Life as usual

Well, I'm writing today after four very long days!

But before I get into all that nitty gritty, I have been meaning to post this picture for ages... Sometime a bit after Christmas we walked past this house that is apparently in need of a new roof. Now the real mystery to me is two-fold: (1) why, oh why, did they built that huge secondary roof complete with oodles of scaffolding and (2) why is it taking sooooo long to finish?? Today, at least 5 weeks after the scaffolding contraption showed up, it still remains and the roof still looks the same. I never really see anyone working on it, which I suppose is why it's taking sooooo long, but anyway, this is a Danish oddity that repeats itself everywhere. It seems to take eons for any kind of construction work to get completed and people just don't seem to care! Elevators will be out for a month and no one bats an eye... strange!!

So, I tried to bake a cake last week. Well, I should say that I DID bake a cake. It is edible, and actually very tasty, but I just had to take a picture (a horrible shot I know) of the baking process becuase I'm pretty sure that a cake isn't supposed to look like a volcano/island rising out of a calm sea. I guess that the problem was too much baking soda or powder or whatever. I don't know why, but it seems like I follow the recipe to the letter and it just doesn't seem to turn out right. I really wonder if I would have the same terrible luck with a boxed mix or not. I don't think I'll test that anytime soon though since a box of Betty Crocker is over $5!!

As I'm sure you have already guessed, our problems this week have been in the Ruby category. Over the last few weeks Ruby has been more and more insistant that not only is she done with baby bottles, but she's done with baby food too. She doesn't want anything to do with pureed anything. The problem is that it's really hard to come up with many healthy finger foods that she can eat and will eat. As you can see, spaghetti was a huge hit with her. Let's just say, I'm starting to rethink the decision to get a Tripp Trapp instead of a conventional highchair with tray. Thankfully, I was able to get the huge orange splotch out of our tablecloth, though some of Ru's clothes aren't faring as well.

To make matters worse, she also decided last week that she's petrified of taking a bath... something that she has always loved up to this point. We've found that we have to ease her into the experience by letting her stand in the water for a bit. Blowing bubbles seems to help too. Anyhoo, the combination of a baby filthy with finger foods and not wanting to take a bath has been difficult. She also isn't eating as much as she was when we were feeding her, so she's been waking up in the night. Monday night I had less than 4 hours of sleep, not good. Part of the problem, we think, is some kind of tummy trouble. On Sunday, just as we stepped off the bus, Ruby threw up for the first (and second and third) time. What a mess! All over her stroller, snowsuit, clothes, etc. Thankfully, our friends lent us a blanket to whisk her home in and the all of the cloth parts of the stroller are detachable and machine washable--YEAH!!! Oh, did I forget to say that the stroller has now lost BOTH sets of front wheels and had to be pushed home wheelbarrow style, totally stripped of it's cushions and looking like a skeleton?!?! Thankfully (again), my whiz kid hubby rebuilt the stroller and we are now back to 100%.

So, now that we're up and running again, I'm down for the count. Ruby's stomach bug has made its way to my gut and is busy giving me the light-headed feverish jitters and queasy-weasies as I type. I hope and pray that this clears up by tomorrow, because I've got things to do and people to see. That, and my little cowgirl is getting pretty tired of mommy laying around instead of playing with her.

Before I "sign off" for the day, I want to wish my Dad a Happy Birthday!! We can't seem to get back into the whole snail mail thing now that we're in DK, so this little electronic greeting (along with that snappy e-card) is about as good as it gets!

As you can tell, it's life as usual at the Nelson house.

Olympic Fever?!?

Is anyone else "suffering" from an acute case of Olympic Fever?!?

What is it about the Olympics that makes us suddenly interested in every sport--yes, even curling! These sports that they come up with are just so odd. I find that I often have to go to one of the hundreds of Olympics websites just to figure out what they're doing. Curling is, I must admit, one of the oddest sports in the Olympics. It seems to be an awful lot like shuffleboard on ice. One of the more ridiclous parts of the sport (in my opinion!) is that that for some reason there are FIVE people on the team. I've seen three in action and the other two seem to just be hanging out by the "bulls eye". We seem to see a lot of curling here in Denmark as the only Danish Olympians this year is a women's curling team. So, with any luck, by the end of the 2006 Olympics I may have half a clue about what they are doing out there.

