Little Miss Pumpkin

Thursday afternoon we got Molli Malou out of vuggestue early and brought her into Tivoli, open for a ten-day Halloween celebration. It’s the first year they’ve done this: in past years, once they closed around the end of summer they only opened again for their Christmas celebration in December.

Molli Malou sensed that Tivoli was different from the moment we approached the entrance.

The pumpkinhead scarecrows were a nice touch.

Of course we hurried straight to the Pierrot statue, to genuflect before Molli Malou’s particular idol—thank God the girl has a sense of humor, though, because the sight that greeted us might just as easily have provoked horror and tears instead of her laughter and her exclamation of “Silly Pierrot!”

(The big pumpkinhead in the background, by the way, is probably the size of… well, I don’t know, but if it were a real pumpkin, its seeds would be about the size of your head.)

There were brightly-colored witches wandering throughout the park. Molli Malou was fascinated by them, and approached them as she approaches large dogs: with excitement, enthusiasm, and a hair-trigger flight instinct.

The middle of the park, the broad, flat, paved area in front of the main stage, had been converted into a kind of Halloween-themed village. I don’t necessarily associate windmills with Halloween, but what the hell.

This is just another establishing shot of the layout.

In front of the windmill, a great smoking cauldron of witch’s brew. Not quite sure what it really was, but Molli Malou at least had the sense not to accept the spoonful her idiot father offered her.

Beside the windmill was a big maze of hay.

Molli Malou was a little intimidated, but as long as we stayed close to her she seemed to enjoy trying to find her way around.

She does not appear to have been gifted with any special sense of direction, but did have an uncanny talent for finding dead-ends.

Every year we see pictures of Molli Malou’s cousins posing adorably among pumpkins. I knew this would probably be my only chance this year — unlike New England, Denmark is not rife with pumpkins lying around on hay bales this time of year.

It’s no good with dee-dee and do-do in the picture, but I knew that if I took them away from her I’d only have a second or two to shoot before my subject freaked out. Which is more or less what happened, but I did get this shot, so I figure it was worth it.

(I have subsequently been informed that Molli Malou is not only stealing her cousins’ pose, here: she’s wearing their clothes!)

Here’s another layout shot:

Trine with Molli Malou:

John and Liam met us at this point, and we eventually brought Molli Malou and Liam straight to the cars they so love.

It’s hard to convey their excitement. It doesn’t really come out in either of these pictures. But the pictures are clear and in-focus, so I’m sticking with ’em.

After the first “drive,” we meandered over to the kiddie play area they both enjoy so much. I’m assuming no further explanation is required at this point.

Molli Malou enjoyed the slide.

No, I mean she really enjoyed it.

Okay, maybe you still don’t get it: I mean she really, really, really enjoyed it. Check out the close-up:

(If you like the closeup, which is just a crop of the bigger image above, I have a “full-size crop” of it here, and can email the full-size image itself on request.)

We had time for one more drive before it was time to come home:

Molli Malou had had plenty to eat at Tivoli, including some delicious churros (Tivoli is apparently the only place in Denmark where you can buy churros). But while Trine made dinner back at home, Molli Malou snatched a yellow pepper off the kitchen counter and ran into the living room with it.

How’s that pepper working out for you, sweetheart?

She likes to sit on the counter while we cook.

But she’s still not completely averse to the kitchen floor.

And with her little step-stool, she’s learned she really can get into pretty much anything in the apartment now. I can’t quite remember why we got it for her!

I should mention (knocking wood) that Molli Malou hasn’t thrown one of her awful tantrums in over 72 hours now. She still has moments of willfulness and wrath, but they’re limited in scope and duration. She’s also finally over that nasty bug that had been messing with her for the past couple of weeks. Maybe the bug and the behavior were related. I sure hope so.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned her boyfriend Mikkel yet. (God, I hope Liam and Julius don’t read this!) Mikkel is a little boy at her vuggestue and they have bonded fantastically. They are always together, running around after each other inside and outside, cracking each other up, and smiling every time they look at one another. The pedagogs have all commented on it. “They’re the best, best friends,” Lene told us a couple of weeks ago as their friendship was beginning to blossom. This week she took it a step further. “It’s really weird,” she told me. “They’re totally dedicated to each other. They’re like lovers.”

And they really are. I brought Molli Malou over a little late the other day, and when Mikkel saw us come in through the door he literally—very literally—began jumping for joy. Molli Malou ran after him and they were collapsing in fits of laughter moments later.

Unfortunately, we know already that Mikkel is going to be moving to another vuggestue within the next couple of months. It’s a tragedy I don’t even like to contemplate at this point. Damn, life can be cruel… even when you’re two.

Maybe especially when you’re two.

Molli Malou has also, and I hope coincidentally, become suddenly enamoured of dresses. She is especially fond of the pink princess outfit that her cousins gave her. You will shortly see pictures and videos of her wearing that dress with pride and singing “Se min kjole” (“See my dress”).