50/50

One of the things they say about parenting, especially parenting a young child, is to set firm rules and to follow routines.  Dear god, someone might as well have asked me to sprout wings.  I mean, I am trying with the bedtime routine, really trying. But it has already morphed a bit from what it was at home in California, with the addition of the wonderful book, "Klappa saman lofanum." I threw that in after the teeth brushing, with the lights off. Tonight Palmer wanted it before the teeth brushing, with the lights on. Of course, no problem. The point is the book gets read.  Ha! An hour later, he is still awake.  Yep, children truly do need their routines.  I hope he grows out of it sooner rather than later, because I can't regress.  I slipped through the rabbit hole long ago. 

Several years ago, I made the decision to not use any kind of cleaning product when washing my face. I realized that the material of a wash cloth does a better job of exfoliating than any 'microbeads' could do. And this has worked great for me for years and years.  Now that I am living full time in Iceland though, I find myself again contemplating the composition of Icelandic water. Because it does not work as well here. My skin is not as clear as it was in California. Even though Icelandic water is incredibly pure. Just one of lives many little mysteries. I am banking on the idea that the washcloths are rougher. Or that my skin is getting more sensitive as I AGE!!

Earlier today, I was cutting up a tomato for lunch, and thought, oh, I don't need to wash this, it is an Icelandic hothouse tomato, and there is no need for pesticides here in Iceland.  A couple of hours later, Palmer was outside playing with his toys in the dirt, when a workman came up and explained to us that he would be spraying pesticide all over all the trees. Hmm. 

I was thinking about taking Palmer to the beach in Reykjavik, where they pump hot water into the bay and have imported some white sand.  But it is hard for me to get motivated to do this, since of course I am pretty spoiled. I am used tot the natural splendor of California beaches. Once one has spent an afternoon in Laguna Beach, hiking the cliffs, exploring the tide pools, playing on the playground, climbing up the light house, walking along the boardwalk, and diving into the Pacific, well, one's standards get pretty high.  And the day is not as clear and sunny as they thought it might be two days ago. 

With a swift kick to the head from Palmer this morning, I was suddenly awoken. And of course it is only under such circumstances that I remember my dreams. The dream I was in the midst of involved me at an outdoor fair type thing, sitting at a picnic table talking to Julia Roberts and Þorgerður Katrín about public speaking.  I can think of several different ways to interpret this. But I think I will content myself with using it as a mental reminder about my favorite baby girl names. 

Right, a case on environmental change caused by the Viking settlement of the islands of the North Atlantic. Sounds simple enough.  This theme was rather a nightmare during the original exhibition production, because, honestly, it is a hard thing to explain in the typical 2 minutes people devote to an exhibition case. So we spread it around here or there. The case on the Faeroes introduced the idea, with two lengths of juniper rope. Juniper no longer exists on the Faeroes, because the Vikings cut it all down. Problem was, the rope was not interesting enough to draw anyone to even look at the case, let alone take time to read the label copy. People just walked passed it, perhaps noted it had the word Faeroes in it.  Then for Iceland we tried to expand on it. No artifacts, just three pictures (set originally in a rotating system) of the three phases of the settlement of Iceland. Phase 1: lots of animals, lots of trees, several large farms, thick green grass high up the mountains. Second p...

I found a use for my PC: letting Palmer watch the Icelandic version of Cars.  Poor little guy is super tired this evening, has been every since he played outside with his construction toys for over an hour. Going down to the museum to "work" pushed the little guy over the edge (the guests that were there were polite about the little boy who kept running around and asking them lots of questions). So now I decided to just let him watch a movie. Works out well, since he can learn some Icelandic and relax at the same time. 

Yesterday, Palmer and I were driving to the store, when all of a sudden I hear this shriek from the backseat, and I look in my review mirror to see Palmer crying hysterically and shaking. I was in the middle of Reykjanesbraut , couldn't just stop the car. So I looked again, and noticed that there was a small, light green caterpillar crawling on the collar of his jacket, had come right up to his face.  I think the little caterpillar surprised him more than anything, because he of course was not expecting that. Even though he had been playing outside just before we got in the car, in amongst the bushes.  Long story short, I pulled over and put the caterpillar safely outside the car, on some leaves. Then Palmer and I had a long conversation about what had just happened, just to make sure he processed the shock. 

I was showing Palmer a Michael Jackson video earlier, and then found out a few hours later he had died. Almost hate to break the news to the little guy. I tilefni dagsins, I offer up my favorite Michael Jackson video , though probably not song. 

I just got back from Bonus, the only store that stocks frozen waffles, and thus a periodic must when Palmer is in town.  Every time I go in that store, they have rearranged the entry, but finally this time, the new arrangement seemed very normal and sensible. And the produce section had lots of Icelandic vegetables, plus some foreign exotics (I bought the fresh blueberries). The meat section too, way more fresh stuff and way more Icelandic.  Oh, and they had organic nuts! When I walked out of there, genuinely pleased with the experience for the first time ever, I thought to myself, 'Must be under new management.' 

