Little Climber

Here I am, checking in again from Copenhagen (latitude 55°40'N--in response to one of my comments)! We've hit the rainy season here and have been enjoying warmer temperatures along with a bit of rain every day. We're finally able to walk outside without putting Ruby into her big heavy snowsuit--which is a relief to all of us! Flowers are sprouting up everywhere and it really looks as if spring may have sprung--here's hoping. As you can see, Ruby is enjoying having strawberries on sale. I can't believe how much fruit she'll eat in one sitting! She's really putting those eight teeth to the test.

We had a fairly exciting moment this weekend... I was messing around with email when I realized I hadn't heard much from Ruby in a while. We all know that in kid-world, silence means trouble! So, I went looking and couldn't believe what I found. My heart jumped into my throat when I saw that Ruby had figured out how to climb the ladder up to the loft (a.k.a. Jared & my bedroom). We hadn't yet put the ladder back up for the day as we needed clothes etc. from upstairs. While I was scared to death and the prospect of her falling, Jared took it as a perfect photo op. I must admit, the pictures are cute, but we will not be leaving the ladder down for any length of time from here on out! Before we know it, Ruby will be climbing the walls!

We have been enjoying the effects of daylight savings ending or beginning or whatever this last weekend (that always confused me). Turning the clock forward seems to have thrown a switch in Ruby's system so that she's still going down at about 8:15pm, but now doesn't wake up until past 7am!! Nana Nelson also sent Ruby a fun new crib toy this week, so when she wakes up she's been playing contentedly with that for ages before she starts complaining for breakfast. Even with the longer nights, she's taking just as long or longer naps, so I've found myself with a lot of spare time on my hands this week. I ended up reading John Irving's "The Fourth Hand", which was admittedly quite weird in places, but overall a good read. Irving caught me with "A Prayer for Owen Meaney" and I have enjoyed several of his other books since. Many times there is a fair amount of content that I could do without, but the overall stories are good. Another one of my vices is "McLeod's Daughters"--an Australian series about sisters running a ranch. I've seen the first two seasons now (it's on every week day) and now they're playing through season three. I think that they are on season 5 or 6 in Australia, but I doubt that we'll get that far here in DK. It seems like we mostly only get the old reruns here. Anyhow, it's on during Ruby's afternoon nap, so I figure that's as good a time as any to fold laundry and do ironing!

My in-laws are on a well-deserved vacation in Hawaii right now and I just had to post a few pictures from their helicopter tour! I would just love to visit there one day--it looks so lush and beautiful. Apparently they took a helicopter without any doors so that it's easier to see out and get pictures. I must admit that that sounds really scary to me. I hope they had good seat belts!

For those that were praying, I'll give you a quick update on Jared's presentation. Everything went very well, though he didn't have the results that he had originally hoped for. Everyone seemed to be impressed and happy with all that he has accomplished in six months and we believe that he'll be asked to stay on for another year. As of now, we are planning to do just that. There are so many things that we'd like to see in Europe and now that we're starting to make a major dent in our debts, that may become a reality! Jared will be going to Turkey this summer for a conference and we're trying to choose somewhere for a trip as a family this summer or fall. It's really a hard decision!! Somewhere kid-friendly and not out of this world expensive... maybe Majorca.

Also, we heard from our landlords and we may be able to stay in the house longer! They are trying to work things out so that they will be able to stay in China, which would be nice for us. Although I'm sure we'd find another place that we'd like, this really feels like home to us now and we're all very excited to enjoy the backyard and gardens this summer. As soon as everything dries out a bit, I'm sure we'll be back there for hours every day. For now, Ruby and I limit our time to a a few minutes swinging and a quick stroll before we start to feel to chilled and damp.

Well, I better get going. The day is going on without me and I have lots to do before Ruby wakes up. Hope you all are well and living every day to its fullest!

Just pick yourself up again.

