Advanced maths

Fifteen 12-year-old boys finish 8 pizzas in approx 6 mins 34 secs. Each pizza is divided in 12 slices.

a) how many slices per boy per second?

b) how much football cake can they possibly eat after that?

Another "dear blank"

Dear Mathias

I'm sorry I couldn't hold your hand going to school this morning, but with five children and only two hands it just wasn't your turn.

I'm also sorry I yelled at you, even though you stayed behind and made me run back to get you. There was enough time and all you really wanted was to hold my hand.

So sorry!

mum

with feet bigger than me, but...

Jakob is almost 11. He's a big boy, tallest in his class. I inherit his shoes now... He's also big brother of four, and - when he puts his mind to it - helpful to both them and us.

So sometimes I almost forget -

- that he says 'Aaaah' when he pauses his tooth-brushing to spit - it's from we used to brush them and he had to signal us somehow.

- that he thinks about bad things at night and can't sleep. Like the dead bird we found outside (we buried it in a box, with lots of flowers, and the print "thank you for being so sweet, little birdie, fly safely to heaven!"), or a polar bear that didn't catch a seal (we watched it on TV), or anything bad that could happen to either of us...

- that he needs to sit on my lap and cuddle too, even if he's big and strong and the others beat him to it...

Still he reminds me of these things, still he tells me what he feels and what he needs. I hope he will always do that!

Life wouldn't be half as much fun without!

It's half time. Liverpool's 2-0 down. Hubby's away, but Jakob (10) and I have been 'watching' the game**). We're really grumpy... Jakob half blames one of his brothers for the defeat that seems to be unavoidable - after all, didn't the brother just laugh? Unrelatedly, possibly, but still - laugh, at this hour?!! 

"Why did I become a Liverpool fan?!!!" Jakob exclaims - in real agony!

As if it wasn't enough, Ronnie just played the final of Shanghai Masters and lost. Just. It's that kind of day.

I yell at the kids for making too much noise (they're not, not really) and decide to start changing the linen. Only I can't, can I, I have to hit the refresh button every two minutes (or more) to see if there could be hope, if a text won't just ...

55 minutes - it's a goal! Torres! That wonderful Spaniard... Jakob and I look at eachother and hold our breaths. More breath-holding as City (today's enemy!) has one player sent off at 67 minutes. 73 minutes - another goal! Torres again!! I have to go down and get towels for the kids in the bath, but my mood is better and I don't tell them off for yelling (they are!)...

Skrtel (our man) has to be carried off the pitch at 86 minutes and we're down to 10 man as well. 6 minutes added time - and then Kuyt!! WE WIN!

"That's why I'm a Liverpool fan!!!" Jakob cries with glee, as we embrace eachother. 

How dull must life be if you don't like football?

**)We haven't got the right TV channels for it, so 'watching' means following the live text on bbc or the Guardian or some such place!

Not quite dead...

Today I've been baking. A lot. And will do some more baking tomorrow. I haven't decided to become a baker, but tomorrow there will be 4 brand new 8-year-olds in the house (and in the world, at that!), so naturally - there will need to be a constant flow of cakes! And lots of family coming to celebrate with us.

Saturday we'll be "celebrating" by going to a music festival in Oslo and see Rufus Wainwright (and others) - first time for the kids! They're quite looking forward to it, actually - to see this strange character that has their mother going all gooey... And to celebrate Rufus (?) - or life, actually - Norway has just passed a new marriage law, finally establishing equal rights for everyone, no matter who you love!

That's all folks, I'm off to finish my baking session for the night...

sick, but not tired

I'll admit to it straight - I'm no big fan of vomit. Usually it's hubby does the dirty work, I clean the kid and find a new pyjamas (this kind of thing tends to happen at night).

Wednesday night it was Filip. And Thursday morning... Thanks to the wash-hands-every-second/stay-away-from-Filip/change-every-towel-Filip-has-touched-regime, the others seem to be unscathed. Yet... Thursday night he seemed fine, though, and Friday morning he was up with the others, breakfasting. Then...

For your tender hearts' sake I'll skip the details, let's just say it involved a great deal of detergent. And yes, another clean pyjamas. Moreover, hubby's away with his job and I had to do all the dirty work as well...

And tonight... This is what made me sad. The 2nd graders have THE night of the year - they're staying over at school! Without Filip, that is... I've baked a cake, the other 3 are safely there (and thrilled about it!) - and the boys in Filip's class had unpacked their sleeping bags under a huge table... I know Filip would have loved to join them. As it is, he said "we also get to stay over in 4th grade..."

Makes your heart bleed, doesn't it?

7 years ago today

7 years ago today, at about this hour (9 AM), I was wheeled into the operating theatre. And a theatre it was - there were 6 people in with me (not counting hubby, who had to leave when I had that general anaesthesia), and in the adjoining room, with glass walls to hours, there were 25 people eagerly watching!

