Two Years

First off, I should mention that last Sunday marked 2 years since I married this handsome fellow. It has been absolutely wonderful being married to Morten, and I look forward to the rest of eternity with him by my side.

On to other news...

Wednesday was my first day of maternity leave. I didn't have any particular plans for the day except just enjoying it and getting at least one nap in. However, when in the kitchen casually doing some dishes, my eyes wandered and I saw a speck of dirt. Something started happening inside me....I had to start scrubbing that dirt right away. Suddenly I discovered that I had spent hours frantically scrubbing and organizing the entire kitchen, and now had a killer backache and had to lie down. The craziest part was after I finally finished, I still didn't want to lie down. I wanted to move on and do exactly the same in the rest of the apartment.

I guess that's what they call the nesting instinct. I should probably take advantage of it before the baby arrives, when nobody will have time for things like organizing pots and pans.

Tuesday night was my baby shower! Baby showers are not really a tradition in Denmark, but in the church they are. The group in my ward have very specific baby shower traditions. For instance it has to be a surprise for the expectant mother, usually planned by her friends or family. Before opening the gifts, the giver has to give a "wish" for the mother and/or baby, and someone writes these down so that the mother can keep them. These are things like "I wish for your baby to sleep through the night" etc. The ribbon off the presents is collected by someone else, the ends tied together, and wrapped around a book. At the end of the gift opening, the expectant mother takes ahold of the end of the ribbon, then it is unraveled and passed around to all the ladies in the circle until the ribbon runs out. The person to get the end of the ribbon is supposedly the "next one" to have a baby, and she gets to keep all the ribbons.

It was at my friend Anne-Dorthe's place and it was really nice - lots of my friends from church were there and all the ladies in Morten's family too. The gifts were great and it was just nice to feel supported and loved.

Now it's the home stretch I guess. Just frantically cleaning everything in sight, enjoying the nice weather, and waiting for the baby.