7-11 Magazine Hawker

The other day I found a 7-11 with MANY, MANY magazines in English. AND they were the American versions, not the British ones!! The British versions are full of things I don't understand and people I have never heard of... (although I learned that a "stone" means 14 pounds which I think is completely absurd. 14? How about 10 or even 15... 14 pounds? Okay...)

Either way... I was very excited to find these magazines because I was looking for a birthday gift for another American woman over here. Erica, if you are reading - stop... because this next part will be really tacky. :) But whatever, we're friends...

250 kroner!!! I paid $50 for four magazines!!! I saved the receipt for our little scrapbook because I think that is ridiculous! I laughed out loud as the cashier told me the grand total. I said, "Do you know that that is $50?!?" :) With a confused look on his face he asked me if they were special magazines... and I just replied, "Yes", and left the store appalled at how many kroners I had just spent.

As I gave my friend the magazines... I said, "Give them back when you are done so I can read them." HA HA - Talk about TACKY! We get desperate here in Denmark when it comes to English reading material. :) It's all in good fun though.

Never again will I whine/winge about $5 for a magazine. I will never whine/winge about lots of things now... At this point I'd even happily pay the Canadian price on a book. :)

Pancakes

Here is a lesson in Pancakes.

American Pancakes are yummy. They are meant to be a meal - commonly breakfast... but in our house they are often dinner when mommy is desperate and forgot to make dinner. When you cook these pancakes they get fat and fluffy. They are not hard, but not soggy or floppy, they keep their shape if you pick it up by the side.

Danish Pancakes are different... but yummy enough. They are a dessert. You can put powdered sugar, chocolate, jelly, or another topping on them. This is all I know about them. They do NOT get fat and fluffy when you cook them. They are what I would call a crepe. I think British pancakes are the same. We had some "pancakes" in London and with lemon juice and powdered sugar they were suprisingly REALLY good!

So when we first got here last year I found some pancake mix and tried to cook it until the pancakes became fat and fluffy... wasn't happening. I realized my batter was so thin that these pancakes weren't going to get fat or fluffy, so I when I cooked the next pancake I tried to make it NOT floppy or soft. I thought that it was supposed to be harder. After a really long time I had a sturdy pancake that I could have tossed like a frisbee. The kids ate it happily so I proceeded to burn the rest of my Danish pancakes and then feed them to my oblivious children ...and I was feeding them these burnt pancakes as a meal, not a dessert. Oops. ...but they didn't mind.

Anways, they have Pancake Day here... maybe. I don't know why, or really if they do for sure, but I think they do. :) It may involve something called Shrove Tuesday, but I don't know what that is either. I'm counting on some comments to clear this one up. :)

I found out about this "Maybe-Pancake-Day" while using my masterful Danish reading abilities. I read something about "Pancake Day" in an ad and thought it sounded like a great day. I decided that it would be a good excuse to eat pancakes for dinner and dessert. However, I thought it said Thursday; Torsdag = Thursday and Tirsdag = Tuesday and I can't keep them straight.

We ate our American pancakes for dinner on Thursday and thought we were partaking in the native customs here.... nope... we missed it. It was on Tuesday. We decided that in our house we will have Pancake day on the last Thursday of February. :) It's now an offical Happy Holiday.

Find the teeth!

Here are some pictures to make up for not having any this week.

Michaela and her little friend.

One of Sierra's best friends is moving back to Ukraine this week. That's the worst part about the international school environment... kids come and go a lot.

See! Sitting up all by her big self.

This is Scotty's funny face he now does when you tell him to smile. He pulls one eyebrow up and the other down. He thinks he is hilarious!

Little Poozley Woozley


Find the teeth.... :)

Kids

Poozle is so big!!! I forgot to mention she has another little tooth on the bottom. She got it about five days ago. It's almost as cute as the other one. :) ...But the other one is bigger now so you can see it and so it's cuter than the second one. ...and right on cue we got a note from the dentist saying she has an appointment next week. If I translated correctly it is more like a meeting on "how to clean your babies teeth" and several families will be there. I think I'll call and pass on the Danish instruction. It's nice that I'd get one though...

AND.... we've decided Andrea can sit up all by herself. She still has not rolled over, but rolling over is boring. Sitting up is where the real fun happens, huh Poozle? I can plop her on a blanket (surround her with pillows just in case) and she will play with toys like a happy little person. She has her wiggly moments and falls over though, mostly when she gets really excited about something.

I made her green beans today and some more carrots. What a pain. I do like putting it into ice cube trays and making colorful little "food cubes" though. This Sunday I am going to try a big cooking afternoon where I cook EVERYTHING I can for the week. ...for dinner, for lunches, for Poozle, for everything... It may take more planning than I am capeable of, we'll see.

Scotty likes Andrea now. He amused her for twenty minutes by sliding a yellow plastic plate across the coffee table and having it crash to the ground. She laughed hysterically and they became friends. :) Now he surrounds her with toys whenever she is sitting on the floor and in the car today he actually put the pacifier in her mouth. Very cute.

Scotty also likes to make "squishy food" for Andrea. His job is to throw the vegetables in the pot of water and to then spoon it into the ice cube trays. He adds about a half hour to completing this task and another half hour to clean up his mess, but it amuses him for a while so it's worth it. He's been helping me cook things lately. He likes to do whatever jobs he can. Last night he put the spaghetti noodles in O N E... A T... A... T I M E.

