Christmas 2007 with Elisabeth and Jørgen

Turning into a small family

Isn't she beautiful?

Sebastian has got a little sister!

Marie-Louise has arrived! On Wednesday the 12th of December, at 12.43h, she was born by Caesarian, weighed 3290 g and meassured 49 cm. Tue and I had been ancious to plan for a 'controlled' birth of the baby, and we had therefore decided to 'take her out' 10 days before she was due. Everything went very well, and all the staff in the operating theatre sang her a birthday song, while working on my stomach. A truly great start of her life!

We returned home from hospital already on Friday, and Marie-Louise seems to like her new home. She is very sweet, not very loud and VERY, VERY hungry. She eats all the time ... We had her tested for Fanconi Anemia in week 12, showing no FA, and we are so happy to have a healthy little sister for Sebastian. 

Sebastian is - so far - very fond of his new little sister. He calls her 'Rie-Louise', asks to sit with her and loves to give her the dummy (he is probably a little envious!). In the days up to the birth, I think that he sensed that something were to happen - only he did not know exactly what it was. He started to become a little fussy in kindergarten, and one night, as my parents were about to leave our flat after visiting, he told them very frankly: please take the pram with you, will you? We will see how things go - for now we just try to involve him in every sense.

Christmas is coming up and Sebastian has started to become very interested in what he should wish from Santa Claus. The list is getting longer for every day passing! Santa showed up in kindergarten the other day, and althoug Sebastian is still very scared of him, he managed this year to go up to him and offer him some money. A rather smart move, if you want something in return ;-)

Getting very close to b-day! Christina and Kirstine

We had a very nice visit from Sofie, Mathilde and Line

Meeting up with the Gregers Clausen family

Opening the first present in December

Pictures from the flat

A little update

More than two months without internet connection - and therefore no updates! We have moved from the house, had to live temporarily for three weeks in a flat until we finally were able to move into our new place. The telecom company let us down for several weeks, and we have finally chosen another company for the internet access. Being back online feels great! 

We were so lucky that the take over of the house and the actual move took place in October. I have grown really big, and had the move been a month later, the pregnancy would no doubt have been a major obstacle. It has indeed been an effort to move from the house, and not least to pack and unpack all our stuff. But things have now settled a bit, and we are very happy for the flat that we have now moved into. It lies in an area with a large park and other green, open spaces, and the flat itself has great views. Sebastian is very pleased as well, as he has got more room to play on and a whole room just for his toys. However, when we tell him that he will soon have to share the 'toy-room' with his soon to arrive little sister, Marie-Louise, he does not seem convinced at all ;-)

Last week we went to see Sebastians hematologist, for the half-yearly check-up. The CBC was within normal ranges, and last months visit at the growth clinic showed positive results as well: the growth hormone treatment seems to work very well on Sebastian, so far without any major side-effects. He actually gains both height and weight, which we have been told is rather rare. When you 'strecht' a child with growth hormone treatment, the child will usually not be able to keep the weight-curve. However, Sebastian has gained more in weight than in height which is great news. He is still a small boy (13,5 kg and 94 cm tall), with delicate features, but now we see development which indeed is preferable to the no-growth we witnessed from he was 6-24 months old. 

We had a long talk with the hematologist on the question of a possible future donor for Sebastian. Fortunately this is not an question we need to find answers for right now, but with FA it is definately a good idea to have a plan of what to do 'when and if'. At the hospital they have now assesed Sebastians HLA-type, to get an idea of whether his type seems 'normal' or 'anormal'. Unfortunately Sebastians HLA type seems to be 'anormal', which could make it very difficult to find an unrelated donor in the donor registry. Along with this news we are therefore trying to push for another consultation with the geneticists, with whom we would like to discuss the possibilities of PGD (ægsortering) again. Not that the chances of success are great, because they are not :-(, but we could at least try it out.

We are looking so much forward to our new little baby-girl, who will be born on the 12th of December. Amazing how fast time passes - we are getting very close now. We have settled for a cesarean - not least because we are not ready for any surprises this time. We want a controlled and planned birth, and after having taken the decision we both feel very calm and relaxed about it all. We both need to be able to get through another birth experience, although we know that part of the stress which we experienced during the first weeks with Sebastian unavoidedly will turn up again. In our point of view the best way to handle this, will be to try to control  the situation as much as we possibly can. 

