For Geeks Only...

Here's a pointer to a story that is sure to be appreciated by command-line geeks everwhere:

rm -r *

If you don't know what a "command-line geek" is, don't click the link above!

Enjoy,

Ken

Sankt Hans Aften

Here is a picture of L. and Miles on Sankt Hans aften, a celebration of midsummer that is held each year in Denmark (and elsewhere) on June 23rd. Sankt Hans fests (or parties) are held in many locations, most of them occuring on the beach, and all of them featuring a big bonfire.

We attended the celebration that was held just a short walk away from our apartment. There was food, music, and entertainment (including a fire eater that had Max wide-eyed in amazement during his show) and lots of people from the neighborhood. Here's a shot of Lilja and me watching the bonfire.



I mentioned that most of these celebrations are held on the beach. We were able to get a sense for that by looking out over the bay (you can see the ocean from a hill near our apartment) and seeing nothing but smoke rise from the opposite shore.

We had fun and were glad that we could experience another traditional Danish activity as we will soon return to the states!

Enjoy,

Ken

Miles Makes Friends

Today, we were visited by colleagues and friends who just happened to be in Aarhus on the same day: Alex and Monika. They both got to meet Miles and the results are below.





Enjoy,

Ken

Lilja and Ilene

Ilene gave a nice present to L. both as a belated birthday gift and as a present to celebrate the arrival of Miles, and Lilja got very excited by the fact that she was going to help open it!

Bon Voyage, Box 1!!

In a sign that our time here in Aarhus is drawing to a close, I shipped our first box home today! It should arrive in Colorado in about three or four weeks, about the same time that we do. It contains a bunch of books and is the first among many that we will ship. Unfortunately, as with all things in Denmark, it wasn't cheap to ship books across the pond but we don't have a choice: on our flight home, we are going to have three adults, two kids, one baby, a bunch of bags, three car seats and a stroller! We have to ship back as much as possible and just bite the bullet with respect to cost.

Given our experience with shipping stuff to Denmark, I've resolved to keep better track of the packages that we ship back to Colorado. So, I created a multi-column outline in Omni Outliner to let me keep track of each box and its contents, the date I shipped it, and its tracking number.

Hopefully that will let me keep on top of receiving each box as they arrive in Colorado.

Best of luck Box 1, we hope to see you in Colorado soon!

Ken

Bodøgården's Multishow

Max participated in a variety show at his pre-school, Bodøgården, this past saturday. I captured some video footage of his "breakdancing" performance along with other shots of his teachers and friends. Note: this is a ten minute video clip, so grab some popcorn before you watch it!



Enjoy,

Ken

Testing Miles

Today, we took Miles to the hospital for his PKU test and a hearing test. The latter is especially difficult because, one, the baby needs to be asleep during the test (and good luck getting your baby to sleep on demand!) and, two, the testing equipment is especially sensitive and the slightest disturbance during the test can cause the test to fail.

As it was, Miles passed three out of the four tests and so they want him to come back next week to try and pass the fourth test. The nurse performing the test said that this is completely normal and we shouldn't worry. Miles was on the edge of sleep during the testing and that may have caused the last test to fail. So, we will cross our fingers and hope for the best.

Otherwise, Miles is doing great! He's already become an integral part of the family. Max and Lilja can't get enough of him!

We love him!

Ken

The Great Butterfly Hunt

On Father's Day, Max, Lilja and I engaged in a butterfly hunt. (No butterfly was harmed while creating these videos.)

First, Max explains what we're doing. (Note: sound is not exactly synced to the video in this clip.)



Second, Max gives chase to a butterfly across a good portion of our yard.



Third, the chase continues. Max almost gets the butterfly this time but it gets away over a hedge to his left.



Fourth, Lilja joins in! Note: the music in the background is coming from the horse track located near our apartment. They were having races that day!



Fifth, finally, after Papa's aid was enlisted, a butterfly is caught, inspected and released. Max then wants to do it all over again!! Pay special attention to Lilja's “say bye-bye” skills and her eagerness to do it again as well!



Enjoy,

Ken

Lilja and her Frisbee

On Father's Day, I took two short videos of Lilja cracking me up while playing with a frisbee.



In the first video, the dialog is (roughly):

Ken: Hi Lilja, what ya doing?

Lilja: I'm sitting!

Ken: Are you going to throw the frisbee for us?

Ken: Stand up and throw it... oh, <laughs> good job Lilja, throw it again!

Lilja: No, I did it!

That last line is hilarious! Lilja acts like I should be happy that she bothered to throw the frisbee once! :-)

The second video involves two attempts by Lilja to throw the frisbee "far". Moral of the story: don't stand too close to a two year old when they are throwing a frisbee!



Enjoy,

Ken

The Return of Ilene!

Why it seems only yesterday that we said good bye to Ilene Severson, our nanny that came to help us for our first month in Aarhus. But, no, its been just shy of nine months since she left. But, today, Ilene has returned to help us get through our last month in Aarhus and (almost more importantly) the return trip home (three adults, two children, one baby, tons of bags, one stroller and three car seats!!!)!