Sierra got her stitches out by a very old doctor with a VERY unsteady hand. I about died... I should have just done it all myself. I figured that it was free so I might as well have a "professional" do it. Either way, they are out and now she just has bandages there. It looks okay I guess. She will not be going to gymnastics tomorrow. I told her we would stay home and eat ice cream where she will be safe.

Michaela is normal. No major issues although there was a bug in her room last night that provoked quite an incident that ended with her sleeping on the couch in her room. :) Today we borrowed a book from a friend that she wanted and that has made her happy.

more fun....

I am not kidding.

Tonight at ice skating Sierra ran into the wall instead of stopping... Now she has a big goose egg and bruise ABOVE her stitches.

This child is determined to give me a heart attack.

more Fastelavn fun...

Sierra got hit by the dumb barrel ...in her other eye.

I will now require that she wears safety glasses when she leaves the house...

Why a wooden barrel? Why hard wood? What is the matter with paper mache? Kids can hit it with something plastic it doesn't need to be so dangerous. Maybe they just need one of the cheesy pull-string pinatas that sissy parents have at birthday parties.

If we make it out of here alive I'll be impressed. :)

Our 2nd Fastelavn

sdf
u

I've decided that Fastelavn is more like Halloween than Halloween. Halloween here is more for scary things... no princess costumes or cute animals or silly costumes... Fastelavn is "carnival", and the kids dress up in fun costumes, but not scary ones, and there is lots of candy involved. I've learned more about this holiday. There is a pinata type thing, it's a wooden barrel, that you fill with candy... in the "olden days" they'd put a black cat and hit the cat (bad luck) out of the barrel (your life). Now there is just a picture of a black cat on the barrel as a friendly reminder. :)

And if you are the kid who hits the bottom of the barrel and makes the candy fall out - you are the Queen and get a crown. Nobody rushes for the candy though... you wait until every piece of wood is hit off the string. Whoever hits the last piece off the string is the King. Then the Queen, and King?, get a crown to wear. This is why there are SO many crowns for sale in all the stores... I just thought lots of people were dressing up as princesses because Denmark has a Queen.

We even learned part of the Fastelavn song! You are supposed to sing this song and go around to all the houses in the neigherboorhood... like trick-or-treating. The song is quite hard to remember and I can't believe little kids can say it all! :) It's much easier to yell "Trick-or-Treat" when the door opens... but much nicer to sing a song. :) Not every body does this. We had a Danish family come over to celebrate with us and they have never sang the song while going door to door. I think it may be an American thing that some people have choosen to adopt...

It made me remember how much I missed Halloween again. :( I decided that I will try and make a trip home for Halloween and stay through the day after Thanksgiving shopping! I was very sad to miss both of those things. : ( But I'm pretty sure that the cost of plane tickets for SIX will come up and mess up my plans...

Anyways! The girls are celebrating Fastelavn at school today. Sierra is a little girl from China, and Michaela has reached the magical age of being "too cool" to dress up. I sent her with her Harry Potter costume from Halloween just in case she felt "dorky" and wanted to wear something. They will hit the wooden barrel with the wooden stick and I really hope Sierra doesn't come home from school today needing more stitches under the other eye... at least wait until we get her current ones taken out tomorrow. The whole things sounds dangerous... chards of splintery wood flying around until every single last piece is off the string... It's better I don't think about it.

Scotty has a little party at his school too so Paul and I made the best Superman costume ever!!! Of course Scotty doesn't even know who superman is, but we thought if his costume was something simple... like an S on a shirt, then he would agree to wear it. (nope) I had little faith that he would wear the cape, but he likes the letter "S" for Scotty so I had hope.. Despite Scott's refusual to touch our costume which we made with love... let alone wear it, this is still the cutest costume in the world. Paul engineered the best S I've ever seen, and I used my magical sewing abilities to make the cape complete with drawstring tie. :) ...and our felt only cost $30! (we have lots extra though)

Poozle wore a pink coat with a bunny ears on it. :)


Sierra said I could post the picture because it not just of her eye, it is of her helping me make some food. Poor little Bear... her eye is becoming more bruised looking. She will not be going to gymnastics this week. I don't want it to get bumped. I may go with her and we can watch...

P.S. Paul is in Germany for the whole week so please send me your pity for being left with four kids for the week! We may go visit him this weekend because I think he has to be there for the next week too.

My list.

Well, nobody needed medical attention today so I'm calling it a good day! Scotty's ears are getting better and Sierra's eye is looking less swollen. Sierra goes in on Tuesday to get the stitches out.

Currently the ground is covered in snow again, it never really all melted from before but it really snowed good for a couple hours so the grass is all white. I hope it stays for tomorrow so we can fix our little snowman and snow ramp. :)

Tonight some friends came over for a "Thanksgiving" dinner. See, I have a turkey buying problem. Whenever I see a Turkey (Kalkun) in the store I buy it. Usually you can only get them at Christmas time ... but a couple stores have a few left from Christmas I'm guessing... and the Danes sure aren't buying them, so they are on sale... Only $20 for a nine pound turkey; better than $40 I guess... So I have two turkeys in the fridge and we ate one tonight. I even made sweet potatoes. :) Yummy.

