dot dk

It’s not like we didn’t think June was cute before. We did.  But… maybe we just didn’t notice how cute June is until now. But now — now that June is getting more responsive and her personality is starting to come into focus… now, we think she is cute. Extremely cute.

But I remember going through this with Ellen. Each month I’d say, “Wow she’s cute — she just can’t get any cuter than this.” And the next month I’d look at pictures from last month and shrug, and say, “Yeah, she was cute I guess. But now she’s really cute.”

Winter is over! (And to celebrate, I’m shooting two stops overexposed.)

I like to tease the Danes for their exuberance when the sun starts to spend more time in the sky. They act like they’re kids and Christmas has arrived without warning.

They all rush out at once, and stand in parks, on street corners, and on terraces, close their eyes, and bask in the sunlight. On the first warm day of the year, you can’t find a grumpy Dane in the whole of Denmark.

But I have to admit spring in Denmark is fantastic. It comes on so suddenly, and in such sharp contrast to the winter… each year I spend less time teasing and more time quietly soaking up the sunlight.

The current price of thirty minutes of quiet? One piece of paper. (That’s a damn good deal.)

Ellen turns three today. We celebrated her birthday on Sunday, and, despite the fact that she looks a little sad in some of the pictures, she had a good day. Ellen’s cousin Marie also has a birthday in February (she turned 16 on the 9th), so there was plenty to celebrate.

This was the first birthday where she understood the concept. She talked about it for weeks in advance. She knew she was going from two to three, and she knew that gifts were going to be part of the deal.

She also understood (due to the diligent repetition by her parents) Read more »

I’m sick and tired of hearing conservatives bitch and moan about having to pay taxes. It boils down to this: conservatives take all the credit for the success they have. To a conservative, if you’re poor, you’re a loser and you’ve gotten what you deserve. Likewise, if you’re rich, then you worked your way up, without any help from anyone, and you deserve to keep every dime you make.

This is, quite simply, bullshit. And the reason I know it’s bullshit is because of my own life.

I’ve done well for myself. I’ve exceeded expectations. I’ve worked hard, and I have a rewarding and interesting career. But I’d be the biggest most arrogant type of narcissistic asshole to claim that I’ve done it all on my own and that I deserve to keep every dime that I make.

Why? Read more »

It’s been a month of adjustment. Adjusting to scattered sleep schedules. Adjusting to not out-numbering our kids two to one. Adjusting to being a family of four (which still sounds a little weird to me.)

Despite the fact that June looks so much like Ellen did at this age, there’s no confusing the two in other respects. When Ellen was a month old, she was getting Lisbeth up once a night for an hour at most. With June, Lisbeth is generally up four or five hours a night. Read more »

Last New Year’s eve, we planned to return from our trip to the US, and spend a jet-lagged but pleasant evening looking out at the fireworks from our bedroom window on the eight floor. That didn’t work because our flight was delayed, so we welcomed the new year on a place over the Atlantic.

This year, with an infant, we opted to stay home, but now we live in a quiet residential quarter, with no view whatsover, so we didn’t think we’d see many fireworks. We were wrong.

Apparently, in a country where guns are illegal and fireworks are allowed only once a year, you really need to get it all out of your system. For three days prior to New Year’s, there were random explosions around the neighborhood. This increased dramatically on the 31st, going on pretty much all day.

It picked up even more after dark. We thought that it was all the people who have kids that they want to put to bed later, lighting their fireworks now instead of waiting for midnight. Wrong again. Read more »

I had forgotten. I’d forgotten how small newborns are. I’d forgotten that they make strange little squeaks and snorts. I’d forgotten that they don’t have a very loud cry, and that their single purpose is to eat. (Yes, they sleep too, but they sleep only if their single need — to eat — has been met, and they sleep only to gather the strength to empatically request their next meal.) 

I’d also forgotten that a newborn has no respect for night and day, and that despite the fact that their cry is not loud, it is impossible to ignore. There is no restful sleep in the house of the hungry infant.

June was, even in the womb, alarmingly active at night. Read more »

On Tuesday, December 6th, our second daughter was born. We’ve named her June Vestergaard Trujillo.

This time around we opted to take the option of having the birth at home. We did this not because we had a bad experience at the hospital when Ellen came (quite the opposite), and not because we’re dedicated to doing everything the old fashioned way (our tribute to the old-fashioned is pretty much limited to not asking the sex of the child during the scans.)

We did it mostly for practical reasons: we don’t have a car, and we live in a big modern city, so if anything went wrong, we’re a short ambulance ride from three hospitals. By having the child at home, transportation was not our concern. When the midwife leaves, we’re already in our cozy and warm new house, in December, with our new child.

It was a great experience, but there were moments when I wondered if I’d regret it. That’s because, even though we knew that delivery usually goes faster for the second child, we were caught off-guard by the pace at which things unfolded. As it turned out, the midwife showed up only eleven minutes before the baby was born.

It’s not unusual for victims of CRVO (Central Retinal Vein Occlusion) to permanently lose useful vision in the affected eye. Four weeks ago, I couldn’t read a thing with my left eye (I couldn’t read road signs even if I walked right up to them). Straight lines appeared wavy, and everything had pinkish-gray pallor. And I had little reason to think it would improve.

But, over the last two or three weeks, it’s gotten dramatically better. Currently the vision in my damaged left eye is almost as good as my healthy right eye (this is possible only because the left used to be the much sharper of the two.) There’s still a slight color distortion, but that I can live with.

Upon being diagnosed, I’d been invited to take place in a research study at the hospital. But today I was sent home after a follow-up evaluation. I was told, “This is certainly not typical vision for someone that’s had a central occlusion.” There’s still a chance that I could suffer a setback, but right now it’s a huge relief to have the use of both eyes.