Return to Oslo

Over winter break, while Nana was visiting, Justin, Gus and I took another trip to Oslo.  This time our trip was planned, thank goodness.  We went to Oslo to report Gus' birth to the Unitied States Embassy and apply for his citizenship, social security number and passport.  We had a wonderful 24 hours and Valentine's Day evening in Oslo.  Nana and Maarit stayed at our home in Stavanger to have some special girl time. 

Gus had a mass transit experience getting to Oslo. We took the bus from our house to the airport, flew to Oslo (our choices were an 8-10 hour drive through the mountains, an 8 hour train trip across country or a 45 minute flight...we picked the flight!) and took the high speed train, 210 kilometers per hour,  from the airport to downtown Oslo.  

Our hotel was located just down the street from the King's palace.

Valentine's Day afternoon we walked from our hotel, through the palace grounds and to Vigeland's Sculpture Arrangement park.
Gus noticed that Oslo was much colder than Stavanger!

Vigeland's Sculpture Arrangement is an 80 acre park in central Oslo and consists of hundreds of sculptures. It was designed by a Norwegian sculpture artist, Gustav Vigeland, who created the sculptures over 40 years while living in his studio in the park.  The sculptures describe the human condition and show people of all ages, from infancy through death. Many of the works show interactions between parents and children, lovers, friends and enemies. Some are happy, some are hopeful, some are incredibly sad or disturbing.  The depth of feeling in the park is amazing.  We wandered around the sculptures as long was we could safely keep Gus outside.  We left with an ache in our hearts.

I took some pictures of my favorites:

mother and daughter

us on the bridge into the park

father and son

 man and woman

father and infant

the journey of youth

The monolith at the center of the park was not the initial work commissioned by the city of Oslo. The initial work was the fountain and journey of youth above.  However, the artist wanted to leave a masterpiece and this was his depiction of the human struggle to the devine.  The monolith consists of hundreds of human bodies of all ages climbing or floating toward heaven.

I loved this pile of babies.

motherhood

the angry boy

mother and infant

The next day we went to the US Embassy to apply for Gus' citizenship. The US Embassy was the only building in Oslo surrounded by 10 foot tall fencing and guards, it was intimidating to say the least.  We were escorted through security screening and several secure check points and were not allowed to bring anything but ourselves, the papers and Gus' bottle.  The Embassy workers were incredibly kind and helpful though and after several check throughs of our paperwork, they took our signatures and accepted Gus' papers.  In a few weeks we should receive his passport and social security number.

Here is Gus smiling about his new citizenship.  He was a previously a man without a country.

We had time to wander around Oslo just a bit more before heading back to Stavanger.
Parliament Square (our hotel is the far building on the left)

We thought this free parking and plug in for electric cars was pretty cool, they were lined up down the street.

Oslo fortress, it was under renovation and is still used by the police and military today, so we were not allowed to get too near.

A raven in the construction.

All of these high rise buildings did not exist 10 years ago.  Oslo is the fastest growing city in Europe.  Evidence.

Inside the Opera building.

The next week Gus had a weigh-in at the health station. He now weighs 10.5 pounds, he has doubled his weight since returning from his first trip to Oslo.  He is starting to have 3 chins! We are enjoying his new interest in the world around him. He watches us, coos at us and is starting to give his first real smiles when he sees us or we talk to him.  He likes to grab Maarit's long hair and hold on.
Maarit tolerates this pretty well. She continues to be a loving and devoted sister.
Lately she has been very interested in writing. She is now able to write me notes addressed to 'Mommy' which she spells herself. She is writing and sounding out words like cat and dog and surprises us by identifying words in books.  She says she does not want to learn how to read yet. We think this is because she believes we will stop reading books to her if she can read them on her own, which is funny and based on something Justin said once ages ago about how it would be great when she could read her own bedtime stories. She does know many words and can figure out what we are spelling when we attempt to speak in code these days.
It is cold in Stavanger, but the sun is shining.  We are hoping for spring to come soon.