Someone forwarded me a list, "How to tell you have been in Denmark too long.". I was amused with it so I took ten minutes and made my own list.

1. You think 5 degrees C is warm.
2. You can make your own frosting without looking at a recipe.
3. You consider a half hour bus ride an easy trip.
4. You forget what you look like when tan.
5. You are thrilled beyond belief to buy evaporated milk.
6. You think 50 kroner is cheap.
7. You get excited when you only have to make ONE trip to the dump per week.
8. You own more coats than shorts.
9. You deem things "not dirty enough" so you don't have to use up your American laundry detergent
10. You have a frozen turkey on your back porch... and consider it normal.
11. You start to read the Economist.
12. You can ignore everyone in the grocery store and not feel bad about it.
13. You can start to tell Danes apart from each other.
14. You can tell the difference between Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish.
15. You actually light the candles you buy.
16. You forget what root beer tastes like.
17. Your most common thing you say on any given day is, "Jeg taler englesk."
18. You look forward to Sunday radio with an English speaking host, Ryan Seacrest.
19. You stop converting to dollars and just throw the reciept away, you've learned looking will depress you.
20. You don't have to spell your address to people anymore, you can actually pronounce it.

1, 2 Ear Infections

My poor poor Scotty.

He has two ear infections.

AND GUESS WHAT? Denmark is out of penicillin. This screams THIRD WORLD! No, can't go to another pharamcy. No, can't go to the hospital. No, can't go to Copenhagen...

Who runs out of penicillin? They have been out for a while too because we had friends that couldn't get anything for their son a couple months ago... Put Flemming and Henerick on a bus and send them somewhere to get some. Make a phone call... Fill out an order form... DO SOMETHING.

So I spent two hours going up and down the three levels between the doctor and the pharmacy. It finally ended with the doctor's office closed and me in the pharmacy getting angry, talking sternly, and refusing to leave the counter until they gave me medicine for my son who was whimpering in the corner.

The lady finally went into the back and ten minutes later came back with a bottle of something which she said would work. I think she just wanted me to leave. Fine. I had medicine, I was semi-happy. The bottle had a long word on it which had the word "penicillin" in it... Why did I have to turn into crazy mom to get this? I could go down the path that I didn't get it because I wasn't Danish... Two hours... same lady... she had it in the back all along...

I went home and researched what exactly I had before I fed it to Scotty. Seems it's been approved in Estonia so we're all good. :)

The pharamacist actually said, "Don't worry the pressure will burst and then he'll feel better." SERIOUSLY?? I hope her eardrums burst!

I'm just a little ray of sunshine over here, aren't I? :)

BUT. I am happy I do have the medicine. For a while I didn't think that I would get it at all... that was a unique and stressful feeling. Scotty would be in pain. Lots of kids don't get the medicne they need. We are actually lucky. ...even with all my complaining.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Stitches

My poor, poor bear....

She has five Danish stitches.

Below her poor little eyebrow.

It all started as I was walking out the door to go get the girls and their friends from gymnastics. I open the front door and find Michaela and her friend out of breath and saying, "Sierra's eye is bleeding all over!!". I was completely confused... How on earth did these kids get here and where is Sierra? Michaela and her friend had ran from gymnastics all the way back to our house.... in the dark rain... because I wasn't answering my phone that was on the kitchen counter and that nobody had called. Michaela thought running home was the best way to get to me quickly. Michaela was very concerned about her sister. It was very sweet of her. I found myself consoling two daughters.

See Michaela, Sierra is one of the most important things in your life... and remember when you thought Scotty got off the bus early and he was lost? ...remember that feeling? See Scotty is one of the most important things in your life too. Andrea will scare you one day too... and you'll realize how important she is to you too...

Turns out Sierra had gotten hurt at gymnastics during a game they were playing as the class was ending. She fell and hit a metal part of the trampoline. : ( Poor Bear.

So I take Michaela and her friend back to gymnastics to get Sierra. As I'm pulling into the parking lot a lady gets out of her car. This other lady has Sierra and our other friend in her car. She had called the emergency room and was taking them there... because we all know you can't go to the emergency room without calling first. She was a very nice mom who offered to drive there so we could follow her since I wasn't exactly sure which part of the hospital was the Emergency Room or "Skadestue". I get Sierra and her friend and off we all go, with Andrea, to the hospital.

From there we called Paul. He and Scotty got a ride over to the hospital with our friends' dad so he could pick up our friends to take them home... since I had made them tag along to the hospital with us. So now our whole family was at the Emergency Room.... and Paul brought dinosaur chicken nuggets and french fries - our great dinner I had made since Paul was supposed to go bowling with all the dads from school.

Once there we went inside the waiting room things calmed down. They calmed down for three hours while we waited. I'm not exactly sure of the process at this Skadestue, but it sucked (and I don't use that word often). People were showing up after us and being seen hours before us... and they were adults with hurt knees and thumbs. Sierra was the only one with blood.

I kept asking nurses when we would be seen because I had three other kids and I needed to figure out a plan for them. I was very nice about it. On my third attempt to find out how many more hours we would be there, the loser nurse finally asked what the name of the patient was!! HELLO?? She had been answering my questions the other times without even knowing who I was asking about. "Duh... Uhhhh... about an hour.", must be a pretty standard answer here in the Skadestue. I hope she falls and hits a trampoline and then gets to deal with this thing referred to as the Health Care system.

