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Today Andri and I made a pirate’s hat and glued buttons to construction paper. I put glue on the buttons while Andri was in charge of placement. That’s just how we get down on a Friday afternoon. Arrrgghh!

Recreation of Andri’s old man moment.

We’ve said it since the day he was born, Andri is like a little old man. He barely tolerates getting hugs and kisses from his Mommy and Daddy but anyone else is summarily rebuffed with a grunt and head turn. If he feels other little kids are getting too unruly too near him, he puts his hand up and out in front of him and says “‘top, ‘top, ‘top!”. While the other kids at the playground blast through the sprinklers giggling with delight, Andri cautiously approaches sticking a finger or toe under a stream of water before backing away and then trying again later, perhaps bringing in a cup to fill up. Otherwise he prefers to follow the water streaming away from the sprinkler and into the drain and watch as it rains down into the sewer system.

About half an hour at the playground can be enough before he wants to go for a walk in the park, picking up sticks and pretending they’re canes. Just this morning Andri did something so geriatric I had to add it to his list of little old manliness. First thing in the morning, Andri wants to watch Noggin and I usually oblige as it is the perfect opportunity for me to take a shower. So, this morning was no different. I turned on the TV which was tuned to MTV. I decided not to change it right away as I wanted to check out what the young hipster on the screen was calling the world premier of Bow Wow and Soulja Boy’s video for “Marco Polo”. I don’t know what the kids are listening to these days and wanted to feel hip, at least for a second. As the video soon deteriorated into bikini clad video hoochies I decided to change the channel. As I did so, I glanced over at Andri. He was sitting cross-legged on the sofa with his fingers stuck in his ears. I couldn’t help but laugh out loud at the sight of my little old man plugging his ears against what I imagined him calling “All that racket”. “They call that music?” I imagined him asking. Andri, of course didn’t even have a pained expression on his face, he simply had his fingers in his ears to block out the harsh and irritating sound of the back-up singers’ repetitive, “Marco,Polo, Marco, Polo”. I know for a fact that Andri likes hip-hop well enough, as I’ve seen him shake his little Andri toosh to it and it’s good to know that his taste in music is so discriminating. Well, now Andri is coloring his toes with one of his markers so this will have to be the end.

So now Andri’s grandmother in Iceland is set up to do video iChat with us on her brand new MacBook and the first session took place yesterday. Grandma called on the computer and Andri started video-chatting away with his grandma, his attention was quickly drawn to a horse on a shelf in the background and when he pointed and uttered the word “Horse” his grandmother pulled out another horse and waved it in front of the screen (since Andri has just been visiting his grandma he remembered that particular horse well, in fact it was his favorite toy). So as soon as he saw it he promptly asked for his shoes and went to the door, ready to go to grandma and play with the horse.

He must have forgotten all about that flight from Iceland to New York.

Wonders of the digital age.

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We’ve been back from our journey to Andri’s fatherland for a week now. I’ve been waiting to post pics from our trip because there are so many and we had so much fun but if I wait any longer to compile all the pics I will forget to post anything at all so here it goes…

We arrived in Iceland on Monday morning and had just enough time for a walk, a nap and dinner with Afi Sturla, Gugga and Tómas before they took off the next morning for Denmark.

That meant we didn’t get a whole lot of time with them but it also meant that we had their apartment to ourselves and could walk around the place naked if we wanted to (Andri was the only one to indulge; sorry folks, no pics of that).

We spent much of the 17th June with Amma Maja (Maria), putzing around in her garden,


playing with some of Snorri’s old toys that miraculously made it into the 21st century, before heading downtown to join Andri’s cousins (and by that I mean pretty much the entire population of Iceland) as they converged on Reykjavik to celebrate Iceland’s independence. There were kiddy rides, musical performances, hot dogs, some more hot dogs and street performers. Since we headed downtown to take in the atmosphere and check out the kid centered stuff Andri promptly fell asleep. As happens whenever we go to Iceland, we also ran into several people we know and made plans to meet up later in the week while our children eyed each other suspiciously. Afterward we checked out the playground on Freyjugata and Andri learned a new Icelandic word: sona.


