evening walk

I love evening walks in the summer, when everyone is outside till its late. Tonight we walked down to the nearby reservoir and stopped for frozen yoghurt on the way back. We arrived home to the happy news that our neighbors have welcomed a baby boy. A new little friend for Jonas, yayy. He finally fits in the Ergo carrier (I have been using a wrap until a few weeks ago), and he is contently hanging out there, looking around and falling asleep when I go pick up Silja, run for coffee or we go to the playground.

Oversæt til dansk    

gimel graduate

We went to the end-of-school-year party at Silja's daycare last week, and had breakfast with all her teachers, and the other kids and parents, and proudly cheered as Silja and all her little friends were called up individually to receive their diploma and a year book full of pictures, drawings and little notes about what they have accomplished. She will attend a summer program over the summer at the same place, and then start preschool (børnehave) with the same group of children, when the school year begins again in September. The school year ended today and this week the kids were allowed to come in their pajamas, which Silja was pretty thrilled about.
We have had such a great experience with this place, providing great insight to how one form of early child care in the US can be constructed. The day care center is located in the same building as an assisted living facility for seniors, so there is a lot of interaction between the two groups, which I find very meaningful. Each week will have a different theme (e.g. babies, smell, travel, community helpers, bugs) which the daily activities are organized around, so the kids are always doing and learning something new. Interesting for us the daycare center is build upon Jewish traditions, and hence has certain guidelines about kosher food and celebrations of Jewish holidays including the weekly shabbat. Silja has among other things learned Israeli folk dancing, some songs in Hebrew and knows how to do the blessings for Shabbat.
The only downside to sending a child to daycare in the US is that it's very expensive. It is about three times more expensive than Denmark, which is also why she is only there three half days a week. We are so thankful to her amazing grandparents in Iceland, who has made it possible! Those three half days a week has provided so much growth for her, and has been a real blessing for me with a trying pregnancy and later a new baby.

Oversæt til dansk

moooh

Every couple of months we go to visit Drumlin Farm which is a big working farm open to the public just outside Boston. Last time we went, was exactly three months earlier, mid March when I was big and round, and there was no sign of baby but still a lot of snow. And what a difference three months can make: This weekend it was a beautiful summer day and in the back of the stroller was a chubby sleeping baby (dressed for the occasion). He is completely outgrowing the space he has there in the back. Silja was so excited to see, touch and hear the different animals, so I'm sure we'll be back again soon.

Oversæt til dansk