All Hallows Eve

Halloween is getting to be a bigger holiday over here, but as of yet, kids don't dress up and beg for candy at our doorstep. They wait to do that in February for a holiday called FasteLavn (kids gorge themselves on candy to kick off the fasting period that leads up to Easter...don't we call that Lent in English?)
But to celebrate our own little way, we cut up a Jack-o-Lantern and called him, what else, Jack. Max liked to take his hat on and off and blow out his light and he warmed up our oh-so-dark mornings.

The other shot is just of the booger-bear with his favorite meal: hotdogs! Or, as they are called here, pølser (pr. "puhl-ser").

Max's vocabulary is just huge these days. Conversations revolve around drawing, reading, blocks and Legos, balls, guitars and drums.
In fact, when Max gets home, he doesn't want to watch cartoons or read a Winnie-the-Pooh book: he wants to watch daddys video of the U2 - Vertigo tour. "Guitar-drums!" he says when he walks in the door, "Bono singing", "The Edge", "Larry plays the drums".

What good taste in music our son has!

Our favorites story these days:
There is a Danish phrase "Altså!" (pr. alt-sah), which people use for just about everything. It often has the same meaning as "Oh, man!", but can also be used for "I mean.....", "Uhhhhh....." "Good grief!" and all sorts of other stuff.
So, the other day, Max was begging to taste my coffee. He never gets to, so I thought, sure, why not - then he'll know that he definitely DOESN'T want coffee from now on. So, I put the cup down to his mouth and he took a big drink.
The look on his face was priceless, his nose all scrunched up and his tongue sticking out - as if someone had given him vinegar and poop mixed with a lemon. He looked up at me and said "Altså, mor!" - which translated just perfect to "Good grief, ma! What in the world are you drinking?"

Autumn in Aarhus

It has been a glorious autumn in the frozen north! Usually we are turning up the radiators at the end of September and pulling out our wool sweaters. But we made up for a very wet summer with a lovely fall this year! We got the first frost in early November and that means that the leaves stayed on the trees all the way to the end of October and turned all sorts of colors. There was sunny skies, no wind and no rain (very un-danish in the fall), and that called for weekend trips out to the forrest.

Here we all are out at Moesgaard (pr. "mosegore") enjoying the crisp air. The building in the background is part of a century old flour mill and saw mill. The mill still works and every Sunday, you can go in and see how they ground corn, the old fashioned way. The mill was also attached to a large sawblade. So, it was like a 1900's Wal-Mart: get your flour milled and your logs chopped all at the same place!

None the less, a very cozy place to spend the day. The beach is just off to the right (the river flows directly into the harbor), horses from the neighboring farms ride through, and there are little fish in the ponds that are dammed off from the river.

The pics are pretty self-explanatory: Max with Farmor and Farfar, Max with daddy (Morten), us as a family, the pretty view, and the video is of Max discovering the endless opportunities of Sticks! Guard your face and the family jewels - Max has discovered Sticks!