Paul finally took Scott and Michaela home. I stayed with Sierra and Andrea. Three hours later I finally went up to the front and said... "My daughter has been bleeding from her head for three hours. She is now dizzy and lightheaded (lie). She isn't feeling well (lie) and I need her seen now." They said in a moment. I think she should go back to wherever she learned English and redefine the word moment.

A half hour moment later we finally had our name called. Now, I have done this exact process in America twice... when Sierra had stitches on her eyebrows before. :( ...both times we only waited an hour at the most... because ummm... My child had a bleeding head wound! ...and she got a stuffed animal out of the deal! To say something nice about this DK time though... all I needed to do was give them Sierra's CPR number (SSN #). They didn't ask for another piece of information or a copay. Although I did ask at one point if I could take her somewhere and PAY for someone to help us.

I was SOOO ANGRY AT DENMARK during the last hour of our wait. UGH. I wanted to yell at every one of those nurses who were sitting around texting each other and flirting with the dumb injured handball players coming in. Handball isn't even a real sport. Soccer or Football or Basketball: Pick one. You can't mix them all together and make up a sport.. I hurt my knee. whaaa whaaa whaaa. Go home and put ice on it. Take some good ole' Panodil.

Back to my Poor Bear story because I could go on...

A nice nurse came in and washed up Sierra's eye and face. She was very kind, this part didn't hurt but I about fainted when I saw the gaping hole above Sierra's eye. The doctor came in and told us that it would need stitches. :( Not happy Sierra.

The doctor gave her a shot near her eye. This part was traumatic for all involved. Good thing I had passed off a sleeping Andrea in a stroller to another nurse to push through the halls... After that we calmed down and waited a bit for the medicine to kick in... then it was easy from there. Phew!!! Sierra did great. . She didn't feel the stitches at all ...and another fifteen minutes later we were done. In four days we'll go to a doctor and get them taken out.

I promised her everything under the sun while she was going through all this. I will now be making reservations at the restaurant Bones and going to the store to buy a High School Musical pen. :) She is fine now and has a bit of a swollen left eye. ...and I will never send my kids anywhere without a cell phone again. ...and I will write many phone numbers in their coats.

I'd put a picture up, but Sierra made me promise not too. I did take some to put with her collection of "eyebrow stitches" pictures. : ) When she was one she fell and hit a frame of a bed. When she was two she fell and hit the corner of a wall. :( Both times... right above the eyes.

Bazar Vest

I went shopping at Bazar Vest. This is the greatest place ever. I'm proud to say I went by myself and was not afraid. :) Bazar Vest is a middle eastern store where lots of things are written in Arabic. I've spoken with many, many people who live here, mostly Danish, who are afraid to go into this store... but with no real reason. Nothing has ever happened here... at least as far as I know. :)

Bazar Vest doesn't seem out of place to me at all. Trade the Arabic for Spanish and it's California. Just a bunch of different people walking around and the women have their heads covered. I am just as much of an immigrant as they are... so I will happily shop in their stores. The store keepers are very friendly. They give Scotty yucky wrinkly figs and free apples. They bag up all my food and have even offered to help carry it to my car. I don't feel anymore out of place here than I do in other Danish places. I've met several Arabic women here too, mostly on the bus... they are the ones who will coo at Andrea and Scotty. Their English isn't as great, but they try and seem very nice.

So no matter what anyone else says, Bazar Vest is great! It's like a giant mall/flea market; it has small grocery stores, a butcher with yucky dead animals hanging up, small delis to order food, and the biggest selection of fruit and vegetables anywhere in Denmark!

Back to my exciting shopping trip here... Since I was only with Andrea I wandered every aisle very slowly just looking for things that looked familiar. I hit the jackpot and found EVAPORATED MILK!!!! 38 points for me!!! I bought every can they had... : ) I also bought some sweetened condensed milk and a can of processed cheese from Kraft... just to see what it was. The cashier guy (with no fingers on one hand) laughed as he and I went through a point-y game trying to figure out what I wanted and how many... all the good stuff is kept behind the counter. :)

I'm sorry for buying all the evaporated milk. If someone needs one I will share... or trade for JIF. :)

I felt like an American shopper again. I came home with all these bags....

My treasures...

Glow in the Dark Peas

Look how green these things are!!! They are florescent!

Making your own baby food peas is not as fun as I would have hoped. I think this is why women get a years maternity leave in Denmark, so they have time to do all this stuff.

I peeled peas. I betcha' didn't know a pea could be peeled! :) Yep, you just squish them a little on one side and POP! ...out spit two pea halves. ...and they really do fly! I had slippery peas flying everywhere!

When I started peeling the peas I thought to myself, "This is so stupid." So I made a batch of peas without peeling them, but you really could feel the plasticy peels... and Poozle prefers pureed pees without plasticy peels. So I unhappily got back to squishing pees while thinking jealous thoughts of the wonderful babyfood aisle at Safeway. However, I will not peel peas again, I will invest in a sifter thingy with a mesh material so I can just squish them through that. ...or perhaps I'll convince Michaela, Sierra, and Scotty that squishing peas is fun.

Poozle wasn't thrilled with peas, but she ate them like a good little girl. I tried to take a picture of her "concerned" look, but she sees the camera and just smiles!