There also seems to be an alarming number of ways that you can speed along an ice chute. The bobsled, of course, which can be done in pairs or in big groups. And then the luge, which I believe is a pairs or individual sport... this time done on a rather rickety looking sled with absolutely nothing but spandex protecting it's passengers. Finally, there is the most ridiculously dangerous version of the sport, the skeleton, where the individuals are sprinting along face first with only spandex to protect them on a very heavy sled that they can't even steer. Does this make sense!?!? I just found out that this sport wasn't even allowed in the Olympics until 2002 because (DUH!!) it was considered too dangerous.

One thing that the Olympics never falls short on is pain and suffering. Of course, we all seem to have an absurd fascination with the blooper moments of the Olympics. One of the greatest "blooper" moments I've witnesses thus far was the spill taken by Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao during the long program. The pair was forced to take a five-minute pause after Zhang Hao crashed heavily in the splits position after a failed throw quadruple salchow. Yes, we all saw it several times. How in the world that woman got up and completed the program nearly flawlessly is a mystery to me. This is the type of thing that we seem to see time and time again in the Olympics though. The amazing mind over matter compulsion to compete against all odds and overcome all kinds of tragedy to succeed. Somehow (and I really don't understand this) the pair ended up with the silver, so I guess it paid off.

There are lots of these victorious moments. I find that it really doesn't matter to me who wins and loses. I still find myself tearing up at their tears, sobbing to their national anthems, and going wild with delight and awe at broken records and fantastic feats. I guess it really is one of the very few times when it seems that we are a united world. Not in a hokey or weird way, but just in a really nice way. Regardless of how bizarre those opening and closing ceremonies get with their odd mascots and crazy "artistic" displays, we'll always have the raw emotion of sport in the middle. In a way it always makes me feel sad that I never embraced a sport of my own, but in a few weeks, when the Olympics are over, that feeling will pass... until next time.

wheels are turning...

Wow! What a great week! We have been very busy this week, but we also were able to do a lot of things, so it was really nice. Monday we got snowed on all day, but then the miracle happened--RAIN!! I was soooo thankful becuase I knew that I had to get out of the house on Tuesday to babysit--a chore I was not at all up to when there were snowdrifts everywhere. Thankfully, the rain melted away all of the snow and our journey was easy.

As I mentioned previously, I'm in the midst of trying to come up with a new ministry for moms in our church that would also be a great outreach to moms thorughout Copenhagen. I was originally approached with MOPS and was a bit scared off by it. Their program is wonderful, but I thought that it might be too big for a church of our size to tackle. That's when God stepped in. All of a sudden I realized, why should we have to tackle this alone? There are several other English speaking congregations throughout Copenhagen, maybe we can get some of them to latch on to the program and help us with the leadership team, and bring a lot more mothers into the fellowship. I've talked with our pastor, Erik, a little bit about it, and I have to have a "plan" by the first of March. So, keep on praying and keep your wheels turning for ideas--we really need this ministry!!

As you can see in the above picture, we also got a surprise this week without wheels-- a rocking horse! Our neighbors have several grandchildren who have rejected this cute little horsey and decided to give it to Ruby. She is... well, terrified of it! But, I think that once she's bigger she's really going to love it.

Ruby has really enjoyed her afternoons with Carter this week. On Tuesday, Carter went down for a nap before Ruby. Predictably, she started bawling her head off when we left to get Carter in bed upstairs. Unpredictably, it wasn't my absense that bothered her, but Carter's! I came back down and was ready to play and she just went right back over to the gate and kept on wailing away. She wanted her little buddy back! They have been doing a good job playing together. On one side, Ruby is very interested in sharing lately, while Carter is very interested in taking anything that Ruby is playing with! Ruby gets him back though when she chases him around the room (both crawling of course) and then uses him to push up to standing. She doesn't really get it that he's just a baby too and doesn't really want to be used like a piece of furniture!

One note of bad news... Our stroller lost a wheel yesterday! Thankfully I was only a few blocks from home when it happened, but there was a clunk and the front wheel came off. (Apparently I had rammed into one too many icy snowdrifts!) We made it home "wheelbarrow style" and hopefully Jared will be able to jerry-rig it together sometime today.

This last picture is of Ruby's terrible bed head hair this morning. Jared saw this picture and said, "It looks like she's saying, 'Where's my coffee?!?'" I have to agree! Her hair is getting a bit unmanagable lately, so I'm starting to look in earnest for somewhere that specializes on baby's first haircuts. I've read that her hair will thicken up once the first haircut is done and we definitely need to get that hair out of her eyes!

