owen adds new life to the café scene

here are a couple of snaps from one of our favorite cafés here in alesund (here's owen last spring standing out front)--invit espresso cafe. the top is from the barstools upstairs, which was a major mark of how much owen has grown since last we were here. he was very proud and assured me that he was "very big" to be sitting on the "tall chairs." they make the best fresh fruit smoothies and a proper cappuccino. the second is taken from the very fun downstairs basement--attached to a scandanavian design shop. i confess it does make me want to refurnish our house in magenta and black and white.

this view is made possible by. . .

here's a shot of our boat room--complete with the orange begonias owen picked for the windowsill and cozy writing desk. we've been abroad now over a week and our home away from home is starting to feel, well, like home. but i wanted to thank the "behind the scenes" people who have helped make the settling in possible. like nana for gathering and sorting all our mail, papa who went back and set up sprinklers so our roses would continue to bloom, grandma who shipped the small black bag of essentials that was left behind in the car, and grandpa who scanned no less than thirtysix pages of teaching evals so i could complete an application due back on the west coast. and that's just in the last week. and then my neighbors who keep an eye on number seventeen. and our wednesday friends who had stamped love waiting for us when we got here. and then of course just being out here in blogspace connected somehow to the wider world of fidfam. so thank you all for making hte view possible. we promise, in turn, to stop and smell the croissants, to count ships, and to dance in the cobblestone streets.

"look! a pirate ship"

it's been a busy day outside our window--right now the norland and the nordfisk are busy loading/unloading freight at the docks. this morning we watched the hurtigurten trollfjord (the same ship we rode from bergen) unload passengers and owen got this great snapshot of the "pirate ship" (he took the picture and positioned the hat all on his own!):

"train hotdog" and "SAS YES": owen's post and pictures

gdm vnmm./bv

the flip side of five

so if there are five things that are storybook and sexy about travel there are certainly five (if i can say so on a tuesday) that are not. and since owen is finally sleeping after being up since two am it seems a good time as any to unwind the other five.

5. well, sleep certainly. we're on day six of owen's commimtment to california time--which means wake up calls between 2 and 4 am that sound something like: "but WHY can't we go down to breakfast now?!"

4. cold soft boiled eggs. the allure of breakfast buffet quickly loses its appeal with runny cold eggs.

3. running out of diapers. this goes something like the walking five miles up the hill in the snow at the crack of dawn--only it was sometime before stores opened, in the rain, through muddy cobblestone.

2. trying to unpack six suitcases in something like two hundred square feet of space. although i have to say i did have some wonderful mary poppins moments--if only i had packed that hat rack.

1. explaining to owen that despite the fact that he sang a lovely song for his best friend west at four am he was not going to be at breakfast and neither will nana, papa, grandma or grandpa meet us for cake later today.

of course writing all of this is restorative in itself, and as the rain clouds literally clear, yes i can see them moving outside of the spectacular ocean view windows in our teeny room, i know it'll be ok. i'm tired, anxious and irritated with myself for all of the little things back home i'm still trying to manage. and then that's why we're here really--so we can manage it all together. i had this teary moment at the h&k dinner bar with michael while owen was konked out and explained that i knew we could do this because i've read mrs. dalloway and believe in it, believe in her. and i really think i explained it like that, but i believe in this moment as definining all moments and that one must walk down busy streets and eat brie sandwiches. yes, something like that. oh, and if you're blessed enough to have a room with a view (couldn't help that reference) it's even better than a room of one's own (or this one--but a desk will do with a napping child and your loved one coming back on the four o clock ferry).

friday five

as we took our walk through town this morning i was reminded of all the things i love about travel--here are five that are at the top of my list.

5. hand painted artisan buildings-- i love the unassuming shop front of this glass shop (and the woman sneaking up to her loft above). it just seems like part of a novelistic version of what belongs on a city street.

4. owen's ability to literally stop and smell the flowers--we stopped to check the map on our way out to the iconic mermaid statue and owen literally jumped out of his stroller and sat on the asphalt to pick dandelions.

3. architectural details--i love the pattern in this ornate cobblestone outside of the four royal palaces of amalienborg. i'm also fond of wrought iron (i've got some gorgeous pictures of that outside of the frederikskirken--far more beautiful, i think, then the imposing popish statues) and statues in unexpected places.