- and today I I took everyone to their appropriate school and bornehaven for the first time in ten days! Yippie!! (Scotty gets very mad when I call his bornehaven - school or preschool.)

The Sveskemos Aftermath

I remember when Michaela was almost one year old she got a hold of a tube of strawberry teething gel... and ate it all. When I found her happily sucking on the empty container of yummy goodness I called the Poison Control to see what to do. They told me that the container was made that small (1 ounce) on purpose so in case a child did eat it all nothing bad would happen... You know, if an irresponsible parent wasn't paying close enough attention to their child... so little Michaela, and her very numb mouth, drooled all over the place for a while, but she was fine. :)

Yes, this story is related to Sveskemos, which thanks to a helpful comment, I now know to be prunes.

See, in the US they make baby food jars of prunes available only in the "half jar" size. It's probably only two ounces... This is to prevent irresponsible parents from inundating their innocent babies with a stomach full of prunes. ...because we all know prunes don't stay in the stomach very long!

In my defense the picture on the jar looked like raisins and I didn't think raisins would have been as bad. Mothers even do dumb things to the fourth kid too... Yes, I fed her the entire jar within 24 hours. :( .... it did the trick though!!

Andrea is perfectly happy.... Last night she made the biggest mess I have ever seen... and she smiled and cooed about it as Paul and I held her at arms distance while we debated on what to do next. We decided on a dip in the kitchen sink. Good thing she's cute!!!

Snow... LOTS!

2009

Click on that picture and see what happens...? I really don't know what it will do. I'll try this other way too. Picasa is very neat but I've never spent any real time figuring it out.



Snow!!! ...and lots too! (Well, lots for us...)

Yesterday was probably the sunniest and warmest day I've seen all year, but today it snowed all day long! YAY. I like snow, especially when there is enough to last all day. We made a snow hill out of a giant snow ball so we could sled down it. We also made a big snow man to wait at the bus stop out at the front of our house. :)

Michaela finally gave in to the germs we've had in our house all week. She was not feeling well when she woke up, but she rested for a while and later felt good enough to go out a play in the snow too. She's doing okay now. Even Scotty woke up cranky and with a fever again, but around lunchtime he too felt okay to go outside and play. Of course I just looked over at him playing his video games and he is asleep sitting up. :) I hope everyone wakes up healthy tomorrow so I can take them all to school. Who knows, it might even be a snow day!! I might decide to make it a snow day...

Andrea also ate Sveskemos!!! She likes Sveskemos. I don't know what Sveskemos are.

I bought Sveskemos premade in a baby food jar and the picture looks like a small, wrinkly, dark thing. :) Prunes or raisins? Either way I thought it may help because our little Poozle apparently ate too many bananas. Peas and Sweet Potatoes are up next. :) I will squish them up myself with love.

Helvitica is poo.

Please boycott the Helvitica font...

I am currently watching a way too long show all about the font Helvitica. People actually have jobs to research this!!? This lady is morally opposed to Helvitia. How can you be morally opposed to a font? She said if you use Helvitica you support the Vietnam war. uhh okay. ...she actually gets paid to study fonts! Does someone really have that much money that they can pay a person to see what percentage of people in each state use Helvitica? If you use Helvitica font you voted for Regean... just so you know.

...maybe we should feed hungry people instead of paying this lady. Who pays her? Oh my, this is the most boring-est show I've ever seen. It just keeps going and going and going... Helvitica is just a font. It's just the most regular looking font... nothing special. (Yes, I know boring-est isn't a word... but did you know funner is not a word either?)

My husband has decided he wants mushrooms for dinner. This is funny because it is 5:06 on a Saturday and every grocery store is closed. :) I wish him luck in his search for mushrooms. Maybe there are some in the backyard.

Back to my font rant. I can see somebody saying, "Hey, most stores and signs are written in Helvitica." I'd say, "Oh really, Hmmm." ...and call it good. This is 90 minute show on Helvitica.

I also think the animals that live at the bottom of the ocean and in the deep jungles... we should leave them alone. Do we really need to know about them? I think it's mean to bother them. I also don't think we should test medicine on puppies. I ALSO think way too much money is spent on traveling to outer space. I ALSO... :) Nope, I'm done for now. :)

Not a too serious of a post, more to irritate my husband who is sitting next to me. :) ...love you! :)

- Our Valentines' Day has been good. We didn't make it to Germany; tomorrow maybe. Scotty needs another day to fully recover into a good Scotty Monster. He seems to feel better though so that is good, although a sick Scotty is so quiet and snuggly. Today we have been playing at home and enjoying the sun by opening our doors and having some fresh air. I made a super yummy breakfast with bacon, french toast, pancakes, rice, toast, eggs, muffins... yummy. I can't wait for Happy's yummy dinner!

HA. Paul found mushrooms at the cheap store down the road. :) He says the Helvitica font is used on the packaging. This will obviously make the mushrooms taste better.

So i have hijacked my wife's fun little blog for some wonderful Valentines day fun cause I am such a wonderful husband. ya sure. Anyhow she bought herself the kitchen appliances already and cheated my valentines day gift so gets cheesy stuff like this. As for appliances I wasn't proposing a crappy new toaster or vacuum or something but a cute bright red mixing bowl set...especially danish and especially expensive. As a wonderful baker she would appreciate some quality tools. (on that note then I guess tools don't count for boy gifts then) I had planned a special 'time in DK' reminder mixing bowl set to replace the drap white now grey cheap plastic walmart mixing bowl set we have been using for several years. I already bought her the big one for Christmas. I guess next valentines I'll make sure I stop by a 'novelty shop' in the US get some wonderful stuffed pink things with cute writing on them.....perhaps Walgreens will the best place to find such lovely items. Anyhow lot's of love to my cute little baby maker wife Tara and I am very proud she has learned all these new things to survive in DK that she shares on her blog.

