What a Week

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Guys, thanks for your wonderful what-to-do-in-Amsterdam suggestions a week ago – there are so many awesome things you can do in Amsterdam, and unfortunately I didn’t really have time for any of them. It was business mostly (visiting the a4uexpo) , but I also had time for a very nice visit to my brother, his wife, and their 9-months old daughter Marlinde. We had a pleasantly relaxed and cosy evening, after which I went back to my hotel.

Feverish little girl

When I got back home, Frida was sick. Some kind of stomach flu causing her to throw up over and over. For a few days she had a really high fever, and we were terribly worried, because it was getting a bit hard to make contact with her.

Friday afternoon my mother came to visit for the weekend, which has been planned for a while. I felt quite sorry for her, because we were much less on top of things than what is usually the case – because of Frida’s condition. Still it was nice to see her!

Saturday, Mads was supposed to go to Jutland for another half-marathon, but an hour before he was leaving, he fell sick as well. So he pretty much spent that day in bed, while I was stuck with a clingy and unhappy Frida. The good thing is since Ronja was well and my mother was there, the two of them got to do some great things together during the weekend.

Sowing seeds with Mormor

They spent a lot of time in the garden, because the weather has been just gorgeous this past weekend. So now we’re waiting for the peas and the sunflowers to surface – and also I received some Asters from Fabric.com with my latest order, which were carefully sown by grandmother and granddaughter as well.

Sowing seeds with Mormor

Sunday was quite nice actually – Mads was feeling better, and so was Frida – at least a little bit. Ronja, my mother, and I went out for a small trip by train, and we even spent some time together in the garden, having tea and browsing through magazines. In the evening my mother got on the train to go back home after a weekend that turned out a bit differently from we had expected.

Well, well – what a week. Frida is pretty much ok now, and tomorrow I’m going to see a speech therapist with her – in order to help us helping her to work with her new palate.

And even though the weather is a bit more chilly now, the apple trees in the garden are blossoming – isn’t that nice?

Apple blossoms

Strolling along the Amsterdam canals

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We had a wonderful couple of days in Amsterdam, and even though the drive is rather long to and from Denmark (10 hours each way), it went really well with the girls.

Looking at - stamps... 

We arrived in the evening, and stayed for the next two days. During the day we did as little as possible – basically we relaxed, and strolled along the Amsterdam canals, looking at little galleries, peculiar shops, and beautiful house boats. I adore the way everything in Amsterdam just kind of follows the same mindset – all the beauty of the canals and the architecture clearly inspires its inhabitants to design their homes with the same kind of casual beauty.

Pink bike 

Near Prinsens Gracht we came across this amazing little toy shop called Tinkerbell. It’s the kind of toy shop, where you feel like getting everything out and starting to play. Good toy shops are rare these days, and the big chains have taken over a large part of the market - this shop was just provoking your sense of discovery and exploration. If you live in Amsterdam and need to buy a gift for a child any age - Tinkerbell has my warmest recommendations! I brought home this great little alphabet stamp set, which Ronja and I have already been having lots of fun with!

Alphabet stamps  

In the evenings we visited my brother and his wife, and of course my adorable little niece Marlinde. It was wonderful to see them all, the baby is beautiful, and the parents are just as proud as they should be! I’m looking forward to seeing her grow, and getting to know her better.

Marlinde 

Today is the last day of our vacation together. Tomorrow Mads is returning to work, and Ronja is going to kindergarten. I, of course, go back to being on maternity leave with Frida. We had a wonderful vacation, but I cannot believe how quickly it went by. This evening we made a bonfire in the garden, and dinner consisted of twistbread with sausages and home made potato salad. MMmmmmmm!

Now we return to the usual drill – which is also quite alright!

Back from Greece – and I’m an aunt!

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I know - I’m not that fast, but we’re here! We got home very late Tuesday night – or perhaps I should say Wednesday morning. We did have a very nice trip to Greece – although it wasn’t one without challenges.

Greece mosaic 1 

The place was beautiful, and the beach was perfect and great for the children. We met lots of nice people, and had some wonderful food. However, Ronja came down with a high fever after a couple of days, and though it dropped a bit, it lasted for the rest of the vacation. She was amazingly brave and tried so hard to pretend that she was doing fine, when at the same time she wasn’t. It’s not much fun to be sick, when you’re on vacation.

Greece mosaic 2  

Besides this, we lived in a campsite, and the ground consisted of dirt and spruce needles from the pine trees. As you know, Frida just started crawling, and she’s drooling a lot because of her new teeth. It was very hot, and most of the time she only wore a diaper, which meant that because of the drooling and the crawling, we really mostly saw a tiny mudball, racing around covered in needles. I think she had lots of fun there, and she definitely enjoyed the sea.