Yes, delivering quads is still pretty big over here... Those who were supposed to go home after their shift just wouldn't leave... And the rest? 4 paediatricians, 4 special this-nurses, 4 special-that nurses. And 4 other doctors I can't for the life of me remember what was supposed to be doing. Keeping the incubators warm, possibly?

Anyways...

I was wheeled in. The anaesthetist told me to curve my back. You try that with four kids in your stomach... Well, I tried. And he tried the needle in my spine. 7 times. And it hurt like anything, but there wasn't a lot I could do. Finally, he was satisfied, and the doctor started his knifing... And it may have been just that I'd been awake for two days, or that I'm a big sissy, but when I started feeling what he was doing, I screamed. Or shouted, at least. And the gynaecologist immediately lifted his hands, bless him, and said "I can't work like this. Put her out". And I was blessed with sleep...

At 11:09, Thomas was out. 11:10 - Mathias, 11:11 - Anna and (you guessed it...) 11:12 Filip was out. All rushed into the adjoining room, checked, put in incubators on wheels, and then rushed through the corridor. Past my waiting hubby who just caught glimpses of his new 4 kids! I was still sound asleep until 2 PM or so...

And today? Anna is away with all the girls in her class, they stayed over in the cabin of one of them. The boys were reading & playing nintendo before they left for school. They're all so big now! Happy 4 x 7, my darling ones :o)

Dilemma

We've been asked by the Norwegian broadcasting corporation if they could come and make a programme about quads. They've got this series about 'cozy family chaos' and will no doubt be expecting quads to cause chaos.

It's the Norwegian equivalent of the BBC, which vouches for quality, and it's an ok show concept (not that I've seen it. But...). I'm sure they'd let us see the show before aired, and they'd probably make us look good. That's not really the issue... But do we want to be on national television? Do the kids want to? (Of course, yes, if you asked them, they would, but later, will they appreciate having been...? Or regret it miserably?)

The quad family that has been on television here a few times is really chaotic - they seem to have no control over their kids whatsoever, the kids wear the same clothes day and night - "there's no time for pyjamas!" - in school and home and in bed... So I guess it wouldn't hurt showing "people" that it doesn't have to be like that.

And I wouldn't mind bringing across the fact that our set of "rules and regulations" is both necessary and actually working. You can't leave everything to anyone in a family of 7. I would secretly like to smirk, and say "I told you so!" when people say that "my, they're actually well-functioning and cool kids"...

But on national television? Would you?

Perhaps it's not quite as bad as I thought...

Last night I was just about to turn off the telly and turn to my beloved computer, when Nanny 911 (or some such show) came on. And the story was too close to home for me to turn it off... The mum (i.e. the main problem...) was like an amplified me! Not exactly mother Teresa. She was henpecking husband and kids constantly. Now, I don't go around believing I do that all the time, but some of the situations - esp. her being sarcastic to her kids - were uncomfortably familiar.

I watched till the end of the show to learn what to do. A revolutionary thought, that'd set it alright! But no, nothing extraordinary. She was just told to stop it... I've figured that one out myself, I'm not always that good at it, though. [Incidentally, her husband was the type that enjoyed doing manly things, like lifting heavy objects and spitting. Conversation not included. As far from my hubby as you can get, actually, which is probably why our family seems to work a little better!]

But to see if I'm such a horrid person I took this test that EllasDevil just did too:

Greed:	Low
Gluttony:	Medium
Wrath:	Low
Sloth:	Medium
Envy:	Very Low
Lust:	Very Low
Pride:	Low

- And it turns out I'm almost angelical, see? Ok, a bit of a sloth... (I didn't need a test to find that out!) And possibly they didn't ask the right questions to get me out on thin ice?

Take the Seven Deadly Sins Quiz yourself and see what's your worst...

Happy birthday, mum!

The cutest baby ever...

And the best mum in the world! :) MY mum!

Conversation of the day (2)

I was towelling a couple of the kids after their bath.


Anna: My friend "I" said, to make babies, mummies and daddies have to put their [insert appropriate childish word here - in Norwegian, a unisex word] together!
Thomas: hihihi
Hubby (leaving, chuckling!): It's all yours!
Me: erh... *

* Now, I've explained to them earlier, about daddy "seeds" and mummy "eggs". Only not gone into the details around the actual bringing them from point A to point B...

Anna: Did you and daddy do that?
Me (sounding dreadfully normal, well, trying to): Why, yes
Thomas (still giggling): Did it take long?
Me: Erh, well, it doesn't have to take long in order to ...
Anna & Thomas: Were you naked???!?
Me: Yes.
A & T: Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaa (leaving...)

... and cut!

