The Carl Jensen Triathalon

The Saturday before last, Russ competed in a mini-triathlon hosted by his friend Morten.  It was held in Morten's hometown of Humlebaek, about 30 minutes north of Copenhagen (Humlebaek is also the town Sixten is from, hence how we know Morten, and many of the other competitors).

This triathlon begins with a 600 meter swim at Morten's parents' seaside home, then a 25 kilometer bike ride through the Danish countryside to Morten's house, and wraps up with a 6.5 kilometer running loop in Morten's neighborhood.

Before the race

Below is a photo of the swimming portion of the race as the competitors reach the shore.  Please do notice who is leading the pack . . . None other than my amazing husband!

Russ, first place swimmer!

The whole event took roughly 1.5 hours to complete, so while Russ et al. were in the throws of it, Alex and I entertained ourselves by making new friends of the other wives and children, and cheering on Dada and our buddy Sixten:

Red and blue are the official colors of the Carl Jensen Triathlon

Russ and Sixten finished strong, and tired:

Once the race was over we all adjourned to Morten's amazing home in the country for an afternoon of good fun and delicious food (including a soft serve ice cream machine. Yum!).  Morten and his wife, Mikela, have built a fabulous playground on their property for their 2 1/2 year old daughter to enjoy.  We all made good use of it that day:

They also have horses (by the way, I love this place!), which we very much enjoyed meeting:

The day ended with an award ceremony for the winners.  Since a majority of the race is bicycling, the big winners were all bikers.  But I am very proud to report that Russ was the fastest in not only the swimming, but also the running portion of the race, winning him two Vikings.  He was of course the big winner in my eyes.

The Winners

Intruder

The other night Russ and I were in the midst of our weekly MAD MEN fix (we've been downloading the show from iTunes because we love it so and need to keep current), when suddenly I realized we were not alone.  Someone had come in through the bathroom window and was spying on us from beneath our dining room table!

Fear not, dear readers, as this burglar was only out to steal our affection.  

It was none other than our neighborhood cat:

Making himself at home

He settled right in, and wooed me into petting him.  Poor Alex was fast asleep and missed all the fun.  That child has spent so many hours chasing this kitty in our yard.  If only he had been awake to enjoy the excitement of his beloved kitty actually hanging out in our kitchen, begging for petting and snacks.

I guess we owe him a cat when we get home.  Right, Russ?

So Funny

Here's a riddle for you:

What do you get when you add this key

This doorhandle/key lock combo

And this rascal?

Answer:

Two super freaked out parents!

Yes indeed, a few mornings back Alex locked himself in his room.  He's been experimenting with taking some time out for himself, hiding behind the chair in his bedroom, or in the closet and asking us to "go way."  We usually indulge him and wait patiently just out of sight until he says it's okay for us to come back in (typically about 5 seconds after he sends us away).

The other morning he started closing his bedroom door on me with the usual directive to "go way."  I let him close the door and stood on the other side asking "OK, can I come in now?"  He giggled, so I took that as a "yes" and went to open the door.  Only it didn't open.  Little had I known when I let him close the door that there was a crazy Euro-style key in our crazy Euro-style door.  Oh no!!!

Russ rushed over and fiddled with the door handle trying to figure out how to unlock it while I paced around the house having multiple panic attacks and imagining the various scenarios that were likely about to unfold:  Fire departments called, doors pounded down, windows bashed in . . . with Alex all the while screaming to be rescued and us helpless to get him . . .

Of course Alex wasn't screaming yet.  He thought he'd really done something wonderful and kept saying "So funny" and giggling on the other side of the door.  Yeah, hysterical.

After what seemed like an hour, but was probably 3 minutes, Russ told Alex to turn the key again, and (thank goodness!) he did.  The door unlocked, was opened, and there was our little monkey:  So proud of himself for his funny antics.

Needless to say, all those crazy Euro keys have been removed from all doors in our apartment and I have spent much time studying how I will dismantle the doorknob if ever caught in that situation again.

Whew.

Zootopia

Guess who has an annual pass to the Copenhagen Zoo?

We do!

And guess who is already putting their annual pass to good use with 3 trips in the past 2 weeks?  That's right.  Us again.

This zoo is awesome.  It's super close to our house (about a 20 minute walk, or a 5 minute bus ride).  They have really wonderful animal exhibits including those featured above, plus a huge elephant world, a very cool hippo tank, gibbons, baboons, et al in the primate realm, brown bears, all kinds of birds, rhinos, and real live reindeer!:

Taking a rest before Santa comes calling

You get the idea.  

