Life in Texas is just life

I keep meaning to update my blog with all the new things we do but first of all, we don't really do that many new things all the time. Binni goes to school, does homework and spends as much time as he can afford playing with Markus and me in the evenings. As for Markus and me, a usual day consists of getting up at around 7:30 or 8, drinking milk (Markus), and getting dressed. At 9:00 we watch Super Why and Dinosaur Train on TV while we eat breakfast. Then at 10:00 we go to the park. Home again for lunch at 11:30 and then nap (Markus) from 12-14:30/15:00. At 15:00 we have snack time and usually go out somewhere to a friends house or the grocery store or somewhere else exciting. Then at 18 we have dinner and at 19 Markus goes down for the night. If Binni is home yet at this point he then usually studies for another 4-7 hours and I do the housework and watch a show or something. And that is how most of our days are. Of course not all days are exactly like that but you get the drift. So life in Texas is just life. Not that much more exciting then life was in Iceland or Denmark for that matter although the weather here tops both of those places... Right now for example. It is 13:20, Markus is sleeping and I am sitting outside, by the pool, in shorts and a T-shirt. It is November 20th and it is freaking 27c !!! That is beyond amazing!

Second of all (I think I started this long paragraph with first of all) I just don't get around to it. So now I have made up my mind not to try and catch up on all the things I wanted to have put on here but just post stuff as I get it done. So here comes a really cute video of what Markus does when he finds a Qtip:

Here is also a picture of Markus after him and I decided to wash the car one afternoon a few weeks ago:

And here is a picture of what a normal Sunday during church looks like:

And here are just two pictures of the family having cozy times! 

To end this post let me just tell you how excited I am for Thanksgiving on Thursday! My first real Thanksgiving with a real American family in America! Haha. So many people have been so sweet to have invited us over to spend Thanksgiving with them and we are so grateful! But we are going over to our friends Cara and Mike and their little baby girl Liby! Markus is excited too because they have a little dog who he plays with all the time. All in all it is going to be a really great day! So excited! :)

Zombie epidemics start early and other important things regarding life in Texas

So I know my blog is extremely overdue for an update so just for those of you who don't know here are the basics of what has happened over the last couple of months:
- Sold everything we own except what could fit into 9 suitcases
- Jumped on a plane to Austin Texas, USA
- Currently living at my cousins house while looking for a place to live for the next 5 years while my husband goes to UT.
- Still have the most amazing little boy in the whole world. Still madly in love with my husband and I still love the color pink about 200% more then any other color.

All in all the move has gone great! The flights were so easy. We made all of them and Markús did so good. As soon as we arrived Binni pretty much started school and all of our post immigration paperwork right away and is going strong. He is like a machine! - "Love you Binni"

I on the other hand feel a little stuck in Limbo. I'm not on vacation but I'm not home either, I don't even have a home. It is a bit of a strange feeling.
The first 2 weeks I spent most of my time tending to Markús, who as I said earlier handled the whole actual move so amazingly!!! After we arrived, however, he seemed a bit off, a lot more whiny, and confused and frustrated then normally and he started biting. So after a few days of this I tried simply decided to try my hardest to keep him on his usual nap schedule, let him play with his own toys and not take more then one outing a day. And it helped a lot! He is doing much better, he is happier and calmer but he still bites... Less then two weeks ago, but he still does it.
He doesn't bite to be mean or when he is angry or to get his way. Most of the time he bites when he is happy or bored. And I am not exactly sure what to do about it. Yes, kids do that and he is teething and all that. I know it is normal enough, but today we were at our first playdate, and it was SO MUCH FUN! There were like 10 mommies there and more kids then adults and most of them right around Markús's age. How wonderful. And Markús was having a great time. BUT... At one point him and this other little girl were playing in the other sitting room, running back and forth and jumping up and down couches. And then all of a sudden she releases an earthshattering scream and starts crying uncontrollably and my Markús had taken a huge bite into her arm, deep teeth marks and all... So we rush over there and calm them down and no one is bleeding or anything. The other mom was really nice about it and that was really nice but still.... Does anybody have any good advise for how to teach your 19 month old that biting other people is bad??? If you do I am all ears.

