Papa Morten's birthday
Late March, Magnus is 8.5 months old

I just wanted to add some pictures from my birthday also, although we didn't do much out of celebrating it this year. Magnus was kinda cosy cosy most of the time, and we had to fight for the prime spots in the sofa.

But birthday party is birthday party, and we're supposed to be happy!

Magnus is almost always happy anyway. Every day is a party!

Magnus was assisting with the gift-opening and all. He held on to the first present while I opened the card.

But then he felt it was time to switch the roles. He grabbed the card...

"Magnus, can I please read my card? It is for me, you know"...
He really wanted to hold on to that card, and was not letting go.

A bunch of pictures...
March 2007, Magnus is 8 months old

Some stories are difficult to tell since there are no pictures, and other pictures don't find a place since there is not a particular story. So here is a collection of pictures and short-stories.


"Mommy, I really need to complaint about this cleaning. Look at this, it's dusty under here! Did you check this lately?"

Every time we have guests Magnus is very eager to show all his tricks. Here, Vitoria is paying close attention.

"Okay, daddy - start us off! Ready ... set... go ? Come on, daddy! I gave the hippo a head start" The race is definitely on!

At an increasing frequency Magnus has been wanting to turn around in the bath the past couple of months. And when he started consistently succeeding, we had to realize that...

...bathtub joy has changed forever. He now insists on swimming on his tummy in the bath, and the wild splashing we used to know is no more. The whole character of the bath has changed, and it has become more difficult to clean him. The only working method is known as swim-by-cleaning !

"Okay, ladies and gentlemen, welcome, I will be your host tonight"... Magnus is practicing for his future in public relations or showbiz

"I am so hungry, and there is no food yet. I'm just gonna eat this bib"

Competition!! Daddy must be hungry also.

Now, after christmas, opening gifts is a walk in the park. Step no.1: Taste all the wrapping.

"Daddy's bag is always full of interesting items. And I just loooove fresh network cable"

"Sing along everybody..."

Thushari's son Savidu from San Jose, California had a school project to send his paper-buddy around the world to as many places as possible in a limited amount of time. He just arrived in Norway, and Magnus is giving him some traditional norwegian cooking to bring on the next leg of the journey.

"My mama likes to experiment with family-self-portraits. That's cool. Everybody please note that eventhough those parents of mine look a bit tired, it's not my fault"

"Do people actually pay to go to the spa and be pampered ? Really ?!?"

"I am so happy I'm about to burst!"

Daniel is visiting Magnus. They are busy sharing some secret baby wisdom.

Mama thinks Magnus is so HUGGABLE!

"WHOAH, daddy, you don't mean that - I was never that little?"

"Whatever you may have heard about my future profession - forget about it. I'm gonna be a software engineer like my daddy. This java-stuff is really interesting"

We tell everybody that we're still breastfeeding. The reality, however, is questionable ! Can you say "canibal"?

We had a really fun time with the ball this afternoon. Magnus laughed and laughed every time I bounced the ball.

They say that toys are not so important the first year. Guess it's right. As long as it makes lots of funny sounds, it's all Magnus requires. These burn-sticks for lighting a fire made a really cool sound in the box when rolled around on the floor.

8-month control and more swimming
March, Magnus is 8 months old

Time for yet another checkup at the nurse station.


Today it was really full in the waiting room, because there were 3 baby groups there at the same time. But Magnus immediately met one of his buddies Jonas.


With so many babies gathered, there was a long line to get the weighing and measuring done. That didn't bother Magnus none; he got ahold of his health card...

...which he is still inspecting closely while the nurse records his recent weight: 9.140kg. He is following his expected growth-curves nicely.

It was nice to meet the other babies in the group. They all had developed new skills, and they had all learned different things. All of them were quite a bit more mobile now than last time, and we had to constantly move them back onto the mat.

It's cool to watch them all grow, and play together.

Magnus particularly enjoyed to try out new toys. He doesn't have so many different toys as some of the other babies with several older siblings, so he gets exposed to new things here. The phone with the red handle was cool.

After the nurse station we had to hurry to babyswimming. Busy day !

Mama Muna found the Advanced I-class agenda too boring, so she introduced Magnus to what the Advanced II-class was doing. They both enjoyed it.

Just like Magnus learns from older babies, daddy learns from the fathers of older babies... turns out there is a stack of baby-chairs in the shower room. That made it a lot easier to handle Magnus in the wet room while showering.

Say no more... is this fun OR WHAT?!?!?!

Teeth!
February through April 2007, Magnus is 7-9 months old

Teething began with restless nightsleep. At first we didn't recognize it for what it was, but seriously increased drooling activity along with alot of biting gave it away - baby did not sleep so well because he was getting teeth! The obvious helper came in a small bottle called "Dentinox", which douses the hurting feeling in the gums, and some nights it would work and he would relax more, and others it didn't work at all.

But there was the big day, and a tiny little tooth saw the light of day in the lower mouth. Very shortly thereafter, number two popped out right next to it.

It took a day after the arrival of the first tooth before I remembered - hey, we gotta start brushing teeth! Quickly, we had to reread the pamflet from the nurse station, and premiere night was a fact. "Magnus? Say aaaaah". Magnus opened his mouth with a trusting look in his eyes. The pamflet had warned that the baby would be wanting to do the brushing himself, but that was not the case to any large extent on that first evening - daddy was allowed to brush most of the time.

The following morning, we forgot to brush teeth. The habit was too new to be remembered right away. But evening#2 showed the second brushing. This time, Magnus was far more active, now he knew what was going on, and he could do it himself! "Hey, gimme that brush, there". It is very cute to see him open his mouth when I ask for it.

By now, brushing teeth was actually quite fun! So fun that we did not want to let go of the toothbrush...

"Good night, Magnus.... err... are you bringing that toothbrush to bed? Can daddy have that now?" Already the next morning I got a funny phone call from Muna. "Magnus did not want to stop brushing his teeth this morning, he just brushed and brushed!!"

"Obviously, there is something new in my mouth, I just haven't figured out what it is yet and what it's doing in there. I can touch it alright. What is that?"

Magnus is happily smiling, showing his new pride to the world while playing

But it feels kinda funny also... Lately, Magnus has taken to make funny thaa-thaa-thaa-sounds while opening and closing his mouth with a funny face as shown above.

Eating is more and more fun for every day. But now with teeth, we gotta have something to chew on, eventhough mama is just giving me porridge.

And no matter how tired I am, in the evenings we have to brush teeth.

With teeth, Magnus has gained the possibility of chewing solid food, and has been given some bread to practice on.

Man-oh-man, do you think there are more of these teeth-things coming? It is so itchy, I just have to chew on everything. Small things or ...

...large things, they all go for the same, I NEED SOMETHING TO CHEW ON!

We had an outbreak of slight fever before the next pair of teeth were revealed, but suddenly there they were also, two front teeth in the upper mouth had seen the light of day. Magnus temporarily found a funny way of smiling - whenever we smiled and showed our teeth to him, he would lay his head backwards, smile broadly like this while making a hissing sound. This funny habit lasted about a week.

Hey, guys, look at me - I have four of these teeth-thingies now !!!

Gimme more to eat on!!!