Sometimes I wonder if I'll be in a wheelchair by age 30. You guessed it, I sprained my ankle... AGAIN! I was just loping along on my way to the bus stop for choir practice last night and it just totally gave out on me. Before I knew what had happened I was sprawled out in the street with my pants torn, my knee bloodied and my ankle throbbing. Arg! So, choir practice was off and I called Jared to help me limp home. The good news is that I was able to keep it on ice and proceed pretty much as normal today. Ruby and I were even able to visit the zoo with Claire and Carter! It was a beatiful day today with blue skies and balmy temperatures... well, it was about 40F I guess. A lot warmer than it's been!

We were really hoping to see the baby elephant that was born a few days ago... alas, it wasn't quite balmy enough for the little guy to be out so we didn't get to do that, but we did see LOTS of other critters! They have a pretty nice giraffe house, which must be fairly new--an assumption I'm basing primarily on the fact that it didn't stink horribly! Well, and it did look nice. Anyway, we were able to sit inside and watch them eat their dinner. They really are beautiful animals. We also saw bears, tigers, sea lions, penguins, monkeys, Icelandic horses, crocidiles and butterflies... a world tour in an afternoon. I think that we will enjoy visiting the zoo a lot this summer. It's only about 30 minutes away on the bus and since we have an annual pass we can go as often as we want. Ruby's just starting to get interested in the animals and I'm sure she will be even more so by the end of the season.

On the way home from the zoo I was (sort of) the cause of a bus accident-- whoops. I have discovered over the last six months that there are a whole host of unwritten rules that go along with riding the bus with a stroller: 1. As the bus is approaching, cross over the bike lane into the street and hold up your hand. This signals the bus driver that you want to come aboard with the stroller, to which they give a thumbs up or down (depending on if there is space). 2. The strollers come on through the middle door on the bus, so you have to wait for everyone to get off, then vault the stroller up and in, all the while attempting not to bowl anyone over. 3. As soon as the stroller has been put into position and the wheels locked, you are to quickly make your way to the front of the bus to show the bus driver your monthly pass. This is where the problem came in. The driver was a lady I would guess to be around 70 (yes... 70 years old). She tried to look at my pass while steering the bus away from the curb and into traffic and BAM! we hit a van. Well, really only the mirrors banged into each other, but the the van slammed to a halt and the bus driver started babbling to me (in Danish of course) and I quickly apologized that I had no idea what she was saying. She dismissed me with a wave and I quickly retreated. Then, something even curiouser happened. I'm quite sure that she told the guy to drive on and pull off onto a side street where they could rectify the situation. Then, as he drove off and turned she literally slammed on the gas! Suddenly we were careening down the street and around corners at an alarming speed. I can only guess she was trying to get away. Needless to say, I'm not sure Granny's going to be behind the wheel much longer. I sure hope she doesn't come a knockin' and blame the whole thing on me!

Well, that's all for tonight. Hope you all are enjoying springy weather in your home towns. Copenhagen is supposed to be beautiful in the summer... better plan your visit soon!

Long days... short nights...

Boy, it seems like just a few weeks ago it was dark until almost 9am and then dark again at 3:30pm... the times they are a changin'! Today, the sun was up at about 5:45am--and so were we! It seems that Ruby has gotten into a new routine of wanting to be up earlier and earlier. Every now and again she'll go back down with some prodding, but more often than not, it's up and at 'em. This has been really hard on us lately as Jared has been working very long days (coming home just before Ruby's 8pm bedtime) and then as a result staying up too late... which in our new reality is 10:30! Okay, so seven hours of sleep would be heaven for oodles of people, but I guess I'm just not one of them! Oh well, hopefully my body will slowly adjust to this schedule.

This is a picture of Ruby's "howl like an Indian" fuss. She has developed a large repertoire of these fusses which she "practices" almost constantly. We have been hitting the sign language with renewed gusto in hopes that she will at least attempt to communicate in some other way other than fussing. If the switch doesn't happen soon, I may be having earglugs surgical inserted into my ears to cut down on the noise level. It's easy enough to watch Nanny 911 (etc.) and say, "Why, oh why, do those parents let their kids behave like that!?!?", but much harder to deal with it in real life when it's your own baby going ballistic 24-7.