All in all though, I think I could really get settled nicely here in Texas. The weather is great, the people are really nice and as soon as I get something more routine to do and people to do it with I am sure that my butt will get out of limbo in no time... :) (But if you have any suggestions for what to do I am also very open for ideas there) ;)
Important American things I have done/seen so far:
- Gone to the Cheesecake Factory
- Gone to 5 Guys
- Had Texas style BBQ (a few times) ;) (already gained about 3 lb)
- Gone to the UT campus
- Gone to the Texas Ranger museum in Waco
- Turned right on a red light
- Gone to Walmart!
- Seen my dear mission President and sister Haines
- Had a pedicure

Have a great day everybody!
And to all my Icelandic and Danish friends, I miss you!

A little bit of everything wonderful and amazing!

It has been quite a while since I last posted on my blog and since my little one does something cute and amazing pretty much every day I now have a little collection of videos I have to post to catch up.

Here he is:

Binni called me from the other end of the apartment and as I walked closer I heard this hysterical laughter coming form both of my men. And this is what I found when I got all the way into the bathroom:

A few days ago I was sitting on the computer while talking to my mother-in-law on the phone and all of a sudden I hear this immense laughter from my son. He (who up until this point has been very afraid of the vacuum cleaner) had faced his fears and discovered just how much fun a vacuum cleaner can be:

Stripping down Sunday after church is always fun! Especially when you can throw around your clothes on everyone!

Following in his dad's footsteps:

What can I say, he likes to cook (and eat):

And just the last one that made his mother proud! 

Some days are good others are great! (FH vs. KR)

Let me tell you about my evening yesterday. At 15:30 my sister-in-law Unnur came by to take Markús for a bus ride while Björg (Binni's mom) and me drove in to meet up with Binni at the Fulbright scholarship ceremony. It was a lovely little gathering of old Fulbright grantees, new ones (here among Binni), the Fulbright board, the minister of education in Iceland and the American ambassador here in Iceland. I am so proud of my husband for getting this grant! :) 

In the picture you see the 7 new grantees, the board members and the 2 political figures before mentioned:

Then afterwards I had planed a surprise date for Binni.
For those of you that don't know, Binni is the king of surprise dating. He has done a few in the past but the one at christmas time will never be topped... He made me get all dressed up for a family "cookie eating party" (I thought it was kinda strange, but I didn't want to sound rude towards my in-laws' traditions). So, we were running late and when Binni's mom and brother come by to "pick us up" they are both dressed in jeans. I am still stressing out and start assigning them places they can use to change when I notice that Binni is just kinda laughing at me and that is when he tells me that we are going to go see Frostrosír (an amazing classical concert that is put one once a year with all the best singers in Iceland and some years also from other countries. That year it was even the 10 year anniversary of the concert so it was extra special.) Tickets are not cheap and are always sold out months ahead! (see link for more on Frostrosír: http://frostrosir.is/)

So since then I have taken him out once before, but last night I decided to take him out for KFC and a football game. FH vs. KR.
When Binni was younger he used to play for FH and they are nothing less then the best football team in Iceland. (He has trained me well) ;)

Binni got SO excited when he found! So, even though it wasn't Frostrosír, I guess it was some kind of male equivalence.

Here we are right before the game starts

Here are the boys warming up!

We picked the right spots right up front, because not 5 min after we sit down the whole fan club came waltzing in and sits down right next to us. This video was taken at a quiet time:

Unfortunately FH lost, so the date ended at an Ice-cream place down town. So long diet...
I am not much of a sports person, but I had a lot of fun and as a bonus Binni even found pictures of us online today:

I'm the one in the pink shirt all the way to the right in the front row and Binni is next to me. 

Here you only see Binni but he is in profile in the bottom left corner.

Your turn Binni! 

Faster than his own shadow!

