Archive for November, 2009

So do you say it puh-KAHN or PEE-can? I always said it puh-KAHN, because everyone else around me said it that way. I was shocked when I learned that other people said it differently. PEE-can sounds like a vulgar way to refer to a toilet and I’m not a fan, but I guess a lot of people say it that way.

However you say it, every Thanksgiving growing up, my mother made a pumpkin pie, and a pecan pie. I remember always opting for the pumpkin pie. I didn’t like pecan pie.

Last year, I wanted to show my in-laws what Thanksgiving was all about, and I prepared a feast, including pumpkin pie. Pumpkin pie filling is a luxury in Denmark. I had to take the train for half an hour and go to the Rotunden SuperBest in Hellerup, where they have American and British imports at ludicrous prices. The pumpkin pie filling is on the American side of the shelf, and the condensed milk is on the British side, in metric containers that don’t match up very well to the quantity requested by the recipe on the pumpkin pie filling can. But I shelled out for it, and carefully measured the milk, and made my pumpkin pie and it was everything a pumpkin pie should be. My in-laws loved it and mentioned they hoped I would do it again.

And like a good little American, I waited until the last minute to go to Hellerup this year. On Thanksgiving Day, I arrived in SuperBest and discovered they were sold out of pumpkin pie filling. I needed a plan B. I can’t very well have no dessert. We had decided to celebrate Thanksgiving on Saturday, since it isn’t a holiday here and people don’t get the day off. So I still had some time to prepare something, but I was standing in a supermarket I just spent half an hour to get to, and I wanted to take care of it. So I did what any sensible person would do.

I bought lots of Hershey’s chocolate and some strawberry milk syrup. And then I checked my iPhone for pecan pie recipes. I wanted to make sure there weren’t any weird ingredients I can’t get here. It seemed straightforward enough, so I got a bag of pecans as well.

I wasn’t really looking forward to it, since I remembered not liking pecan pie, but to show a proper Thanksgiving, I’m willing to jump through some hoops. I prepared my pecan pie on Thursday and put it in the freezer until the big day. As I was making it, I wondered what part I wasn’t supposed to like? Freshly roasted pecans? Sugar? Flaky crust? It all seemed quite nice to me.

Then on Saturday, I put it in the oven, and I could smell it. Again, I wondered where I found fault with this.

Then, it sat next to me on the table whilst I ate my turkey, green beans, sweet potatoes, and dressing. I kept eyeing it thinking it looked suspiciously delicious.

Then, I finished my dinner, and served myself a slice.

It was simply divine. I don’t know what I was thinking as a kid. Pecan pie is good. I love pecan pie. I want to make another pecan pie. I’m glad I bought pecans. Thank you, SuperBest, for selling out of pumpkin pie filling.

My daughter refuses to sit on a potty or be held over one. I know, you’re probably thinking that she’s way too young anyway, but she did go in the sink for the first few months of her life. We were doing elimination communication, or infant potty training, and it went quite well for a while. Then Bean went on a potty strike, which is not uncommon, and is a much-discussed topic amongst EC parents. After a certain amount of time, T and I just decided to let it go, or we got lazy, or something. Anyway, gradually it just wasn’t something we were doing anymore.

I thought I’d try again, because it’s pretty obvious that she knows when she poops. And every time it happens, she walks over to me and makes a display of it. If she could talk, she’d be saying, “Mama, I’m pooping.” Even though she’s not talking much yet, it’s pretty obvious. So hey, maybe if I put her on a potty…

Nope. She’ll have none of that. She cries and thrashes about as if the potty were a medieval torture device. She is dead set on pooping only while standing up, and she definitely does not mean standing while straddling a potty. I can take her diaper off and let her poop onto the diaper from afar, but that’s as close as we’re getting.

That’s all fine and dandy with me. She can poop in her diaper if that’s what makes her happy, at least at this age. But, I wish I knew what was going on in her mind. Why is she so anti-potty? I’m not particularly concerned about it, but I’m curious. I know that personally, I quite like not pooping in my own shorts. I’m just sayin’.

And she looks awfully excited about it. Or at least, she isn’t bothered by it, and she’s excited about something.

There we are, minding our own business, when Bean starts banging on T’s computer. Nothing new there. Then suddenly, T grabs her and runs off to the bathroom. Hrmm?! I look at his MacBook, and it’s covered in blood.

We don’t know how it happened. We know her finger was cut before she got to the MacBook, because once we were looking for blood, we found it on other things she was playing with before that. Not a lot of it, mind you. It wasn’t a big cut, but it was a cut.