On a rather odd note, we bought diapers last weekend because they were having a big sale on one of the nicer brands (90kr/50 diapers), so we thought we'd stock up. We do still do the Wonderoos about 95% of the time, but for night time and every once and a while when we're out, it's 'sposies'. Anyhoo, the funny thing was that all they had left in Ruby's size was pull-ups! So, already at the ripe old age of 10 1/2 months she's wearing big girl diapers. Jared had a hoot having her model a clean diaper on her head. I think that it almost looks like a little chef hat--too funny!

Ruby has been doing very well these past few days playing on her own. She absolutely loves playing with her sorters. She has the traditional shape sorter, a picnic basket sorter, and a Lamaze soft shape sorter. She can actually sort the Lamaze shapes, although the matching colors help a lot! Also, I suspect that she mashes the wrong shape through the wrong hole on a fairly regular basis. I'm just glad that she's having fun! It really does help for her to have the Baby Einstein music on while she plays. We now have five different CDs (all of which sound about the same to me), so we have a good rotation to go through. Anyway, it's fun to watch Ruby's little brain ticking away figuring things out and taking everything in. She's a real cutie pie-- a stinker winker bear-- but a cutie pie!

8 Teeth!

As the title betrays, our big news today is that Ruby is the proud owner of EIGHT pearly whites. Just last week her sixth tooth was pushing through on top and then this morning I looked in Ruby's mouth and TWO teeth had popped up on bottom, pretty much overnight! I'm always glad when teeth pop through because I feel like it explains Ruby's difficult times. I'm coming to realize, though, that she just seems to have a lot of difficult times and is really just becoming a big performer. She knows that if she cries loud enough for long enough I will drop what I'm doing and pick her up. I really wish this kiddo came with an owner's manual, because these tantrums are really ridiculous for a ten month old! I feel like I'm always blushing uncontrollably on the bus while I attempt appease Ru. She just hates to be tied in to anything. I'm really not looking forward to our next overseas plane ride... it could get ugly!

So, I'm sure some of you wondered if I had totally abandoned the blog. Not exactly, though I did succomb to a kind of inertia that made it more and more difficult to post as each day passed. Things have just been kind of rough around the edges here. Once the flu let up on the three of us, colds hit. I, somehow, ended up with the worst cold and am still coughing away all day and night. I doubt poor Jared is getting much more sleep than me. To make matters worse, we seem to have entered another deep freeze with temperatures below zero most of the day. I have ventured out a few times this week, but this kind of weather really makes me want to hole up with a good book and cuddle my munchkin whenever she'll slow down long enough to let me. She's still not walking (at least not in the traditional sense!), though she's discovered that the vacuum cleaner makes a lovely dance partner and will sometimes scoot around for a while using that.

On other matters, we have come to some conclusions about the moms and tots ministry at church. We decided that we will have to hold off on MOPS for now, as we really don't have enough people to make it work properly. We will, however, be starting a weekly playgroup at our house. We even have a mentor mom that will be meeting with us. She has three grown sons and seems to be a wonderful Christian woman. I'm really looking forward to getting to know her better. In May, we will start reading a book to discuss during our meetings. It's a MOPS book about the needs of mothers. I've started reading it already and I think that it's really going to be wonderful for all of us.

Jared sang at church last Sunday with the men's quartet (which was actually a trio), to rave reviews. This Sunday, the "choir" will be singing for the third time. I really hope that it goes well, but I must admit I'm a bit nervous. Our leader (and pastor) insists that we sing from memory, which has resulted in quite a few mistakes during the last two performances, so I hope that this one doesn't totally fall apart! The nice thing is that the congregation is small and very accepting. They seem to get a lot out of the songs regardless of our poor singing!

Keep Jared in your prayers if you would. He's up for his six-month presentation and review in a week and a half. Things have been going alright lately and he thinks he will be ready, but you can never be sure in his field when a problem will pop up. I can't believe we're already coming up on six months... time flies! We will have to start looking for our new home soon as the lease will be up here at the end of June. We will miss having the garden, since most of the time we've been here it's been too cold to enjoy it much. I'm hoping that it will be warm enough by Ruby's birthday (May 2) to have her party outside.

Well, after all that hodge podge of information, I think I better get going. I have to get a few things done around the house before Ruby's up from her nap--which could be any time now!