Just the other day Markús and I are eating lunch and all of a sudden the notices his shadow.

At first he was more careful in his movements until he figured out how it all worked, but by the time I got the camera out, well here it is:

Have I told you before how much I LOVE my little man! It is so amazing how they discover the world one piece at a time! That day it was his shadow. :)

Sing it son!!!

My last post must have been inspired, because the very next day (Monday) Markús and I went to the mall. We looked around, we shopped a bit and we sang a whole lot! -and when I say we sang I of course mean Markús sang! The Elmo song. But since Markús is still not using so many real words it was pretty much just the "lalalala" part. However, he knows that part really well!

He probably carried on for about 20 min as loud as his little voice could sing, wherever we went.I think the people in the grocery store got a little tired of him, but I didn't!!!

I love how free babies feel. There are no social barriers that say you can't sing at the top of your lungs in malls or that you can't say "Hi" to every single person that enters the bus. If they feel like singing they sing. If they feel like talking to people, or in Markús' place shamelessly flirting, they do that! 

What a wonderful age! :)

(Here is a link to the famous Elmo's song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSYadh2xmcI)

And a little bonus video!

Markús has started to learn what zombies sound like! This was just a few days ago during dinner... Binni is very proud!

Dancing never gets old!

What baby doesn't love Elmo? I don't know one. I'm sure they are out there but I just don't know one. 

I never watched Sesame Street, I was always more of a Barney kid (make all the fun you want - I LOVED that purple dinosaur). But Markús has really taken to Elmo and especially Elmo's song, which has like 67 million views on youtube and I am sure that Markús is responsible for at least 65 million of those... :)

Anyways, a few months ago, before he was able to walk on his own, I turned on Elmo and he was more caught up then ever in that little red puppet so I had to film it! 

Now it's more normal for him to be so focused and he even sings along, but his dance moved are still cute!

It can be Easter in May

So, I know that Easter was a month ago, but theoretically we should be thinking about Christ and celebrating his wonderful sacrifice all year long (and I never got around to posting this), and what better way to celebrate Easter then through chocolate eggs! So, Happy Easter everybody!!!


First off Easter eggs are a BIG deal in Iceland!!! When that is said I can begin my story.

Now the Icelandic Easter eggs aren't your standard issue chocolate eggs or figurines. No, the Páskaegg are more like a combination of a big, hollow chocolate figurine, a apiñata and a fortune cookie - ALL IN ONE! How cool is that! And because they are such a BIG deal they even come in different versions and sizes. The most common ones are probably the regular milk chocolate (which Markús and I got) and then the milk chocolate with small pieces of black licorice blended into it. (why? I love black licorice and I love chocolate. But together? No!). Binni got this one. He, like most Icelanders, love the combo. 
However, they have all sorts of flavors. They have milk chocolate with crunchy cookies in them, with caramel pieces in them, with smarties in them, with rice puffs in them and dark chocolate eggs. I am probably forgetting a few...

They are so much a part of the culture up here that people talk about them as a normal conversation topic starting a few weeks before Easter. I myself had several conversations with both kids and adults about what egg I was thinking about buying and why... And it's not just me! 

Here is what we ended up buying:

Markús had a # 2 (85g) milk chocolate egg from Nói
Binni had a # 7 (650g) black licorice egg from Goa
Mine was a whopping 1 kg! (I don't even remember the number but it was bigger then Binni's) milk chocolate egg from Bonus.



Even though this wasn't Markús' first Easter, it was the first one where he was big enough to have chocolate. (Not that we give him chocolate all the time, but like I stated in the beginning Easter eggs are a BIG deal in Iceland) So we were really excited about getting him his own egg. 

Another tradition surrounding the Easter eggs is that you hide them, or the parents hide them for the kids who then hunt around the house looking for them. I hid Markús' under his green bucket in the middle of the kitchen floor.

He got so excited when he got his egg that he ran around with it in the plastic for a while before even trying to open it. When we finally took it out of the plastic for him he wouldn't stand still for a picture, but kept running around "hiding" and eating it in his favorite spots in the kitchen (e.g. in front of the fridge, under the counter, in the doorway etc). 