Baboon City and Cookies

Alright... Half of the people in this house are ill. Ick. It was nice to have a week's vacation to get everyone over their sickness though. ...and good thing we didn't make any plans to go anywhere far away!

Wednesday we went with our friends to Baboon City in Herning. (A certain Kelli was just too busy to meet us there.) :) It's not a zoo. I think it's funny that it is called "Baboon City" though. I just went to see what Baboon City means in English, it means: "Baby City". :) That makes me smile because Andrea is a baboon. I wonder if baboon means monkey too? Same thing... :) Sounds like a question for Anonymous. :)

Anyways when I start to explain what Baboon City is I want to say, "It's a giant legeland." ...but the word "legeland" wouldn't help anyone outside of Denmark. It's a big play place with bouncy houses and ball pits and it's probably the closest thing to a Chuck E Cheese there is here. ...and you can imagine how crowded it was in the middle of a school holiday in a very cold place. It was fun though and all the kids loved it.

...AND while at Baboon City. Andrea ate BANANAS!!! :) She loved them of course. I think she will be a great eater just like her big brother.

It doesn't make sense that I say half of us are sick and we went to Baboon City to play. So in case anyone is interested:
Sunday - Paul and Sierra sick
Monday - Paul and Sierra sick
Tuesday - Everyone feeling okay (for movie hee hee)
Wednesday night - Scotty sick and Paul feeling worse
Thursday - Scotty and Paul sick
Friday - Scotty still sick but looking better

With Scotty and Paul sick on Thursday our friends didn't come over to make cookies because they understandably didn't want our germs. :) I still made cookies with the girls though because they were disappointed enough. We made three-zillion cookies and frosted them and decorated them with all sort of candy. I'll post a picture of our sugar cookie family.

Mom, last night the spoonful of honey helped Sierra for a couple hours. I didn't hear a cough out of her until midnight! It wasn't as yummy as she thought though. :)

I should get up off the couch now. It's Friday morning and I need to get things under control before the weekend because next week is school again! OH. Valentines Day is tomorrow. I don't know that it's such a big deal here in Denmark, or Europe for that matter... I think it's becoming more popular though... as women realize they could get a good gift out of it. I bought MY husband a wonderful gift. :) HA. He'll look at it and say "Huh. Oh, great... thanks." :)

OH, it's been bright and sunny here... but that means colder. :) I don't mind though. Sun is good. Scotty saw his shadow the other day and played with it for a while! :) I didn't even think that without the sun for so long it's been a while since we've seen our shadows. :)

Phew!

Movie time is over and I survived!!

It actually went really well... wasn't traumatic at all! We had about 20 kids (I've been corrected... 25 kids were here) and 10 grown ups so our living room/kitchen was pretty full, but we all did just fine. Andrea even slept through the entire thing so I had two hands available to refill popcorn and water.

All the kids watched Bolt and ate more popcorn than I thought was possible, but I think everyone enjoyed it. My house isn't even that bad off right now. :)

I think that maybe we will do it once a month... A "Happy Movie Night" maybe. It's good to share our English things with others. :) ...sharing is very important here!

I'm off to go wash every Ikea cup and bowl I own!

A TOOTH!!!!!!

Little Poozle was chomping away on my finger today when I felt a tiny little tooth on the bottom!!!

I yelled "she has a tooth" and everyone ran in. We laid her on the couch and rushed around trying to find some flashlights as if the tooth was going to disappear. We needed to investigate and take pictures to prove it to people. Sure enough! There was a little, teeny, tiny, white tooth poking out. :) It is the cutest thing ever!! I love her tooth.

She is getting to be such a big girl... eating carrots, growing teeth... :( I wish she'd slow down. With all the other kids I couldn't wait until they did the "next" thing. I'm perfectly happy with her just the way she is. Nice and cute and always happy to see me.

We finally stopped harassing her for a picture. ...sticking our fingers in her mouth, trying to push her lip and tongue out of the way... camera flashing right up in her face... No picture of the cutest tooth in the world, sorry - you can barely see it, but it does make a little sound when the spoon hits it. :)

No tooth pictures so here are some other pictures.

Sleepy Sheep on Andrea's sleepy head...

Helping Daddy.

After a fun bath.

Scotty's Eyelashes.
And here are Scotty's eyelashes. I didn't notice this until Paul's sister pointed it out to me. His top eyelashes are two different colors. One side is very light, the other is very dark. It is true. At first I thought it was the light or just the angle... but they really are different colors and this picture just happens to show it. I wonder what that means when your eyelashes are different colors. :) I think it's cute. :)

CARROTS!!!

Carrots - Handmade with love by Mommy!

... and a half a birthday cake for Andrea's "Half-Birthday".

:) Squishing my own carrots wasn't so bad. I just boiled them for a while and plopped them in the blender. Wha-La!! I wish I had my steamer, but it has been retired to the box of - "Things I Can't Plug In".