Sebastian is doing great - not only with perfect blood counts - but over all. He has started to say the most funny things, and we often roll over laughing! A few examples: 

In Sebastians kindergarten they usually go for a nap at mid-day. One of the grown ups 'sleep' the kids in - which usually takes quite a lot of patience. One day Sebastian asks Stine (one of the grown ups) whether she is married. "No" is the answer. "My mother is married" Sebastian carries on. "Then what about your father", Stine wants to know. "No, he is not married" is Sebastians answer! A conversation which has led to other conversations at home, as you can imagine :-)

Another day in the nap-room in kindergarten, he tries to convince Sidsel, another of the grown-ups, to go back playing, and forget about the nap. "Shouldn't we go next-door and play with the toys, Sidsel?". "No, it is time to sleep, Sebastian". A few moments later: "Why don't we go out fishing now, Sidsel?". "Shhss, Sebastian, it is time to sleep". A little later: "Then why don't we make a great party - is that what it takes?". Sidsels starts laughing ...

At the latest hearing test (1½ months ago). Sebastians hearing is tested without his hearing-aid on, in order to find out what his actual hearing loss is. The two very nice women who conduct the test have given him a head-set on, and one of them explains Sebastian that he must say 'now' as soon as he hears a sound. He says "yes, I will do that" and they start the test. Soon after we can all hear that there was a sound in the head-set, but Sebastian does not react promptly. A little too late he suddenly says: "Now, there was a dangerously silent sound" ("Der var en farlig tavs lyd"). Ehhh? Was there a sound or not? After re-testing approximately 10 times with the same nonsense answer "now, another dangerously silent sound", we are all in tears from laughing! 

I hopefully will be able to update again soon - and will try to post new pictures and movies as well.

Nathalie and Filippa visiting

Dinner and dressing up!

Update

Finally - an update. I am happy to announce that the Summer has been so packed with wonderful events that there has been absolutely no time for updating the journal.

Sebastian is doing really well, and has only had very few and insignificant infections since March this year. Yeahh, way to go! He is growing at an enormeous speed (16 cm the first 12 months on growth hormones!) and seems overall to take the medication very well. We are all convinced that the hormones have contributed not only to growth but also to general well-being and possibly general development as well. We are very thankful for the good decision, which was finally made last Summer.

The pregnancy is going well. I am already - with almost 4 months to go! - big as a house, but if this is the price for our precious girl expected at Christmas (approximately 22nd of December) I am more than willing to pay!

We spent the Summer partly in the summerhouse in Raageleje, and partly at home at Valdemar Holmers Gade in Copenhagen. We have been on two trips to Legoland, a day at the train museum in Odense, a few times in Tivoli and Copenhagen Zoo, and then been with friends and family. We celebrated Sebastians 3 year birthday and had a grand pirate ship cake done for the party in Raageleje. Our new nephew Emil is getting bigger every minute, and we are looking forward to his baptism in the coming weekend. Tues brother Thomas and his Marie got married in July (7/7/07) and we attended their grand wedding and party. In August we went three days to Schwarzwald for Aline and Torstens wedding, a great trip where we caught up with the Cambridge group and enjoyed a couple of sunny days in the South of Germany. Sebastian stayed with Elisabeth and Joergen for a long weekend, and did not even ask for us once! He enjoyed every minute spent with grandmother and grandfather - except maybe the noisy nights!

And believe it or not - we finally managed to sell the house after 13 months on the market! We are moving out by the end of September, and have been VERY lucky to find an appartment for rent, very close by Sebastians kindergarten. The long time plan now is to build a house next to Elisabeth and Joergen, in Birkeroed, approximately 20 km North of Copenhagen. This will take us at least 2-3 years, and in the meantime we will have a nice place to live at Bispebjerg Bakke. The really big bonus of selling now is that we will get the move done before the girl arrives in December. 

All in all we feel very lucky for the time being. Sebastian is back in kindergarten after a change-of-weather cold. We have a few doctors appointments in the dairy for the coming months, but hope they will all tell of status quo (growth doctor, hearing aid control, blood counts).

Good news

Another months gone, and good news to report: We had a test (CVS) done for prenatal diagnosis of the pregnancy, and already the day after, the hospital called us with the result. "We only have half of the answer for you - the result of the gender analysis will not come around until next week. But ... the child you are carying is not affected with FA". I had to sit down on a chair to swallow the news - we are just so fortunate, that we this time seem to be lucky! A little more than a year ago, we decided to end a pregnancy of a little girl, who in week 20 was diagnosed with FA, seemingly with defects worse than in Sebastians case. And last summer, we lost yet another pregnancy, spontanously in the 8th week. So we have been starting to doubt the 'rules' of an autosomal recessive disorder: 25% affected children, and 75% non affected! 