Here are two pictures of him going to town on his egg:

When it started melting to much we broke it into pieces and put them in his green bucket. He then got a little bit at the time over the next few days.

Even though mine was the biggest (I can't say that enough!) Binni's was the one that lasted the longest and I think he kind of planned it that way. Since Markús had more then enough in his own egg and I didn't like the chocolate/licorice combo in his egg, he had his egg all to himself whereas I, being the generous person that I am, share mine with the people around me. Also, going on a road trip with Binni's brother Matti and our friends Paul and Brittany the day after Easter helped put a nice dent in it. So even though I had a 1 kg egg, I hardly think I had more then a maximum of 200g of chocolate myself... (or at least that is what I am telling myself). :)

Happy Easter everybody and a Merry Christmas now that we are at it... 

The zoo and a zombie dad!

Friday night Binni had a few friends over fora PS LAN party. I left the house after Markús was put to bed and returned just after midnight. I went to bed and woke up at 7:00 when Binni came into bed. Usually Markús would be up my 7, but since he wasn't I figured I'd sleep a little longer. At 7:30 I went into him to get him up and I found one of Binni's friends still playing in the livingroom. He finished shortly after and went home.
But what was Markús and I going to do in a house full of sleeping men? We had been smart enough to have made plans. We were going to the zoo with two of Markús's friends and their mothers. So we played around a bit, had some breakfast, took a long morning nap (only Markús) and took the bus around 10:30.
But before we left we went in to say goodbye to Pabbi (and take a picture of him. So peacefully asleep in his "call of duty" pj pants, his "Heman" T-shirt, and his "transformars" bedsheets) I love my husband and the man he is!

On the bus Markús started out great! Super charming and saying "hi hi hi HI" to EVERYBODY that passed him. And since we were in the front of the bus everybody passed him. :)

Then something strange happened. A teenage boy wearing bright pink pants came into the bus and Markús's face change and he followed him silently from the moment he spotted him till the boy sat down and Markús couldn't see him anymore. This is right after he walked by:

When we got to the zoo Markús was having the time of his life. Mostly with his two friends and running in and out of buildings but he also saw some animals. Here we are at the foxes cage.

The seals were a big hit and so was the little concrete stepping stone before the glass. Just the perfect size to step up on...

... and sit on. However whenever the seals swam by the did catch his attention. (here he is with his friend Sara)

He liked the small lambs. Especially this one that was close enough and still enough for them to pet it.

He also liked the calves (baby cows) And he was petting them until one of them licked his hand. Then he just laughed to much every time I tried to take his hand close enough to touch it again. I'm sad I didn't get a video or picture of that.

Finally we headed home. On the way we found a beautiful flower.

He held onto it very nicely until it became to big of a temptation and he just had to try and eat it. (He didn't like the taste)

We called Pabbi up around 14:30 and woke him up.
A great and eventful weekend for all 3 of us. :)

There is sunshine in my soul today...

The weather has been AMAZING the last few days. So yesterday Markús and I decided to go to the park. At first he kept pretty close to me, but it didn't take long before he ran around investigating EVERYTHING! Sticks, branches, pine cones, flowers, grass, water, rocks not to mention swings, the sandbox and a cat.

He especially loved walking up and down the rock stairs! He would laugh so hard whenever he skipped a step or tripped and wouldn't fall because he was holding my hand.
We ended our little outing with a banana and a bottle of milk on the grass by the entrance to the park.

All in all, an AMAZING day! I want to do this everyday! :) 

Dance dance revolution !!!

Lately Markús has had a lot of energy. It is definitely cute but also a bit trying at times. :)

The other day I was watching "Fashion Star" in the background while getting lunch ready for Markús and me. All of a sudden I heard Markús cheering and clapping like crazy. Then he stopped. Then he started dancing and then he stopped. Then he started cheering again and so forth... I didn't get it at first until I notice that he was following "Fashion Star". 