2. this goes along with number five-- i love fun shop signs. this one was for a danish kids clothing boutique.

1. i confess, and this goes along with navigating my way through cities by following novelistic threads, eating a cafe lunch takes the cake. i had to put two pics up here--after a pretty intense walk across town with some jetlag wearieness i nearly cried when i came back to our cafe table after ordering and found owen intensely at work writing his postcards. it was just a perfect serene moment. and then our cappuccinos and cafe brunch came and i knew we found my corner of heaven.

beautiful sunny copenhagen morning

Owen had us up at 4am this morning - just enough time to get showered up and ready for breakfast that opened at 6:30. We were ready to hit the town and explore. We decided to walk to the other end of town (where the little mermaid statue is) and back.
Along the way we walked through the Royal Gardens (the Amalie gargen) and the four Royal palaces of Amalienborg - home of the Danish royal family. We also walked by the Frederikskirken (the Marble church).
We're taking a break after a big brunch near the Kongens Nytorv (King's New) square and at least two of us are trying to get a nap (Owen is too busy bouncing off the walls still) before checking out the Tivoli gardens amusement park across the street.

Buildings lining Nyhavn (new harbor):


Cara and Owen in the square of the Royal palaces of Amalienborg with no one around:


Michael and Owen down by the Little Mermaid bronze statue:


View from hotel room of the Tivoli gardens:

in københavn

here we are in copenhagen, denmark at the swanky royal sas radisson
and i thought i'd do a quick post to say as much, but mostly because i'm deliriously tired and trying to stay awake until a proper danish bedtime even though it definitely feels like 6 am or some such nonsense. i wish we could take our danish modern room with us to aalesund--it's bright and spacious and feels very much like a metro loft-- there's a spacious writing desk separating the sleeping area from the sitting area where owen's konked out on a fold out bed and a separate toilet/shower and TUB! with fun green/blue/white small glass tiles.

the flight was long, but decent. michael got a deal and booked us in economy-extra and the extra included a footrest and 3 seats instead of 4 to a row. all of these miles m. puts in are wearying but the perks are definitely making this fidfam a little spoiled. in fact, michael just discovered the hotel robes and i'm so into that! i'm just so ready just to unpack these suitcases and make our home-away-from home homey. i spent so much time packing that i'm loath to unpack just to try to fit everything jenga-like back into these suitcases (one of which--the one i obtained after 4 weeks of warranty negotiations--busted at the seams. luckily they have duct tape in norway). i'm also missing my headphones which is a bummer and hopefully is either in the back of the fidler jeep and not somewhere lost at seatac.

but we're here. we'll be here until sunday and hope to see some castles and eat some hotdogs (apparently that's what you do with the danes) before nesting in norway. and we have not one, but two cameras--owen's grandparents got him his owEn camera! and he's already taken some great snaps. look for the new owen's weekly snaps feature on the blog! in the meantime, love to everyone, email often and keep the comments coming--it reminds us that we're not all that far away from loved ones ;) and if you're feeling stamp-y i'll send you our address!

"no mom, i can do it MYSELF."

so being three is definitely all about asserting your three-ness. today owen insisted on buckling his carseat himself, walking the dog himself, and undressing himself--here he is after shouting "mom! unstuck me!" because he needed to be completely naked at 6:30 in order to play cars.

"ooooooh. that's baby stella."

5.2

and then there are the unexpected, the quiet players inside fidfam. like last night j. played soccer with the boys while i held stella and b. read all 37 pages of my chapter and gave me both the love and critical scribbles i needed. now owen is sleeping, dreaming i'm sure of papa building his hotwheel and kicking the yellow ball with west and i'm enjoying a quiet morning with the balcony door cracked open drafiting 3_2 with my pink pen; exhausted, but content. if only i could get sierra to make me some coffee. . .

required reading

so you must indulge in this book for the fanciful and surreal illustrations by mordicai gerstein or for the poetry of jacques prévert that sings how to paint the portrait of a bird. if possible, have owen read it to you--he makes the most intense pages come alive with shrieks and song. it does at the very least make me want to spend the day hauling around a canvas and a paintbrush.

and whether or not you're planning to take a parisienne tour this summer you should read this is paris
because it opens by introducing you to three cats you might meet in paris--and i'm not being hipster here, really three meowing kitty cats with names like kiki and rita--but then also illustrates the kinds of post boxes you might find (like one hiding in a street lamp) as well as gives a quick history lesson of paris (much better than i remember getting in french 1A) by giving you a walking tour of sorts of the city.

this perhaps goes with number six on my list--beautiful new books we've discovered and owen's latest predilection to sit with a stack of books and give his own reading which is a cross between dr. seuss rhyming and sesame street counting with a little jon&john from TMGB thrown in for song.

