It’s that time again

Time to apply for kindergarten for BabyL. Two years ago when I was looking into kindergartens for BabyS, I did an extensive job mapping the kindergartens. You can read that post here.

This time the rules of the game have changed. With SweetieS in a kindergarten called Barneslottet in our district, we now can apply for sibling priority. This way our application is prioritized for a spot if we choose to apply to the same kindergarten.

Let’s be honest, why would we have our two children in two different kindergartens? Beside, we as parents and SweetieS are very happy with Barneslottet. The employees are wonderful caregivers and the facilities are awesome. Who wouldn’t want to spend their whole day playing in a building with 10(!) rooms with themes and an outside area of 6140 square meters(!)?

So applying for a kindergarten spot for BabyL is a no-brainer. Just remember to put in the application no later than March 1^st.
- More information on the whole kindergarten application process can be found here.
- To apply for a kindergarten spot in Oslo, apply digitally here. (to access the site, you need MinID/BankID)
- To read more about Barneslottet, look here (on the new website)

I have put in my application, so now we play the waiting game…

A beautiful mind and some to does…

My maternity leave is over and I’ve been back full-time the past week. Funny how much technical stuff I remember, it’s just buried deep…I just need to give the brain a chance to catch up.

It’s been wonderful to have some grown-up interaction that doesn’t involve babies. But I do miss my days with BabyL. With me starting working again I keep making to do lists for DaddyO…these’s always something that need doing and remembering.

First up…
- apply for a spot in SweetieS kindergarten for BabyL (starting this fall)
- research driving lesson options (I work during the day…when will I have time for my driving lessons?)
- wean BabyL off breastfeeding (I’m not rushing this, all this happens on BabyL schedule)

-What are things you have to do as you round up your maternity leave?

Knitted kindergarten set

A while back I bought some wool yarn on sale @Nille. At 10NOK a skein I just bought some without any projects in mind. Well the other day I came over a project. A knitted sweater and pants for SweetieS! After she got a “pre-loved” sweater and pants from a wonderful colleague of mine, I realized we were in need of another set.
So I went surfing around on Drops website. Did you know they have several thousands of FREE patterns just a mouse click away? Well I found these pants and this sweater.

Drops pants	Drops sweater

I used Baby Merino yarn (I think it has changed the name to Baby Ull now) by Gjestal. I used the colors 829 – light grey and 622 – light pink. And the result:

I used about two skeins of pink and two skeins of grey on the pants. On the sweater I used less than three skeins of grey and just one skein of pink. (if I didn’t remember wrong-had to buy more grey when I started on the sweater and lost count). I made the sweater a little longer than in the pattern. With the left over yarn I made some mittens using this pattern for kindergarten mittens. SweetieS has been wearing them inside and out ever since I finished them yesterday.
Off to start my next project…combining knitting and organization…what projects are you doing these days?

Back to work

This week I went back to work after 9 months of maternity leave.

Time has flown by and BabyL is sliding/crawling around on the floor as DaddyO starts his round of paternity leave. This time around our maternity/paternity leave is divided like this:

MommyS – 6 months paid maternity leave (approx. 3 months mother quota and 3 months from the shared quota) , 3 months unpaid leave/vacation
DaddyO – 6 months paid paternity leave ( approx. 3 months from the shared quota and 3 months father quota)

And there you go, a year will have passed and BabyL starts kindergarten.

In case there is any doubt as to the paper mill that needed filling out.
Here is our process:
Mother applies for maternity leave, about two months before babys due date.
Mother quota and shared quota can ble applied in the same form
Using this form: Søknad om foreldrepenger, mødrekvote eller fedrekvote ved fødsel (Note it’s in Norwegian)
As I had a period of vacation and unpain leave, DaddyO had to apply for an extention.
Using this form: Utsettelse eller gradert uttak av foreldrepenger (fleksibelt uttak) (also in Norwegian)
Father applies for paternity leave, atleast 6 weeks before the first day of paternity leave.
Using the same form as mother used to apply for maternity leave (just another check box in the form): Søknad om foreldrepenger, mødrekvote eller fedrekvote ved fødsel (Note it’s in Norwegian)

New for this time around was the option to send some of the forms digitally – unfortunatly not all forms are have this option available yet. To use this option you will however need to have BankID, Buypass or Commfides available. Using this option allows you to follow the application process online. Though my experince with this online status left me with more questions than answers, and I wound up calling my local NAV to have my questions answered.

In two weeks time is Chinese New Year again, so in need of some cleaning and planning. So mark your calendars, Thursday, February 19. This time we enter the year of the Goat.

Recapping the last few weeks

The first weeks of 2015 have been hectic on my part. With three rounds of stomach flu for my two girls I have had my hands full.
The girls have finally gone to bed - sans stomach bugs. I’m sitting in “my” corner of the couch listening to the hail hitting our windows and enjoying a moment of peace. While writing up this post I’m in the back of my mind planning my next knitting project.
Yesterday I finished this pillow. No pattern, just a lot of calculation on my part and some help from Drops in this pattern here. The inspiration for this pillow came from the Oro lammeull pillow available @Princess stores in Norway. I just felt 299NOK for a pillow case was too expensive, why not make my own.

 
my take on the Oro pillow, front and back

I knitted my pillow in Royal Tweed yarn by Lana Grossa. I used less than 5 skeins on 5mm needles for a  40x45cm pillow. This is a medium grey mix (color code 48). Love the softness and play of color. I got the yarn super cheap at a storage sale Tjorven arranged over a year ago. The yarn has just been sitting in my storage waiting for a fun project like this.
Tjorven is actually arranging another storage sale in about two weeks time. I plan on going! I have been really good the past year and used a lot of the yarn I have hoarded since starting this hobby. So this storage sale is great for stocking up on yarns I normally find a little too expensive for my taste. Here is more info if you have the time (January 25th 2015) and the money….Ticket sales are closed (for guaranteed spot in the queue - are already sold out), but you can still get some great yarn deals just by attending.
The past weeks I have intensified my efforts to getting my drivers license. Being a mother of two soon-to-be-kindergarteners I need to be able to drive to and from kindergarten for pick-ups. Two years ago I contacted Bil og Buss Trafikkskole and started my drivers license training. But time has just run from me…now I’m hoping to work hard and get my license within the year. Hopefully over the Summer, depending on how much time I will have to do some driving. Have to make a mental note to save money for driving lessons though. A 45min lesson costs 590NOK! I’m lucking and DaddyO is willing to give me driving lessons, so don’t have to get my general driving training from the driving school, saving me tons of money. But getting a drivers license in Norway is an expensive thing.

Another new thing I stared this year, the art of letter writing. As a side effect of my efforts to getting more organized using binders, I got myself a pen pal. I’ve actually had fun creating pages for my binder to keep track of my pen paling. a pen pal record - to keep track of addresses and personal information

a happy mail log - to keep track of my sent and received snail mail.

Not sure if/how I should put this online for downloading, but drop me a mail if you would like a copy of these.
So now I have more binders than I care to admit, but I feel more organized. It started so simple…with calendar binders to journal/log for my two girls. (more about those in this post) and the number of binder have increased rapidly.
Enough ranting for now…going to catch an episode of The 100 - my newest series to watch. Have a great Thursday evening.
- How has your year started?
- Any goals for the new year?