More time with Dad

It has been a week with quite some progress with Olivia, especially for spending time with Dad. Rikke had to go to the doctor the other day and I spent 3 hours with her walking in the stroller and playing at the park. Then yesterday Rikke was sick and we hung out in the backyard to let Mum sleep in. Olivia even let me change her for the first time. It is really great to spend time together and Olivia likes looking around and noticing birds and dogs, bees and all manner of other details she sees around the place - which I can do for hours.

She is also sleeping better as Rikke figured out that she has become lactose intolerant and was getting an upset stomach in the night. We could hear her tummy loudly rumbling and put two and two together. It stopped immediately when we switched her to the lactose-free milk. Lactose tolerance is actually a mutation as most mammals only drink milk as babies (so it is Olivia that is the "normal" one). We had read that Thai folks are in this respect mostly non-mutants (and thus lactose intolerant), but had just not expected it to come so quickly as she drank milk without problems until just a week ago. It has been great to have her sleeping again and good that the poor girl is not sick every night.

With Olivia's increasing sense of security we visited some of the folks we have missed since coming home. Our trip to Kolding to visit Mormor and Morfar (Grandma and Grandad) and Moster, Onkel (Aunty and Uncle) and the boys, was great. She just went around and explored without problems and was happy to see them all again.

We also visited Inge, Steen and Ditte to celebrate Inge's birthday. Again, Olivia was happy to go around and explore and liked to play with Ditte, who was good at showing her her room and toys. The star of the show was however the dog, Cirko, and Olivia loved to pat him and play.

There have even been periods of sunshine and we thought we would try out Olivia new wading pool (Thanks Lars and Charlotte!). We had to add a bit of warm water from inside but it was lots of fun.

We are also really starting to see her cheeky side. She figured out that Rikke put her phone down when she asked for a drink, so she pretended to ask for a drink to get hold of the phone. This has become a game now, but the implications of how her mind works remain...

After being home for 4 weeks...

It has soon been 4 weeks since Olivia came home and she has made such progress it is almost difficult to believe it has been so short a time. I apologise up front for the radio silence on the blog but I have been plagued first by a lung infection then a flu and persistent sore throat, at the same time as adjusting back to work after the break... anyway enough bleating from Saunders, you are hear to hear about Olivia.

Olivia has made big steps bonding to us and often shows us affection with a big cuddle and sometimes a kiss. Rikke and Olivia have made good progress with bonding and Olivia looks like she really feels comfort and closeness in her Mum's arms - even sometimes when she has hurt herself where she used to just go into herself.

Olivia and I have also become closer and she often asks to come up and sit with me or for me to come and play. When I came home the other day she ran up and gave me a cuddle and was excited to see "Di-di" after me being at work all day.

Today, she even played with me for a whole hour - without stress - while Rikke had a nap. We had to go in a few times and look - "Shhh. Mummy's sleeping..." - but otherwise we just went for a walk around the garden then upstairs and made dinner together. It was wonderful to just be together like that. Just a week ago she had to check in and be picked up by Rikke at least every 3-5 min...

She loves to listen to music and dance... her favourite is the electric piano "demo button" song. We are all singing the tune 24-7 now...

Olivia's language is improving and in addition to "bye-bye" she can now say a number of words like "di-di" (daddy), "mum", "ow" (learned by burning her finger on the kettle), "more" (if it is Dad's cooking), and her favourite things which she is always on the lookout for: "do [g]" and "bir [d]".

A big step for us has been buying the new car. Not only is this good for family outings, but it is a diesel with decent fuel efficiency and I have been driving each day the 100 or so kilometers to work in Aalborg instead of taking the train. This gives me more time with my girls...

So although one could call it a "family car" it is actually Dad's car and this is the way that the girls get around in the neighbourhood during the day! Olivia enjoys the bike and we also have a little bike-trailer (thanks Grandma Pat) for the bike that she can sit in if Rikke also needs groceries.

Olivia is getting more confident out in the neighbourhood. She likes to go down to the park in the afternoon and muck around, especially if there are some friendly dogs that she can pat or chase around.

Despite the calendar saying summer, cold windy days are an ever present part of life.

Here Olivia gets acquainted with her jumpsuit which is standard issue for Danish kids and they can race about without fear of getting a chill. She has her, "are you kidding me?" look on, and while sympathising I had to break it to her that this really was summer and it is weather-wise only downhill from here...

Olivia had initially shown a dislike for all manner of stuffed toy or fluffy animal, but she is starting to warm to them. This one of the first meetings with the kookaburra puppet Olivia got for her birthday from Grandma Liz and Grandad.

Here she is getting closer to the kookaburra after Rikke found a compromise for Olivia's insistence that Mum sit on the back of the rocking horse with her.

The usually careful and shy Olivia is at times fearless in her play. Here she decided it was funny to run blind in the backyard...