Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Good morning...darkness

After ten full days of waking up whenever we wanted to (or, rather, whenever the first of the kids wanted to), Monday morning was a little rough when the alarm went off. We typically get up around 7am, and this is what the sky looked like then

Anders would have none of it. He asked how it could possibly be morning when it was still that dark out. At least the light colours give a hint that daylight is coming! The sunrise was set for about 7:55 that day, and by the time we left for school it felt like "morning". The thermometer on the bank that we pass each morning registered at 2 degrees, so, while still not quite freezing, it was chilly. Our kids, of course, put their coats in their backpacks as they felt it wasn't cold enough to wear them. I had a sweater and a scarf on, and by the time I got back to the house I was actually quite warm from the walk. The snow suits we bought a few weeks ago are apparently the common apparel for outdoor school play whenever the temperatures reach a daytime high of 10 or less. So, about half of the kids were wearing those at school (I think the high got to 12), and the other half were still wearing their regular rain suits. It doesn't feel cold to me here, a bit chilly for sure, but not cold. But those who live here are often all bundled up already. I hope that means the winter will feel "mild" to us! We've heard that it's supposed to be a bad one here.

This morning Anders was on top of the whole darkness thing. He has discovered that you turn on all the lights as soon as you wake up, and that helps get the morning started. Torben is still not quite ready to be up and ready to go in the mornings. He will always be a night-owl I think. Anders is definitely our morning lark, and Svea seems to be marching to her own tune...both a morning lark and a night owl. She just doesn't want to miss out on anything! She still takes two naps during the day, though, for a total of 3-4 hours and sleeps almost 12 at night, so she's happy as a clam most of the time. She seems to have it figured out...sleep, wake up to eat, play, repeat. In the mornings, she wakes up and says "morgen", and after her naps she wakes up and says "lunch?".

The boys really seem to be interested in whatever activities we undertake...I got a colouring book of mandalas to bring with us, and they wanted so much to colour in it that we got them each their own this weekend so they could colour to their hearts' content. They LOVE it! We reminded them, though, that these are big kid books and they have to be careful and respectful with them. They aren't cheap colouring books, but we wanted to get them for them because they would enjoy them. While they were colouring, then, Anders said "Torben's not old enough for these books." Which was pretty amusing, since he's only 1 minute older. He pulls that out a lot, though, when it seems to suit him. He is more meticulous, though, and a bit more careful with his colouring than Torben is, so I think that is what he meant. It's fun to see them both run into the house and pick up their coloured pencils and colouring books, though, rather than start begging for Kindle or Pokemon.

I have been working on learning to knit since I got here, and the boys are very excited that I am making each of them a scarf. So this weekend, they also asked if I could teach them to knit so they could do it too. We went to the recycle shop and got two more sets of needles and some regular yarn, and yesterday started our first lesson. It's going to be a long road. I was trying to cast on for Torben's, and he just kept saying, "when do I get to knit? I want to make gloves and a hat." I tried hard not to laugh, I didn't want to stifle his drive! But all I can knit is variants of a scarf, so I don't know how I will teach my 5yr old to knit gloves and a hat... We will try again this afternoon maybe. Anders tried for one row, and decided it wasn't his thing. I like that they are wanting to try new things, though! That is something they are definitely learning from this experience here this year.

1 comment:

  1. I think it is great they want to knit (or at least try)!

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