When Binni came home I told him about the activities of the day. And he was not pleased with my choice of educational television. Hahaha. 

Oh well, regardless of the quality of television his dance moves etc were amazing!

Here is a video of it. (but luckily it also drains his energy...)

Is being tucked in hilarious?

Since I am with Markús all day we try to have Binni be the one to sing for him in the evening and put him to bed. For the past couple of nights I have heard some laughter from the bedroom during this peaceful procedure, but we have a happy little boy so I didn't think much about it. Then last night Binni called me in and told me to bring the camera and this is the result:

A couple of days ago, Markús came to the conclusion that being tucked in was absolutely hilarious. 

It didn't take long for his parents to realize he was right.

Day out with mom

I love being a stay at home mom! 

It means that you can stay in when the weather is bad, you can sit down and play all day and let work be work when you feel like it and you can go out on trips whenever you want!

Here is a little café trip with mom a couple of weeks ago. We walked (both of us walked) down to the bus, took the bus to downtown Hafnarfjordur, walked around a little mall for a bit, sat down at a little café for a bit and took the bus home! What a great day. And I can't believe how big he is getting and how good he is at walking. :)

Snow is not that easy to walk in... 

Happy 1st birthday Markús!

I can't believe that it has been a year! A year! Where did the time go? I no longer have a tiny baby boy, but a full grown little man (almost full grown anyways).

His birthday was Friday and for birthdays both Binni's and my family have a tradition of waking up the birthday person with a song. So that is what we did with Markús. Here is how he took it: 

(and please no comments on the singing... it was early!)

Then after we woke him up we all sat in the kitchen and had breakfast. He was just smiling all morning and having the time of his life. He was such a cutie all day!

Here is a little video of Markús at breakfast: 

Then yesterday we had the family and a friend over for a birthday party. Here we had decided that Markús could have his first cup cake all to himself. He was so cute. He first saw...

 Then he started touching:

After a little while he dug in with both hands, face and entire body...

And by the end of it he had gotten a bit of a sugar rush:

Until he crashed with Pabbi while opening presents. :) 

All in all a GREAT day!

Everybody has a doppelganger!

We looked high and low for Markús's doppelganger (ok, not really) and we can finally rest! Here they are, the resemblance is striking!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Here in Iceland the winter started at the end of November and the landscape outside turned into Winter Wonderland! It was so funny to see Markús's face the first morning when I drew the curtains and showed him his new world! 

A few days later I took him out to play in the snow.

As the picture shows he wasn't a fan. When I sat him down in the snow and took a few steps back he was in shock. He just put his hand in it and sat completely still... then after a few sec. he started making "complaining sounds"...

He has been outside plenty since but has never shown a big liking for the cold... Then for Christmas he got a little sled and the other day we took him out to try it out.
To begin with he loved it and kept laughing and laughing. Then after about 10-15min he started complaining whenever he stood still. (which can be quite demanding for the one pulling the sled) :)

I love my little guy! and I'm sure he'll grow up to love all the snow just as much as his dad.

Big boys eat by themselves!

I have finally gotten to the point where I am committed to teach Markús to eat with a fork and spoon. So yesterday was the first day that he ate by himself. 

In the beginning I had to help him get the food on the fork, but getting it into his mouth was no problem. Sometimes it was more of a problem not to get more on the fork on the way out of the mouth then there was on the way in. (he always stuffs his mouth like there is no tomorrow... Silly boy)

Around the middle of the meal he got the hang of it and got some pretty good fork fulls into his mouth all on his own. But, by the end of the meal, when there was getting less and less food to catch, and he still wasn't allowed to use his hands, he came up with a different method... 

Ohh what a joy it is to clean up after him after every meal. But, I guess it's the only way they'll ever learn to eat properly.
If you have any good advise please feel free to share it!

And as an extra here is a video of him drinking from his own cup a couple of months ago. He still isn't a pro at it, but he is a pro at being cute and making his mommy laugh!