Quote of the day (17)

I was telling Filip of a friend who's expecting a baby. And the baby's father won't be there with them because he didn't want children... Filip pondered this. Then said:

- Poor kid who doesn't have a daddy. Because daddies do all the work around the house!

Touché...

Momma bear

I'd be lying if I said I was the least bit interested in website perusal, or slightly into net surfing. Lying through my teeth, in fact. I'm not very interested in these things. I'm helplessly addicted to the things, that's what...! Well, anyway, perhaps not so strange, then, that it has somehow rubbed off on the kids.

Jakob is leading the way, of course, being the oldest. I love teaching him about the more technical details, as well as showing him around Google Earth (boy, did we get lost!)... He's a quick learner (aren't all kids?) and it intrigues me how he finds penguin bashing yetis and walrus-tossing competitions all by himself, not even knowing much English!

Being the responsible parents, we have, of course, installed a parental control device on the kids' account, and the email account I created for Jakob sends his emails straight to me... (Mind you, he hasn't sent - or received - a single one in about 6 months...)
Then there's msn... That's what he needed an email address for, of course. Half of his classmates were already on - as well as a friend who lives elsewhere - so I figured it'd be alright. Later I half regretted... I mean, usually he's only on in the evenings, when we're around, and he's not on for very long either (what with the penguin-bashing etc taking up a lot of time), but some days he comes home on his own. And could be doing anything, really, but what I worried about was msn... Who knows what crazy people could be out there?

So I copied all of his contacts. (sic!) I prefer to look at it as momma-bearish rather than thievish or spyish... Later, when they've logged on and found this unknown address, they have asked me who I was, and then it was just fiiine. Really! I was concerned I was prying. Now it feels more like mingling! So the next time Jakob tells me "xx is using foul language" (he'll say things like that..), I can message them back, telling them not to. And the weird thing? They're ok with it. They seem to like it somehow. Some of them will even message me of their own free will (rumour's out I've got quite a few emoticons...) and chat for a while. Jakob should be safe. And so am I - until he's a teenager and creates his own aliases on a daily basis...

Now, there's this person...

This person said we're trying to raise our kids as robots. This person said we're way too strict and pick too much on our kids' behaviour. (Granted, we do tend to pick on their behaviour from time to time - and we'll continue. It's called guidance.)

This person managed to put in, in the same sentence (sic!), that our kids are amazing, warm, caring, and fun to be with. This person apparently saw no connection between this and our way of raising them. (As one friend put it - our kids are obviously ganging up at nights, when we think they're asleep, scheming on how to continue being nice despite their horrible parents.)

This person also said, back when told I was carrying quads, "will you be sad if one of them dies?"...

This person I have to meet up with on occasion. Anyone tell me how to behave like a decent human being next to this person? Admittedly, this person also has other sides, but this side shines through regardless...

A grand day out

Yesterday the quads were supposed to have been to a birthday party. Meanwhile Jakob and my hubby were going to town for a while, thus escaping the "kiddy party" and even possibly locate a long-wanted Pokemon character...

Well, Friday night we heard the birthday girl was ill, and the birthday postponed one week. There was disappointment. Not least on Jakob's side, who thought this would cancel his trip too.

Like the good parents we are (erh, try to be), we decided we'd take the whole bunch to town. Bus and boat trip exotic as it is, and yeah, why not - go to the cinema! The quads (now 5) had never even been there before!

So we booked tickets to see Lady and the Tramp. (A couple of our kids shutter at Chip'n'Dale stories, which rules out quite a lot of films... Besides, there weren't that many films on at two o'clock.) (Jakob hadn't been too pleased with the selection of film - and clearly stated so both before, during and after... But he'd been to the cinema several times before and wasn't given a say.)

Bus ride went ok. Boat ride too, although the packed lunch they were supposed to eat while we were there was only halfway eaten..

In town we rushed into the Pokemon place. Too much choice is not necessarily a good thing. For the next 10 minutes there was bickering beyond belief. Finally they all managed to select one. Onwards to the cinema. Lots of commotion, lots of kids, lots of excitement! No, noone needed to go to the bathroom. Well into our seats, commercial begins, after 20 minutes of this they begin asking whether this was it?

And 20 minutes into the film - was it going to finish soon? Then, 2 minutes later, "bathroom!"...

Finally, the film finished. "The happy family" moved on to McD (I know, but it's simple, close to the boat, and inexpensive for a family of 7! Wait, here I could have used the word "cheap"..) A million others were there. The kids were also frantic, because staying here to eat would mean miss out on the children's programme (every night at 6 PM on the state channel). We decided to shop and eat on the boat. (Some never learn..)

