i know i was going to let michael do the next post, and at the risk of being a bloghog i wanted to share this picture. this is "the bridge" i was talking about and that little speck of yellow building in the background is our hotel. anyhow this is such an owen face--but a rare one as he is actually looking at the camera-- and he took about ten minutes to walk across the bridge, stopping to put his arm thorugh each and every one of the circles doing a swoopy kind of movement with his arm singing "circle circle." this was after, of course, he ran past the statue i was going to take a picture of him standing in front of (a little boy fishing) and said "mommy! mommy! go over tunnel! on the bridge"
and here is owen a few seconds later, lost in thought, a more typical pose.
and as i write this of course, i am struck that this is why we're here. not for pretty bridges and picturesque htoels on the water but for the chance to sit here quietly on a thursday evening with my boys. kcrw streaming. owen with colorcrayons and then on my lap. michael making tea. both of us have books and laptops but mostly both of us have each other and owen doing a "cookie! cookie!" dance. best go now. he does like to turn off the minifridge.
over tunnel on the bridge
here we are, me and owen hanging out in alesund on some crazy barge outside of our new favorite cafe -- simply "espresso cafe" written with a fat sharpie on the glass window. it's connected to a designer gallery--swanky eggplant coloured couches and as owen calls it "people art". brie sandwiches and the best chocolate chunk brownies. perfectly decadent.which you know, i love in an everyday kind of way. our hotel is just one building beyond that white one on the left side along the water. michael took this picture last saturday when we went out exploring--but the two of us went back today and this entire deck was full of sunning teenagers and delightful old men in sweaters. and i say delightful because as i was trying to carry our tray down the stairs and instruct owen to sit on the top step until i came back to hold his hand one of the sweater men simply took owen's hand and hummed some kind of rhyme while helping him hop down the stairs.
and i'm finding that norwegians are either take-your-hand kind of friendly--yesterday we followed a lovely lady named gerta to the playground after chatting with her four month old at the "let's eat deli" because it was much easier than trying to give us directions. or they're-- scowl at you for trying to maneuver a stroller on cobblestone and cut in front of you at the vestland bakery while you dig through your purse and hold a toddler still at the same time--kind of people.
every day we do a bit more exploring and i've started to get a sense of how the town is laid out. there's water on all sides and this little bit of land that we're on is basically an island connected by "the bridge" which i'm always directed to cross and then turn left or right at "the light." maps are worse than useless and i must seem quite ridiculous standing on the corner turning it and turning it trying to pinpoint my location when in reality the entire town takes about 10 minutes to walk through.
we've got more pictures but i'll let michael post them up as soon as his week slows down--12 hour days everyday so far... but there's always fish pudding and brown cheese waiting for him at the hotel when he gets home ;)
van gogh's world
in case you're having owen withdrawals i thought i'd share a couple videos from this afternoon. you can get a sense of our "living room" set up which is quite nice and see owen's ikea toy spread. first, here are are a couple of "backstories" to these videos.
1. dooo doo dodo "elmo's world." ok, so if you've been remotely close to a toddler in the last say ten years you'll know who elmo is and most likely have caught a glimpse of the furry red monster's own show. so a few weeks ago on sesame street cookie monster opened the show with his spoof called, of course "cookie world." quite clever and funny and owen can't get enough of singing either song. which has led him to figure out that there can be all kinds of "worlds" and has started singing about daddy, mommy and owen's world. and of course mickey mouse and any thing he comes across that delights him.
2. a) while we were in amsterdam we saw lots and lots of van gogh. which was amazing. and my favorite. so for christmas i got a big gorgeous van gogh coffee table book which owen calls "mommy's yellow book” and is always asking to look at.
b) so i wasn't entirely suprised when we were at the national gallery in oslo and discovered one of van gogh's last self-portraits and i asked owen "who is that?" he looked at me and simply said "van gogh." that's my guy ;)
oh and 3. of course the choo choo train obsession leads right to the tunnel obsession. everything must be made into a tunnel.
enough already. here are the videos. apologies for no closed captioning. will interpret below.
"yeah la la yeah lala that's owen's world. that's owen's world! [me: doo doo doo] owen's world [owen signs "world"]
"la la la vangoghsworld vangoghvangogh . . . puh puh painter. . . yeah van gogh. . .[owen rolls up postcard of self portrait—story #4: at the gallery gift shop owen “holds” this postcard while i’m browsing and by the time we get to the checkout he has managed to chew off the corners and crumple it into a big wad so that when I place the loved postcard on the counter trying to smooth it out the cute norwegian girl just smiles at me and gives it to him for free] in the tunnel [me: a van gogh tunnel?--he had explained this to me earlier]”
hello norway!
after some twenty odd hours of fairly uneventful flying and a snowy layover in amsterdam we arrived in oslo monday afternoon to clear, crisp skies. owen power slept his way through dinner then we all enjoyed little einsteins at about 2 am when he woke up ready for the day.
and it was a beautiful day at that! we rode trains and trams and busses (oh my) and on the way up from the blue subway train owen turned around and said: "bye bye blue train--choo choo soul!"
we spent the morning at the vigelandsparken--a huge park with a beautiful statue garden by sculptor gustav vigeland and a 
massive (and very crowded) playground embracing the entrance. it was a lovely intro to the norwegians as a culture that values family and life at all stages. owen is the little figure on the far right in the picture --the typical tot wear consists of full-body padding complete with hat and boots. so you can see why owen pointed to the little boy in blue and said "mommy, blue people" and then turned to the little girl in red and said "red people." which makes perfect sense.
after a few rounds on the slide we joined the other families for a stroll--mothers with grandmothers, fathers with babies, groups of mothers and prams (on a tuesday afternoon--family is always first. on a surprisingly warm and clear day it isn't uncommon for mums and dads to call in sick to
the office). owen is walking down the path and you can get a little sense of the bridge lined with statues which then leads up to an amazing people tower. the photo above is owen posing with a little boy and below is michael and owen with one of my favorites of a father and son. each statue really is a celebration of humanity and emphasizes the connections among old and young.
and then we went to the munch museet 
and were exposed to edvard munch's mantra--which goes something along the lines of all art is of humanity therefore all art is about suffering. his mother died to tb when he was five or so then his sister died of the same disease and i think his father died by the time he was sixteen. he's famous, of course for the scream which unfortunately was not on display. (we learned from the museum curator that it was still under repair after its theft and damage several years ago--security, by the way
was noticeably tight.) however, we did manage to catch a rendition of the iconic work on our way back to the hotel. but michael and i still found the museum highly enjoyable--especially since owen decided it was a good time to take a nap (the picture of owen is notably under a painting of train smoke). so for at least an hour and a half michael and i wandered the small museum like schoolkids and discussed everything from the bleeding of people into landscape and the comparisons to van gogh (munch has his own starry night) and egon schiele (whose works will be displayed at the museum in may). owen awoke in the museum tea shop in time to have the last bite of chocolate cake and then we packed up and took the blue train back to our hotel. not a bad way to spend our first day in norway. . .
lunar eclipse
well.. here's how it went down here in Norway. We had a a good view of the moon about an hour before the Prenumbral eclipse began:
As the Prenumbral period began, a light cloud cover came, and stuck around for a few hours... 
around midnight the clouds disappeared and I was able to see the moon covered, all but a sliver.. very cool. unfortunately it doesn't come out very good in picture form:
around town
Trying to take it easy this Saturday here in Alesund, but I had some friends outside my window who made sure that I woke up in time for breakfast.
Since the ice is pretty much melted everywhere, I decided to hike up to the Fjellstua resturant that overlooks the city.. here's a pick from the hike up, and view from the top:
