Nursery and Sofia update.

Sofia started two half-days at nursery this week. Wednesday morning I dropped her off for 9:15-12:30. She did really well that day, shedding a few tears, but not inconsolable. She looked really sad and tired when I picked her up. She seemed really happy to see me. Today Tom and I dropped her off at 7:45. Tom went with us to have a look around the nursery and to meet the staff so they know who he is when he needs to drop/pick up Sofia. She made a handprint picture with blue paint and sparkles (and has it under her nails to prove it was her!).

Wednesday I had a cup of tea and did some reading and then felt a little lonely. I went next door and took their two kids, Hannah and Robert, to the duck pond and to the park. James and Corrina are in the process of moving and they had a one-year old and a 12-year old in their hair "helping". Today I managed to sweep and mop the kitchen floor, clean the laundry room, tidy up Sofia's room, shower, and do a couple of loads of laundry before picking her up again.

Before nursery Wednesday morning I brought Sofia over to get weighed. She is now 18 Pounds, 11.5 ounces. That is another increase of 1pound 6 ounces in five weeks and is now up around the 35th percentile. She can still wear most of her 6-9 month stuff but now wears 12 month pajamas because the arms are too short on the smaller ones. 9-12 month trousers and leggings don't fit yet because she is too skinny. Wish I had that problem !

What has Sofia been up to?

Pulling herself up on everything. She especially loves playing in the clothes basket. She still does her military crawling across the carpet. She will occasionally get herself back into a sitting position from lying down and will sometimes get on her hands and knees and sort of go backwards. She is getting pretty good at going up stairs, too. For the most part she is adjusted to time here again, but for the past three nights she has been getting up around 2:30-3am and crying and crying. I am also having a hard time getting her to go to sleep. Lots of tears most of the time. Could be her teeth? She has a tooth popping through the bottom now. It is taking its sweet time coming through, but it is there and it hurts when she wants to chew your finger. She is doing much more self-feeding. She loves shredded cheese, bits of chicken, baby biscotti, bananas, pretty much anything I give her.

I have a few new photos that I will put on Flickr. Right now.

Little Girl with a Curl

When I was in the US people kept quoting the first verse of this poem to me and I had never heard it before. I looked online and found three verses by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The first verse is commonly incorrect as it is here. It should read:

There was a little girl,

Who had a little curl,

Right in the middle of her forehead.

When she was good,She was very good indeed,

But when she was bad she was horrid.

I kept this one below intact because I found it this way. Sadly, she is losing her little curl/swirl in the middle of her forehead. I guess she doesn't want to grow up with a curl right there.

There was a little girl

And she had a little curl,

Right in the middle of her forehead,

When she was good,

She was very, very good,

And when she was bad she was horrid.

She went up-stairs,

And he parents unawares,

Was a-looking out of the window;

She stood on her head,

In her little trundle-bed,

And nobody near to hinder.

Her mother heard the noise,

And she thought it was the boys,

A playing in the empty attic;

But she ran up-stairs,

And caught her unawares,

And spanked her most emphatic

I also found this version for the second and third verse:

She screamed and she squalled

and she yelled and she bawled

And she drummed her little heels against the window.

Her Mother heard the noise

and thought it was the boys,

Playing in the empty attic....

So she went upstairs

and caught her unaware,

and spanked her most emphatic!

Good Morning!

Good Morning!

Sofia has quickly grown from her newborn clothes right through her 0-3 clothes. Today I put a 3-6 month sleeper on because the one she was wearing was a bit tight. The arms are just a bit long and the legs just a hair long, but it fits better than I imagined it would. I think over the next week or two we will have to break out all of the 3-6 month clothes, right on time for when she turns three months.

She continues to find her hands. She is nearly constantly opening and closing them as well as feeling one hand with the other. She is also starting to grab things, not just bat at them.

The past couple of weeks she was back to anywhere from 2-4 hours at night after she teased me with 5 and 6 hour stretches of sleep. Things are starting to turn around again. I have had a couple of 4 and 5 hour stretches between feeds at night. Of course, I came down with some sort of sickness this weekend that gave me a sore throat and runny nose. It is extra hard to wake up when you are sick!

We are all anticipating our trip to the US in a couple of weeks. It will be Sofia's first airplane trip and our first as parents. Let's hope she takes to this flying business! We will be visiting Tom's parents in Charlotte, Jason and Kari in Minneapolis, Erin/Jim/Scott/Nicole/Others in Kansas City and then to Grand Forks to see the Laumbs and my family. Tom will fly home from Grand Forks and I will stay for a couple of extra weeks before heading home. On our way home we will stop in Minneapolis to stay with Faith for the weekend which allows us to fly directly to Amsterdam and then Humberside without having to do the Grand Forks flight that day, too.

Hope you are all having a great new year. I am off now, Sofia is falling back asleep and I need some rest to get over and fight this sickness before it gets any worse.

