One Crown Per Image…

I haven’t actually done the math, but given the amount of pictures I’ve taken this week, I think it’s a pretty good guess that the price of our new camera and accessories, divided by the number of photographs taken, would put the price of each photo at about one crown (~18 cents). So this is no lightweight blog you’re about to stroll through, but the most exhaustive photographic journal of Molli Malou’s little life since the smorgasbord after our last American vacation.

(Reminder: In choosing pictures for this blog, photographic quality is only one of many criteria, and it’s a pretty low one at that.)

It was a wonderful week to break in a new camera: spring finally broke forth in all its allergen-laden glory and Molli Malou had her very last day of vuggestue today. After the Easter break she begins Børnehave — in the building across the courtyard from her old vuggestue. In fact, she’ll still be playing in the same yard, which is nice because she’ll still be seeing her old vuggestue friends out there — her beloved Mikkel inclusive.

And yet, when push comes to shove, we don’t need no stinkin’ significance for an excuse to take pictures of Molli Malou. She’s fun to look at just sitting on the couch watching Barney in the Land of Make Believe.

On Monday I actually brought my camera in to work. This is where I toil away my days in quiet desperation:

I work at the desk behind the guy on the right. (What you don’t see here are all the things that make it such a great job, and such a great place to work, but I thought it was nice just to have a shot of my desk up here anyway.)

I never get sick of Molli Malou fresh out of the tub.

(She loves her robe, but she calls it her “burrito” because she associates being wrapped in anything soft after a bath with being our “baby burrito.”)

I mentioned in a previous post she’s been biking like mad recently, really pedaling herself around quite proficiently, and here’s a shot that almost makes it look like she can do it without training wheels (which she obviously can’t):

(By the way, here’s a quick little video of her biking around… it’s tiny, but if you view it at 200% it’s passable. That’s true of the other videos I’ll be including in this blog.)

She likes to ride over to the gateway and toward the doors to the street, usually announcing that she’s going to school, or to Tivoli, or to see Liam, or to buy some tomatoes at the store. Then the little daredevil rides straight into the doors. Blam! Then she giggles like hell, turns the bike around, and rides right back out to us.

This is daddy catching Molli Malou boy-watching:

This is Molli Malou realizing daddy caught her:

I just liked the colors and texture of this one:

She let’s us do stuff with her hair now.

Although her reactions aren’t always easy to read:

I don’t have much to say about the following sequence. It’s just post-bath, pre-bed playtime with Molli Malou.

What we were doing here was, we had hooked the camera up to the television and were using the tv as a monitor. That got Molli Malou’s attention, and the following sequence is just me clicking the shutter from time to time while Molli Malou entertained herself with herself:

Now we’re onto another sunny evening of Molli Malou on her bike.

We even went to play on the swings, and one of the boys from the building began swinging alongside Molli Malou. She liked that.

Alright, she loved it.

The next two photos, in their full size, are just exceptional. Let me know if you want them and I’ll email you copies.

And now we’re caught up to today! A sad day:

That was the sign we saw on the door when we went to vuggestue with popcorn for all the kids to celebrate Molli Malou’s graduation. Translation: “Aw… Molli Malous last day!” The text on the picture of the bawling kid says, “When will I see you again?”

It was crushing to see Molli Malou with Mikkel and realize they wouldn’t be spending every moment of every weekday together any more, even knowing they’ll see each other on the playground for a few hours every day. They just worship each other.

So the next six pix are the Molli Malou and Mikkel show:

They’ve actually evolved into a trio with a third little buddy, Frey. Or Frej. Or something… I forget.

But of course Molli Malou and Mikkel were both exasperated when Mor tried to elbow her way into the act…

And we say goodbye to the little vuggestue of the toads with some group shots… they were singing and playing under Lene’s tutelage here.

Lene was a fantastic pedagog and Molli Malou is going to miss her. As a going away present, Lene put together a little scrapbook of Molli Malou’s vuggestue years (okay, her vuggestue year-and-a-half) that´s beautiful. She put a lot of time into it, putting pictures with texts and… I’m going to scan it and include it in the next batch of Molli Malou DVDs, already long overdue.

Mikkel got her a going away present too: a little stuffed Winnie the Pooh, with a card too sweet not to repeat (although I’ll go ahead and translate it for you):

Dear Molly! I think you’re lucky to be so big now that you’re going to børnehave and will have your own lunchbox, but I’m sure gonna miss you here at The Toads! It’s good we can still play together on the playground — I look forward to it! Winnie the Pooh is my friend, and because we’ve become such good friends, you and I, you should have a Winnie the Pooh from me! (heart) (heart) Giant bear hugs from Mikkel

And so all the children went outside to play, and it was the end of Molli Malou’s last day at vuggestue.

It was such a beautiful day we had arranged to meet John and Liam in Frederiksberg Garden. As we passed by the little pond in front of the Smallegade entrance, something in the pond caught my eye:

Molli Malou was very shy with Liam at first, but they warmed up to one another quickly. I think she’s beginning to realize there’s something special about the fact that Liam speaks English, and it strikes her as weird and scary until she gets used to it and realizes it’s wonderful.

And yeah… then they just have a ball!

We threw a lot of balls and frisbees around. At one point I tossed the frisbee to John, who was standing about thirty feet away talking to Trine. I realized about halfway through the frisbee’s journey that it was aiming for Trine, not John. Trine was looking the other way. John and I both called out to her, she raised her hand to her face — but not in time. It hit her right in the head and gave her a bump like I never saw. Gigantic. She applied the thermos of bloody marys that John had brought along to the bruise, and the swelling quickly went down, but she now has a giant black and blue bruise on her left temple. And if people ask if she walked into a door, she’s going to say, “No, my husband did it.”

I feel awful, awful, awful! And in the end, I think Molli Malou was actually tring to avenge her mother’s pain: just look.

There. I told you the new camera would spur more blogging!