Happy Valentine's Day and Fastelavn

Today, we got to celebrate 2 holidays - Valentines Day and Fastelavn. The Valentine's day was a little anticlimatic as Brad is in the US for two weeks. We miss him a lot, but my sister Joni is coming tomorrow to stay with me, so that will help so much and I'm looking forward to some quality time with her.

I'll be honest, it was a rough day with the kids, so I'm not feeling all that romantic anyways. Our day started early with Broderick waking up just after 6 and promptly going into Anika's room, turning on her lights and waking her up. "But I wanted to play with her." he says.

I attempted to put them both back to bed for a little bit. I actually think Anika did sleep a little more, or at least she was quiet for an hour, but apparently Broderick was prowling the house shortly after I had put him back in bed.

I had bought them each a little valentine's gift - he found them and opened them.

He got into the cupboards and was eating cookies - who knows how many he consumed.

And he took stickers out of his art box and stuck a couple of sheets on his bedroom floor. (That was fun pulling all those up.)

I know, I know ... where was the mom while all this was going on??? Well, I was sleeping and didn't hear a thing. I know ... bad mom, but it was early!

So even though they drive me crazy sometimes, I do love these two SO much and glad to have them as my valentines.

We had a great surprise in the mail this week too! Grandma Jane sent us a valentine's package. We love mail! Broderick was more than willing to help Anika open her gifts. Trying on the new clothes from Grandma. Thanks grandma so much! Broderick (and Anika) were so excited to get a package.

And like I mentioned earlier, its fastelavn. Broderick will have a party tomorrow at school, but he also had a party at church today. I have to say ... he makes quite a cute clown. We didn't go door to door, but we did go to our friends Jørgen and Kirstine's. Broderick and KirstineAnika and Jørgen were in the kitchen. Broderick had to check out what they were doing. Here's Broderick at church hitting the "barrel". They have the tradition of hitting a wooden barrel, kind of like a pinata. They put candy in it now, but back when it started, they put a black cat in it and hit it to ward off evil spirits (or something like that).

Happily eating some candy.

Yesterday, I had my mother's group. Now that some of the girls are back to work (after their one year maternity leave), we are meeting on the weekends. It helps pass the time when Brad's gone to have things to do, so I was looking forward to seeing all of them.

One afternoon for fun, Broderick and I made cinnamon rolls too. The recipe made a ton, so I froze a lot of them, but Broderick had a lot of fun. He loves helping me in the kitchen. Many days, he pulls his chair over to the kitchen and helps me cook dinner.

Yes, they are kindof pathetic looking, but they tasted good. That's all that matters, right?

This last monday before Brad left, we had a conference with his teachers at børnehave to see how he's doing.

Our very first parent/teacher conference.

About this crazy guy ...

But, it was great. They had nothing but good things to say about him. Always quick with a smile (that's Broderick) and friendly. They also told us "when he's backed into a corner, he will hit" (ok, not so good), but they didn't seem concerned, "that's just boys", they said.

They also told us that he understands quite a lot of Danish. He doesn't speak it much, but understands most of it. Way to go buddy.

We also talked about his potty training ... or lack thereof . We have had many frustrations dealing with this for the last several months. But his teacher told us that its probably more than he can handle right now. She reminded us that the situation we put Broderick in every day ... in a new environment where people don't speak his native language ... is very mentally tiring for a kid. Other kids don't speak english. Many adults do, so we don't have that constant stress to communicate (only a sometimes stess), but Broderick doesn't get that break when he's dealing with his peers. This gives him one area where he can maintain control

I don't know if there's anything to it ... I think Broderick is a smart kid and I know he has the ability. But it made me realize what a tough kid he is and we probably don't give him enough credit. So, maybe I just need to relax a little and wait until he's ready.

Brad keeps saying he doesn't know a kid yet who went to kindergarten in diapers.

I really hope we're not the first!