Summer’s Close

This post is going to begin with a lot of pictures from the summer in America taken by Deb and Nana. They just supplement what’s already been shared, so I’ll present them without commentary. (Because I’m lazy.) I should note, though, that the pics from Deb are those she deemed the best of the best she got of Molli Malou and Maddie during the whole vacation, whereas I got every single photo Nana took and have merely plucked those that weren’t totally redundant from my own (except in those cases where hers were really special).

Then we get the August pictures — not very many — from life back in Denmark.

So… we start with Deb’s Pulitzer-worthy shots of Maddie and Molli Malou.

What I love about the next one is the way Trine and I are lurking in the background. You can feel the parental love washing over Molli Malou. You get the sense she can, too.

Now we move on to Nana’s chronicle. I suppose I can throw in the odd comment where she’s got pictures of things I haven’t already covered and that aren’t self-explanatory…

Oh: this series you’re about to see: watch Maddie struggle to pull herself up with her sister and cousins, and behold the hilarious conclusion.

Bonk!

She’s saying, “I want YOU to make slidey eyes!”

And we DO have a picture of Linda Kaufman!

Mixed in with Nana’s pictures were some shots of her visit to Beth and Gene in Alabama. They’re family, and they’re not much represented on this blog, so I’ll post them anyway.

The order gets a little crazy here — I’ve explained how that happens before and won’t bother boring you with it again now. Just enjoy the pictures.

Hey! We caught up to August!

And we used our Kenwood to make our very own hot Italian sausages!

It’s a visually disturbing process…

But it turns this…

Into this…

Into this!

And yes, they were delicious, but the texture was a little weird so next time we won’t grind the meat quite so fine.

First day of first grade!

Gossipy girly moments with Fie and Sofie as the day begins with a big assembly.

And the odd look on her face, haunted and excited, on her first day of real school.

But the start of school doesn’t really mean the end of summer fun…

And Molli Malou even invents and produces her own games, now!

Now we’re going backwards through August, it seems, to Mette’s visit.

And Maddie is not only off diapers (except for bed), but we finally got her out of her old crib-bed, which was also Molli Malou’s. I had to take pictures of it in all configurations so we can sell it on the Danish equivalent of Ebay, and it made me sort of sad.

And here’s our big girl’s new bed:

Scene from Molli Malou’s “school-friend” birthday party.

Backyard after same:

###

And now I can tell you a little about the girls, just to keep up with their permanent record.

Molli Malou is thriving in first grade, doing all her homework and expanding her social network. One night last week I actually uttered the phrase, “No video games until you do your homework!” But it’s usually not a problem: she still seems to enjoy it, and she’s doing well at it.

Maddie is becoming more articulate every day, and shows every sign of being even more stubborn than her big sister — which is saying something. She is also the proud new owner of a gigantic gouge on her nose, which she got while in the living room on her own. When describing the injury, the best she good do was tell us something about jumping on the sofa. In any case, it looks like it’ll just scab over and disappear without a trace… but I’m holding off on the photos until she’s back to her usual photogenic self.

Denmark is a riot of political activism right now, with the big election coming September 5th, and I don’t have the time that I need to try and inject my story into the national debate about immigration reform. I had a moment of excitement when I was contacted by a journalist last week, but it turned out she was writing a story on doing business in or relocating to Denmark and was only marginally interested in the immigration issue. (It was for American Express magazine, so it hardly matters anyway.)

Trine is back in a new internship, this time working with seniors, and I’m busier than ever at work, so with Molli Malou back in school and Maddie rounding out the last few months of vuggestue there has been very little free time in which to have (and photograph) adventures.

Maddie seems to be enjoying her new bed. We no longer lie beside her at night when she goes to sleep and she only intermittently comes wandering into our room in the middle of the night. And her night-time diapers, the only ones she wears anymore, are almost always dry in the morning. We’ve even reclaimed the bathroom counter that had been serving as her changing stations for the past 2½ years.

Maddie has become paint crazy: the first thing she wants to do every day getting home from vuggestue is watercolors. She generally paints monochromatic blobs, but sometimes adds squiggles and other little flourishes. She favors red and black — the school colors of Marblehead.

Molli Malou is learning a lot and one sees the wheels turning all the time. I noticed she has a religion course now and asked her what they talked about in that class. She said she had heard the story about God made the first man out of some clay, and then… and then… and then she babbled incoherently about bits and pieces of Genesis, stringing them together with admirable improvisational dexterity.

“Science says we’re descended from primates,” I said. “Like monkeys.”

Molli Malou burst into laughter.

“That’s silly, Daddy, you were never a monkey!”

Sigh.

I have to admit my American sensibilities were a little challenged at religion being spoon-fed to first-graders in a public school, but coming up soon is Søby (“Lake City”) week, where all the kids in the school build themselves a kind of town. All the older kids start businesses, and the younger kids get jobs working for the older kids. They get paid in special Søby money, and they can spent it all over Søby.

So they’re also being spoon-fed capitalism, and I can certainly live with that. I do wonder, though, if the red-diaper kids are going to form unions, agitate, and call general strikes…

# # #

That’s enough to call us caught up for now. The next post, within a week or two, will consist of videos from this summer, and once I get the hang of it I may go back and start compiling videos from all this time we’ve gone without.