Deb's first day with the kids!

Again I shifted my wake-up time by a few hours and I was out of bed by 8:30AM. Nic was already dressed and getting ready for his first day at the office and he was on his way by 9:15-9:30AM. Gwyneth & Ethan were up by 10AM I think. The morning was raining and I had an ill fated attempt at making bacon - I am not sure if it was the bacon or the cooking or a combination of both. The kids wanted to watch a movie and I needed to do some laundry so I got Bolt started for them. (I should probably count how many times Ethan watches it during this trip - just to be appalled!). I was successful in laundry washing and after the movie it was time for lunch. Nothing exciting happened there and Gwyneth was now itching to go out and see a museum or something. We had promised her a 100 Kroner (about $15) allowance per week for doing her singapore math homework and other chores while she was here and I think she was itching to spend a few.

I managed to get everyone going by 2PM and off we went to the bus. I had figured out from yesterday that Ethan was supposed to be free since he was under 4 years old (and we paid for him yesterday). On the bus we discovered that you only get the family price (one person pays full fare and the rest pay 1/2 fare) on the bus if you have 2 adults with you and since Nic was working the first stop was the bus station office to get bus passes. One 30 day pass cost 685 Kroner for me (roughly $105) and only 25 Kroner for Gwyneth (roughly $4) I am not sure what happened with Gwyneth's pass since online I thought it said 200 Kroner. Anyway, I won't complain. The attendant also took pity on me because for Gwyneth's pass I was supposed to have a passport photo and after trying to explain to me how to get one at "Jappon Photo", he said that perhaps he could just copy her passport photo - which he did. So have bus pass will travel.

Somewhere in there I realized that I had the camera but that the batteries were back in the charger in the apartment. So no pictures for today. Sorry! After the bus passes we had a mini stop for two chocolate bars (which the kids wolfed down) and Gwyneth bought a postcard with her 100 Kroner (she spent 12). Then we headed to the post office for post card stamps. On the way we found a 1/2 price Disney Princess puzzle that Ethan just had to have (250 pieces so I thought it would keep him busy). At the post office I had to figure out the machine that was supposed to give us a number to wait in line. It had 2 buttons and some instructions, unfortunately for us in Norwegian. Fortunately, the woman behind us spoke some english and told us what button to press. We managed to get 10 post card stamps for 120 Kroner (almost 18 dollars - ouch). So don't expect to many postcards from Norway! Once we've sent 10 we are done.

By this time the kids were ready to go home. Ethan had already been trying to sleep on the floor so off we headed to the bus. While on the way back to the bus Gwyneth asks me where her postcard is - and I didn't have it - she lost it. So we walk back to the post office and on the way she finds it in the street. She was holding it and just let go of it we think. This time I make her put it in the puzzle bag and off we go to the bus. We didn't have to wait long. Luckily our stop near the apartment is on a major bus route and we have many options for getting back. The ride only lasts 15 minutes, if that, and Ethan manages to fall asleep. So I have to schelp him the 10-15minute walk home - no easy task. By the time we get there I've jostled him so much that he is back awake and I have a new appreciation for Nic who carried Ethan all the way home from downtown a few days ago.

So here I am, it is 10:30PM and it looks like dusk, just barely starting to get dark. The kids are having a bedtime snack with Nic. They are doing okay with Norwegian food. They have been sticking to the basics from the grocery store - cheese, bread, yogurt, eggs, milk, bananas, hot dogs .... Tonight I had bought a frozen pizza for them to try (the plainest looking one that I could find, but it looked like it had some sort of ham/meat on it). Gwyneth thought it was too spicy and Ethan ate 2 pieces, maybe 3. Ethan likes the brown Norwegian goat cheese with the long name that I would have to go look up. There are not a whole lot of options in the grocery store (that we can figure out anyway) so we'll be keeping our cooking simple in the near future.