"Young Love"

Last week at school Nils and I were putting some things away when one of the girls came up and hugged the boy standing next to us. Then she kissed him on the cheek before going back to her desk. He wandered to the back of the room to tell the other boys that he had been kissed. I'm pretty sure the teacher missed this whole exchange of red-cheeked , wide-eyed gossip.
A little while later we went to lunch and the 2 love birds were sitting next to each other. The boy was referring to his "girlfriend" and she was smiling shyly. At recess they were actually not playing together.......but then I noticed him walking over to her. He said he had a surprise for her. She curiously followed him over to where he had been tracing words in the wood chips. "Look, " he said proudly. "It says, 'I love you'". And indeed it did.
I have to admit I was rather impressed by the boy. That was a smooth move and kind of sweet. I would probably love it if a boy wrote "I love you" in the wood chips for me. Maybe.....if I was seven years old......

FYI- I'm pretty sure the relationship is already over. I heard her say this week that she had 200 boyfriends and she couldn't have anymore. Tough break. But he doesn't seem too upset.

My Vacation in Pictures

Nils Language

Nils and I went for a walk the other day. Actually, it was his idea. He walked out of the house, pulling me along behind him. I asked him what he wanted to do, and he just kept walking down the driveway. So I kept walking, too. We walked all the way to the end of the street, then crossed the street and started up the next block. After awhile Nils sat down in the grass in front of someone's house to take a break.
"Let's sit in the shade," he said, and plopped down in the sun. Then we both drank some water. It was pretty warm out. He jumped up after less than a minute and started walking again. I drank some more water. Then he wanted some.
"That's good. Ahhh." This is one of his famous phrases.
"Water is good. It's refreshing, " I said in return.
The next time he took a drink he said, " Ahhh. I'm freshing."

Remember when you were a kid and the word "carnival" just made you jump up and down in anticipation? Yes- the rides, the games, the food- it was such a great experience for you, but maybe not for your parents who wasted all that money on tickets and cotton candy and attempting to win you a giant Scooby-doo. I actually still like going to the carnival or the fair- at least once a year. It's a tradition.......

Well, today Nils and Marta were excited when they heard that we were going to a carnival. Annika and Mommy went to New York for the weekend, so we had to do something exciting! Thankfully Daddy met us out there- somebody had to finance this great adventure! :)

The carousel is the ride that you have to go on. Who doesn't like sitting on a fake horse that goes up and down while listening to classic carnival music? The kids picked their horses and off we went! After exiting the carousel, Kendall calmly walked over to the tilt-a-whirl, suggesting that we all ride it next. I immediately started objecting- things that spin me around in little circles while I'm already spinning in a big circle are not on my favorite list. But he had already handed a wad of tickets to the ride guy, and I stupidly kept walking toward the ride of doom. I have not ridden one of those things since I was a kid and passed out at the fair after getting off of one. And I hadn't yet thought about how Marta was going to react.
Starting out wasn't bad......but then the horrible spinning started- and you never knew exactly when it was going to come- first one little spin, then four in a row. Every time we started spinning, I screamed. Marta was crying after the initial spin, and it was downhill from there. Nils would laugh for awhile, and then he started saying, "oh, dear......oh, dear......oh, man!" I'm wondering if I said it first or if he just came up with that on his own. If it had been recorded- which it really should have been- you would have seen or heard this:

Spin
Melody- "AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Nils, laughing- "oh, dear."
Marta, crying- "I want to get off!"
Kendall - just laughing- the whole time!

And why is it that the carousel is over in like 1 minute and the tilt-a-whirl lasts forever?

Then the ride guy asks me - while the ride is going- if Marta is o.k. Hello!!! She is crying with this horrible look on her face the entire time! Was he planning on stopping the ride if I could have said anything in response? I don't think I had time to answer before another spin came, which produced another round of screaming oh dear's and louder crying. I do remember saying at one point, "I hate this ride." That, of course, was answered by more crying from the little girl and laughter from both of the boys. A minute later Marta cried loudly, "I hate this!"

It finally ended. When it stopped, we all just sat there for a second. I actually couldn't move- I knew that I would just fall over if I tried to stand up. Kendall was trying to get Marta to stop crying....then Nils started crying because he realized we had to get off! It was definitely one of the most memorable carnival rides I've ever been on! Admittedly, between all my screaming, I was laughing, too. The kids were just so funny. But we have agreed to never, ever go on the tilt-a-whirl again.

Later, at McDonald's we were talking about the rides. Nils had gone on Pharoah's fury-the big ship that goes back and forth- and did great. He said, "That was not a spooky ride. That was my favorite one." And we all went down the fun slide twice. Marta liked that. But she gave a clear opinion on the tilt-a-whirl: "That was a stupid ride."

Funny Face

This picture just cracks me up. Nils was playing at the playground and stuck his face right up on the window to look at me. I was laughing so hard while trying to catch it on camera!