Yesterday we found out that it is a little girl that we are expecting. I have had a little suspicion of this all along, as I this time (as well as last year with the other little girl) have had quite my share of nausea. I have heard this from other women, that when you expect a girl, you more often suffer from nausea. But this is probably just womens talk ;-)

Yesterday we went to see Sebastians hematologist, for normal control. CBS was fine and within normal ranges. Great! We had a few points to discuss with the doctors, not least after having been to New York, where we met up with other Fanconi specialists. It is interesting to consult with different doctors on the many and complicated questions regarding FA. The hematologist was very friendly and open minded. We are - naturally - still very keen to dig deeper when it comes to the question of a possible donor for Sebastian, if and when he will need to go to transplant. However, the laboratory are now about - on the basis of the CVS - to see if they can tell the HLA-type of the girl, that we are expecting. She has 25% chance of being a match for Sebastian, which we of course cross our fingers for. We will see.

Sebastian is doing great, and is just the sweetest little boy. He (and we!) loves it when we take him into our bed in the morning. He will just lie there and give out hugs and kisses - and be VERY lazy when one of us finally suggests that we should get up and make some breakfast. We have just told him that he will become a big brother around Christmas (baby due on the 23rd of December!) and he responded by gently patting my stomach and saying: "when she comes, I can kiss her". Sigh!!!

New member of the la Cour Andersen family

It has been a while since the last update, but we have been very busy since returning home from the USA. 

Yesterday was certainly a day to mark in the calender, as my sister Malene gave birth to a cute baby boy in the afternoon. Welcome! He is a very lucky boy as he is going to have a wonderful big sister Anna - and we are all convinced that the three cousins, Sebastian, Anna and the little new one, will have a lot of playtime together ahead of them!

We returned home from the States on the 21st of April. The last couple of days we spent at a B & B called the Inn at Sugar Hollow Farm, a litlle west of Charlottesville. We were placed right there in the Blue Ridge Mountains and made a very nice walk around the area. The next day we went to the Shenandoah National park riding around the most beautiful scenery, going left and right, up and down, and left and right again. I started to feel a little sick in the car, but we made it all the way down again. 

The flight back to Copenhagen went fine, except that Sebastian did not sleep much. Neither did Tue and I, and we had a long day ahead of us as we landed in Copenhagen Airport. Tues grandmother Ella died while we were in the States. However sad the news, we talked a lot about her long life - she had turned 90 in December - and agreed that she certainly had made the most of it. On the day we returned back to Denmark we went to her funeral in Åbenrå (the southern part of Denmark), which despite all, turned out to be a great day with the family, where we all had the opportunity to commemorate her life.

On the same day I found out that I am pregnant - which explains the naussea in the car! It is only 7 weeks along, and we will have to test it for fanconi in a months time. Fingers crossed!

Visiting Charlottesville

We woke up straight in the clouds and in the woods! Sebastian started the day - like many of the other days on this trip - by jumping into his pirate outfit ('mit sørøver udstyrt'). After a nice breakfast we drove down the hill to Charlottesville where we were lucky to find a great playground - made of wood (!). We had a great time playing around and the weather even started to feel a little bit like springtime!

We passed Charlottesville's central fire brigade, and decided to see if anybody was in. We were welcomed by a fireman who was very kind and hospitable, and he let us see and even enter one of the fire engines. This was definately one of Sebastians biggest dreams coming through, but I think that the engine itself was so huge, that he got a little (a lot!) scared and was so shy that he clinged onto Tue very firmly. Well, they managed to sit both in the back and in the front of the engine and the nice fireman even turned on the lights for Sebastian. Thank you for a great visit! Five metres off the grounds Sebastian softened up and waved to the fireman and the engines.

After parking the car we went down the Charlottesville Mall, which is the first pedestrian area we have met, so far, on our trip. It made for a nice and relaxed atmosphere and you can tell that the city is a place for university students: lots of cafés and bookstores. 

At the end of the Mall there is a Childrens Discovery Museum, where we ended our tour by playing with all the toys and - not least - sailing on the big pirate ship! We drove home (a little stop at Kroger to buy our lunch and dinner) and made a picnic lunch on the terrase. After that a little nap, and then playing around at the house, a little walk, dinner and time for a goodnight story and bedtime for Sebastian. On our trip Sebastian has started to want to read to himself after the goodnight story. It is amazing to listen to his litlle voice from his bed telling one story after the other, sometimes mixing them a bit up, but still getting a lot of the details from what he has heard.