Sofia this morning:

Tummy Time with Sofia

Sofia licking and sucking on her hand

Sofia is really finding her hands now. She likes to chew on her fist and her fingers but not yet suck her thumb. She is also starting to lick things: my arm, any fabric like blankets and burp cloths, etc. I took a short video of her...

Bathtime with Sofia

I have been spending some time with our neighbours James and Corrina. They have an eight month old daughter. When I visited the other day they offered to let us use their Tummy Tub. Why Not? I used it twice before tonight and she gave it mixed reviews. This time I asked Tom to take a couple of photos while I was bathing her. Here are the results:

Oh No, what am I in for?




Mommy, your hands are cold!

This isn't so bad except for the soap on my nose.

Look at my little feet, aren't they cute? I am holding Mommy's hand so I don't fall in.

This Tummy Tub is pretty cool. I think I will wait to scream my head off this time until I get out of the bath!

Tuesday Update

Sofia is still struggling to sleep any great amount of time at night while she can sleep like a champ during the day. Last night was no exception. We actually had to be up and at the doctor's surgery by 9:30 this morning. I set my alarm for 8am and Sofia woke me up to eat at 7:55, how's that for timing?

We spent about half an hour with our doctor, Bridget Wilkinson, and Sofia got a clean bill of health. She had to be stripped down to nothing and she was quite accepting of this only crying a little bit. We are back home and I am hoping to get a nap later today. Since the sun is shining I think we will go out for a walk in a little while and I will do my napping once the sun goes down this afternoon.

I bought Sofia a strand of Christmas lights yesterday at ASDA. We were visiting the neighbour's house the other day and she stared intently at them so I figured she might like some at home. And she does like them. Once strand of 100 cost me 8 Pounds so she better like them. I bought myself a new brown cardigan. I also stopped at Sainsbury's yesterday to do the grocery shopping. Our new grocery store, Tesco, just doesn't have a great selection. Much of the clothing at Sainsbury's was being cleared out and I managed to score a few deals for Sofia. I got three little outfits for 2 Pounds a piece. I got a cute Pooh dress and onesie for 5 Pounds. I got her a new towel set for 4 Pounds since the one I got with Terry in Charlotte this summer is starting to tear already. I picked up a few more miscellaneous things that are for her when she gets bigger. I also got myself two cardigan sweaters, one green and one black, that were on sale. I don't fit into so many of my old clothes plus I need breastfeeding accessible clothes for the winter.

Tom is off to Manchester for two nights so Sofia and I are on our own Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. On Friday Sofia and I have Christmas lunch to attend with workmates in Beverley. We are going to a nice pub in a little village called Lund. It should be fun.

Random Photos

I like my Mommy:


Smile:


Watching the flashing lights on the bug:

Fairy Princess dress (tights had to go earlier):

Friday with Sofia

Hi Auntie Shelley. Don't I look cute? It almost fits me now. The top makes me look like a football player and the pants have to be pulled way up, but I am cute in it!

Here I am playing in my new play gym mommy bought for me today. I don't quite know what to do when I am in there so I just sort of look around and then cry. Sometimes I accidentally hit something and it sort of scares me. Where does that noise come from?

I am trying really hard to look in the mirror mommy is holding up for me. It takes a lot of concentration.

Who is that baby in the mirror?

Thank You, Grandma. The box you sent came the other day. I like my new bunny blanket and bunny you sent. Elmo smells so he has to go in the wash before I can have him.

6 Weeks Today

The Health Visitor weighed Sofia this morning and she weighed in at a whopping 9lb 13 oz! That is two pounds in 3 weeks.

Sofia went to sleep at 12 last night (typical time) and slept until 3:30. Wow, three and a half hours. We were up from 3:30 to 5:30 because she kept spitting up everything she ate. I think she finally gave up and went to sleep. At 7:10 she was awake and ready to eat again which worked out ok for time since we dropped tom off at the airport this morning. I managed to get her to nap with me for about an hour before I got up to get ready for the health visitor. I think I will be napping this afternoon!

Sofia's First Tears

Last night Tom changed Sofia's nappy which upset her greatly, as per normal. He brought her back to me so she could eat before trying to get her to sleep for the night. I added to her woes when I gave her some Infacol (Simeticone for wind) which makes her yell very strangely because she won't close her mouth or swallow. When trying to calm her yelling I realised that she had actual tears. Poor thing! This was the first time we have ever seen actual tears! I had to make note of this.

I have been successful in the past couple of days in making her smile. If I stick out my tongue and give her a great big raspberry and a big smile and laugh her eyes will get really big and she will give me a great big smile. It would melt your heart! I will have to attempt a video of this.

Tom is off to The Netherlands on Thursday. Sofia and I are taking him to the airport in the morning so we can use his car while he is gone. We will pick him up on Saturday morning.

Sofia's Health Visitor comes for a visit at lunchtime on Thursday to weigh her. They do this at home so the doctor doesn't have to do it next week when we go in for our 6-7 week check at the office. She has to be over 9 pounds!