Having a cut on the tip of your middle finger might annoy some people, but not Bean-Bean. I’m not sure she even knew it happened. She sure didn’t give any indications that she cared in the least bit. While we’re washing it off in the bathroom, she’s just kind of looking at us like we’re crazy for fussing about it and after a bit, she got a little fidgety. She doesn’t like being held for that long.

Once it was cleaned, we were faced with the problem of what to do with it. Tiny baby fingertips aren’t designed for being bandaged. While a small cut on the lip, for example, might safely be basically ignored, I wasn’t keen on the idea of getting blood anywhere and everywhere my 14-month-old wanted to go touch things.

Paper towel and masking tape. I kinda wish I were kidding.

It worked surprisingly well. She didn’t try to chew it off or anything. She just ran around doing her normal Beany business, like showing me a faceless, hatless, armless Pop Corn. (I only remember a Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, but now there’s apparently also a Pop Corn and Rootie Carrot. Who knew?)

So, for Wardrobe Wednesday, I bring you my daughter wearing…

1) a makeshift finger bandage

2) a Hello Kitty shirt (although I guess you can’t see Hello Kitty in the photo, but she’s standing next to the tree of trees…)

3) a smile that shows off six of her ten teeth. Check out those back teeth! Nice gaps, girlie!

The day didn’t start out so fabulously, I admit. It was a pretty normal day, and then, just before I needed to leave to meet up with a friend, I realized T had the basement key. The stroller is in the basement. So I’ll need to wear D.L. And it’s raining.

So now I’m running late, in the rain, in T’s overcoat stretch around both me and Bean in her mei-tai.

We headed to Kongens Nytorv to meet up with Mrs.E, an American married to a Swede and living in Stockholm. She’s in Copenhagen briefly, and when we met up she commented that she didn’t think the weather could be worse than in Stockholm, but we managed to do it here. Dark, grey skies, and cold rain… the sort of weather that could only be worse by being extreme enough to give “don’t leave the house” warnings.

Being basically a suburbanite, I didn’t actually have much idea of what to do, but I knew there was lots around Kongens Nytorv and we could figure something out. We started walking down Strøget looking for a café or something indoors and not rainy we could go into. Mrs.E pointed to what looked like a juice bar, and we thought we’d check it out. It was inside an Illums Bolighus, and as we found and used the entrance, what should we find but…

Cold Stone Creamery!

I had no idea it was there. When she mentioned she was coming, I even went to Cold Stone’s Denmark site to see if they’d opened another one besides the one in Tivoli, since Tivoli is closed until the Christmas season. She had previously mentioned being jealous that Copenhagen has one and Stockholm doesn’t, so I knew she’d be excited if I could take her to one. There were only two given on the site: Tivoli and Odense. I love Cold Stone, but not enough to go to Odense just to eat it. Darn, I thought.

And then we just stumble onto one! What the hey! And I mean that in the very best way. This Cold Stone, unlike the one in Tivoli, had no Reese’s cups, and no cones, or those fancy cup-shaped cone things dipped in chocolate and rolled in sprinkles. Small, forgivable faults. They still had a dozen flavors of delicious ice cream, and a wide variety of mix-ins. They have added salty licorice to the mix-in options, which made both of us gag, but hey… we didn’t have to order that. And we didn’t.

Bean and I enjoyed our Mint Mint Chocolate Chip, while Mrs.E savored a very chocolaty concoction of her own design and we chatted up a storm and window-shopped until I figured T would get upset that I was still out.

In his defense, I had the only key to the flat, so he was stuck outside until I got home. I don’t want anyone thinking he gets upset just because I’m out having fun without him or something.

Ice cream. Good chat. Shopping. Good day.

Thanks, Mrs.E!

When I lived in Minnesota, it got cold. Really cold. Really, really cold. For some reason, people are under the impression that Denmark is going to be ridiculously cold, but people… I’m telling you. Denmark has nothing on Minnesota. And it’s not like Minnesota is the coldest place on earth, or even the coldest inhabited place on earth. But, still, it gets cold.

I’m not sure if it’s because Minnesotan children don’t sleep outside in their strollers, or because more Minnesotans drive instead of walking, biking, and taking public transit, or just because that’s The Way Things Are, but for whatever reason, Danes love dressing their children in snowsuits for much, much, MUCH longer spans of time than anyone I’ve ever seen in the States, including the very, very cold Minnesota.

Children in Denmark wear snowsuits from about October until May. When I’m not even wearing a jacket or sweater anymore, children are still wearing snowsuits. Personally, I think it’s a bit overkill, especially considering how small children’s bladders are. Nevertheless, it’s how things are here, and both my husband and my in-laws were concerned about Bean-Bean’s lack of properly-fitting snowsuit once the weather became less summery than constant sunshine.

