Funny Ruby

Ruby has been her normal amazing self this last week. She really does change every day. Lately she has been playing so hard all day that she hardly wants to stop to take a nap ( much to my dismay!), but by about 6:00 or 7:00 in the evening she is so exhausted that she'll fall asleep anyway. Last Sunday evening she fell asleep on our way home from church and we had the hardest time getting her to wake up again! Even sitting up she just kept snoozing!

Another first for Ruby this week was eating rice. She loved it and while she did get some down I think that most of it ended up stuck to her hair, clothes, tablecloth, floor, etc. I had made instant rice for our dinner and it was really sticky, so eventually she decided that it would be easier just to pick up the plate and mash it into her face! Pretty funny! So far she has only had cheerios, small bits of rice cakes, and this rice for solids. She isn't a very picky eater, but does get easily distracted which makes for some pretty drawn out meal times.

Eventually, the fun had to end and we decided to localize the mess by undressing her at the table... she was not pleased to say the least! Thankfully, Jared did all the rice clean up while I took Ruby for her bath and "jammie-time!". Putting her to bed has been a bit more difficult this last week because we moved Ruby's crib upstairs with us in the loft so that her room could be open for our visitors. I have found that getting her up and down that ladder isn't the easiest thing in the world and since she hasn't spent much time in the loft she gets really wound up and wants to look at everything. Hopefully she'll get used to it soon!


I'll leave you with one last picture of our little "drowned rat"! She is still getting a bath in the kitchen sink, but I'm not sure how much longer that's going to last! It's getting really hard to keep her in there because it's rather shallow and she just pulls on the faucet non-stop trying to push herself up and out! Arg! Also, if anyone has a secret home remedy to deal with cradle cap I'd love to hear it. We tried the oil this last week and had to shampoo her hair 6 times to get it all out and she still has the flaky scaly scalp. At least it doesn't seem to be itching...

Whew! It's been a while...

Well, things here have been buzzing along at an alarming rate these last few weeks. So much so that I never seem to get around to posting! I do have some goodies to write about, but I also have oodles of great pictures to share, so these posts today may be a bit heavy on pictures. A picture speaks a thousand words, right?! Anyway, this first picture is a pretty one at sunset over the lakes right in the middle of Copenhagen. Well, I don't really think they're lakes, but that's what everyone calls them. This was probably at about 3:30 or 4:00pm in the afternoon two Sundays ago. Jared had Ruby for the afternoon and evening while I went to a party to make traditional Danish decorations including a holder for a calendar candle and another for advent candles.

After coffee hour was over Jared and Ruby went over to Rådhuspladsen to see the Christmas tree being lit. They didn't quite make it to see the lights being snapped on, but obviously there were still hoards of people around trying to catch a glimpse of the lit tree! As an aside, it is interesting to note that Danes find electric lights on Christmas trees extremely tacky and all use real candles to light their trees while the dance around it singing Christmas carols (no joke!), but I guess that they don't mind blazing lights on outdoor trees. Really, I suppose that the real ones would either get blown out or light the whole tree on fire!

I would have to say that my first attempt at these Christmas decorations was fair at best (especially after the bus ride and walk home!), but it is fun to burn the candle down a bit each day. It's a bit of Christmas spirit and reminds me that the reason we celebrate Christmas at all is Christ, of course, the light of the world. I have really enjoyed the Advent candles as well, though I wish that we had an Advent devotional series or something that we could read along with the lighting each week.

Sea creatures and land lubbers

Friday afternoon Claire and I braved the freezing cold weather with the babies to visit Danmarks Akvarium in Charlottenlund (north of the city). It wasn't quite as wonderful as their snappy website led me to believe, but it was okay. Really, I think that the kids enjoyed it as much as they would have the Shedd Aquarium... though I think that parents get a bigger kick out of the bigger aquariums. This one did have several tanks with tropical fish, which Ruby really likes, and a large area with a crocodile, sea turtle, and some other large critters. The funniest thing about the trip was Ruby's fasciniation with the eels. There were probably 4 or 5 varieties, some very large, and for some reason they would just make her giggle and giggle. I had been considering an annual pass, but found that I get a discount anyway with my zoo annual pass, so we would have to go at least 4 times a year to make it worthwhile... not likely!