Palmer has repeated on several occasions that his cars are going to a surprise birthday party.  And all but one of the 8 guest I invited to his birthday party had other plans already. Yeah, that will be a surprise. 

It is supposed to be really warm in Iceland this weekend, and silly me, I agreed to work Saturday afternoon (the BIG WEDDING and all). But I suppose Sunday we will try to hit the 'beach' in Reykjavík, eða jafnvel á morgun.

When Palmer got here to Iceland, he was just about potty trained, meaning he would go through the night without using his diaper. We were worried that the change of coming here would get that off track, but it didn't, he has not wet his diaper once since he has been here (though he did have an 'accident' when he was asleep in the car seat - boy those covers are a pain to reinstall after they have been washed).  But this does mean that most mornings he wakes up at 4am or so, comes into my bed all fidgety, digging his feet into me, because he needs to pee but is too tired to just go in there himself. The excitement of me getting up (a bit annoyed, usually, that he did not just stop at the bathroom on the way to my room) usually means he lays there fidgeting next to me for an hour or so, before really getting back to sleep.  So, potty training has one small little disadvantage. But it sure does save a lot of money on diapers. 

I really hate making travel arrangements on my own, especially to countries I have not visited much. But the internet makes the idea of calling a travel agent do the booking seem just ridiculous.  So I am figuring out the train system between Germany and the Czech republic and hotels in Uppsala and flights in and out of Seattle, with the enthusiasm of a slug. 

When I was at the Smithsonian, the project manager for the exhibition, Joe Madeira, he told me this little gem of wisdom. He told me that time, money, and quality are a triangle, that if one wants high quality but has very little money, than one needs to take lots of time. If one wants high quality but has very little time, than one needs to spend lots of money.  I think this concept evades most Icelanders, I am sorry to say. Seems instead they want to spend very little money and very little time, but they still expect really high quality. Icesave is a symptom of just how impossible it is to deny the laws of geometry. The triangle collapses.  Of course the best way to get the highest, highest quality is to spend a lot of time and a lot of money on a project.  This came to me today because I went to Kringlan earlier, and since I wanted to spend very little time there, I ended up buying Palmer a rather expensive jacket. But at least it was a high quality.  The triangle proves true in all...

The excavators have been working outside of my apartment for weeks now, first digging trenches along the road, then along the parking lot, and now, the last few days, removing the light fixtures right outside my front door, digging a gigantic ditch around my house and the house next door.  All of this in preparation of the switch over to 220 volt, instead of 110. To say the anticipation is mounting would be an understatement. When will this magical moment happen? I'll have to go to the school office and find out.  In the mean time, I find myself more and more inclined towards the idea of moving to Reykjavik, especially after I picked up Kendra in Vesturbae this afternoon. The neighborhood near the Catholic church is amazing, and not an excavator in sight. 

So, the lady that babysat Palmer a lot back in Berkeley, she is from the Czech Republic. This summer, she is there with her daughter, who is a really good friend of Palmer´s.  When I was in Cal over Christmas, she said we should come visit, and repeated that every once and a while to Palmer over the last few months. So Palmer got it in his head that he would like to go to the Czech Republic.  I am totally game for this, having never been to Prague but always keen on the idea.  But it was a total crack up working on the scheduling of this trip. When would Palmer be in Iceland, and I would not be on my way to Sweden? When would she not have visitors from South Africa or Italy? Should we meet instead in England, where we both have friends we would also like to visit?  Finally we found a window wherein she would not have visitors and we would not be going anywhere else. So June 30th, look out Prague! An adorable little boy is on his way. 

Someday, I will get sick of telling the story of my 10 year high school reunion. But I found occasion to repeat it today. Our front desk guy is going to a wedding this weekend, claims it will be the biggest, most expensive wedding ever in Iceland. A soccer player is marrying his girlfriend's best friend. I did not know how to respond to this other than to say I thought this sounded absolutely horrible, but I thought he might not appreciate that.  So instead I repeated the story of my 10 year highschool reunion. When Tracy, the super geek, was unable to attend, because she was at Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston's wedding. 

Palmer and I were discussing why it is Dora's monkey friend likes banana cake. I asked him what sort of cake he liked: chocolate. Then I thought I'd ask him one other thing. "What is your mommy's favorite cake?" He knew the answer. 

The swimming pool in Keflavik is called Vatn Verold, which properly translates as Water World (whereas Vikingaheimar does not properly translate at Viking World - it properly translates as home of the Vikings or Viking Place).  Anyhow, people in town have laughed about Vatn Verold, but I think it is a really nice pool, almost worthy of the name. They changed the name when they put in a large indoor area just for kids, with water slides and other fun apparati. Funny thing is, most kids prefer to stay outside in the old pool. Except Palmer. He likes having a whole big pool just for us. Reminds him of the house in Mission Viejo.