bicycle

this morning-- william and greg looking at william's star wars sticker book.

now it's 9:23 p.m. and both boys are asleep! well, henry's been up once and is now back down-- that's nothing too unusual. i could count on one hand the number of times he's slept through the night, if i could actually remember any of them. but the fact that william is not up anymore is the real breakthrough. this morning it worked to get him up around eight-- the lure of playing legos with his father was just too much to keep him sleeping.

our only real adventure out today was to the super best, our nearest grocery store. very much within walking distance and unless we're missing something nearer, the closest to us. this was my second venture to the store and it was much less crowded than that first afternoon of our arrival. this gave me time to peruse the aisles without feeling so rushed and like i was in everybody's way (reference #6 of the ever important cultural article). i'm trying not to dwell, but i'm a little bummed that this is bound to be our main source of food. for those who live in madison, it is like a more expensive version of pierce's, a not-so-great overpriced grocery store that i tried to avoid. okay, i'm going to stop complaining now and express my thankfulness that there is a store within walking distance. of course, you think of moving to europe and you imagine that life is structured around going to the marketplace everyday to pick things out for your dinner. and that does seem to be the way here, at least to some extent-- the fridges (at least ours) are not big, the packages of food are small, and when i told greg's boss that we tended to buy things "in bulk" back in wisconsin, i think he understood me to mean, "buy a whole lot at one time so we only have to go to the grocery store once a week" (which was also pretty much true, but i meant, buying a gallon's worth of oats and lentils and rice and a quart's worth of walnuts and cashews, etc. etc.) to which his response was something along the lines of they don't do that here. you buy little and often. and that is what i imagined, except i sort of wanted those outdoor markets with the fresh produce and the butcher shop situated next door to the boulangerie. i think i've got the wrong country. crumble. okay, i'm dwelling. can i tell you that we bought a few fillets of some sort of white fish today and fried it up in a pre-packaged breading the fish guy recommended and it was great! and william, who we've begun to believe exists mostly on air, ate the entire thing, plus 2 and half helpings of mashed potatoes, plus most of his carrots and broccoli. it was sort of amazing. tomorrow we're having salmon.

the white fish, at least, came from the baltic sea (or the eastern sea, as he (the fish guy) referred to it). in thinking about sources of protein here (chicken and beef are way expensive, not a lot of nuts, some beans, but nothing in excess at the super best), we decided to try fish, which is (comparatively speaking) moderately priced. if only we didn't have to worry about mercury. there's always something, is there not?

one cool thing that happened today was william trying out his bike. we wanted him to try riding it to the grocery store. he practiced in the parking lot first and was really nervous, not letting greg let go of the bike, steering (or rather not steering) into cars, putting his foot down to brake, as opposed to using the brakes that came with the bike.

nervous guy

but then, on the way to the store, greg decided to put his hands on the back of william's jacket instead of on the bike, probably to save his own back, and that seemed to be the trick-- william was steering and balancing in no time...

and by the time we arrived back home...

here he is, riding around a tree in the parking lot:

a proud bike rider...

later, greg, william and henry went out to the backyard to kick around a soccer ball and explore while i cleaned up, because this house, and possibly any house with scandinavian furniture, just politely demands neatness, and like a friend put up on facebook recently-- "cleaning house while the kids are home is like shoveling snow while it's still snowing." you'll do it because you don't want to have to shovel yourself out, but you will never get anything less than a light dusting over your nice work.

here they are playing...

and here, a gift to me from william... a hint of spring...