It means… well, not anything really, it’s kind of means ’so’ or ‘there’, it seems to be used for just about everything; to comfort a child that’s skinned it’s knee or to say ‘that’s enough’ if someone is pouring you a drink. Andri had a lot of fun saying it with Amma.

That night we went with Andri’s birthday mate Einar Petur to an outdoor concert.

While Snorri and Einar Petur took in the music, Andri wandered about and I followed trying to keep him from going too far afield. Andri was able to get in a lot of exploring the next day when we went out to Amma Maja’s summer house very near the epicenter of the earthquake that hit Iceland recently. On our way there Andri saw many giant boulders (or ‘rocks!’) that had gouged deep scars in the mountain sides during the quake. While we were there Snorri was able to take a nap and I finished reading a book while Andri and Amma played in the garden and went exploring.

Our next big adventure was up to the Snæfellsnes peninsula with Amma Maja, Eggert, Aunt Oddny, Hallgrimur, Kari Daniel and Marget Maria. We arrived at Hotel Búðir in the afternoon and spent the day there walking around lava fields and at the beach. We spotted two harbor seals while at the beach but Andri was more interested in throwing rocks into the sea.

In fact ‘rocks’ became his favorite word while we were in Iceland. There are a lot of rocks in Iceland and Andri pointed out every single one he came across and if it was light enough, he chucked into a nearby body of water.

He was so fascinated by the tide that he walked right into it, soaking his shoes, socks and pants. Luckily, the sun had been shining since the day we arrived and it was warm enough for him to take of his shoes and pants and dig his toes into the sand.

Iceland is sprinkled with quaint little churches, the epitome of which may be found at Búðir.

After checking out the church and it’s cemetery and feasting on it’s weeds/salad, we continued our trip around and about the Snæfellsnes peninsula. It is absolutely gorgeous along the coast. We stopped along the way here and there to take it all in. If you’re lucky Snorri will post some of the pics he took but they won’t do the place justice. After a stop in a small town to hang out in their swimming pool we headed back to Reykjavik.

Saturday morning we fed the ducks, geese, and a wonky necked swan at the pond before heading

to the pool (we went to the swimming pools a lot while we were in Iceland) to meet Amma Maja. Andri stayed at Amma’s house while we went to the Barflies launch party. Andri did pretty well sleeping over at Amma’s, given that he’s never spent the night without either of us. I did pretty well too until the morning after when I woke up and my little An’i wasn’t there smiling at me and saying ‘marny’ (morning). When we came to pick him up, Andri was smiling and happy, and when we began getting him ready to go (we were meeting his cousins Noí and Kári Daniel at the zoo) he ran to get Daddy’s shoes to make sure he was coming too. Come to think of it, Daddy was quite popular on this trip. Every little irritation or hurt was met with a call for “Da-ad!” or “Daddy!”. He’s even been calling me Dad lately…

But as I was saying, Andri met his cousins Noí and Kári Daniel at the zoo. Most at the animals at the zoo are domestic farm animals with the exception of some seals and very shy arctic foxes that are said to live at the zoo but have yet to be seen by visitors.

Andri mooed at the cows, chased the turkeys and chickens, coveted the little ‘train’ that drove around the zoo, bumped around in the toddler bumper cars and ran around the pirate ship themed playground but what really got his little heart a pumping was the sandpit complete with child sized, Caterpillar diggers.

Only half of them actually worked and the ones that did work were near impossible to get on but Andri didn’t care. He was perfectly delighted to sit in a non-working digger saying “Digger!” and pulling the levers that made nothing happen. In fact, he loved it so much that when it was time to go, he screamed until the little vein in his forehead stuck out.

Totally unrelated to anything else but worth mentioning, on the way out of the zoo we passed a little kid on a Razor scooter dressed up as Sportacus from Lazy Town.

While Daddy met with folk to talk business the next couple of days, Andri and I hit the local playground and walked the streets of Reykjavik, stopping for long periods to marvel at the diggers on one street that was being widened. Every time we passed the street Andri would stick his little hand out and point, commanding ‘This way!’.

Our last day in Iceland began with Snorri going to the airport around midnight to pick up Afi Sturla and co. so we spent our last day getting in some quality time before heading back to the States.

As always, the Icelandic summer did not disappoint and we had a wonderful time.