Ilene arrived at Tirstrup airport (about 40 minutes to the east of Aarhus) at 10:30 AM. As luck would have it, she was on the same plane that was bringing my colleague and host, Kaj Grønbæk, back from a trip to the states. So, there was a bit of a confusing moment as I was waving both to Ilene and Kaj, and neither of them quite understanding why I was waving at someone else! :-)

Ilene and I had a nice time catching up on the way back to Aarhus and then she got to meet Miles as shown above. L. was very happy to see Ilene again and we sat down to a nice lunch. Now, Ilene is unpacking and L. and the baby are taking a nap.

I'll go and get Max and Lilja in a bit... they were excited this morning that Ilene was coming and I know they are looking forward to seeing her again.

So, all is well in Denmark!

Enjoy,

Ken

Just About Perfect...

Now this is just about perfect... what more could a parent ask for?



Max loves his baby brother…



…and Lilja loves him too!



Enjoy,

Ken

Miles Comes Home

Yesterday, Miles and L. came home from the hospital. Yeah!

Now, L. and I can begin our transformation into walking zombies as we can no longer depend on professional neonatal nurses to help us with Miles during the middle of the night! Last night wasn't too bad... I was up at 3:30 in the morning with Miles giving him a bottle and one other time dealing with Lilja. I can handle two interruptions to my sleep at night, no problem... but we don't have enough interaction with Miles yet to know if this will be a pattern or if he'll get up more often as he gets older. L. had a bit more problems getting to sleep last night but has been able to rest today while the kids are at school. Only three more days until Ilene arrives to provide us with the support we'll need to make it through our last month here in Aarhus.

Here are three new photos of Miles. This one I call “Do you like my pants?” for obvious reasons.



Next, a close-up of Miles lying on a pillow in our bed.



Finally, here is a shot of Miles all bundled up taking a nap today.



Its tough being a newborn and he needs a lot of sleep. Actually at this stage, newborns do only three things: eat, sleep, and po… well, I'll let you guess what the third thing is! :-)

Enjoy,

Ken

Miles is Here!!!

I am pleased to announce that Leysia gave birth to a healthy and beautiful baby boy Sunday, June 11th, at 5:12 AM in Aarhus Denmark seven days after his due date. Miles Palen Anderson was 3.8 kilo or 8 lbs 6 oz (same birth weight his sister, Lilja, was) and 50 centimeters (or 19.7 inches) long.

Miles is a gentle soul who likes to be held and is a very quiet baby. He and Leysia stayed at the hospital on Sunday night due to the fact that Miles's glucose level was low. He was doing fine and we thought we could bring him home Monday, but the pediatrician decided that he should stay one more day in the hospital because his most recent test showed that an indicator for infection was “elevated”. To our eyes, he looks and acts perfectly fine, but we understand why the doctors want to be cautious. We are hoping that we'll be able to bring Miles home on Tuesday.



Lilja and Max absolutely adore their baby brother as you can see above. Lilja immediately started to refer to Miles as "MY MILES!" (You can hear that the two words are all capitalized when she says it.) and last night when we got home from the hospital she asked “Where's Miles?” not quite processing that we had left him and Mama behind but revealing that she was thinking about him and wanted to see him again. Max went on and on about how beautiful Miles is and how much he enjoyed holding him. Indeed, when I took the kids to see Miles on Monday night, we spent most of our time helping both kids take turns at holding Miles. They love being near him and are quite happy that he has joined our family.

Finally, to round out this post, here is a short video of Miles that I took today. He doesn't do much but look at his hand, but its still fun to watch a newborn! And, yes, I am not biased in any way towards this particular newborn. :-)



More pictures are available at Flickr in our Miles First Photos photo set. Note to family members: there are some new pictures in this set that I didn't have time to include in our private mail messages... so be sure to check them all out!

Ken

A Day at the Beach

Note: I was in the middle of creating this post Saturday night when Leysia went into labor. Since it was so close to being done, I decided to finish it before working on a Miles-related post. (Coming up next!)



Since the warm weather has arrived in Aarhus (finally!), we have been to the beach two times in the past three days. Note: the previous sentence would have been accurate if this post had appeared on Saturday night as intended...

The kids LOVE going down to the beach, partly because they always seem to get a treat when they are there (see above), but mainly because they just love the water, although Lilja is currently a bit scared of waves. Max has no such fear, however, as this video shows.



Max also came up with a new definition for the word "float" as can be seen in this next video.



I suspect we'll be going to the beach a few more times before we return to the land-locked state of Colorado in July!

Enjoy,

Ken

Aarhus Botanical Gardens

This past Wednesday we took a walk through the botanical gardens located to the west of the Queen's palace in Aarhus (see above). Its about a ten minute walk to the gardens from our apartment and its worth the trip since the gardens are absolutely beautiful after the long, cold, wet spring that we had this year. It is just now, six months into the year, that we have finally seen a string of sunny warm days and we've been taking complete advantage of them!

