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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summer is here

The last couple of days have been H O T. Temperatures in the mid 30s have left us switching between blasting the air condition or hanging out on the balcony when it cools down or staying inside gets too boring. We made a picnic in the nearest park yesterday but that ended up being too hot, especially for poor Jonas. 

He is growing so fast. He has almost doubled his weight and is completely melting our hearts with his smiles and his new little laughter. He was seen by an orthopedic at Boston Children's Hospital this week, because two ultrasounds (postpartum) showed he was right on the border of having early hip dysplasia. We thought they were going to put a harness on him for a couple of weeks, but luckily the orthopedic thought the radiologists had overreacted and didn't understand why we had been referred. I left the hospital feeling like wasting time and resources with all these extra tests and examinations. It's all for the best, I know, but when all (thankfully!) turns out to be fine in the end, then is it really necessary with so many doctor visits. 

A bucket of water and Silja is entertained for a good while. We made a little garden box with tomatoes, bell peber, flowers and herbs (overkill?) and last weeks rain combined with this week's sun has produced a lot of new little sprouts. Yay!

I'm experimenting with homemade popsicles as a healthier alternative to the store-bought. Here is pureed watermelon with chopped peach and plum. Simple and good!

And one last one of these two... As they seem to end up on every picture I take.

It's Friday night, and Bjarni has promised to play backgammon and drink a cold beer with me on the balcony. Life is good! Hope you have an enjoyable and summery weekend.

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morfar

For the past many many months we have been counting down to welcoming my dad (morfar) and Else to Boston. Like many others who live far away from dear ones we use Skype and FaceTime to keep in touch, and my dad is so good at it! He has a stuffed animal he uses to keep Silja engaged and entertained, and as a result of our regular through-a-screen conversations Silja has developed a strong loving for morfar, although she only sees him in person a few times a year. I'm happy and thankful beyond words she (and hopefully eventually Jonas) can have a close relationship with our extended families despite long distances, because being far away from them is really the main downside to living abroad.

Weather wise Boston didn't really show itself from its most charming side during their visit, but there was time for touristy things like walking the Freedom Trail (about time for me..) and walking through Harvard Yard in Cambridge as well as just hanging out at our local playground, making puzzles and playing cards. It's a shame good times pass by so fast, but we are lucky to have more family coming soon, so the next count down has already begun. 

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two years nine months

• I cut her hair last week for the first time, and had to bribe her with a lollipop (despite much explanation she kept thinking it would hurt).
• She has progressed from speaking English words to English sentences. She is very interested in the different languages she is in touch with, and is often asking or telling us what things are called in the different languages she knows.
• If she could decide herself she would be having a pacifier in her mouth all day long (she is only allowed to have it for sleeping). I wonder how it will be when the pacifier has to go entirely?
• She is currently so incredibly stubborn about what she wants to wear, and is testing our patience every morning when she refuses to wear most of her pants, and pulls everything out to look and try to decide an outfit. She prefers to wear pants and dresses simultaneously. We are quite excited for this phase to pass!
• Her special friend is Ely from Israel, who lives in our building and is also in the same class as she in daycare. She tells us she loves Ely. Ely tells his parents and the teachers in daycare he loves Silja. Once they met on the way to daycare and held hands all the way. Reminding her that we might run into Ely in the morning if we hurry to get dressed sometimes work to ease the clothing crisis. 
• Now that the weather is better she loves hanging out on the balcony and looks for people passing by on the parking lot yelling 'hi hi... bye.. have a nice day'. 
• She is VERY excited about turning three in July.

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what a week

Last week was marked by two big happenings, which surely made things different than first expected: the happy surprise of my dear old friend Jane coming all the way from Denmark and of course the Boston bombings.

Bjarni and Jane had secretly planned her visit, and it was such a surprise when I opened our door, and she was standing there. Living abroad is like life is divided into two worlds: the world (with all its people, places and habits) at home and the world in the new place. So it was so surreal to see Jane from home standing here when I wasn't prepared for it. But so so great to share what life here looks like and we all loved having her. Friends who pick up your kids and pour a whole lot of love out on them are simply the best!

A friend visiting calls for sightseeing and showing off some of what Boston has to offer. One of the first things we did, was to cheer for the marathon runners that passed by our neighborhood on their route Monday afternoon. We ate lunch in the sun and enjoyed the festive atmosphere, while the runners passed by. It was when we later got home we heard about the explosions in downtown Boston. We followed the news on TV and it was sad and frightening to see how the cheerful atmosphere had so suddenly turned to shock and disbelief. 

From how I experienced it, the following days continued with surprising normalcy albeit the media covered the bombings extensively. We went to Cambridge and back to downtown Boston on day trips and aside from extra police on the subway stops and having our bags inspected at the New England Aquarium, things looked like they used to. Our plans about driving out of the city came to a halt Friday morning, when we heard about the lockdown in our neighborhood: we shouldn't leave our building. (The part of Watertown where they suspected the man to hide is about 4km from our place.) We tried to cancel our rental car, but nobody answered the phone at the car agency. It was closed down as was the rest of the neighborhood. We could hear police sirens and helicopters throughout the day, and the streets and parking lots around us were strangely quiet. Silja played with friends in our building, and the rest of us ate cake and changed between following the news intensely and having too much of it. By the time they finally caught the guy in the evening we were watching a movie, but could hear the cheers out on the balcony from people in the neighborhood. We had all been trapped inside the entire day, and it was such a relief for everyone when the drama and suspense finally was over.

I got two little ones keeping me too busy to follow the aftermath too closely, but there seems to be a strong sense of community and togetherness growing out of everything that happened last week, which reflects in the new mantra of the city and it's people: Boston strong.

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