Well, I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. We're looking forward to enjoying this sunny weather while it lasts!

Nine months and then some

I had wanted to get this post up sooner, but we're having battery problems with our camera, so it took me a while to get the pictures! Anyway, Ruby had a big week last week. She is now 9 months old--or as I put it, "she's been out as long as she was in!". (Of course that isn't technically true, but close enough!) Our little bugger is cute as a button, as you can see, and into everything, as I'm sure you can imagine. I think that she has started experimenting standing without holding on to things, which has resulted in lots of thumped heads this week. She recovers pretty quickly and the cuddles are short lived as she wants to go, go, GO!

I think that the funniest thing that she has started to do is this little head wiggle. It looks just like the nod that people from India do--kind of a side-to-side rolling shake. It's the funniest thing. She especially enjoys bopping along to the music. Probably one of the reasons that she does it is because we have to put all of her long hair up into a pony tail most days so it isn't hanging down in her face. That little pony dances all over the place when she does her head shake, which I'm sure feels very interesting to her!

Ruby has graduated whole-heartedly to finger foods and loves eating potatoes and meatballs, red bell pepper, and especially CAKE! Ruby's friend, Carter, had his 1st birthday party last Saturday and Ruby really enjoyed the cake. She thought that Carter wasn't eating his piece fast enough and wanted to help him out when hers was long gone. Mommy vetoed that plan though--one slab of sugar is plenty for this little girl!

Claire has set the bar pretty high for Ruby's birthday party this coming May! She made two beautiful cakes (it was Danny's birthday too) and lots of delicious appetizers. We even had punch--YUM!! Ruby's party gift was an adorable stuffed giraffe munching on leaves and a bottle of bubbles. Hopefully it will soon be warm enough that we'll get to play with the bubbles outside...

For those of you that have been wondering and wondering, we did finally get the Christmas movies mailed out last Monday. I know that one person already got it, so hopefully the rest of you should be getting it soon. Jared was trying to figure out a way that we could post the movies on the blog, but it seems that to get the file sizes small enough the quality is just horrible. This year we only sent the movies out to our immediate family, but I suppose if you are really desperate to see pictures from our last year and Ruby's first 8 months you can email me and I'll send you out a copy! It really did turn out very well, especially the movie. Jared slimmed down several hours of Ruby moments to an excellent 15 minutes complete with music track and some effects. He really enjoys doing that kind of thing I think--it challenges his creative side.

So, in one of the last posts I asked about "Toddler Talk", which I then found out is actually, "Toddler Wise" and is part of Ezzo's series. So, as soon as I heard "Ezzo" I started to get a bit worried. Back in Moscow several of our good friends had warned us away from the Ezzo series, but then we also know lots of people who have used it and really think that it has lots of good parenting techniques. I decided to do a little research on the internet to see what people are saying about the series, and found that people really fall into one of two camps, "Absolutely love it and wouldn't use anything else!" and "Ezzo should be put in jail for child abuse and his series banned!". So, we're still not sure if we're going to do the course at church or not. I think at this point our decision will primarily be based on if we have time for it. We have come to the conclusion that there are probable good principles to be gleaned from the course, though we need to be careful not to blindly use all of the techniques without thinking it through as to whether it would be effective or appropriate for Ruby.

Several other exciting opportunities have presented themselves in the last week as well. First, Ruby and I are looking forward to twice a week play time with Carter while Claire takes Danish classes, starting today--yeah!! And second, Erik, our pastor, approached me after choir practice about the possibility of me starting a MOPS (Mothers Of Pre-Schoolers) group at our church. I have done some research on the organization and it really sounds like a great group that would have the opportunity to reach out to the community, especially those moms that have babies under 1 year, as they are on maternity leave. While I do really like the idea of the group, I'm not sure that MOPS itself will materialize this year. It is a fairly expensive program that I'm not certain our church can support at this point. I thought that instead we may be able to start a monthly or twice a month meeting on a Saturday morning or afternoon. This way the working mommys would be able to participate as well. Also, if it was on Saturdays we could have a rotating crew of daddys doing the childcare instead of having to hire professional childcare workers (as MOPS suggests). Anyway, it's in the works so keep it in your prayers. Copenhagen is filled with people that need to hear the Word and feel the love of a church family.