Madi's first Easter was a bit spread out over a few different days. She had her first Easter egg hunt at the end of March with the COP Spouse's Group. Then we knew we would be leaving for the cruise and didn't want to haul with us her Easter "basket" so we let her open it the day before we left.
Just to be clear - there aren't Easter baskets here in Norway. Instead they have these cardboard eggs in different sizes. They open up and can be filled with goodies and pretty neat! You can get really big ones, but we opted for a smaller one and I used a tin and chalkboard paint to write God Påske and Happy Easter on it.
She loved shaking the egg and then was super excited when she realized she "cracked" it open and there were goodies inside. :-)
Fast forward to the actual day of Easter and she met the Easter bunny on the cruise ship! And was too distracted by everyone admiring her and vying for her attention to look at Daddy for the picture...
Same story at dinner with the ice Easter bunny...
However, we were able to get a few family photos from the ship's photographers. :-)
This month's pictures are a little different since you turned ten months on our cruise around Greece! We brought your onesie and took pictures with the ship's photographers. You were a good sport, but not really in a picture-taking mood. We got some cute shots still though! :-)
- You love looking at pictures! We walk you around the house looking at them and it was a favorite activity on the cruise as well.
- Pulling all the books off your shelves in your playrooms is a must!
- We have some hilarious pictures of you pointing. You point at people, pictures, everything! It's adorable. And your new favorite thing to do.
- You have started giving kisses and I must say little missy, it melts my heart! You give them to Mommy, Daddy, your gund kitten, little duck, and other toys! We caught a cute video if you giving Daddy one.
- You still haven't taken steps, but you keep standing in your own more and more. We've tried calling you to get you to tame steps to us and you just smile and get down and crawl. You have come very close though a couple times and sort of fallen forward to us.
- New sounds/words: "I" " I do" "mom" (yay, finally!!) "woah" "mmm" and growls.
- You can wave, but don't seem to know its what you are doing. You're also still good at giving high fives!
- You have started splashing thanks to swim lessons. Bath time is now a group activity since Mommy and Daddy get wet also. You splashed in the pool on the cruise ship and had a blast!
- You had fun playing peek-a-boo with everyone on the cruise and in the mirror in our room. It was the perfect height for you to move up and down playing peek-a-boo by yourself. Just give you a chair and you'll do squats playing with anyone who comes along!
- You continue to love kittens and pointed and got excited at seeing all the stray cats all around Greece. And one kitten has become really special. Grandma got you a super soft Gund kitten that has become a favorite toy this month. You give kitten kisses and snuggle with him every night.
- No. You've become quite familiar with this word this month. Whether it's grabbing Mommy's necklace or something around the house that you aren't supposed to touch, you are being told "no" and you are not a fan. You definitely understand because you look at us and have started either screaming or, the best yet, making the world's saddest and cutest pouty face ever. We almost started laughing it was so darn adorable! You just stuck your bottom lip out and looked at us with the biggest eyes ever. Uh-oh.
Miss Madi,
You are such an amazing girl and had your 18th flight this month on our way to Italy to catch our cruise. We had a blast on our cruise around Greece with you and you were such a little ham! You ate up all the attention you got from the staff and the cruisers. Anytime you were fussy we could take you up to the pool or dining hall and like magic you were happy and talking people watching and getting attention. I think we are going to have our hands full with you, little flirt! Everyone commented on what a happy and beautiful girl you are and how smart you are. I don't know how people can tell, but everyone seems to pinpoint it right away! Thank you for being so wonderful and blessing us!
In case you didn't catch it in my last post, I took a trip to the middle of the North Sea this past week. It was a phenomenal experience and I am so glad I had an opportunity to come out!
There's some beforehand prep work that you have to do in order to go offshore. I took a week long survival course that included putting out fires with different extinguishers, swimming in the North Sea in a survival suit, and lastly, escaping a "helicopter" in a pool as practice in case of emergency. I found the course to actually be a lot of fun, but I hope I never have to put those skills to use in real-life!
Friday I boarded my helicopter at Sola Airport to fly offshore. We wear those survival suits on-route making for a tight 1.5 hour ride out to Ekofisk (for which I am grateful in case anything were to happen because that suit - that's going to be the reason I survive. You've seen Titanic. Jack would have been just fine had he been in one of these babies!).
Cell phones are strictly forbidden offshore so I've got limited pics. My wifi-only ipad is allowed so I snapped a few pictures inside the "hotel" and used the rig's approved-camera for pictures of operations. I can't share those ops pics with you, but I can share a rig selfie!
Sitting in the driller's chair. Don't worry, they knew better than to let me drive!
Here's a few shots I got of my accommodations. There are single/double rooms, a gym, multiple lounges, a sauna, dining room, and the ever-important tanning bed and unlimited ice cream. :-)
Operations offshore run 24/7. The first couple of days we were getting everything setup so we didn't have to worry about night shifts. Towards the end though, I took over watching ops in the evening and overnight on my last day. It's surreal to think I am writing this from the middle of the North Sea!
Ekofisk Main Complex in the background. I am on Ekofisk Kilo.
My job doesn't typically entail going offshore so this was a great opportunity. The well we were logging is one that I actually planned before I went on maternity so it was neat to come back to work and get to see it in progress! The logging was... well, interesting. Let's just say I saw a wide variety of operations and things that can happen unexpectedly!
I will say though, that it got tough towards the end being away from Jason and Madi. I was alright the first couple of days, but really starting to miss them! I'd only been away from Madi for one night before this and while five nights isn't long enough to complain about, I am very glad to be headed back home so I can cuddle with this cutie pie!!
