A great week!

Yes, I've had a great week. As I mentioned in the last post, my relationship with Gabriel is really great. And I do enjoy it :) He's one-of-a-kind boy, he has his temper, but in the end of the day he's this little sweetheart with a big heart :) SO that has made my week!
But it's not all! I have finally started thinking more about my thesis paper that I have to get done in the next half year and although it's kinda scary, I also feel that it's the right thing to do. I still don't have the topic, but I do have some good ideas and I'm doing my research in this field at the moment. It's not going very fast, as I'm pretty tired in the evenings normally, but I'm trying. I still have 11 days :)
Monday's Norwegian class was great. I baked S'mores cookies with me and everyone loved them. Ole and Ingvild loved them too. Ingvild said that they were maybe a little too good (meaning she wanted to eat them too much :D). What a compliment! Anyway, back to the language class. We had a nice class, got tons of homework. I have actually done some of it already. I normally do it at the last moment or write the things during the lesson (I know, aiaiai :D). Although the level we are studying at is kinda low at the moment, I still enjoy meeting people and just getting out of the house. And it definitely helps me to revise the grammar and get stronger in it. I actually haven't studied that much of grammar the last two years, so it's good to look it over and think why do we say things one or the other way in Norwegian.
Tuesday we had the Julemessa möte - Christmas fair meeting. Me and some of my friends from church got together to finish some of the things we had started previous times. We finished our hearts and pigs and angels. We also wrapped candies they had made on last Saturday when I was working :) They looked so delicious! :) Anyway, it was a nice evening. I do love such evening with some work and mutual goal and having it cozy and chatting :)
Today (well, officially yesterday, but my rule is that it's the same day until I go to sleep :D). Anyway, today was the big JULEMESSE! Or for those, who don't understand Norwegian - Christmas fair. The Arendal methodist church has been organizing benefit Christmas fairs for several years now. They normally donate all the money they get for one or another cause or project. This year was a little special, as the church is getting a new roof. So half of the money will go to the church and the other half to some project. We went with the whole family and I was helping. I was supposed to be Selma's assistant, but I ended up running after Gabriel in the end. He ate basically just chocolate cake today, so you can imagine how energetic he was. Our little boy who doesn't really eat that much sugar normally :D Anyway, we had it cozy. There was tons of people, tons of different lottery and nice things to buy :) The thing is that most of the things are made by the people in the church :) I think it's just amazing how they work for this mutual cause :) So now we're waiting for the numbers to be announced - how much did they earn this year! :) It's always exciting! :)
Oh, and Alexander (from my previous family) performed. It came to me as a shock! I found out that he has been going to this Christian children's choir. And I was so proud to see him performing. He has really grown up! :)
Well, tomorrow I and Maria will be babysitting Gabriel and Selma overnight, as parents will have a night off. They definitely deserve it! :)
How has your week been?
Grete

My sweet Gabriel!

So yesterday turned Gabriel THREE! Can you believe it? Every time a child has a birthday, feels it just unbelievable that they will turn a WHOLE year older :) We had a great birthday. We actually celebrated it on Sunday. Ole, Ingvild, Selma and David woke Gabriel with a song and he got hot cocoa in bed. How special! And he got presents - REAL tools. They were mini-size, but real. He was soooo excited! AND he got these real workman's trousers with 100 pockets. He went around with them for two days! :) In the afternoon came Ole's parents, grandma, his brother's family and also sister's family. We had a great time with food and just enjoying Gabriel's excitement over the presents. And later had we cake (chocolate one of course ;), chocolate pudding, vanilla buns etc etc. I think it was kinda too much. The sad part was that there was soooo much good, but I didn't have enough room for it in my stomach. One of the ironies of this world. BUT I have decided that Ingvild has to teach me to bake those vanilla buns - oh it will be heaven! :)
We have had really nice days after the Bday. I don't know what has happened, but me and Gabriel have this really great relationship suddenly. He asks me to play with him like ALL the day. And like at the moment, he's here in my room doing all kind of things. First he was looking for chewing gum from my drawers, then he thought that playing in my wardrobe is cool, then he slept in my bed like for two seconds, then he found my tweezers and wanted to attach them on my PC and now he's sitting in my wardrobe discovering the feminine world (I mean make-up, of course:) Anyway, he's having fun, if you ask me :) And when he's happy, I'm happy :)
SO this entry is to say that I am so proud of Gabriel, the sweet little thing :) He's such an intelligent and kind-hearted boy :) And he's deep in my heart :)

