Catching up

It's been a long time since I've entered a blog entry. Life has been quite busy with three little ones. Between taking care of the kids, cooking and cleaning, my days go by so quickly. Additionally, the girls and I find ourselves busy doing things through the international school while Dylan is in school during the day. We do plenty of play dates and shopping sprees and just plain hanging out. I love getting this quality time in with the girls. Elizabeth is so easy going and independent. She's turning into a little lady right before my eyes.

She loves playing with her purses and reading books. In fact, she carries a rather large pile of books around the house with her during the day. I swear, the books weigh as much as she does. Patricia is really doing a lot lately as well. She says mama and dada. She is a very fast crawler and just today started kneeling on her own. I think that she'll probably start the cruising thing very soon. I can already see that she wants to do the same things that the other two do. She doesn't really let me feed her right now. She grabs the spoon out of my hand when I try to feed her. If I give her her own spoon, she just drops the one she has, grabs the spoon from my hand and shoves it in her own mouth. Little miss independence.

Denmark is treating us well so far. The weather hasn't been that bad. Dylan has a 1 week break next month. We are mulling around the idea of taking the kids to either Legoland or to an indoor water amusement park in the southern part of the country. Both options sound so fun that we're having a difficult time deciding.

Unfortunately our camera has died once again. I don't have any pics to post. Eric's in the states right now. Hopefully he'll be able to get a camera that's a bit more reliable.

It's late and time to go. Hopefully I'll have more time to update this site in the weeks to come.

Dylan turns 4

It's hard to believe that my sweet little boy was born 4 short years ago. Time has really flown. We've had so many changes in the last four years. When Dylan was born we were living in our condo in South Boston. When he was 8 months old we sold the condo and made the big move out to the burbs. We were/are so proud to own that house. We were lucky enough to land a nice house on a quiet street in a great neighborhood. We thought that we'd spend at least 20 years in that house. Then, just over a year later, we moved to Amsterdam and now we're in Copenhagen. Thinking about this amount of transition makes my head spin. I'm sure it does a number on the kids as well.

Of course I'm probably being a bit overly dramatic since the kids are doing great and we had a wonderful time celebrating Dylan's birthday the other day. We started out by celebrating at school first. I made some cookies and we brought them into school so that Dylan could share a birthday treat with his classmates.

It was very sweet. They all sang happy birthday to him. Then everyone drew a picture and the teacher posted them all into Dylan's birthday book.

Later that day, we shared a special birthday dinner of fish sticks, roasted potatoes and salad (all requested by Dylan). Afterwards we enjoyed some delicious birthday cake.

Of course, Dylan was very excited to receive presents. The girls got him a new football. Eric and I bought him a remote control car, a new transformer and some clothes for school. He was very excited about the car. Although it is already broken. It lasted 24 hours. I guess we should have headed the warning on the box and waited until he turned 5 to give it to him. Lesson learned!!

I'm so excited to watch my little guy grow up. He is a bright, energetic, caring little boy who loves to catch frogs and play with Legos. He is maturing in ways that amaze me each day. I'm proud to have him as my son!

Silly Elizabeth

Elizabeth loves to walk around with a bucket on her head. The other day I came into the kitchen to find her rummaging through the refrigerator with a bucket on her head and wearing sun glasses. She cracks me up.

Jolly jumper

Here's some pics of my little Patricia enjoying some jumping time in her jolly jumper.

Look at those fat roles!! Love those legs. She's such a happy, sweet, good baby. We're so lucky!

First day of school

Yesterday was Dylan's first day of preschool at the international school. He did really well. He just walked into class and started playing. He was nervous about going so I was really happy that he liked it so much. His teacher's name is Mrs. Anderson. She's very friendly and sweet. She told me that Dylan even comforted some of the kids who were upset to be left by their moms. My brave little guy...

Here's a picture of us parking the car and walking to the school

He went right to the sand box, and so did Elizabeth.

The kids are all required to take their shoes off before they come into the classroom. The teachers want to give the class a homey feel. Today, as I was getting Dylan settled, I noticed that Elizabeth also took off her shoes and left them in Dylan's locker. When I looked in the classroom she was there playing along with the other kids. So funny. Seems like she's anxious to start preschool herself.

Bathrobe

I was heading out for an early morning run the other day when I saw a woman walking down my street in just a bathrobe. Odd, I thought. As I got closer to the beach I saw quite a few other people walking around in their bathrobe, on the street in broad daylight. Then it hit me, they were all going for an early morning dip in the ocean. I'm also told that they like to take their dip in the most natural state, hence the bathrobes. Some do wear swim suites. In fact, Eric and I have seen quite a few people disrobing and changing into their suites right on the beach. You'd never see that in America. Funny how these Europeans don't mind being naked in public.

Beautiful Denmark

When I was in high school I became good friends with a few foreign exchange students from Scandinavia. One was from Finland and two were from Sweden. In fact, I went to my senior prom with one of the Swedish students, Andreas. They all went home that summer after we graduated. Andreas used to send us wonderful letters detailing his daily life in Sweden. It sounded so fun! It was full of days spent sailing and enjoying the wonderful open air of his hometown. My girlfriend and I were insanely jealous of his life. If I had known just how beautiful this area really was, I'm sure that my jealousy would have completely consumed me.

Denmark is composed of a mainland and larger islands, and many smaller islands. Copenhagen rests on one of the larger islands further to the east, facing Sweden. So we are living on an island. Our house is about a 10 minute walk to the beach. We can see Sweden across the bay. I wave to my Scandinavian friends whenever I go out and about. The views are spectacular. I never would have guessed that this county was so beautiful. So far, the people here have been very friendly and welcoming.

Here are some pictures of the outside of our house:

We LOVE our house. It's really nice to have space and a yard again. I didn't realize how crowded we were in our Dutch house until we came here. We try to make it outside on most days. Although it has rained just about every day since we arrived. In fact it hasn't stopped raining all day today. I bit of a bummer.

There is a stone wall off to the left in the back yard. Dylan quickly figured out that frogs live in these stones. He loves to go outside to hunt for them. Poor frogs will never be the same again. Eric and I joke that they have Dylan's picture posted in the rocks, warning the others to beware of the little boy with fast hands.

I have become a farmer here in Denmark. There is a garden area off the the right of the back yard. Last week I planted basil, thyme, chives, lettuce, 2 kinds of beans and asparagus. It's a little late in the season so we'll see what comes up. I've never planted anything before. It was kind of fun. Dylan even helped me.

On a final note, Denmark is a country that is known for its pastries and ice cream. Both are SO delicious. It's good that I'll be riding my bike a lot here. I think I'll need to here. We've made it a Sunday morning ritual to have pastries for breakfast. Yummy!!