Tummy Time and Taking a Break

I try to give Sofia some tummy time every day. She is really strong and holds her head up amazingly well for being just over five weeks old. Her head used to slump when in her carrier and in her car seat and that rarely happens anymore. She loves her paci/dummy and I don't know what we would do without them! She is doing so much more exploring with her eyes and hands now. She spends much more time looking around and listening rather than just sleeping. She is growing so fast! Many of her newborn outfits don't fit anymore, but her 0-3 clothes are still too big. I call her Mrs. Long Legs.

Let's Take a Bath!

Passport Photo Time!

This is the day we took Sofia to get her passport photos done. at Jessops in Beverley. Not thinking, I dressed her in a pretty little white sweater which doesn't work so well against a white background. I guess this was the least of our problems getting photos done. After about 20 takes and four of us working on it we got a half-decent set of photos that will hopefully work. Can't wait to see her passport!

I'm Awake, Are You?

What's in a Name?

Written by Thomas Henriksen

Sofia Míra Bella Henriksen

Why Sofia?

For months we have talked about using Sofia, it strikes a chord with us and so we remain with it. We always said we wanted the following in a name:

• Meaning - It's well-known that Sofia comes from the Greek σοφία meaning "Wisdom" and as such forms the etymology of such words as philosophy. The least we can do as parents is impart some wisdom upon our child, even if by name only!
  
• Internationality - We consider ourselves citizens of the world, and our children must be as well. Sofia is a name universally recognised throughout western civilisation. Sofia also brings the mind to places such as the Hagia Sophia ( 'Aγία Σοφία, or "Holy Wisdom", in Greek), one of the world's finest examples of perfection in Byzantine architecture, as well as Bulgaria's capital city Sofia ( София), a place renowned for its history, architecture, and location as a crossroads of the Balkans. Sofia is also a name recognised and approved by the Danish Kirkeministeriet, or Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs, ergo it MUST work with Henriksen as a surname!
  
• Timelessness - Being a name with its roots in ancient Greek and one that has been established for thousands of years, Sofia is name that will never be irrelevant. Her namesake city has been on the map for thousands of years, and the lingual roots of her name are from a culture that was the cradle of western civilisation.
  
• Popularity - We did not want a name that is too popular, and have obvious concerns that Sophia is enjoying a global resurgance. This is part of our rationale for choosing the variant spelled with "f" instead of "ph". It is also the spelling variant commonly used in Nordic and Germanic countries, from which we are descended.

Why Míra?

We settled on the middle name Míra only recently. We liked this name because it has meaning on so many levels.

• Mira means "sea" or "ocean" in sanskrit. A fitting name for a baby that has been relatively quiet and peaceful. Hope she stays this way!
• Míra is a name that also finds roots in the slavic word for peace. Mir or Мир means "peace" or "world" in Russian--hence the name of the space station. Peace and a view from afar are something that we citizens of the world could certainly use more of.
• Mira is a red giant star in the constellation Cetus originally discovered in 1596. It was found to behave like no other star, changing in brightness by a factor of 1500 on a period of 332 days. As a result of this, Johannes Hevelius named the star Mira, meaning "astonishing" or "wonderful" in Latin. And over 400 years later, the star continues to astonish. Earlier this year, astronomers were shocked to find that Mira has a 13 light-year long tail composed of matter that the star sheds as she speeds through the universe, material that will give birth to new stars and planets continuing the cosmic cycle, just as our baby Sofia continues our cycle of life.

Why Bella?
Months ago, we had picked "Sofia Bella" as a potential name for our baby. We just liked the sound and rhythm of it. However, the more we looked at Míra, the more we liked it. Trouble was, Sofia Mira Henriksen just doesn't flow. So we considered Míra Sofia Henriksen, but we wanted her given name to be Sofia. So we came up with Sofia Mira Bella. Bella, of course, is Italian for beautiful, which our little Sofia certainly is. And through this name we not only pay homage to the beauty of our little miracle but also to a country whose food, landscape, history, and language have so enchanted us.

Of course, a bit of ambiguity and double-entendre never hurts... Mirabella is a perfectly accepted given name in its own right. And there is a story there as well. When we found out Tracey was pregnant, we had a trip to New Zealand already scheduled. We decided at very short notice to cancel this long-haul trip (24+ hrs flying each way) and take a more relaxing trip to the continent. We drove all the way from the UK to Croatia, and along the way spent quite a few days in Austria, visiting Salzburg for the first time. We really enjoyed the city, and spent much of an afternoon just sitting on a bench in the Mirabella Gardens taking pictures of the birds and the cherry blossom trees with the snowcapped Alps as a backdrop. It was sort of a zen moment for us.

But we wanted to retain the meaning of Mira and Bella separately, and so we are giving our baby Sofia two middle names that we know full well will be pronounced as one.

Henriksen Family Blog

Welcome to the Henriksen Family Blog. Please bookmark this page as we will update this page with photos and news about our family. Over the next few days I will add photos and entries about the birth of Sofia.

Looking forward to sharing with you all!