fjord in the land of lost gloves

this is what the fjord looked like tonight

 here is W enjoying the view

then making splashes.... (his hands were cold).

(Greg typing). I just stole the blog to put up these pictures and write a post griping about This-And-That-Denmark.  Then I erased it. because really, it is so nice here.
 
god påske!


 

hai-choo

i thought i could write a haiku poem about how crappy i feel today.  something short and sweet and i could go back to sleep.  but i haven't brushed up on the technical aspects of it since fourth grade and didn't want to get it wrong, so no haiku.  despite regular doses of ibuprofen, i have not had the stretch i did yesterday that allowed me to get outside, sit at the table for dinner, and do the dishes.  today, i washed my face, brushed my teeth, showered, got dressed, and went back to lying down.  ugh.

right now greg is walking the guys down to the fjord in hopes that henry will fall asleep-- a walk is something they do most nights with this goal in mind.  tonight william went with.  and i am looking at the toys scattered around the floor, trying to muster up the energy to be a useful member of this household by picking them up.  but i don't see it happening. hopefully tomorrow will be better.

i leave you with a picture greg took last night down at the fjord...

wednesday

i woke up sick.  i was feeling it a bit yesterday... a tightness in my chest which i chalked up to hauling the guys in the burley in cold weather.  maybe that's what started it.  anyway, when i got out of bed i had a cough and by the time i got out of the shower my throat was sore, which made me wonder if colds here transform as quickly as the weather seems to.  perhaps i can have the congestion done with by tomorrow evening and be on the mend by friday.  by the time i was done with breakfast, my bones started to ache, so greg stayed home from work while i was laid up in bed all morning and into the early afternoon.  by now though i'm tylenolified and rested so i figure i'm good for at least a few hours, until the medicine drops off.  the sun was out today and the wind died down this afternoon so we sat and had tea and coffee out by the sandbox.  

henry fell and cut his lip or bit it.  a neighbor brought out a popsicle for him, which william helped him eat, but he got a kick out of the popsicle stick... 

later, william was able to engage one of the neighbors in a double light "saver" battle, by holding up his knight's sword and pointing it toward his friend, who promptly went inside and brought out his light sabers.  the language of play.  

                            

in some news, we received information about our danish lessons. they begin next wednesday and will occur on mondays and wednesdays, 12:30-2:00, at risø (greg's lab).  william doesn't begin school until the second day of class, so we will have to arrange something that first wednesday.  likely one of us will not attend.  anyway, i expect there will finally be a bit more danish in this house with all of us in school.  

time to think about dinner.  some salmon and asparagus! 

day two of school-- in which henry goes a full 15 minutes before hurting himself

let the answers to my questions from yesterday begin...

we had our second day of school today.  we arrived around snack time.  a couple of minutes in, i suggested that william and i go visit the big kid classroom for 10 or 15 minutes to see how henry did without us.  about 15 minutes in, as i was trying to persuade william to come back with me to check on henry, henry's teacher carried him in, a new bump on his head.  somehow or other he had bumped it on the door in his determination to find the family members who'd abandoned him.  to be fair, he got an even bigger bump on his head this afternoon at home and toppled partway down the stairs leading to the slide out on the school playground while under my watch.  and to be fair to myself he also slipped on the wooden chest that's in our main room while holding greg's hand today.  it's like we cannot do enough to keep this boy safe-- take away every piece of furniture less than three feet tall and stand around, i guess.  today greg asked, "do you think he's learning anything from all of this?" i thought for a second, "well, i'll tell you what he learned today... he learned to jump from the (aforementioned) chest, so that i can catch him." he found this seemingly original idea to be great fun.

we stayed at school for lunch today and when all of the children were waiting patiently at the table in their seats for the lunch cart to arrive, and he was climbing out of his high chair, a substitute teacher who was in his classroom looked genuinely puzzled and asked me why he doesn't like to stay in his seat.  i would find it a strange question, except that every other small child really was sitting patiently and quietly.  i wondered if it could be a danish gene that henry lacks-- he is only 3/16ths danish.  that's not very danish.  but all i could say was, "he doesn't really like to sit still."  what 13 and a half month old does, really?  well, maybe the scandinavian ones.

i have to say i was really impressed with the lunch fare.  when it was finally carted in, there was, of course, bread and butter, and also some sort of pate (don't know the keyboard commands for the accents), which i think is pretty popular here.  then, a plate of steamed beets, carrots, and peas.  live sprouts (at least it looked like you could water them and they'd keep growing).  meatballs-- a certain kind which are also apparently traditional here, and a rice pilaf.  i wasn't quite sure if i was there to share in the lunch or if i was there to keep henry and william on the up and up, so i didn't take any for myself (though i did finish up what was on william's plate).  it was great.  i would like to become a regular for their meals.

so... tomorrow, thursday, and friday, no school.  thursday and friday, we have been reminded by many, all of the stores are closed.  saturday is a high of 3 (yes, that's celcius, but it's not going to sound that much better if i write it in fahrenheit).  monday, school and stores are closed again.  greg is thinking of taking some or all of those days off (not tomorrow).  easter here seems to be sort of like thanksgiving-- pretty much everyone takes the days off-- many in greg's lab started their vacations today.  we talk about going somewhere, but it doesn't go beyond talk.  honestly, thinking of a train ride at this point that lasts longer than 45 minutes, just sounds like trouble.  but it will happen-- next month for sure as greg's parents come to visit us.  who knows though.  maybe we'll get ambitious as the week goes on.

