Max's Wife

Yesterday, Max said something very sweet.

He was talking to Leysia when he said (out of the blue): "Mama, I can't wait until Lilja is my wife!"

:-)

She goes, "Oh, that's sweet, honey, is it because you love her?"

Max says, "Yeah, and because she's so beautiful!"

He then added that he'd like to marry Poet, a girl from his preschool last year in Boulder, too.

This made us both laugh; I'm sure Max's tune will change as Lilja gets a little older and she gets serious about expanding her empire. Leysia notes that just after saying this very sweet thing, he immediately went back to bickering with Lilja over a couple of sea shells we found on the beach in Aarhus this past summer. :-)

Ken

Catching Up: Bodøgården

Here are pictures of Max and Lilja's kindergarden or, as we would say in the states, pre-school.

As should be obvious, the kids really love their school. Bodøgården has a great group of staff and kids and offers an amazing playground for the kids to explore. We just had a "parent-teacher" conference with Lilja's teachers and one of the things they said was that Lilja loves to play outdoors... I'm sure Max's teachers would say the same thing!



































These pictures were taken back in August (some from the kids first day there); sorry for the delay, but, hey, better late than never!

Enjoy,

Ken

Catching Up: Tivoli

A few months ago, Leysia took Max and Lilja to Tivoli, a 100 year old amusment park that is located close to our apartment. Here are pictures from that day... apologies for taking so long to post them!

Update: Replaced one photo of Max and Lilja in the tunnel with a better one.

























Ken

P.S. Max loved becoming spider man for the day and Lilja, of course, wanted her face painted as soon as she saw her big brother do it. Apparently, she sat very patiently while the butterfly was being painted on her face.

Maxwell Rides His Bike

After several weeks of practice, Max successfully rode his bike without training wheels today for the first time! We bought him a bike here in Denmark shortly after he started school at Bodøgården, because each Friday the kids bring their bikes to school and the teachers take them out riding on a track near the school. (Danish Disclaimer: We realize that Bodøgården is NOT a school and that the employees there are NOT teachers. Its a daycare and they are pedagogues. I'm just using the annoying American convention of calling all such settings "schools" and all the people who work there "teachers".) For the past several weeks, we would bring Max's bike, but he was unable to ride it without help. The teachers would help him a little bit, but they couldn't push him and watch all the other kids at the same time, so each week, we'd come home from school and help Max practice in our driveway. Well, all that practice paid off, as Max can now ride his bike on his own! He's very happy and we are, of course, very proud of him!

Here's Max on his bike, getting ready to ride:





Leysia and Lilja, of course, are happy to watch Max's latest accomplishment.



And, now you can too!





Way to go Max!

Ken

Maxwell Continues to Wrap Mama Around His Finger

To the untrained eye, the photo below appears to show Maxwell sitting in a tree. In actuality, this is just another step in his plan to have Mama completely wrapped around his little finger, unable to say "no" to any request that he might make. (Papa entered that state long ago.)

Lilja Using Walking Stick

After carefully observing her big brother, Lilja is now 100% capable of using a walking stick when taking a walk with Mama.

Lilja Makes Her Debut

Here's a clip of Lilja playing the harmonica with Anna Brynskov, daughter of our friends Martin and Cecilia. Martin and Cecilia were kind enough to have the kids and I over for dinner while Leysia was away and then back again for dinner a few days after Leysia returned! Both meals were excellent and the kids had a great time both times playing with Anna and her brother David.



I should note that Lilja is in esteemed company here, since a few years ago, Anna appeared as Little Cosette in the Danish production of Les Misérables! She appeared with many members of the London cast of Les Misérables and travelled with them throughout Denmark performing numerous times.