Alex LOVES this zoo.  We had a membership to the LA zoo from the time he was about 10 months old until we moved away, and he generally had more interest in people watching or leaf collecting on our visits there (although he has always enjoyed the giraffes).  But now he seems to be the perfect age to truly appreciate all the wonderment a zoo has to offer.  

Thanks to a camel petting session on our second visit he is now completely bonkers for camels:

And double bonkers for goats (like really, really LOVES):

"Be nice, Goat!"

Aside from all the wonderful animals, the zoo also has a huge playground which is perfect fun for our little tot:

Racing the other zoo goers.

"Whee!"

One odd (if not a bit creepy) aspect of this zoo is the posting of these ranger signs all over the place, providing zoo facts.  Am I crazy or do these characters look a little too much like a certain former Iraqi dictator?

Alex was appropriately weirded out by this photo op.
Notice him refusing to peek through the face hole.

Anyway, it is an overall fabulous zoo, and a great way to spend a morning with a toddler. Three visits in, and the pass has already paid for itself.  Definitely a worthwhile investment for our stay here.  I'm planning to keep going as a weekly adventure with Alex.  I don't think he will complain considering that he has started regularly telling me "Amimals" when I ask him is he wants to go out.

Albert's Christening

Last Sunday we were invited to a christening for Albert, the new baby of our friends Marie and Daniel.  It was held in the garden of their gorgeous family home by the sea:

And all their wonderful friends were there:

The christening was fairly informal, just Daniel and Marie saying some words of blessing to their new son, and pouring some water on his little crown:

The whole event was really sweet and lovely.

It reminded me of how bummed I am for never having held such an event in Alexander's honor.  Although we are not particularly religious people, I had fully intended to have a gathering of family and friends for some sort of naming ceremony or other "Welcome to the World" baby blessing party.  That and the birth announcements just somehow never happened, and now nearly 2 years after the fact I very much regret that both things slipped by undone.  Perhaps we will still plan some sort of special event for Alex upon our return home . . .

Anyway, the party was great.  Really nice people, yummy food, beautiful afternoon.  There were so many babies in attendance, and long about 3 PM (or 15:00 as they call it in these parts), most of the babes were sleeping.  I did a photo shoot of nap time for my friend Caryn, who has been quite curious about the Danish custom of leaving babies to nap in the garden.  This practice was in full effect on Sunday (and I promise there really were babies sleeping in every single one of these strollers):

And yes, this time Alex joined in:

Happy 21-Month Birthday Alexander!

Can I stop counting your age in months now and just say you are nearly 2?

For those of you wondering what our dude has been up to, here are some tidbits:

Since our arrival in Denmark he has gotten his first scraped knee:

As Sixten says, he's a real boy now.

And really expanded his love of eating. From the moment he wakes up until the moment he goes to sleep he is either asking for food or rummaging through the cupboards in search of a snack.  "More, Banana, Plate." is regularly heard round our house, and also "OK. Cheese. Cut it." (he adds the "OK" so I know to be in agreement). Fortunately he enjoys his fruits and veggies as much as he does everything else:

Say "Peas!"

Alex loves music ("moosic") and is quite the dancer.  He has a growing repertoire of dance moves, including a slow groove, a fast boogie, and some expressive hand movements. He also loves to sing and we are working on the "ABC" song, which he will sing as "A,C,E" (so skipping every other letter for the moment), and he likes to sing "Baby Beluga" and "Kumbaya" in the sweetest voice I've ever heard (both learned from the infamous Raffi).

He also really enjoys art.  We spend a lot of time scribbling on paper and in his coloring books, and painting with watercolors and his buddha board.  He has started making up stories to go along with his artwork.  The other morning we were listening to music and he painted what looked to me like a blob, but he pointed out the various parts explaining "Funny man, Eyes, Dancing, Music."

Alex is getting very verbal, which is great because he apparently has a lot to say.  When we're at home he is usually telling me about the various things in our house:  "Mama black sweater," "Dada shoes," "Alex toys" etc.  Out in the world he will often add some surprise to the things he is noticing: "Oooh, red car!" and my favorite: Looking up in the sky and exclaiming "Oooh, Clouds!" Lately he has even been waking up talking, usually going on about "Mama, Dada, Alex."  This morning we could hear him in bed saying "Bump, Bump, Bump" and "Mike, Bike" which are references to his two favorite One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish Dr. Seuss rhymes.

Our little dude is very much an animal lover and has really enjoyed chasing the neighborhood cat around our garden:

"I see you, Kitty!" 

And feeding the ducks at the nearby lake (although he usually eats most of the bread himself):

Overall, he's a pretty awesome guy.  I am so enjoying this opportunity to spend my days with him and get to know him even better.  He's such a clever and inquisitive little boy and it is really cool to watch him discover the world.

Alexander the Great
1.75 years old!