woe is me, the mother of henry

virtually every weekday morning, greg wakes up first, makes some oatmeal, drinks his coffee, then wakes me up.  i get out of bed stealthily without waking up henry who is inevitably there.  i take my shower, get ready.  by the time i get out of the bathroom, about twenty five minutes later, henry is up.  greg leaves for work soon after, trying to be at his desk by 7:30.

i'm always selfishly hopeful that henry will still be asleep when i come out to eat my breakfast.  i could just sit, eat, drink my tea, listen to the news, check my email.  it's only happened about once or twice.  so it just goes to figure that it would happen again today when we have to be somewhere.  rather than enjoying the time to myself i kept an eye on the clock, recalculating the timing of everything so that we would be out the door and to the school in the rather generous preferred arrival window of 8:15 to 9:00.  i finally decided to do something useful with my time and fold laundry, which was just the ticket.  the mere act of lifting a crumpled shirt with the good intention of bringing some order to our home was enough to wake him, as i assumed it might be.  once henry was awake, it was not difficult to get william out of bed.  i tried simultaneously to subtly hurry breakfast along while trying to stuff them full of enough food that they would not appear too eager at henry's first official snack time (a mixed success-- henry threw most of his only piece of buttered chocolate chip bread on the floor while william took thirds).  we were out the door by around 8:30, back home before 11.  we stayed for some free play time in the morning, snack time, and outdoor time.  once i had them in their coats and hats (another cold day) it wasn't worth getting settled back inside for another half hour-- we weren't planning on staying for lunch-- maybe tomorrow.

i was happy to be home.  i realize i need the easy transition into this new situation as much as henry does.  basically because it became clear to me today that henry, in a situation where the teacher-to-child ratio is anything other than 2 (or more) teachers to 1 henry, is going to:

*get himself into trouble
*get himself hurt
*get lost

any or all of the above-- it's just a matter of when, how often, and to what degree.  it's not them so much.  it's him.  now i just need to impart my, what i believe to be, rational fear, to his school.  can't they give him some 1:1 care?  they do it in other institutions.  if not, can we put him in a helmet and some body armor, with a roaming device?

less invasive suggestions?  reassurances?  i'm listening...

if you're going to malmø, sweden

it was a rainy, windy, cold day here.  not much to report.  a good day to show you the few pictures greg brought back from sweden.  the center the conference was held at was right near the roughly 10 mile long bridge that spans the eastern edge of sjaelland ("zealand"-- the island roskilde and copenhagen rest on) and the southern edge of sweden.  in fact, the conference center was built so that people could watch the bridge being constructed.  otherwise though, it's in an office park; the city of malmø off in the distance.   

the conference center, with a view toward denmark...

a closer look at øresund bridge.  a bridge for cars and trains-- the longest in europe. 

cloudy skies in sweden.  malmø a ways off... 

tomorrow we go to school-- henry, william, and i.  

three plus one

(this was intended to be posted on 3.31 but i got to writing it so late and it has taken almost an entire year to upload these two short videos.) 

today we officially have a four year old in this house.  well, if you insist on official, we won't have a four year old in this house until 12:57 a.m. GMT +2, april 1.  but march 31st is his birthday and a sugar and sprinkle laden day it was.  

of course, he is still unwilling to acknowledge his newly acquired numerical title... 

which is not to say he didn't enjoy himself and allow for a little indulgence.  as promised, bacon (and eggs, and toast, and oranges) for breakfast.  but mostly bacon.  i think william had 8 pieces-- two for each year of his life. but to be fair, some were little pieces and the bacon was sliced very thin.  still... you raise a child as a vegetarian for the first two years of his life and apparently, you make up for it later.  

makin' bacon

greg and henry went on the weekly saturday run.  william did not want to go because he thought he would be too cold.  it was snowing.  oh, sigh.  the weather here is never happy with its current state for very long.  better not dwell on it.  just dress appropriately and carry on as usual.  

henry in william's rain pants, getting ready for the burley run.

after-- we cleaned the house.  put the leafs in the table.  brought out the extra chairs.  made the coffee.  iced the cake.  i made a nice big block letter 'W' on the cake with four different colors of sprinkles... and almost had time to stand back and admire it before it was william's turn to decorate the cake and that's when i had to let go of my idea of the nice big block letter 'W' for it successfully assimilated with the many hundreds of other sprinkles he poured on.  i am sorry i did not get a picture of it.  soon after, neighbors came over.  coffee and tea, bread and cheese, cake and ice cream consumed.  conversation was had.  presents were opened.  birthday songs sung in danish and english.... 

and birthday wishes with family over skype.

at bedtime, we began robinson crusoe (an adapted version), which william is already loving.  before beginning the story i read him the back of the book.  he asked me what cannibal meant and just as i was explaining that, "well... i wasn't sure they were "real" but they are people who eat..." greg, the intelligent parent, came in and said, "i think that word is pronounced "pirate."  i think she meant to say pirate." 


no. he's four now.  you can't fool him that easily.  "eat what mama?"

sigh.  "people."


at least i've already ruined my chances of making zero mistakes in this next year of his life.  the pressure is off.  but he will surely continue to amaze us as he always has.