April 17, 2011 - Easter Afternoon

This afternoon the Easter Bunny visited Farmor and Hans' garden and the girls had a hunt for small chocolate eggs. Then we all took a lovely walk - such beautiful weather! - to visit Grace's sheep one more time. They didn't have their babies yet, but we still had a lovely Easter afternoon. Obviously, Kristoffer had fun with the camera too!

LMW

April 17, 2011 - 15 Days in Denmark...

...and 15 pictures to tell the tale (okay, it's really 15 pictures times 2).

Grace has loved visiting sheep in DK. She keeps checking to see if they have had their babies yet and can remember when Mama had a Baby Noah in her belly (you know, way back when in January!).

Hans and Noah spent some time on the phone together :)

Noah got to meet Oldemor for the first time...

...and Grace was SO happy to see and play with Oldemor again.

Grace gave us a dress up fashion show...with a little help from her cousin-stylist, Josefine!

And, Grace played with Barbies for the first time.

(Shhh...don't tell Auntie Tine!)

Tante Jytte was the Baby Charmer!

Grace just loved being one of the girls.

Grace was excited to show Uncle Rasmus all of the sheep...

...and she wasn't scared when one of them kissed her!

Noah exercised with Uncle!

We had a lovely afternoon with Tommy, Mirja & Leander who came to visit from Germany.

Grace spent as much time as possible on the big trampoline with Far and the girls.

Grace fell in love with the Danish pram Farmor borrowed for our visit, and when we visited Farfar she wanted him to push her! She is a real Dane!

Noah liked the sound of Marianne's voice...

...and snuggled a biy with Farfar too.

Grace helped Far and Farfar do some yardwork. One of her favorite activities!

Grace also showed Noah more and more attention. She likes to make him smile.

And she likes to read to him. She starts every story with, "One day..."

Back to Farmor and Hans' house just in time to snuggle up and watch the royal baptism. Noah was prepped for his upcoming sacrament.

Nikoline is fantastic big cousin/baby-sitter!

Noah can grab and hold the rings all by himself now!

We snuck in a little time with friends Morten, Elsebeth, Kim & Jib. They got to meet Noah and played with Grace. We even got bundled up for a fresh walk to the beach!

What a great two weeks! Tomorrow we leave DK in the wee hours of the morning to fly to Boston - using Noah's new Danish passport, thank you very much - for 3 1/2 more weeks of fun. Thank you to the family and friends we saw here for a lovely visit (although too short, as usual) and to those we didn't see this time we look forward to catching up during our next visit.

Love that dirty water...Boston, here we come!

LMW

April 15, 2011 - SuperGirl

We have been having a really great time in Denmark the last two weeks and I certainly have lots of pictures and stories to share, but I haven't wanted to spend too much of our precious time here on the computer. With a promise to provide a full pictorial update soon, I will leave with you an overview of Grace's first encounter with "big girl underwear."

It's a bird...

It's a plane...

It's SUPERGIRL!

LMW

April 3, 2011 - Top Ten

Long-haul travel with two small children (one small child and one infant, really) redefines the term "tag team". While both Grace and Noah were as good as could be expected on our 18 hour journey (door to door, that is), Kristoffer and I were by far the busiest people on our 8 1/2 hour from Nairobi to Amsterdam (which was followed by a 6 hour layover and then a 45 minute flight to Billund, DK and then a 45 minute drive to Farmor's house). Grace didn't have any meltdowns on the plane until the last 20 minutes when she really wanted me but couldn't have me because I was trying to nurse Noah, who initially refused to nurse and therefore had pain in his ears on our descent. Their meltdowns - the only one for both of them, actually - overlapped by 5 minutes during which everyone the plane hated us I'm sure. But such is life. Noah was an excellent baby the whole trip, although wanted to be held more than he wanted to be in the bassinet or car seat, leaving us with little "hands free" time. We took shifts changing diapers and walking around the plane and entertaining Grace. I was seated next to a really nice Dane, and Kristoffer and Grace had 3 seats all to themselves right behind me. Overall, it went really well.

There were some other moments of our trip to share, categorized as: nerve-wracking, interesting, or sweet!:

1. Having to wake Grace up at 5 am to leave for the airport; thought she'd be grumpy but instead she couldn't stop beaming about going on the "biiiiig airplane" to see Farmor, Hans, and Oldemor. The only times in her whole life that I've had to wake her up were on days when we travelled so early in the morning! Category: sweet!
2. Being told that we didn't have seats together on the flight, even though I was promised that we did. Category: nerve-wracking
3. Ending up with 4 seats instead of 3, even though one was separate, which gave us a lot of extra room for Grace and all her "stuff". Category: sweet!
4. Almost not being allowed to take Noah out of the country because of his lack of passport. This is sort of a long story: Noah's US passport hadn't arrived yet and we didn't apply for a Danish one yet. I was told at the US Embassy and by the airline KLM that Noah could travel on his birth certificate; however, I did not check with Kenyan immigration officials and they were not so cooperative. In this situation, when suspiciously questioned by the first immigration officer, I maybe gave him a little too much attitude. Same went for the second more senior officer who also didn't like getting lip from a YOUNG, MZUNGU, WOMAN and very nearly denied our exit (in the moment I thought I was just being assertive but I do realize in hindsight that my tone of voice was a bit too aggressive for Kenyan man) . Luckily I married a more calm, rational, able-to-sense-when-a-disaster-is-about-to-happen-because-my-wife-has-a-little-bit-of-a-temper kind of guy who showed the necessary (although completely ridiculous) deference and apologized in just the right way that we were allowed to leave Kenya. Of course that came with a warning that without some kind of UN letter or regular passport Noah will not be allowed back into Kenya upon our return. Note to self #1: try to get the kid a passport ASAP! Note to self #2: keep temper in check when dealing with immigration authorities, particularly those who are middle-aged men. Category: nerve-wracking x 10
5. Seeing a woman on the airplane who we met at a dinner party 3 years ago. At the time I was pregnant with Grace and she told me that I shouldn't worry about it if I had hostile feelings towards my child because at some point, "you will hate your baby." I was not a fan of hers then and this time around, when she sat between two other people near us on the plane and didn't stop talking for almost the entire flight, I was so glad she didn't remember us! Category: interesting
6. Meeting a Scottish family in Amsterdam who were on their way back to Seoul, Korea where the husband/dad works for the government. They had a daughter just a little older than Grace and a baby boy who was born on the same day as Noah! They were ten-weeks old exactly! The mom and I had a great chat about having two kids and living abroad. Loved that family! Category: interesting
7. Eating McDonalds. I know, I know. It's crap. And I never eat it in the US (and, in fact, boycotted for a long time because of a weird incident I had in college). And it shouldn't be a big deal just because I can't get it in Kenya...but it is! And I loved it! Category: sweet!
8. Experiencing the adoration and humor of airport security in Amsterdam, who completelyfell in love with Noah. There was no line in the lane we picked and the security workerswere all young and maybe a bit bored. We are a nightmare going through securityusually: a baby, a toddler, a pacemaker, liquids and computers. YIKES! One of the guystook the stroller for us and said, "Can I borrow your ferrari?" Then they let Noah stay in his car seat and while they were "searching" him he started smiling, cooing and almostgiggling. Well, they all just melted and couldn't get enough of him. One of the guys inparticular was from Turkey and said he wanted to keep Noah. "I think I'll call himAhmed...but not like the terrorist!" Another worker said, "Is he [the Turkish security guy] the baby's first Turk?" to which I replied, "Well, he [Noah] was born in Kenya and has met a lot of different kinds of people...but maybe never a Turk before!" Then they allwent crazy, "He was born in Kenya?! That is so cool!" When the Turkish guy found out his name was really Noah he said, "No no, Ahmed is much better I think." We hung outwith them for several minutes as they ooed and awed over Noah. They really didn't wantto give him back to us! Overall, a very positive security experience I'd say! Category:sweet!
9. Being "entertained" by an extremely, extremely, extremely DRUNK Norweigan in Amsterdam. He started singing "Here Comes the Sun" to Kristoffer as he poured a beer all over the place; I took Grace for a walk because I was afraid of what he might do or say near her and I am generally very uncomfortable in situations like that. He and his friends were on their way to Mozambique, via Nairobi. He was some kind of "artist". Category: interesting
10. Watching Grace run and run and run around the airport shouting such things as, "Mama, look at the biiiiiig airplane" over and over again. Other people's reactions to her were quite sweet. She was wearing a tshirt that says "big sister" on it and so people would say, "Hi big sister!" and she would wave to them. Category: sweet!

So now we are here in Varde safe and sound after a tiring, but good, trip. We have travel-lag, but no jet-lag. Grace is happy to be with Farmor again. Noah and Kristoffer have been napping for the last 2 hours. It is vacation. Life is good.

LMW

p.s. Our second flight from Amsterdam to Billund was flown by a female pilot; first time for both of us ever having a female captain and we thought that was pretty awesome!

April 1, 2011 - In the Air Again

Tomorrow morning we leave for Denmark; Noah's first world-tour at 10 weeks old on the dot. Because our life is lived behind gates and walls (for good security reasons, of course), when I am in Nairobi for long stretches of time I start to feel a bit claustrophobic so I am looking forward to getting out of town. As I think I've written before, I also appreciate many things about Kenya once I am away from them for a little while! We are so eager for Grace to reconnect with our families and for them to meet Noah for the first time. Kristoffer is also in great need of rest from work - it has been quite busy and stressful lately, in addition to looking for another job! As long as we survive these long-haul flights with two small ones (gulp), I think it's going to be a great six weeks!

LMW