Greece mosaic 3 

We did lots of bathing in the wonderful clear water, and we did relax – as much as the above conditions allowed. You can check out all the pictures from our vacation here. By the way, Ronja is fine now – the fever is completely gone, the light is back in her eyes, and I think it did her good to return to our small yellow house.

And now for something totally fantastic:

 

I’m an AUNT!

My brother Jakob’s wife Jolanda gave birth to a beautiful baby girl yesterday. We’re going to Amsterdam to visit them next week, and we can’t wait! I think Ronja is pretty excited to see her little cousin Marlinde.

BIIIG congratulations to the new parents!

Back from the circus

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We just came back from a trip to the circus – Cirkus Arena – a few hours ago, and we had a great time. It was Ronja’s first time at a circus, and I believe she had sense impressions enough for a few weeks. She was completely dazzled for two hours, and when we got home, she was so tired, she could hardly speak.
Our summer vacation is almost over, and it has been a really welcome break with a combination of work upstairs and relaxation.
We started the vacation with a one week trip to Mallorca. Three days were spent with a rental car, to see some of the island, which proved a really good idea. The mountains in the north west part of the island are just beautiful, and we enjoyed the landscape, the groves of citrus fruits and olive trees, and the picturesque villages (especially Deià ) with the amazing terracotta colours. We also had a lot of fun just driving in the hairpin turns in the mountains, which is something none of us had tried before.
The rest of the time was spent going for walks and relaxing by the pool (not Ronja, she soaked in the pool, going home with wrinkled fingers and toes). Pictures can be found here.

Well back from Mallorca, we agreed that we had to make some progress on the 2nd floor, meaning as usual, that Mads would work, and I would take care of Ronja and the house. Even though we would enjoy more to spend our summer vacation together, this has been working quite ok, with the breaks we have made room for in the last two weeks.

On the 2nd floor Mads has been making great progress. The bathroom is nearly finished, though right now Mads is concentrating on the rooms and the hallway to bring them up to the same stage. The work that remains is roughly; finishing the walls with fiberglass tissue, laying the floor, painting, and some finishing touches. It doesn’t sound like much, and though there may be a bit more to it, than you would know, we’re not far away from “reopening” the 2nd floor – exciting! As always – updated documentation from the rebuilding process is to be found here.

Besides the trip to Mallorca, we have made room for a trip to Boesdal Kalkbrud, where we made a fire and had fun making twistbread and sausages. Very nice afternoon!

Everything is going seemingly as it should with the young passenger in my stomach – I’m getting a bit heavier, but I guess that’s normal since the arrival is only 3 months away now. I have – as promised long ago – posted some ultrasound pictures, that you can find here.

Big sister to be – and a deadline

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I put Ronja to bed a while ago. She stopped using her soother 10 days ago, and the last three days she has been sleeping like a baby when we’ve put her to bed. So except for the first week, it really wasn’t so hard. She doesn’t ask for the soother anymore, so I think we can safely call that project a success!

We have a few changes coming up in the house on Lille Stationsvej, since Ronja is going to start kindergarten in the middle of June (which she is looking sooooo much forward to) – and furthermore – the big change – for those who don’t know yet, she is going to be a big sister at the end of October! (The t-shirt she is wearing in the picture to the right says “Jeg skal være storesøster”, or in English “I’m going to be a big sister”) Very exciting! We went to a scan at Roskilde Hospital in the middle of April, and at that time everything looked fine. I’ll try to remember to post pictures from the scan sometime soon.

We’re all excited to add one more member to the family, and Ronja is showing a great interest in the event. She doesn’t seem impatient at all, as you might expect, but rather well understanding, that the baby needs to grow before it enters the world.

As a natural consequence, Mads and I have become very aware, that we need to make something happen upstairs, so that our bathroom – as well as the other rooms – will be finished before my little passenger arrives. The last month has been rather slow on the rebuilding, to say the least. Mads has been very busy at work, he has been to Los Angeles for a week, and we have had several other doings. When you’re working on the house in your spare time, you really need to ensure that you have some – at least in order to see a progress. So now we’re trying to get focused again. You will find the almost updated photo album from upstairs here.

This past weekend we had Jolanda and Jakob visiting from Amsterdam, which was really nice, since we haven’t seen each other for quite a while. We relaxed and had a good time in which, among other things, we went to Bakken and Holmegaard Glassworks.