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...)