I don’t want to sound like I don’t care if she’s dressed warmly, because I do. And since, to quote my husband, I could probably sleep naked through a snowstorm, I’m probably more likely to err on the side of not warm enough. So when Thomas says she needs to dress more warmly, I just assume he’s right unless she’s sweating.

Last winter, she wasn’t walking yet, but now she also needs some proper winter boots. My beloved soft-soled shoes are not really appropriate in cold rain and snow.

After trips to H&M and Skoringen, we soon found ourselves with an opportunity to try out our new purchases. We went grocery shopping! (Check out our stroller hooks in action as well!)

I know my daughter isn’t very big, but this snowsuit just engulfs her. They don’t make skinny baby versions. Still, she’s adorable. Of course.

I mentioned a few posts ago that I might do an MM on Kroko books, so here we are.

You’ve probably seen those email forwards or websites that poke fun of how other countries translate movie or book titles. It’s the same for characters in books and TV shows. In Denmark, Donald Duck is called Anders And. And means duck, and Anders is a Danish name that starts with and, so this makes perfect sense to me. Curious George is Peter Pedal, which makes no sense to me. I guess it’s catchier than Nysgerrig Georg, but it doesn’t mean anything. That’s how it is anyway. Winnie the Pooh is Peter Plys, which also doesn’t mean anything, but neither does Winnie the Pooh. Danes seem to really like the name Peter, now that I think about it. In the Danish version of “The Itsy Bitsy Spider,” the spider is named Peter, too. I grew up with a nameless spider, but Danish kids get Little Peter.

Anyway, British author Jo Lodge wrote a series of books about Mr. Croc. I never, ever, EVER think of him has Mr. Croc, though, because I discovered these books in Denmark, and only have them in Danish. He is, and always will be, Kroko, as far as I’m concerned. It’s not a huge leap from Mr. Croc to Kroko, so hopefully you won’t have a problem following along. If I were talking about Peter Plys and Peter Pedal, I’d expect my non-Danish readers to have to keep referring to the above paragraph where I told you who they really are in English. But you can handle Kroko, right?

Dagmar loves these books. LOVES. There are big ones with flaps and pop-ups, and smaller ones without them, and she loves all of them. She’s all about flipping her own flaps and pulling her own tabs, and will even slap my hand out of way when I try to do it for her sometimes. She’s teaching me.

Every day, she gets a minimum of one storytime right before bed. (Sometimes she’ll bring me or Thomas a book at other times too.) Here’s a bedtime story about Kroko getting dressed and ready to come after you. See how excited Dagmar is when he comes after her?

When we bought this one, it came with a little mini Kroko plushie dressed in jam-jams. So cute!

So, Danish relatives and friends… Julen kommer! Vi har Er du klar Kroko? og Muh Muh.

It’s funny how, since I was never a mom in the States, I never know if something mom/baby-related is just how things are or if it’s a Danish thing. I’m not completely clueless. I’ve seen babies before. But until you’re a mom, you don’t look for things to do with babies and kids, and you probably don’t notice where they are and if they are there at all.

As one example, I had no idea that libraries had play areas until my Meetup had a playdate at the library. Sure enough, there are tons of kids running around and being loud, and other than the fact that there are books present, it really doesn’t seem to have anything to do with a library, but there it is, in a library.

Is it only the Copenhagen library? Apparently not. Some of the other moms talked about the play areas at other libraries near them. Is it only Denmark? Apparently not yet again, as moms online are all nodding in agreement about how much they love taking their kids to play at the library.

Is it a new thing? I don’t know. I probably played at a library myself and I just don’t remember, because my memory fails me in my old age. I never had younger siblings or any other reason to know about baby things when I wasn’t a baby anymore.

When I was pregnant with D.L., that hit me hard. I realized I didn’t know anything about babies other than the fact that they turn into older kids eventually. I never cared for one or spent time around one. I never did the babysitting thing. It was scary to think that I would be in charge of a baby, having no idea what to do.

I won’t lie. In those early weeks, it was hard, and I had moments where I thought, “do I have any idea what I’m doing?” but the fact is that it’s not nearly as scary as it felt before she got here. I’ve got the world best husband, some awesome friends, caring family, and something close enough to common sense that things keep turning out fine.

And hey, I know it’s not American Thanksgiving yet, but I just want to give a big thank-you to each of you who has been there, in any way, no matter how small, during my parenting journey thus far. If I ever told you a story and you listened, if I asked you a question and you answered, if you ever told me my kid was cute, or anything… thank you. Seriously.

If you’re reading this via Facebook, then perhaps you’ve already seen the pictures from the Halloween party, but for the rest of you, I know you’ve been on the edge of your seat wondering how D.L.’s fairy costume turned out.

I decided to add a strawberry theme, because she has the hat and shirt.

