squeezing the last out of summer

We are currently enjoying these last beautiful summer weeks. It still feels very much like summer with
temperatures in the mid 20s, flip flops, iced coffees and sun screen, but the mornings are chili, the sun sets earlier and some trees have transitioned from green to a yellow-brownish hue. I'm pretty excited about the fall, but I know to suck the marrow out of these last warm and sunny weeks. Silja is home from school for two weeks, so we are spending as much time as we can outside shifting between playgrounds and bringing books to the park to read on a blanket and so on, getting the most out of the great weather.
The pictures are not particularly summery, but there are currently too many other things to drag along on our outings to care to bring the big camera.

 Teaching Silja to play board games

 Our garden box is now full of green tomatoes, a tiny pepper and two flowers Silja brought home as little seeds for mother's day.

This one is mostly such a happy easygoing little guy. Soon he will be half a year, and I don't know how that happened.

He LOVES the guitar Bjarni brought back from Iceland. 

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three

Silja turned three last week. And we are reminded every single day, because she will tell us all the things she can do now just because she is three: She can brush her own teeth, eat a lot of breakfast, wear underwear instead of diapers, open and hold the heavy door outside, put on her shoes. She can throw the most crazy fits, when things don't go her way, and she says the most amazing things in a mix of Danish and English: Du skal get up, for du er sygeplejersken. Du må ikke ødelægge det der, for så bliver jeg virkelig sur og so sad. I love you lillebror. We are planning a little party for her when the sling comes of next week, so the celebration is not entirely over yet.

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flexing the mommy muscle

I read an article a while back, about how women who have children grow a 'mommy muscle'. The article was meant for new moms and was giving advice about how to acknowledge the hardships of dealing with a crying baby, lack of sleep, and all the worry of having the responsibility of a new little human being. There is no way one can prepare for all this, but with time and experience the 'mommy muscle' grows stronger and stronger making motherhood less overwhelming. I thought about my mommy muscle several times over the past week, and how it was getting a hardcore workout, while Bjarni was in Europe. I was crushing disgusting bugs (where I would otherwise have called on Bjarni), hurling car seats, laundry and trash up and down a lot of stairs, sitting with two kids, who wanted to be held at the same time. I called Jonas Thomas and I snapped at Silja more than a couple of times, because I was exhausted to the bone, but with that said it was surprisingly fun. We made trips to the park at 7am and ate donuts for breakfast, before the heat kicked in, we had movie nights with popcorn and cartoons, and we followed our to-do list as best possible. It was week with far less strictness than normally. We couldn't do everything I had planned, because Silja rolled out of our bed the day after Bjarni left, and broke her collarbone. Booh, and hello mommy muscle...

The day before he left, I went and bought a box of baby formula, thinking now I'm prepared for the worst: If something happens to Silja, and someone else has to look after Jonas, who is otherwise dependent on me in terms of eating, then this box will save us. Luckily it never got that bad, but when I saw a bump on her shoulder some miserable hours after the fall, and I went to ask our neighbor for help, I thought: here I am in this emergency situation, I have dreaded, which I have to deal with alone. I'm so thankful for our neighbors, and I don't know how I would have managed without. Our neighbor Chrissy took us to the health clinic, and a couple of X-rays and a whole lot of tears from both kids later, we knew the collarbone was broken, and she had to have her arm in a sling for the following three weeks. So she needed a little more help and care, and was only allowed quiet activities, which made it all a little more demanding but we managed. 

 We made a sensory box with beans, which kept her occupied for hours. WIN!!

Needless to say we were all very happy when Bjarni returned. I think I was like a balloon, who after  a week of initiating fun projects and keeping calm, was running out of air. He's been good about giving space for me to regain strength since coming back, and now we are back to the good old normal.
Hurray for dads, who take care of most of the hurling up and down stairs and who deal with awful bugs, and who is there to step in when the toddler is having another meltdown, and hurray for my mommy muscle, who is as strong as ever.

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new hampshire

We are back from an amazing trip to New Hampshire, where we vacationed with my sister and her family. We have been counting down to and planning their visit for many many months, and Silja was close to being in heaven, when the cousins she admires so much, finally came (with a stopover in Boston) to play with her toys, in her house and went to see her playground. It's been so so good to have lots of time to just hang out and relax in each other's company. So much so that New Hampshire felt very quiet and a bit lonely when they had to travel back to Denmark, and we stayed for another couple of days. 

The past week we have been swimming in Lake Winnipesaukee, eating pancakes for breakfast on the porch, had an early celebration for Silja's upcoming birthday, introduced the visiting Danes to American donuts and s'mores, oh, and slapped about 4000 mosquitoes. It's felt so much like summer and vacation, and in addition to the loveliness of simply being with family, it's been great for us, who otherwise always vacation in Denmark or Iceland, to see another part of the US.

And fingers crossed the post-vacation-zen lasts a while. In this moment Bjarni is packing a suitcase and is getting ready for a week in Berlin and Reykjavik for work. I'm taking deep breaths and am bracing myself for eight days alone with a four-month-old and (almost) three-year-old, and a dad on a different continent than the rest of us. I have told them to be nice, and that getting sick is completely, and by all means completely forbidden. But of course I can do it, manage a week alone, and I've made a list of happy things we will be doing this coming week, when Bjarni is away. It includes among other things to dance at least once a day and to eat ice-cream with sprinkles. I'll keep you posted how it goes...

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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.

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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.

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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.

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