Yesterday (Saturday) Jared finally got his new bike. There had been some kind of clerical error in getting paid this month, so the bicycle he thought he would be buying at the beginning of the week didn't get to come home until yesterday. I think that he will really enjoy using it and hopefully it will hold up well in the elements.

I finally got around to entering all those reciepts I'd been saving into Excel and found that we've been spending more than $150/month on clip-cards for public transportation. That is probably close to twice what we were spending in Moscow on our cars, including insurance! So, we decided to try getting monthly passes this month to see how that goes. We decided to buy three zones for 405kr/ea (about $65/ea), but will still have to pay extra to go to the mall, etc. (which is outside of those three zones). We may go back to the clip cards in January, but we'll see.

We also found that our heating isn't working. We have radiators in the house, but for some reason the water in the pipes is cold, even though we have hot water for showers, dishes, etc. So, we're not really sure what the problem is, but suspect a broken pump. We're going to have to attempt to get in touch with our landlord about it, because the heat from the wood stove doesn't reach Ruby's room and it's getting pretty chilly in there. We also have our computer in Ru's room, so my fingers are slowly turning into icicles as I type! More incentive to learn how to type faster I suppose!

Well, I better run! We have to find something to put around the woodstove because Ruby's is trying to crawl today. Crawl today, walk tomorrow... the time sure is flying.

Oops, I forgot!

I keep forgetting to announce that we are having another visitor! Hurray!! My friend, Rachel, from the Wheaton days is coming to visit us in less than two week (December 13) all the way from Redondo Beach, CA! We are sooo excited and I've been pouring over our various guidebooks to make plans on where we'll go. We have to go to Nyhavn where there is a big Christmas market and several famous restaurants. One, Nyhavns Færgekro, has a herring bar with ten different varieties (scary for me, but very Danish). The other, Ida Davidsen, is considered to be the top smørrebrød purveyor in all of Denmark. For those of you that don't know (I didn't!) smørrebrød is basically a fancy open-faced sandwich.

Alright, I really do have to go now! My charges await!

House Full of Sickies

I can't believe that it's already Thursday! I have hardly done a thing all week other than battle Ruby to administer medicine, wipe her nose, or get her to eat something... anything! Yes, she's sick. The poor thing sounds like she's purring/Darth Vader just trying to breathe. The positive side (I suppose) is that she can hardly stand to keep her pacifier in her mouth since it tends to preclude breathing. Maybe she'll break herself of it on her own! Malle, the cat, is very interested in her cat-like noises and has been spending even more time than normal cuddling up to her.

My theory is that she picked up this bug when we were babysitting over at our neighbor's house last Friday. Her little Jacob (2 months) has brochitis and an ear infection! Of course we dumbly put Ruby in the nursery on Sunday with Carter and now we're crossing our fingers that Carter isn't sick too. Ruby wasn't too interested in playing last Sunday so hopefully they didn't have much contact.

To add insult to injury, Jared is home sick too! He started getting a very sore throat on Tuesday evening, and ended up staying home most of the day yesterday and all day today. To be fair, they are having work done on the ventillation system at work so he isn't really able to be in there anyway with the fumes. Hopefully he'll be feeling better soon!!

We were supposed to have a baby shower for a few gals at church this Saturday, but it has been called off because the babies are sick! Something is definitely going around...

If Ruby is feeling better tomorrow I hope to take a trip out to the aquarium. It's about 45 minutes away by bus/train, but it's in a really neat little town and I'm sure she would enjoy it. She loved looking at the tropical fish when we were in Monterey, CA visiting my Dad last summer.

Well, I better be getting back to my charges!