A half birthday

My dear little Tinypuce,

Happy birthday my love! You are six months already. Six months et toutes ses dents pas du tout de dents. Oh well, don't worry, they will come these little teeth of yours :)

By now you have already accumulated more nicknames than anyone could ever wish for. Kært barn har mange navne, they say in Denmark, and it's oh-so true. A loved child as many names. Just to give you a few, we have the now-famous tinymus, and its French variation tinypuce, but also, in no specific order: Olive, Lili, Livia, Olivebadolive (can you tell who came up with this one?), Miss O, Baby O (Tatate Soaz just reminded me!), puce, pucinette, tinypucinette, minette, sweetpea, skat, etc...

Six months. And six countries already under your belt. You go little one! Denmark, France, Norway, Sweden, the UK, and the latest Israel -which is where we are right now. To celebrate your half birthday yesterday, we went down to the beach in the evening, dipped your feet in the water since you love it so much, and afterwards we blew some big soap bubbles to celebrate....which, turns out, you could have cared less about. Ungrateful child :D hehe oh well, at least your mama had a blast blowing them!

My tinylove, you have brought so much joy in our life these past few months. You have opened more doors for us than you could possibly imagine, and we can't wait to find out what life with you is going to bring in the future. I hear your dad say "Poopy diapers!".... but enough said for today, because, after all, this is only a half birthday and I should keep the really good stuff for January.

Keep on rocking our world, little girl!

Love ya to pieces,

Mama

One year ago

....and so many more wonderful things have happened since then! But these days, oh these days spent with the people we love, I'll never forget them. Happy anniversary my love :)

Happy to be little

On Saturday we celebrated Mads, version 2.0 . That's right, this big boy turned 2 already! Is it me only or does time fly by like crazy? It scares me to think that Olivia is almost half a year.

And it was also the perfect occasion for us to meet his brand new little brother Bertrand who stayed cuddle in the shade because it's been so so hot in Denmark these past few days....a whole 25 degrees hehe. Denmark hot.

And perfect occasion for me to snap some pics of all these little ones running around, just happy to be little. They run, they jump, they hide and play with water. They look up amazed at the wind moving the branches of trees, they smell flowers. And all of these small things put such magical smiles on their faces.

Kuddos to Line & Rasmus for organizing such a nice little get-together despite the fact that they are oh-so sleep-deprived these days!

Good Old Sweden

We've been so so lucky to "meet" a lot of new cities and places lately. Like cousin Oslo a few months ago. Or also good old great aunt Sweden this past week. Another of these places that is like an far-away relative. You don't know really know well, but you've only hear stories about....stories that are sometimes flattering, and sometimes not depending on who tell them ;)

And you get there, and it feels comfortable right away. We get a big glass of wine when you arrive, you sit down outside and you just know you're gonna get along.

We happened to find great aunt Sweden in her tiny red wooden summer house hidden deep in the forest, not too far from a beautiful lake. Total quietness and Olivia was able to get her master's degree in tree-hugging while we were there.The only neighbors were - guess who- our dear friends the mosquitos...now I told you Sweden just felt familiar!

An eye for an eye...mmmm. Or rather, a hand for an eye.

It was relaxed, it was chill, it was oh-so simple and exactly what we needed. Sweden winked at us, and we winked right back.

We actually didn't "do" much during the week, aside a little "elk safari" which is probably the biggest tourist trap there is in Sweden. Yep - when we choose a touristy attraction in the Smits family, we don't joke around with that :D

But who cares. This vacation was not about scoring ten museums from our to-do list or dinning every night at a fancy restaurant. Rather, it was all about the small moments: going for a swim to cool down in the afternoon. Sitting by the lake to watch the sun set behind the trees with the distant sound of kids jumping in the water and singing "hakuna matata".

Being followed by a butterfly on my way to the lake - there is nothing like making friends during a vaca. The smell of pine trees when the heat is cranking up outside. And the best of the best: dangling little girls by their feet :)

Talking about heat, we got back to Denmark and first thing we did was get a mini-swimming pool for Miss O. And she digged it let me tell you: feet in the water and trees all around her....what else could she possibly ask for?

My daddy, he's so funny when he makes bubbles

Look mama, no hands! :)

Hopefully she is enjoying the cooler weather of Denmark, because on Sunday we are meeting yet another friend, this time a friend from the hot hot East: we are going to Israel. Not planned, a bit last minute, and I am so so excited about it! Thank you oh thank you frequent flyer miles ;)

24

24 hours. 1440 minutes. A whole day. Of fun.

A whole day of feeling like life can never be any better. And yet, nothing extraordinary happened, really, when I look back at it. But all the little things added up to make this big, fat, beautiful day.

It started last night with our friends coming for dinner. We grilled meat. We sang to Mikkel playing the guitar and Anders the piano iphone. We held our crying babies tight and kissed them until they could fall asleep. We shared wine and laughs. It has been so good to move back closer to Troels' friends, there is just somethings special about hanging out with old friends.

Late night meant we were a bit slow getting started in the morning....until Troels told me "Gather a few things, and pack the Tinypuce. I am taking you guys on a short trip. It's a surprise!" Ohhhh he didn't need to say more. I am surprise-nut. They are one of my favorite things in the whole wide world....the anticipation that something good is coming, and that this coming could be just about anything in the world. That gets to me every time, I feel like a little girl :) And Troels, well, he know how to push that button in me really well. Love love love all of his surprises. You are the best, babe.

And where did Troels take us? To what I think is the best park in all of Denmark. It is called Dyrehaven, it is the size of a forest, with the biggest and most beautiful trees I have ever seen, and has tons of Bambis running around. Central Park and its evil squirrels have no chance next to it.

Oh and I danced on fallen tree trunks like I was in Dirty Dancing...but where oh where was the sexy shirtless guy supposed to dance with me? :D

In addition to bambies, we also saw babies flying around in the air. How 'bout that?

And have you ever seen a mini tree-hygger? Well, Mesdames et Messieurs, I present to you the unique and only Olivia Tinymus! I think I told you before how excited this little girl gets when she is looking up at a tree and the branches are making their big green waves...she probably thinks it is a giant version of the fairies that she has above her bed :)



There is also a small amusement park right next to Dyrehaven, called Bakken.....Perfect for anybody who has been deprived of delicious Danish ice cream and silly park games.



And because we needed to finish these 24 hours right.....a little trip to Nivaa beach in the evening couldn't hurt :)

This is a tired little mouse, let me tell you :)

'nough said (and done) for today! Good night people :)