Bits an pieces from our last two weeks

the little teenager and the growing baby

Our familylife is getting more and more intense these days ... basically Garpur has come to realize that his cute little baby-sister, who needs a lot of his parents attention, has really come to stay. This seems to lead him to think that by being very negative and trying to controll every situation, he can get a bigger share of the attention ... even though it's hard to admit, he's kind of right!

One of his favorite pasttimes these days, is to argue with us and try to get his way. For example this morning, when I offered him a choice of cheerios, cornflakes or porridge for brekfast, he chose an egg! I know that if I had offered him to choose between cheerios, cornflakes and an egg, he'd have chosen to have porridge ... like he did yesterday, come to think of it!

So we (the parents), are doing our best to keep our calm, discuss the situation openly with him, take turns caring for Úlfrún so that he doesn't feel he's losing one parent more than the other ... and just waiting for this phase to blow over. Thankfully Úlfrún's still such a great sleeper, that we actually have the energy to tackle the situation. But can anyone tell me how long we might have to wait, a week, a month ... or maybe years???

The good news is that Garpur always treats Úlfrún well, sings and talks to her, strokes her ... he doesn't seem to be angry with her, it's us he has issues with.

Úlfrún is doing a great job growing and learning stuff. Now she has noticed her hands and tries to grab stuff with them while looking really hard at them, but she usually ends up knocking stuff over or just bumping her hands into it ... but she's getting there!


CocoRosie

Four years ago, when standing in the middle of a little shoeshop on White Ave. in Enmonton, Már and I heard the wonderful voices of CocoRosie, for the first time. We were instantly fond and curious about the music they were playing in the shop and asked the girl at the counter what music they were playing. She just shrugged and told us to ask the guys next door. Next door to the little soeshop is a little musicshop. The guys there handed us a cd with CocoRosie, and we bought it. We love and enjoy their weird fusion music, and since that trip to Edmonton, we've gotten more of their music.

We never imagined that this wonderful duo/band would travel to Iceland and have a concert here ... but they did, last night ... and we went to it!

It was such a great experience. Well, besides it being the fist time Már and I leave the kids to do something without them, and meeting a lot of people we haven't seen in a long while, the concert was fabulous! There were three of them on stage, the two sisters who actually are "CocoRosie" and their cool human-beatbox-guy. The girls sang beautifully, played the piano, the harp, keyboard, guitar, wooden flute and all kids of electric gizmos I don't know the names of. They put on a great show, danced and performed all sorts of movements and, as a member of the audience, I felt that I got to know their character a little too.

I'm so glad we went out together last night, it really makes a difference to spend some time together without the kids, and "outside the walls of the home" (a phrase directly translated from icelandic).


Eurovision

Along with the rest of the icelandic population, I'm getting very excited about the Eurovision Song Contest, the semi-finals are shown live from Greece tonight and the finals are on Saturdaynight.

I feel kind of sorry for my parents who'll be flying to Canada during the Conests tonight ... I just hope, for their sakes, that our contribution, Silvia Night, does well enough tonight to go to the finals, so they can watch her live on the internet on Saturday (I hope that's possible?).

For those who don't know what I'm talking about, The Eurovision Song Contest has become some sort of a cult here in Iceland. It's a contest held once a year, where the European countries compete in (mostly) pop-music.
Most of the music is usually really crappy ... but yet one a year all Icelanders will sit down to watch it and hope we win. We never do!

Most people in Europe are unaware of this Contest, but here in Iceland, the streets are empty during the broadcast, and loud cheering can be heard from ever tenth house in every neighbourhood, where people have gathered together to watch it.

This year Iceland voted a joke to represent our country, and everyone is as excited as ever, to watch tonight. The joke is a youge actess, playing the role of a selfcentered spoilt brat, Sivia Night, who thinks she's a superstar and knows that she's better than everyone else and that she'll win. She plays the role perfectly and has received a lot of attention in Greece for her superstar-rude behavior to the press and the other contestants. The lyrics, of the song that represent Iceland this year, match the character and go something like this:

"Congradulation for I have arrived, I'm Sylvia Night and I'm shining so bright. Eurovision-nation, your dreams have come true, just vote for your hero, that's what you must do ... I love you."


Bellydancing
(I know it says anything BUT bellydancing, but ... )
... last week I started teaching beginners bellydancing again after a long break from that. It feels so good to dance again ... although I can feel that I'm straining my knees a little too much, I love to be back in the action.


ZeFrank
That's it for now ... well, I have to add one thing. I have recently become hooked on checking out this guy's site every day, I recomend checking out his daily videoblog!