5.1

so as soon as i post my friday five i'm thinking of everyone that defines number five--and right now i'm especially thankful for my own mom, nana, because she's the reason i get this indulgent morning in a cafe to write (ummm blogging counts) and drink machiatos and otherwise find some zen equilibrium. plus this picture is too fabulous not to share. now to revise file vw_draft_2_9.

fabulous friday five

needless to say the last couple of weeks have been manic--as the ticker counts down days and hours until we go norway! we've been doing all those things you do before leaving home for 7 weeks which includes extended visits to the post office and readjusting the sprinkler system. personally i'm trying to finish my dissertation chapter i began working on in our last trip to norway and hand it off to my chair. i'm at the coffee depot now typing up what i hope to at least to be the penultimate draft. so i thought rather than rant about the frustrations of the week (which have been many and varied--including farcical conversations about our damaged luggage and diaper bags that never shipped) i'd start my writing day with five fabulous things that have kept me going--those things that if i hadn't been so manic i would have blogged about weeks ago. so here they are:

5. our three-year old wearing his birthday pants dancing in the street at cal adventure before the pixar play parade

4. beautiful baby stella

3. the upcoming birth of owen's baby cousin--and having a healthy, beautiful sister in law as the mother-to-be

2. having a brother--because who else would take owen to chuck e cheese? (that's chocolate cake all over owen's nose, btw)

1. having a fidfam--which is family in the most beautiful, largest sense of the word.

perks and Happy Ascension Day!

Here's a shot from within the SAS lounge in the South terminal in Seattle. SAS upgraded me to gold recently, which is kinda nice, wish they would upgrade me to business class instead... maybe after a few more trips. Less than two weeks until the whole Fidfam comes over! The sun is up at 5am now and is setting about 10.30pm.

on the eve of three

tomorrow owen will be turning three, and it already seems like i need the slideshow retrospective, a looking back to when my little boy was a little baby boy. but really he's been "bigger already" for quite some time and has of late started categorizing activities in which he's "not big enough yet" (like wearing bandaids) and those which he's "bigger" for (riding his trike). here's one of my favorite "big boy" shots from last week--when he decided it was definitely cool to wear shades.

and then last week he was both my baby and my big boy (which really isn't that what he'll be to me always always?) when he put on his nemo swim diaper, his purple crocs, and his blue and red crab bucket hat and watered i. & k.'s garden.

but lately i've felt plagued with that journaling flu of sorts--the one that keeps you from writing because it seems you can't possibly catch all those moments or give meaning to the ones that are most important. i've been reading joan didion's slouching towards bethlehem and found an essay that i'd photocopied back when i taught english 1a to college freshman and reread it in the larger context of writing and not writing. the collection as a whole is amazing--but i love that she discounts wholly what she calls "diarying" because of course we run into that anxiety of "catching up" and missing events. she talks about how writing, and now it seems all so relevant to blogging, is really personal--her notebook is filled with random lists and snippets from overheard conversations that are meant as personal reminders, not of the events themselves--but on who she was at that point in time. i guess i disocvered somewhere around owen's third week that i wasn't the kind of mother that kept a baby book but have been intensely interested in owen's life as part of a notebook--one that is inextricable from my own (owen would say, of course "my oWen") and of course one that is far more interesting than any kind of diary that i would ever keep. mostly i can't believe how incredibly beautiful this notebook is--and colorful, and hilarious. if i were taking videos today, of course, i would have recorded owen's spontanteous dance medley (inspired both from a previous episode of c&l when lola is trying to find a dance style she can do and our attempt at a.m. yoga this morning mixed with his own creative spin) in which he did a very rigorous "exercise dance" and then a "ladybug dance" and then took requests from me & m. for everything from snake dancing to train dancing. . .

