First Days

Hopefully we will get into a routine here and I will find a time to write here regularly, so I don't need to summarize several days into one post. We have been having a great time here so far! We arrived on Monday afternoon. With the amount of luggage and people we have, we were unable to all fit into one car to get to Rodding (sometime I will figure out how to get the proper o in there with my keyboard, but for now, it is this), so the kids and I and the luggage went first and a pastor friend brought us from the airport. All three of the kids slept in the car -though Torben spent the first half of the ride with clenched fists staring out the window and not speaking. I think he was a bit nervous about all the changes! We arrived here at the house while our friend went back to the airport to get Jeff. By 5pm, Svea and I had had a nap, and Jeff and the boys had walked to the grocery store to pick up some essentials.

Also some neighbors had stopped by with flowers! I was sleeping and didn't even hear them come in!

We made spaghetti for dinner and tried to get the kids to bed at a reasonable time. :) "Reasonable" is subjective, of course, with a 7-hour time difference from our house! Thankfully they had not slept much on the flights, so they were quite tired. Svea and I ended up sleeping on the couch the first night, and by sleeping I mean that we occasionally dosed and then were awake from 1am to 5am. At approximately 3am, Torben came downstairs and the three of us had a little snack of Teddy Grahams, Goldfish, and water. Happiness sometimes can be found in a middle-of-the-night snack with your kids! We had a fun time. And it makes it a little more special and unique to have a snack when the rest of the world is sleeping. Torben never did go back to sleep, though. Svea finally slept around 5:15am. It was an early start to our first whole day.

The kids are learning to try new foods, or similar foods that are slightly different from what we are used to (ie: Coco Rice is similar to but not the same as Coco Pebbles, so we are getting used to that. And orange cheddar cheese is rare, so they are going to learn to eat other kinds)

In the morning, we took the bus to the next town over to get our Danish registration cards. Jeff wants to practice some more with the car before we all go together (a colleague is going to give him a couple of lessons) so we decided it would be a fun adventure to take the bus. We walked downtown to the bus station and then it was about 25 minutes to the next town. The kids thought it was fantastic!

We were done with our official business fairly quickly, but missed the going-home bus by just a couple of minutes. So we had an hour to walk around town. We went to the larger grocery store and got a fruit snack to eat before the ride home. It's nice that here when we say "fruit snack" we mean a snack of apples, bananas, pears, watermelon, and the like, rather than sticky fruit-flavoured jellies! And the kids are OK with that kind of fruit snack. It is fun, because we're eating outside, on an adventure, waiting for the bus to take us back home.

We walked a lot around town on our first day. First we walked to the folk school where Jeff will be working -it is very close to the house. Then we walked down the main street and stopped by the Friskole (preschool) where the boys will go. They immediately loved the playground, so we are in good shape there! We also went again to the grocery store. Then we played outside on the swing set and trampoline. It was a good day!

We went for supper to the headmaster of the folk school's house, which was very fun. They have a boy who is just a few months older than Anders and Torben, and the three of them seem to be kindred spirits already. They played for a couple of hours!

Wednesday night everyone slept through the night! Hooray. Perhaps we have passed our jet-lag now.

Thursday was the boys first day of school. They were very excited to go, though Anders had a meltdown about his lunch because we had a sandwich for him, and he *hates* sandwiches. We got to school and Torben had a meltdown because he had to take off his shoes and he'd worn sandals that day so didn't have socks. Thankfully, they had a basket of extras so he was quickly OK once again.

We picked them up and their teachers said they had a great day. They played with the kids, and the other kids would ask the teachers to translate things when they couldn't understand what our boys were saying to them. I think they will pick it up quickly and carry on their conversations in Danish with ease. When we picked them up, Anders said he LOVED his sandwich and he wanted to have the same tomorrow! I don't know when Signe and Jens put in the raspberry jam they made and left in the fridge, but it must be something magic for Anders to not only eat a sandwich, but talk about how he loved it and ask for it the next day!

Today, Friday, is our first real-schedule day. We all walked to the school to drop the boys off, who happily went to playing with the other kids as soon as we arrived. No meltdowns today, so that is progress! It is going to be a great school for them. The teachers are wonderful, and there are lots of kids to play with as well. Then Jeff and Svea and I walked to the folk school to drop Jeff off for meetings, and Svea and I came home. We did some typical "stay-at-home" things, like put in some laundry, clean up the kitchen, have coffee (she had milk), and watch a quick show. I turned on Miffy cartoon for her, which she thought was slightly amusing. Mostly, though, she played with toys until a song came on the show, and then she would start dancing to the music. Such a happy little girl she is!