

8 MONTHS - 28 February 2011

Liva and Laia are 8 months old today - well, the 29th, but since there is no 29th this month it's today.

They are extremely happy girls, and love playing. They're starting to play more and more with each other, looking at each other and laughing or grabbing and giving things. Laia started crawling about 3 days ago, Liva drags herself along the floor with her arms - Albert says she looks like a zombie. They love being able to go where they want. Liva still makes loads of sounds and sometimes words such as "Laia", "papa" or "Tata" (Tatanka, the name of our black cat) come out - the only one she seems conscious of is Tatanka. Laia doesn't talk quite as much, last Friday she started clicking her tongue which she has been doing ever since.

Liva holds her own bottle when eating, once I tried to get Laia to do it and after a while she grabbed her bottle with one hand and looked at me with an expression that said "I can do this no problem!". Just to prove her point she took the bottle out of her mouth, swung it around in the air for a bit, and put it back in her mouth - all still with just one hand - and kept looking at me with that same expression. After the show she let go of the bottle and her look said "I can do it, but if you want me to eat, you hold it because I can't be bothered!". So we still hold Laia's bottle when she eats.... They can eat cookies on their own, but not much else. I tried with banana, they almost choked because they put the whole piece into their mouth. Smaller pieces they "chew" on for a bit, then spit them out.

Laia can get from crawling or lying position into a sitting position, and both can pull themselves onto their knees when sitting in their beds and pulling themselves up by the bars. Laia can almost get into standing position when holding on to furniture.

Liva can clap her hands, and loves doing it. They both wave, but never when we say hello or goodbye.

They love being bathed and splash water everywhere. I am really looking forward to the summer and taking them to the beach!

They love being tickled, they love when we lie on the floor with them, they love playing peeka-boo, they love dancing and singing, and they love being cuddled and kissed. They hate having their faces wiped or their noses touched. Liva doesn't particularly enjoy being dressed - undressed is no problem, dressed is a huge theater. They don't like when we leave them alone in a room, but after a while they seem to forget they're alone and start playing. They are very open, loving girls, they smile at strangers - though Liva is a bit more reserved - and give kisses and cuddles to the people they know - Heather, Iaia and above all mom, dad and each other!