on a more banal diary note, tonight i made the spinach with ricotta and penne
from martha's everyday food with tj's wholewheat w/ flax penne and in a fix tossed in their nut medley (pepitas, slivered almonds, pine nuts). it was quite tasty and utilized my favorite one-pot technique by tossing in greens to the boiling water just before draining. the key is toasting the nuts, but it was a satsifying, simple meal. although owen is quite the gormund he's not quite into the leafy greens (yet) so i steamed some frozen broccoli quickly and then did my neighbor's kiddy mac & cheese trick--melted one lite laughing cow triangle, cooled with milk and then poured. all the boys were satisfied. mmm.

also in the diary: been packing for norway; trying to finish my diss. chapter before takeoff; addicted to starbucks new pike's place blend and tj's chocolate ice cream bonbons.

fyi: the countdown off to the right is for our departure from SEA to CPH--we'll actually leave the OC the saturday previous and road trip it up to p-town (with dog and tot) then spend a few days in copenhagen before settling into our norwegian home in aalesund.

but mostly, good night sweet two year old. looking forward to what three will bring . . .

best(er) friends

so while we're all cooing over the new baby the boys just kept right on being beautiful boys. here's one of my favorite moments from last week when o. & w. just sat down and decided they'd color cars pictures together and they were such an enthusiastic team cheering on each other with their choice of color and scribble shouting look! owen is coloring mcqueen purple! and wow! west colored tow mater's tow red! and then just cracking up. nope, no baby is slowing these guys down ;)

a star is born

"There! Out it boomed. First a warning, musical; then the hour, irrevocable. The leaden circles dissolved in the air. Such fools we are, she though, crossing Victoria Street. For heaven only knows why one loves it so, how one sees it so, making it up, building it round one, tumbling it, creating it every moment afresh; but the veriset frumps, the most dejected of miseries sitting on doorsteps (drink their downfall) do the same; can't be dealt with, she felt positive by Acts of Parliament for that very same reason: they love life. In people's eyes, in the swing, tramp, and trudge; in the bellow and the uproar; the carriages, motor cars, omnibuses, vans, sandwich men shuffling and swinging; brass bands; barrel organs; in the trumph and the jingle and the strange high singing of some aeroplane overhead was what she loved: life; London; this moment of June."

-Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway

Stella Dalloway Mulholland
April 6, 2008

7 lbs 4 ounces - 20 inches

look at that beautiful family! i love the "what's up?" face with big brother, and come on, could she look more peaceful in my arms?

and now for the pics...

hello fidfam adventurers! apologies for the lax posting-- it's been a frantic but productive last few weeks as we try and wrap up projects here at home before joining michael in norway for the rest of spring.

and our super sidekicks b&w (or perhaps we are their sidekicks--i think it depends on the day of the week) had a new arrival: *stella dalloway* and she couldn't be more gorgeous or perfect--we steal over to see her every chance we get!

today the snyders came out and joined us for some respite from this ridiculous heat and we had one of those aha! moments down at the montage beach and just gorged on the absolute beauty of the sand, the sea and the sun. i had to share these pics: owen posing by the beach access sign before he ran all the way down the purple bloomed path shouting "this way! this way matty! to the beach!"; sakura discovers blackberries; owen glistens in the sun by the tidepools--he was searching for sand crabs with no luck (we did see some gorgeous purple urchings and one orange seastar!); tomoko, matty & sakura--who loves the seaside berries but not the cold cold sea!

tonight we changed gears and owen tried out the raingear i'd ordered for our norway trip-- a new rain coat and some puddle stompers:





it'll be hard to leave behind the sunshine but we can't wait to share our adventures together! as soon as owen put his boots on he was ready to stomp all the way to the airport. . .

owen on the ipod

3 down.. 1 to go

I visited my 3rd scandinavian country over the weekend -- flying into Copenhagen on my way to Alesund, Norway (only Finland left). An airport is no way to judge a country, but when Cara and Owen come over in May we will spend about 3 full days in Copenhagen, so we will see more of the city later. I've grabbed some photos using google images (so they are not mine), but give you a good idea of what the airport looks like.
I was on the inagural flight between Copenhagen (CPH) and Alesund (AES) using a Bombardier CRJ. Typical first flight stuff happened -- delayed for 3 hours, needed to get the right maps (a bit scary), trouble with the cabin lights -- had to switch planes because of this one... But at least they had champagne and cake for the passengers. I skipped on the freebies and headed off to the Starbucks found in Terminal 2.