Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Projects

I'm currently borrowing my mother in law's sewing machine in order to make some baby dresses. It's a little bit daunting since I have only finished a sewing project maybe 2-4 times in my life. But I have so much time right now and I know that is about to change, so I'd better use it while I can! The dresses are just very simple in a jumper style, and I am using the same pattern to make several dresses, so hopefully I can master it before I try something else. It's fun trying to read a pattern in danish...but let's just say that sewing tutorials on youtube have been my friend!

I've also been playing piano a bit. Don't get me wrong...I am not a pianist. But we inherited a nice-ish keyboard from Morten's parents, and since I can't practice guitar right now (belly gets in the way), I figured I would try to learn a few hymns so I can (eventually) make myself useful at church. It's fun because when I do, the music is right next to my belly and baby girl always kicks emphatically when I play. Maybe she wants to be a dancer when she grows up.

We picked up the stroller yesterday, finally. It was interesting trying to decide on one, because Danes have a very different idea than Americans (or just the rest of the world) about what a stroller/pram is for. Most families get them extra large, complete with a mattress, duvet, rain cover, and heavy duty wheels that don't swivel. Basically they are like little houses on wheels. This is because many families in Denmark believe in letting their children take their naps outside, usually in the backyard, in order for them to grow strong lungs from the fresh air or something like that. Actually I've never really gotten a straight answer as to the reasoning behind it.

We had a lot of discussions about what we expect out of a stroller, which thankfully does not involve the idea of using it as a second crib, so we decided against the traditional pram in favor of a more american style folding/swivel wheeling stroller, but it can lay flat and comes with a "lift" (I believe they are called moses baskets in the states) that fits inside to accommodate a newborn. The style I wanted was purple and frilly, but Morten was concerned that pushing a purple stroller around might undermine his manliness, so we settled for gray instead. Can't wait to start taking her out for walks in it!

2 comments:

Cat said...

Post a picture of the stroller and dresses! I wanna see.

Also, a nap outside with a cool breeze blowing sounds like what I imagine heaven to be like. I need to move to Europe.

joanna said...

wow, you're very much a homemaker!! I would love to see pictures of the stroller and find out where you got it because I agree with you 100% on the danish stroller-crib thing! It's just too much!