While I was queing up at McD, my hubby took the kids to the playground. And when I finally emerged, he was running around after them around the quay area - everywhere but in the playground. We pushed our way to the largest table on the boat, started eating. Or, my hubby and I started eating, Jakob and Anna too, after the initial "oh, look at this other boat" etc. The others, while eating meatballs, meatloaf, homemade burgers, whatever similar stuff there is - would NOT have this. Only a bite. Or two. By force. Accompanied by grimacing.

Add to the entire day LOUD VOICES. REALLY LOUD VOICES x 5. (Ok, sometimes x 7...)

Oh - and did I forget to mention that on our way home, just after getting off the bus, Thomas lost his precious (pun intended!) Raichu Pokemon...? And did a thorough job at it as well. After having clung to it throughout the whole day, he finally dropped it. Right down in a, whateverit'scalledlet'ssee; "manhole cover?"! The kind with a grid. Needless to say, his grief was as deep as the manhole.

- The next time a birthday is cancelled, we'll just place them all in front of the VCR/DVD machine..

I feel pretty, oh so pretty...

No, really, I don't..

But tonight I feel clever, makes for a nice change! The thing is, our oldest - Jakob, 7 - is fairly smart as it goes. That is, he learns quickly, he remembers everything etc. But he's not really into learning anyway, if you get my drift. He can read, but has never read a book. (Now, at his age I'd read an unaccountable number of Bobsey twins and Hardy boys books, so maybe I expect too much..) He prefers time with his Pokémon figurines to time with the likes of literary characters.

Moving on... He says school is boring because everything is too easy. But as he must stay in school for at least another 7 years, I wouldn't want him to be bored all those years. We've tried to find ways of luring him back into his preschool curiosity, but failed. Unless it's been about football (= soccer), where he knows everything about everyone. Funny that...

But the smart part is - I started a little quiz show tonight, and he was thrilled! All of a sudden he was dying to know about the capitals of the Czech republic and Liberia!

A glimpse of hope? A breakthrough? One night's glory? We'll just have to wait and see...

This is an ex-mouse!

My kids found this mouse in the bike shed this morning. Need I say that tears were shed? (Sorry, no pun intended!)

Consulting Jakob's mammal encyclopaedia we found out it was a common woodmouse (Apodemus sylvaticus, nice name..). We didn't need an encyclopaedia to state that it was thoroughly demised...

This, of course, called for a funeral. A proper one, granddad came over and everything! (Now, he was coming over anyway, but still...) We all sang a sweet mouse song ("Når en liten mus skal ut å gå" for those of you who speak the language!), not particularly sad, admittedly, but the only one we could think of that was about mice. And the same one we had sung when I was little and my sister's hamster died.

The day picked up later, a beautiful autumn day, it must be said! But it took some apple pie (fresh-baked by my darling hubby) to wipe those tears away...

I hope this is not true...

Today the Norwegian papers brought photos apparently taken by and of Polish nurses supposedly watching over prematurely born babies.

They were toying with them! They took them out of their incubators, put them in their pockets (!), all while their food probes and chords of every kind were hanging off them. Apparently they'd let the babies on respirators be...

And all of this just because they were bored on their night shift!

I remember when ours were that small. They were sooo fragile. Less than two pounds each, to begin with. The chords were attached to these kinds of machines that go 'beeeeep' in ER whenever somebody dies... Luckily, our kids' machines never went 'beeeeep'! The readings, though, always dropped drastically if their surroundings changed. If they were touched (which was mostly painful for them, however gently), if the temperature dropped by 1/4 degree etc.

Apparently these nurses are facing at least five years in prison, and apparently none of these babies actually died. But I'm still hoping it was all a sham!

100 % mum

Most of the time I feel an inadequate mum, at the very least.. A lot of the time, anyway.. But today I am forsaking work (hah!) and staying home with these aforementioned two - and we've just finished baking a tray of rather yummy chocolate chip cup cakes, like a real mum is supposed to! (Now, of course, it's prefab, simply add water, but still..)

Great taste, happy sons, proud mum - not bad for 15 minutes of kitcheneering!

Did you know?

A quad family is almost like The Spanish Inquisition.

No, really. Just listen - Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition, right?!

Surprise, fear, ruthless efficiency, and an almost fanatical devotion to the pope...

Such diverse elements... We were obviously surprised to learn we were expecting quads! Then there was fear, as they were born way too early, and we didn't know if they were going to live or die. (The blue blankets in this photo are actually handkerchiefs!)

Ruthless efficiency is a must. In fact, I don't think God gives you quads if you aren't totally systematic and knows how to keep discipline around the house..

The pope? Oh, I just threw in that bit not to let the Pythons down..

And I guess I could throw in Pride and Prejudice for good measure - ours were the first quads in Norway this Millennium!
People often say "are they identical quads? They're all exactly alike, how charming!" - which they're not. At. All. Especially for not spotting the girl I suspect they just expect them to be 1/4 of a human each. But they're four very individual individuals indeed. Didn't you know?