Three months!

Today it's exactly three months when I got here. It feels weird. Sometimes I've felt like the time is not passing at all, and the next moment I feel it just flies by. Very weird. So when I start thinking back to these past three months, a LOT has actually happened. I mean it!
Well, of course - first and foremost - baby David was born in Sept 15th. This cute and precious little boy, who just melts all the hearts. I can't believe it - he'll be 2 months on Nov 15th and he has grown so big. He's not that 'bitteliten' anymore :) But still 'bitteliten' compared to the rest ;) Anyway, he has gained like over 2 kg and grown ca 6cm. He makes some more noise, but I think it's because his tummy is bothering him from time to time. He still loves to fall asleep on my chest - and I love it too ;)
Secondly, I've basically seen the whole Ingvild's family. I only haven't seen her dad and the youngest brother yet. Her mom visited us for two weeks when David was born and her sister with the kids spent almost a week with us during the school holiday. Her brother's family visited us during that time too (but just for two nights). So I'm guessing the record of people staying over in this house belongs to that time - we had 13 people sleeping here for one night - I know, crazy! But again, me like crazy :D
Thirdly - I actually took two official Norwegian tests in the end of October. One for level A2 and the other one for B1. I don't know the results yet, but it's just crazy. Why? Because it takes normally at least two years to reach the B1 level...and I've studied Norwegian for a year (had a two-year cap) and studied another month and a half before taking the test. No, I'm not bragging. I'm just amazed myself. It shouldn't be possible. I am so grateful that somehow I've managed to pick this amazing language up and it really inspired me to learn more, develop etc. Maybe one day I will be able to interpret from Norwegian to Estonian. Now THAT would be cool! :) AND, I read a little about polyglots the other day and that's my dream - to become a polyglot. So I just have to pick up another couple of languages and become like fluent in then. No problem, right? :D
Another one - I celebrated my 25th birthday in Norway with a bunch of great people. I totally loved it. It was kinda hectic and I didn't really have too much time to communicate with everyone, but I just enjoyed the buzz around me and people having a nice time together. Most of them were all from the Arendal Methodist church, so they all knew each other and so there was no problem with finding topics to talk about etc. But anyway - I'm TWENTY FIVE now. I am kind of finally starting to realize that I'm a grown-up and am responsible what I do, how I live etc. Well, don't get me wrong. I've always been a very responsible person, but I feel how I'm big now, I should start living my grown-up life (financially and otherwise) and I feel that I'm not this baby girl anymore that everyone looks down to. It's kinda hard to explain...I'm sorry. I am really lacking words today :D
Well, there have been another thousand little things during these past three months. Several visits to Daniela, Kay, Alex and Julia (my previous family, who lives 20 minutes from me), Norwegian courses every Monday, amazing Sundays in the church etc, etc.
I am really happy here! I am. Satisfied and thankful for this experience! I was thinking just today what would I had been doing in Estonia if I wasn't here? And to be honest - I am not sure. Yes, I could have done a little this and little that, but I don't think I would have found something that would have given me the feeling I have now. That I am needed here. That I can help this family. And this feeling is overwhelming! :)

Bye for now. I'll try to be better in blogging. Btw, this blog entry was inspired by Katrina Kalda. Thank you, sweety!
Love you all!
Grete