Summer At Last

Molli’s second winter in this world was long, cold, dark, bleak, wet, and miserable. It began sometime last September and lasted right up until last Tuesday. On that day the warmth returned to Denmark. It’s been with us ever since, and the notoriously unreliable Danish meteorologists assure us it will be with us as far into the future as they can see. Finally I get to post pictures of Molli Malou in natural lighting without fifteen pounds of outerwear wrapped around her.

But first this adorable picture of Molli Malou’s big blue eyes.

Speaking of big blue eyes, her boyfriend Liam turned two on May Day, so there was a birthday party for him last weekend. Here’s the birthday boy (you can see Molli Malou in her party clothes in the left side of the picture):

Here’s a better shot of Molli Malou in her party outfit:

Wednesday was the first time in a long, long time that Molli Malou was running around outside when I went to pick her up at Vuggestue.

She climbed into this little rocking elephant all by herself:

Actually that’s not very impressive after some of the things she did today: jamming the electric kettle into the microwave to try and make “pep-peppa tea” (peppermint tea) for her father was her morning accomplishment; in the afternoon she apparently hoisted herself up onto one of the tire swings out back all by herself, then swung herself in a standing position for a while, then climbed down without breaking her neck. (Trine saw it, I missed it.)

The week got warmer every day. Friday afternoon the three of us met John and Liam in Tivoli.

It felt more like summer than spring.

We got the kids to the bouncy thing they both love right away (that’s Liam on his butt just to the left of Molli Malou, who’s dead center).

Molli Malou’s actually in mid-air in this next shot, but I wasn’t far enough back to capture the whole jump.

The kids played on that damn thing for about half an hour. Finally they got sick of it and after a few more playground distractions we were able to drag them off to a little grassy spot and have a beer while they ambled around aimlessly.

Molli Malou’s instinct upon seeing a flower is to yank it up and stuff it in her mouth, but over the past week I’ve been trying to teach her to smell instead of touch. It’s paying dividends:

Molli Malou and Liam spent a good deal of time on the path beside the pond here, putting on a show for all the passers-by.

The weather was gorgeous yesterday, too, but we spent most of the morning doing yard work and most of the afternoon and evening recovering from having done all that yard work in the midday sun.

Today was another gorgeous day; we had a barbecue lunch with John, Sandie, Liam, and a few other couples with kids about two years old, then came home for Molli Malou’s nap. After her nap she played in the backyard. How warm was it?

It was just so nice to see her in light clothing outside. She loves being barefoot and we’re actually having a hell of a time to keep her from tearing off her shoes the minute she’s out of doors.

It only gets cuter with the hat:

Most of the other kids in the building are either considerably older than Molli Malou or still too young to be out playing with her, so she’s kind of the runt of the “playing kids” at the moment. With the exception of a couple of four-year-old pirates who always seem to want to hack her to bits with their play swords, and one little girl who’s getting a little tired of Molli Malou following her around, most of the kids are very indulgent of Molli Malou. They look out for her to some extent, and seem to get a kick out of her toddler cluelessness. Naturally she just adores all of them.

The English and Danish are getting more and more mixed up as she embarks on longer sentences. Today she held up one of her crepes at dinner, looked at me with astonishment, and said, “It’s stor, daddy!” (“It’s big, daddy!”)

She likes saying “OK” and “there you go.” She fully grasps the concept of “please” and uses it perfectly. (fx. “Mere candy? Pleeeeeeeeease?”)

She’s still sleeping to about seven or later on average.

We’re thinking of getting her a haircut (you can see it’s getting a little wild again), but we’re sort of curious to see what it does on its own: it seems to be getting thicker and it’s got kind of a funny curl or wave at the bottom that may develop into something.

She’s 22 months old now.