Rainforest

After having a full house during the week when Katya's both parents were with us, we just enjoyed quiet weekend at home chilling on the sun. Finally the weather was warm in Denmark to sit out in the garden. We also went to Rainforest attraction, where Elizabeth met some exotic plants and animals.

She's 10,5 months old now and has very curious and sweet personality. She loves meeting new people, especially children, as well as animals. Her recent best buddy was a parrot that we were taking care of during the weekend for David's collegue. She had fun singing together with it.

As you can see the new hit is standing. I wonder if there will be any crawling at all... Potty training is going well, too. She not only thinks it's great fun, but there's an obvious result every time. I think she figured what potties are for, but can't express herself in words yet. One thing for sure- we're already saving money on nappies!

First week at work

Being back to work this week was interesting. It was very nice to see all my old and new collegues, who were welcoming me back. Very exciting to be back to work at the hospital as a medical professional, back to this huge responsibility we have and (sometimes hard) decisions we make as doctors on a daily basis. Back to busy hospital life and lots of driving every day. I've realized just this week how much I've missed it. I'm in an area where I haven't been before- radiotherapy (all part of Oncology), and there are loads of new things to learn, so I'm excited about it. My days are really not that busy, so I'll call it a very easy start.

On the other hand, it was rather strange being at work and NOT home with Elizabeth; during the day; being with other grown-ups and not with my little baby, talking about and discussing totally different things. Really strange feeling.
So there's no wonder that no matter how exciting my day was at work, I won't be staying after the working hours, because there's someone so very precious I'll be rushing home to!!!
(Yes, my Mum is potty training Elizabeth. Amazingly- it's working so far!!!)

Inlaws have arrived

Yes, it's true... Vera and Nikolai have arrived to Denmark to stay for about three months. Nikolai will stay at Larisa's summer house for most of the time as he has his hobbies there - mainly bee-keeping. Vera will stay with us during the week and is taking care of Elizabeth. She's really very good with her, and Elizabeth seems a little more excited than usual. It's nice to see how they get on. and interesting to see the different ways of doing things. There are a lot of mother-in-law jokes to be found, but I think we get on well... albeit my Russian language has gone to the dogs. It's regressed rather drastically.




On a different note, the foundation for the braai corner has been created. I'm going to build a braai area with two different types of braai with a marble/stone worktop... a small weber and another S. Africal style 250 gallon drum with 1/4 of it cut out so that I can mount a slow rotating motor to drive a gear which will turn a small lamb. That's the idea... which will come to fruition after I buy a welding machine and motor to drive the works...watch this space. Our neighbours gave us their old garden furniture today as they upgraded, and we traded some SA wine in return. We'll be hosting an SA afternoon for my Danish colleagues on 23rd May, with a braai during the afternoon and an audio visual on SA in the evening... but I'll need to practice that as it's been over 2 years since I gave that talk to some school pupils in Denmark who were learning english at the time.