To see the rest of the photos, visit our Aarhus botanical gardens photo set.

After our walk, we came home to the start of a concert that was being held in the football stadium near our apartment. The warm-up band was nothing special but we immediately recognized the main band: Depeche Mode!! Since the football stadium (note to U.S. readers: think soccer stadium) is an open air stadium, and since the only thing between us and this stadium is a horse track, we could hear the entire concert perfectly. It was as if Depeche Mode had shown up just to play for us! I greatly enjoyed the concert and I've been humming Depeche Mode songs continuously for the past three days!

Enjoy the photos!

Ken

School Pictures

Max and Lilja recently had pictures taken of them at school. We think the pictures came out great (see above). Check all of the pictures out at our Bodøgården School Pictures photo set.

Enjoy,

Ken

The Most Important Issue Is...

…banning same-sex marriage. This important fact brought to you by Republican Sen. David Vitter. In particular, CNN reports:

“The Senate this morning is debating a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, even though supporters concede the measure doesn't have enough votes to win. "I don't believe there's any issue that's more important than this one," said Republican Sen. David Vitter.”

My stunned reaction to this: What planet does he live on?

Ken

YAH: Yet Another Holiday

Danes love their holidays and they should. During the first sixth months of the year they have so many holidays that I've lost track of the count. (This is on top of their 5-6 weeks of vacation and their 37 hour work week!)

From an American standpoint, we like the occasional holiday, but hey, if you keep having them, how are you supposed to get any work done? Indeed, whenever there is a holiday, we are faced with a triple whammy: 1) the schools close (so the kids are home), 2) all the stores close (so there is no place to take them) and 3) none of our babysitting contacts want to work (“Haven't you heard its a holiday today?”)!

Today, we have yet ANOTHER holiday, a bank holiday, so rather than getting some work done before the baby comes, I'm going to be taking the kids to Tivoli again (fortunately, its open and recall that we bought a season pass, so it doesn't cost me much to take them now). We did go just yesterday but Tivoli is fun for the kids AND its close to our apartment, so I can rush home if Leysia needs me.

Now, I should mention that when I say “all the stores close” that's true of almost everything EXCEPT bakeries. Indeed, it must suck to be a baker in Denmark because then you NEVER get a day off. If you mention to a Dane who has just said “And remember, because its a holiday, all the stores are closed.” that that's not completely true since the bakeries are open, they will look nonplussed and say “Well of course the BAKERIES are open; it would be uncivilized if they closed!”

Anyway, I went to our local bakery this morning to get milk and some of our favorite bread and our favorite pastry and of course it was absolutely packed because there were all these Danes home today and nowhere to go BUT the bakery! :-)

Enjoy!

Ken

Brotherly Advice

We bought Lilja her own bed a month ago (see below) and she really likes it. She'll be able to use it for two months before we return to the states. Fortunately, the people who are living in the apartment after us have a three-year-old and they agreed to split the cost of the bed with us. (If you click on the photo, you'll be taken to a Flickr photo set with two more pictures of Lilja in her new bed.)



Lilja especially likes that she can sleep near her big brother and spend time with him. For instance, yesterday, before we went to Tivoli, Max and Lilja were sitting on one of the two beds in their room looking at books. Leysia and I were busy cleaning the house so we could have our chores out of the way before we spent the rest of the day with the kids at an amusement park. Anyway, as I was taking the trash downstairs, I saw Max hold up a picture of a shark and in a very serious voice he said:

“Now, Lilja, if you ever see one of these... run the other way!”

I think that's great advice! :-)

Max then launched into a story about how he saw a black shark while standing in the Pacific ocean on one of our annual trips to California and that as soon as he saw the shark he ran away. Now, I have no idea what he's talking about, but according to him, we went to the beach and let him play in the ocean and he “stuck his head underwater and saw a black shark swimming nearby!” (He would have been three years old on this particular trip.) I don't know if the story is true or not, but he's convinced it is and its tough arguing with a convinced six year old!

Enjoy,

Ken

40 Weeks, No Baby: Lets go to Tivoli!

Today, we reached Leysia's due date, June 4th. 40 weeks and still no baby! So, we decided to go to nearby Tivoli Friheden and let the kids have fun while we wait. Here Lilja and I are standing on a bridge that is part of an obstacle course that Max simply loves. He completed the course twice today and wanted to go an additional time but we pried him away so we could see other parts of the park.

To see the rest of our pictures from today, visit our Tivoli in June photo set.

Enjoy,

Ken

Max and Tie Fighter

Max and Tie Fighter, originally uploaded by kenbod.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Max received a Lego Tie Fighter for his sixth birthday. We finally built it on June 2nd and Max loves it. He's been playing with it A LOT these past two days. In this photo, he's also sporting his brand new hair cut.

Enjoy,

Ken

Note: click on the photo above to see three other photos that belong to the Max's Tie Fighter photo set.