Scotty helped me make "carrot cubes" to freeze and he actually thought it was fun. Usually he is completely uninterested in what I do in the kitchen, but lately he wants to stir things and dump things in. With our carrot cubes I left him unattended for a while and ended up with a pile of squished carrots in an ice cube tray, but he said, "I make food for A-nana." ...and he was excited about it so I happily dealt with his splattered carrots. In a few days we need to come up with a new food for her to eat. This is fun! ...even without the cute jars!!

How did Andrea like her carrots? Andrea loved her carrots! She didn't make a face or even think twice about it. ...Maybe because she's been gnawing on whole carrots for the last few days the taste wasn't new. I'm realizing that her eating is becoming more involved than me just nursing her... which has been pretty darn simple and made traveling quite easy. Know what I need now? A cute little baby food travel container with a built in spoon... that comes in an insulated case; not to keep it cold, but to keep it from freezing. :)

Before I whine about not having a Target to rush off to, I'll check the baby store here... and see how many of my kroners they want. I don't think I'll have 13 to choose from. Ouuuu I can look in Germany on Friday.

Since Andrea is now six months old we had a "half-birthday" for her! Yes, this is just an excuse to make a pink cake and have some fun with Poozle. We had a family from Poland over to help us celebrate so it was a real party complete with a gift from Mommy that was half-wrapped! :) It was a baby book for her. Finally... (that poor, neglected fourth child!) It is in Danish though so I'll have Michaela start translating it for me so we can fill in all the blanks. :)

Today I saw the sun too. It was so bright that Michaela, Andrea and I went on a walk to the bakery and enjoyed the sun. Two hours later there was a blizzard outside that lasted just a half an hour... so we went out to play in the snow... then the sun came back. Schizophrenic Weather.

Before I forget. Someone wrote somewhere about The Ellen Degeneres show not being on DK TV anymore. I heard a rumor it's on at 6:00am now. :) Set your alarm!

Didn't go too well...

With so much success in ditching the kids the first time, I tried again. But here I am, home two hours later, on my computer... :)

Paul and I got to the restaurant and sat down long enough to hear all about what I would eat if my children really loved me. :) I had literally ONE bite of my first course and the cell phone rang. Poor little Poozle was not happy. I could even hear her crying in the background. :( She was really crying too.

I arrived at home 15 minutes later and found Michaela on the front porch with a red-eyed, sad looking Poozle-Monster. I thought for sure that if I fed her she would go to sleep and I could make it back in time for dessert. Nope, wide awake and ready to play! I didn't want to traumatize the babysitter anymore and it was already nine so I just took her home and called it a night. Better luck next time I guess!

No, I didn't leave Paul at the table by himself. :) It was another work dinner and there were several other people there to keep him company. ...and he was happy to eat my food for me; although I did request my dessert be brought to me. :) AND - I took the car home so I hope the bus is good to him!

The kids are out of school this whole next week... I don't know why. It's not spring break, we have one of those in May? I think. So a whole week with my four lovely kids. As long as we have things planned every day we will do fine. It is when we stay in the house that I tend to go nutso. I still have some blanks to fill in...

Sunday - Party for Poozle's "Half-Birthday"
Monday -
Tuesday - We invited the whole school over to watch Bolt in English. (Brave, huh?)
Wednesday -
Thursday - Making cookies with some nice Swedish friends. :)
Friday - Germany for spaghetti ice cream
Saturday -
Sunday -
Monday - I will dump three kids off at school, come home, and take a nap.

Oh yah! We watched the Superbowl on Friday! It was actually pretty entertaining for the last few minutes; which admittedly, is all I really watched. We were at a friends house and so I had lots of friends to talk to while the kids played video games. It was funny because we all knew how it ended, and a few of us even knew what happened in the end, but it made it a little more amusing to watch. I think it was staged. :) I can imagine some football lovers having a great time with that one!

Andrea was a little stinker during her first Superbowl party though, well that's not true... she was actually good, she just refused to eat. She didn't eat for 10 hours that day!! She was completely uninterested in me or my milk. ...but she wasn't crying or upset until she got tired. She managed to fall asleep for a little while, she woke up and looked sad and so we took her home. We got home and she ate just like normal and went to bed... No, I can't feel any teeth in her little mouth and I've looked several times! She wasn't acting cranky though, like she was in pain, she just wanted to be held and didn't want to eat. Odd little kid. :) I think it was too busy for her and too new. She wanted mommy and daddy and wanted to make sure she knew what was going on at all times. She is the cutest thing in the world though... half a year old! wow...

I'm going to go eat leftover Macaroni and Cheese now. ...and finish watching High School Musical by myself since the girls are in bed already. Hmmmm.. not the evening I had planned. :)

Scotty's Favorite Website

http://blueballfixed.ytmnd.com/

This is Scotty's favorite website ever. He watched it for 45 minutes today... laughing out loud every now and then. :) I want to be three.

I can't make it a link... Sorry I tried long enough. Just cut and paste it.

Now, Now....

Well....

First of all, I had NO IDEA you could make your own baby oatmeal or baby rice cereal.

Second of all, I don't think Denmark is 3rd world, although I will admit to making that exact joke so it's funny it was mentioned in a comment. :) (Please note the smiley face...)