I was surprised how long she kept the hat on, too, although it didn’t make it through the whole party. In her defense, it was a bit warm at the party and I don’t think I’d have wanted to keep a hat on the whole time either.

I think it turned out pretty well, although if I did it over I’d put a skirt underneath the tutu. Not that she has a skirt, but I’d get one. I think it’s okay, though, especially considering how long it took to find the pieces and put them together.

Although the ninja plan didn’t work out for me, it did for Kim and her daughter Idunn. This was great because I didn’t have to leave Herlev (apparently all the black clothes are in Lyngby) but D.L. still got to play with a ninja sword. Best of both worlds.

At one point she traded her flower wand for the sword, but that didn’t last particularly long. She held on to her wand for a significant part of the time, but she also dropped it and gave it away a lot.

Not surprisingly, there were a few other fairies at the party. None of them were strawberry fairies. Score.

Something you can’t see in the picture is that I attached small bells to the leaves of the flower wand. I don’t think it was possible to hear them in the room full of people, but I’m still glad I did it. It was really fast and it turned out cute. They’re still on there and she likes to play with it.

If you want to copy me, definitely get the ones that look like wedding bells, and not the Christmas jingle bells. They looked very fairy-like. At least, I imagine a fairy would pick those bells, if fairies existed.

Also, everyone knows that fairies ride on dragons, so I put Nigel the dragon in the stroller for the journey to and from the party. I don’t know if anyone actually saw him, but it made me happy so that’s all that really matters.

What they hey, I’ll add a picture or two more.

bells!

There’s a dragon in mah faaaaaayce!

Side note: Attaching the wings to elastic instead of the shirt directly means she can wear them over her coat when she’s bundled up. Word.

You may recall that we recently acquired a new, totally awesome stroller, with which we are still in love. We noticed pretty much immediately that we were no longer able to hang bags off the handles, since there was handle instead of handles.

I know we gained the storage under the seat, but it’s only so big, and some stuff just lends itself to being hung. I thought, no problem! We can just buy some hooks!

It took a while for me to find some. I was surprised how rare they are. For a long time, all I could find were eBay auctions for hooks imported from Japan. I ran into a Russian woman with hooks on her stroller and asked her where she got them. Apparently she used to live in Japan. I just couldn’t believe that only Japanese people want stroller hooks. I mean, this isn’t a girlfriend’s-lap-shaped pillow. This is actually useful.

I finally found stroller hooks in Denmark!

The entry for this product on the site is “bag organizer.” Actually, I’m not sure how to translate it exactly since it should be one word in Danish, but they made it two. Aside from this misuse of a space, it’s also a stupid name for the product, because it’s a hook, not an organizer. Furthermore, it’s two hooks. Never does it actually mention on that page how many you’ll get when you order, but you get two. I know this because I looked past all these faults and ordered it anyway, and I’m glad I did.

I placed my order just before 1 p.m. on a Monday, and it was delivered to my door by 10 a.m. on Tuesday. That is not only a testament to the Danish Post, but also to Babadut, who may not be able to list their products very effectively, but can respond very quickly to their orders. The Danish Post wouldn’t be able to get it to me if Babadut hadn’t given it to the Post, so kudos to everyone involved in getting me my package so fast, including the postal worker who actually did bring it to my door instead of trying to shove it in the post box downstairs, or leaving a note to make me pick it up at the post office. Hooray!

I also ordered what I would call an organizer, but they listed it as a “minibag.” We wanted a cup holder, and this is like a cupholder deluxe. Holds two cups! And more! Includes zipper pocket! Anyway, there were two parts to my order. Both items were individually wrapped in tissue paper and put in a green and gold decorative padded envelope. I thought it was a nice touch. It’s a bit more fun to get a package like that, so Babadut gets extra points for that as well.

I don’t have any pictures of my hooks and organizer in action yet, but it looks pretty much like what you see here. Our organizer is more suspended than hanging like the one here, since our handle is wider. It works perfectly fine for us, and can be used in conjunction with the hooks. We have one hook on either side rather than on the front like the picture here. If you can’t tell, the hooks are each two hooks stuck together. The red one is larger, and fits over the padded area of the handle. The smaller yellow one fits over the unpadded area. This lets you put it wherever you want. The blue part in the middle that connects them swivels 360º.

Now that we have our deluxe cupholder, I’m using it all the time for all kinds of things. It’s a great place to stash something just for a second, like when you’re using your iPhone and suddenly realize you better get on the train before it leaves without you, for example. It’s also a great place to put whatever food or drink D.L. seems only marginally interested in, so she can point to it when she wants it and it’s easily accessible both to get and to put back when she’s done. The only thing it doesn’t have is a little dock for my iPhone so I can check it for turn-by-turn directions when I’m walking. Now that would be snazz.