Moll Malou Turns Two

This will be the last Molliblog until next week (when there’ll surely be plenty of pictures from our weekend at the summerhouse).

First, as promised, a video. There are about three dozen pictures below, with the usual lilting narrative, so if you begin to download this video now you ought to have it ready to to run by the time you finish browsing the rest of this blog.

(A few words on the video: it’s about 7-1/2 minutes long. I didn’t trim the individual clips down very much. Basically it’s all but the very worst of the digital video we got. I didn’t put music behind it because that would have just added another 3-5 MB. So it’s not the slickest video ever, but it’s pretty good coverage of the whole Mollipalooza.)

For the second year in a row, we scheduled an outdoor party for Molli Malou and hoped the weather would cooperate. For the second year in a row, it did. Spectacularly. It was almost too hot for an outdoor party. Notice how everyone’s clustered in the shade, rather than luxuriating in the sun.

Did you notice the “Happy Birthday” sign without realizing how out of place it was, or wondering how we got ourhands on it? Here’s a clearer shot.

Last year, as this year, we “staggered” Molli Malou’s birthday presents so as not to overwhelm her. We opted to let her open her American gifts at home, privately, to prevent them from being lost in the avalanche of gifts to be opened at her party. Last year, however, we made a dreadful mistake. We didn’t even open the shipping boxes that contained the gifts until well after the party had ended.

That’s when we discovered that the Lees had sent us a whole set of “first birthday girl” decorations. What could we do? Nothing. The birthday was behind us. We didn’t know any other families with little girls about to turn one. The only thing we could think of was to stash it all up in storage with the rest of the birthday decorations we hadn’t used.

This year we stumbled across them and decided that with a little creativity we could get around those awkward firsts and 1sts and 1s. In the banner above, for example, that Danish flag in the middle of “Happy Birthday” is actually covering a “1st”. Danish flag stickers are plastered over the decorative 1´s to the far left and right. We used stickers to cover the ones on the balloons, too.

Her cake, fortunately, was not leftover from last year, but baked and frosted by her mother. There was no “1” to conceal.

Despite the guests gathered to be with her, the unhealthy food she was being permitted to eat, and the gifts awaiting her attention, Molli Malou wanted nothing more than to get naked and splash around in one of the wading pools.

No sooner had Julius arrived than he joined her.

She was a very happy girl.

Liam was quick to join them upon his own arrival. Mormor gave them some instruction on proper use of the watering can.

Molli Malou put the lesson to immediate use. Liam looked on with a critical eye.

Eventually the thrill of the wading pool wore off and the kids returned to the party. Clothing was optional for the under-five set.

I don’t know if she was yawning or yelping here…

…but Julius was clearly waiting for the partying to resume.

A Danish birthday party is nothing without flags, even if they’re not all Danish flags.

Molli Malou illustrates the concept of “unbridled enthusiasm”:

Someone had left a bowl of magic markers out on the patio. It was the kids who found it, not us. Before they had time to redecorate all the furniture on the terrace we gave them some paper plates to draw on.

Adult supervision was required only when Molli Malou decided she’d give permanent blue lipstick a try.

Showered with gifts, it had of course been the dry old markers that captured Molli Malou’s attention. But her eye then full upon the little plastic bottle of bubbles someone had included with their gift.

Believe it or not, she actually did manage to get a couple of bubbles going. Unfortunately this only encouraged her, and I think she probably swallowed a teaspoon of soapwater for every bubble that she chanced to generate.

Meanwhile, one of the kids from the building (not a guest at the party) had apparently absconded with one of our Old Glories and rode around the courtyard with it triumphantly waving from the handlebars of his trike.

Molli Malou looked on from the sandbox, incredulous.

Moster Mette held her while the guests sang Danish birthday songs to her, and it’s hard to say which of the two was happier.

Molli Malou went to bed only a little later than usual, a happy and exhausted girl.

The next morning was her bona-fide birthday: she was really and truly two at last! Time to open her American presents! (If anyone wonders why I have pictures of her opening her American gifts, but not her Danish gifts, it’s because her Danish gift-givers were all on hand to see her opening their gifts.)

(I don’t remember what she’s reacting to, but the expression is priceless… and is she snapping her fingers here? She doesn’t know how to do that, but her fingers are in exactly the correct alignment to snap here.)

The Cabbage Patch lift from Nana and Poppop was put to immediate use. The minute she opened the package it came in she exclaimed, “Haddie!” Here you can see her telling me to “shhhhhh” because Haddie’s going to sleep.

I love how these pictures make it look like she’s so talented at opening gifts. Trust me, she is not. We get a picture or two of her tearing into a gift and then put the camera down while we open it for her.

The Lees sent her a princess palace that she loved. (As you’ll see in the video, she wasn’t the only one it appealed to.)

They also sent her a copy of the infamous “Book About Me,” Aunt Deb’s long-, long-, long-overdue act of penitence for a childhood indiscretion for which I am at last almost prepared to forgive her.

(Of course, she managed to scrawl a lot in this one, too, even if only to apologize for having done so in the first one!)

Trine and I went to her vuggestue at their snack hour to treat all the kids to ice-cream bars in honor of Molli Malou’s birthday. We were a little late, so by the time we arrived the kids were already seated around their table, bibs on, Molli Malou regally situated at the head of the table, the birthday Dannebrog behind her.

“It’s my Daddy!” she’s saying. “The guy with the camera for a face… my daddy!”

Mor doled out the ice-cream sticks and Molli Malou wanted to tell me something about something, but I have no idea what.

It was about then we realized we hadn’t taken a single picture of either one of us with our daughter in the past 48-hours.

Molli Malou got to pick what songs they’d sing after their snack, and apparently her favorite song has something to do with the giraffe who danced in the savannah. Or something. While they sang, she actually made the giraffe dance on the table.

Finally it was time to go home, and while I helped her put her sandals on Trine managed to get one shot of me with the birthday girl, on her birthday… just before the batteries died.

Trine told me yesterday that Molli Malou had uttered her longest, most complex complete sentence to date in the car on the way home from vuggestue:

“Julie må ikke slå mig med skovlen!“

In English:

“Julie must not hit me with the shovel!”

This is somewhat disturbing if you recall that one of her early complete sentences was, “One must not hit Julie.”

On the one hand, we want to know what’s going on with Molli Malou and this Julie chick. On the other, it’s obviously a fruitful source of linguistic development, so maybe it’s all for the best…

That is all for now, and will be all until next week. Thank you to everyone for the lovely cards and gifts. You have all contributed to Molli Malou’s happiest birthday ever… and here’s hoping next year at least some of you can hand her those gifts in person!