I realize Denmark is just different. I tell my kids that everyday!! I obviously have a preference for what I prefer, but I believe I try very hard to not be negative. I add lots of smiley faces. :) If I didn't take this entire thing with a sense of humor I wouldn't have lasted this long.

And as an extra comment to change the subject... I don't really know how to use semi-colons. I just put them in every now and then because they are fun.

I'm off to bed now. Andrea has been good at going to bed lately. She has developed a love for holding onto cloth diapers and she also loves her Sleepy Sheep. Bruce and Ingrid gave it to her and it's the softest little stuffed animal ever. Ingrid, please buy some more Sleepy Sheeps because Sleepy will get quite dirty if he turns into her most favorite-est toy ever. She rubs it all over her face as she's falling asleep and every night she can be found asleep with it on top of her head. I'd take a picture but I'm scared it will wake her up and then I won't get to go to bed.

Cloth Diapers in Denmark: Guess what!!? You have to wash them first THEN they turn soft. I had bought some a while ago and ended up returning them because they were not soft at all. Then I was in a store and they had some special ones on display and one was hard, the other was soft. The lady said you had to wash them and they turned soft!! WHOO HOOO.. So I went back and re-bought the ones I returned. We use them as just little rags to have around to clean drool, etc. up. Way better than American cloth diapers!!!!

night night

Baby Food - my reply... :)

Baby Food: Yes, you can buy jarred baby food here, but there is not an entire aisle dedicated to it. Mom, please send me a picture of the baby aisle at Safeway. :) The jars are not as cute here and I want all the fun, cute flavors. I just want what I'm used to. I like picking out all the tiny half sized jars too. :) They are cute.

Yep, having the picture of the Gerber baby on the front of the jar will make me feel better. Yep, making the jar look pretty will make me feel better. I know that just because it's Danish doesn't mean it is bad, but I can't read any of the jars and the jars are not "elegant" looking, "healthy" looking...ummmm... "organic" looking. ??? The jars look cheap, like a generic brand...

It's not that I don't trust the baby food here... I mean, I feed Danish food to my other kids... I don't know why, but I don't trust whatever is in those jars for Andrea. I've put a lot of effort into feeding this kid for the past six months just to stick any ole' thing in her mouth. Her tummy is just little.

OHHHHH... I can see the comments now... I don't know how to explain it.

Have fun with this one all you Mr./Mrs. Anonymous-es. But in your comment please include the date of the last time you had a baby in a foreign country. I just want to do something that makes me happy as a mommy. ...and filling my cart with overpriced, half-sized jars of "Banana and Apricot Delight" will make me happy.

P.S. I have imported all Andrea's baby formula that she has been eating with her cereal. AND I buy the most expensive one because I think it is the best.

I'm a good little consumer. Companies love me.

Oprah and Rachel

I found two new friends to hang out with every morning!!! Oprah and Rachel Ray!!! WHOO HOOO!! I never really watched them at home, but now I don't have options, soooooo... I get to watch TV in the morning, while it lasts anyways. I'm sure one day I will plop down on my couch expecting a nice hour of English TV and it will be gone because Danish TV seems to change without warning, but maybe that's why I just found these shows so I can't complain!

Yesterday the girls had ice skating lessons and on the way there Scotty proclaimed that he wanted to go ice skating. I told him that he would have to go with the teacher and not mommy but he didn't seem to care. I didn't think he would really go through with it, but he was pretty set on it. He stood in line with the girls to get skates, the skate lady gave him his skates, he carried them to a seat to put them on... :) He was acting like such a big boy! He even repeated his shoe size to the skate lady after I said it. :)

After we got him all ready I took him to the skating instructor and told him that Scotty wanted to try skating. I don't think this teacher was very happy to have an English speaking three-year old to deal with, but this particular teacher has never been very nice to any of us though. The teacher said I had to take him out there... so I hand off Andrea to a friend's mom and get some skates.

Scotty (and I) did very well, and I let him fall quite a bit so he'd get used to it since my eny objective was to have him on the ice and me watching. He thought falling was funny, which is good because on his own he fell quite a bit. The problem for Scotty wasn't falling, he was okay with that... BUT the getting up didn't go too well. :)

Getting up after falling results his Scotty's feet going every which way and much more falling. Mommy laughing doesn't help. ...but it was hilarious. He was like the little baby Bambi on the ice. :) We lasted a good 15 minutes out there but I think I will just take him on our own and skate around on the ice opposed to official lessons for him. ...unless we find better lessons for three year olds.

The girls are doing great with their lessons though. I can't believe how long Michaela can spin. I'll have to make a movie. ...and Sierra does these perfect pretty little dragging-one-foot-behind-her things... They are learning quite a bit. Ice Skating lessons are going well. I like them.

:( Andrea got her first cat scratch just now. (...because Mommy is typing and not paying attention) Don't be too hard on Velcro the cat though... Velcro puts up with quite a bit from The Pooz. Andrea LOVES the cat. She laughs out loud whenever she sees her. So of course she loves to grab and hit the cat... because that's what Andrea does with things she loves; grabs and hits them. :) As I was consoling Andrea after the cat swatted at her, I found a clump of orange fur in her tiny little clenched hand. :) She's okay but has a little red dot on her cheek... not a giant scratch, just a dot. :)

Okay, I'm off to go about my exciting day. Oprah is done. I will now vacuum and make the sauce for our dinner. :)