Catch Up

David flew back to Ireland this morning, and I just finished configuring our (semi-) wireless home network about half an hour ago. As promised, the first thing I did once our systems were back up and running was unload my camera, sift through the images (fewer than I’d anticipated), and prep about ten of them for you. I’m going to make this as brief as possible text-wise, because I know you just want the pix.

First we have Molli decked out in her new winter suit. She’s completely immobile in the suit, and is more like a cinderblock than a squirmy baby when she’s wearing it. We love it.

I’ve mentioned, I think, that she’s been eating her toes a lot lately. Here’s a shot of her doing just that—or at least trying to. (Her aim is still in development.)

She’s been eating more “solid” food, also. She seems to enjoy banana-flavored rice porridge (risgrød), especially as a goatee.

The unfortunate consequence of the increased solid food intake is that she’s filling her diapers a lot more aggressively. (There aren’t any photos of that.)

We’re trying to get her to learn how to sit up. Mostly this involves propping her up with pillows and watching her gradually slink down toward the ground.

Here’s another cute shot of her about to devour her foot. (No question whom her capacity for sticking her foot in her mouth was inherited from.)

Our Chicago friend David Kellaghan spends every Christmas with his family in Ireland, and this year he flew out to Copenhagen and stayed with us for four days. (He just left this morning.) Molli adored him.

We tried to have some nice dinners while Dave was here, and Molli enjoyed sitting with us and watching us eat. Until yesterday, when she became so intrigued by my shrimp smørrebrød (my rejermad) that she suddenly grabbed out at it, jammed three of her fingers straight through the bread, and wouldn’t let go. In fact she’s been very grabby with everything lately and wants to gnaw on anything that comes within a few inches of her mouth. (And to get within a few inches of her mouth, things really only need to come within the reach of her hands.) Her new grabbiness and insatiable appetite for things like plastic, wood, iron, and stainless steel have changed our lives. The Molliproofing era has begun.

My hair was getting a little wild, so it was time for the holiday cut. It’s the first time I ever actually planned a GIF. I’m sure the image will help me sustain my reputation in Chelmsford as the world’s silliest man.

We still haven’t taken many pictures of the new apartment because only parts of it are ready for prime-time, but here’s one of those parts. I shot without a flash, with mostly candlelight, to try to convey the hyggelig charm of the place.

(The charm was diminished a few days ago when Ollie managed to ignite his tail on one of the candles. No real harm was done, except a linger smell of burnt cat hair, but we’ve moved the candles, developed new rules on candle placement, promised one another that we will never let a candle burn in a room we’re not in, and have bought two smoke alarms and a fire extinguisher, as well as an emergency escape ladder for the bedroom.)

Molli’s also been doing more baby talk. The consonants are emerging (I could swear she managed to say “dada” at one point a few moments ago while I was changing her, though she obviously had no idea what she was saying). Mostly we hear things like “gaa,” “kaa,” “baa,” and things that sound like “klee,” “muss,” and “sassa-sassa-suss,” none of which mean anything in any language that I’m familiar with. (But she may be fluent in Finnish. Pam, are you reading this?)

I think she may be on the brink of teething. The timing’s about right, the drool level’s appropriate, and it would explain her new-found desire to gum everything to death. She also now accepts the refrigerated teething toy happily instead of spitting it out and crying. We don’t see any teeth yet, but we wouldn’t at first, would we?

* * *

We did the usual touristy stuff with Dave on Friday afternoon and took the inevitable photos (they ought to just paint a big “X” at the spot on Nyhavn where Dave’s standing in this picture—I have pictures of virtually everyone else who’s visited us at exactly the same spot).

It was very cold and windy downtown, so we put Molli into the “baby-bear” thing (what do we call those in English?). She enjoyed it very much.

She also got her first glimpse of Amalienborg, the royal residences.

Oh! And I passed my Danish exam with flying colors. I don’t have another class until January 10th, and my next big test, in May, will be my last: if I pass that, it’ll mean I’m fluent and eligible to attend Danish university.

The Io julefrokost was last night, and I managed to get throughout without getting too drunk. (Which isn’t to say I left the party sober, but I did leave on foot and managed to find my way to my next destination without any assistance.)

Strange to think that it was a year ago today that Trine took me out to dinner in Tivoli and told me she was pregnant… it didn’t seem real back then. It hardly seems real right now.