I hope, I pray that Andri will soon reach the peak of twoness and return to his senses. It’s not that he’s a terror he’s just such a little two-year-old. His usual response to a question, up until last week, “no thanks”, has been replaced by “NO, MINE!”. If I dare ask a question more than once to verify that he’s really saying no and meaning no, he screams “NO MINE!” again and then screams (making the vein in his little neck pop out) and throws whatever is handy, across the room. In the old days, if he didn’t get his way he would pitch a mini-fit and get over it swiftly but nowadays he goes into a full blown tantrum. He will grow out of it. He will grow out of it. He will grow out of it…

After a sweltering stint at a waterless (they have yet to turn on the sprinkers) 3rd St. Playground, Andri and I had lunch and I set up the easel for painting. Andri donned his smock and got to work. His first foray into painting featured only four colors (red, yellow, orange and a touch of green) and primarily vertical strokes with a circle thrown in by Mommy. His latest work, however, is a jumble of colors and strong brush strokes. He focused most of his strokes on the center of the page and occasionally stabbed the rest of the sheet with his brush. I ran to get the camera to catch the look of concentration, the pursed lips, the holding of the brush with two hands… but the camera’s battery was dead. Being the 21st century gal I am, I didn’t even think to pick up our film camera until the painting was done. “Perfect!” Andri exclaimed and then, “All done”. While I didn’t capture the process, I did get a picture of the end result. Andri did insist that Mommy do a little painting as well so I added a bit to the lower right hand corner. I think the piece, overall, shows how he has matured as an artist…

It started out as an ordinary morning. Samantha, Krisan and I took our little lovelies (Jake, Shivani and Andri respectively) up to Prospect Park to frolic in the sunshine. All was going as usual, spats over toys, eating of each others’ snacks when we noticed that Jake and Andri, instead of running all over the park looking for rocks, giant sticks and piles of wood chips, were taking an unusual amount of interest in Shivani’s stroller. They took turns climbing in and out of it, latching and un-latching the snack tray and making beeping sounds while pushing the latch. Shivani seemed more interested in the toy school buses and puffs and seemed as puzzled as we were. As the adult conversation turned to such soul stirring topics as the fragile state of the economy and the ballooning cost of college education, my Mommy Spidey Sense began to tingle. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Andri climbing into the large basket under Shivani’s stroller. At first we all just stared, sure that he’d never be able to fit and would soon push himself out of the basket but that’s not what happened. Instead Andri pushed himself all the way in, head first and unable to turn himself around. Without the slightest hint of panic in his voice he called, “Help, help”. The way he says it is much more adorable, something akin to “Hay-ulp, hay-ulp” (I chalk the drawl up to his Texas roots–it’s in his blood y’all). Suppressing the urge to laugh hysterically, I went over to help but wasn’t sure of how to proceed. I tried tugging at his ankles but it didn’t help much. Luckily Krisan pointed out that I could unlatch the back of the basket which lowered it enough for Andri to back out on his own. His close call with the basket didn’t curb his enthusiasm at all. He and Jake kept at it for a good while longer before joining Shivani in seeking out rocks and sticks and wandering off to check out what other mischief there was to be had. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the presence of mind to photograph the stroller basket incident but I did take pics in the aftermath. I also included a cute picture of some of my favorite folks cuddled up together on the sofa. Enjoy.

Aunt Lu and cousin Lena came for a visit over Memorial Day Weekend which meant lots of squealing good fun. Lena and Andri made little houses out of cardboard boxes, painted, napped, ran around and around and around in Prospect Park with Andri’s friends, played in the garden, took in the Dance Africa Bazaar and ate some yummy homemade chocolate chip cookies courtesy of Lu. Here are some pics of the fun. More to come.

Allergies and all, I still think spring is the best time of year. It’s only in the spring that I realize I’ve been in low energy/hibernation mode and suddenly feel my spirit refreshed. The flowers, the blossoming trees, the warm weather… Andri has been enjoying himself as well. He got a fancy new haircut courtesy of his Mommy and Pabbi. He’s been walking and running all over Prospect Park, having a swinging time at all the playgrounds with his fellow toddlers and today he finished up his tumbling class. Here are a few pictures of his spring time activities.
Enjoy.