This morning we packed up the car and drove down towards Charlottesville, hitting a few shopping centres on our way. Not that we needed anything, but it is interesting to watch the American consumer-culture, and to wonder how this country can have so many shopping centres, yet they all look pretty much alike. Well, we ended up in a bookstore and found a great pirates-book, a cup of coffee and a chocolate chip cookie - in other words we found ourselves turned into pretty well-trained consumers after all!

We found a great playground, which even had a bit of sun on it, and Sebastian climped up and down, and down and up for a good while. Then it was lunchtime, and after a quick KFC-tour we drove off to our next place to stay: the Inn at the Sugar Hollow Farm. It is very nice and lies in a valley with a great view of the Blue Ridge Mountains. However, the place is not made for kids, so we are very fortunate to have Sebastian who is not the hanging-in-the-curtains-kind-of-kid! Well, we will see how it all goes the next couple of days.  

Lodging in the clouds

There has been a little 'hole' in the updates, due to a very nice visit with Lars, Anne and Niels Sofus in Washington.

Thursday we had dinner in Annapolis, and found a very friendly and nice sushi restaurant, where Sebastian even had a bowl of noodles! We slept in a wonderful king sized bed, and woke up to the most fantastic breakfast: egg, bacon, homebacked bread and muffins, juice, coffee etc. We ate a lot, but had to leave a few pieces, which Sebastian could feed to the dog Boing - both he and the dog were so thrilled!

We were planning to see a bit more of Annapolis in the morning (Friday), but as we drove off through the city we decided to move on to Washington a bit earlier. This could give us a chance to see the National Museum of Natural History on Friday afternoon - a museum that we were sure we wanted to go and see. Friday afternoon could be a bit more quiet than during the weekend - we thought! As we entered we were met by a wall of noise and thousands of visitors. Too bad, because the exhibitions seemed to be great, but due to the crowds and the noise we only stayed for a little hour. We saw some great skelettons of dinosaurs, some fantastic fossils and a little dense exhibition on orchids. Sebastian prefered a stuffed brown bear and a tiny little stuffed mouse.

We passed Capitol Hill and the White House on our way to Lars and Annes house which is in Georgetown. We went to a playground with Lars and shopped for dinner. It was just SO nice after a couple of weeks in hotels to stay in a real home, cooking some nice food and meeting up with old friends. Lars and Anne has a beautiful and charming boy, Niels Sofus, who is 5 months old. Sebastian took a great interest in him - AND his toys!

Saturday we slept in and had a cosy and relaxing morning. We managed to get out of the door with the two boys at about noon, and took a long walk through some great shopping areas in Georgetown. We had a great lunch at Dean & Deluca and spent the afternoon in shop after shop. Entering home we had - yet again - more bags AND a giant pillow globe to carry back to Europe!

Lars had to go to a formal dinner at the Embassy, so Tue cooked a nice seafood dinner for Anne and I. We had a great evening discussing politics, kids and life! 

Sunday was rain, rain, rain and rain. After a full - full (both Tue and Lars had gone to the bakery!) breakfast, we therefore decided to make Sunday a mall day, and drove off the the fifth largest 'Tysons Corner' mall in the US. It was indeed large - enormous - and with a crazy, crazy playground at the upper level (see video-clip on the front page of this site). The place was so big that we almost felt a bit constipated and despite the endless number of shops we did not buy much. Something for Sebastian of course, but not much else ;-)

We returned back to Lars and Annes place and Sebastian had a great bath-tup tour before we all enjoyed a lovely dinner and the good company of Lars, Anne and Niels Sofus (who has just started eating squased carrots - see photosection). 

Monday morning we packed up and drove off south. We had found a B & B on the internet and knew not more of it than the tempting name: 'The Guesthouse in the Clouds'. It is a wonderful place, just next to the clouds!, a little north of Charlottesville. The last mile was a 27 degree steep uphill. First gear for 10 min. The car was certainly working hard. There is a burned smell from the engine everytime we park the car at the lodge. Due to a great bargin, we have a large lodge on our own, and have just eaten a great homecooked dinner (we have a kitchen!). Tomorrow we are planning to go and see Charlottesville, and will then stay on in our 'clouds lodge' for yet another night.

A little paradise

Wednesday morning we first decided to go all the way down to a place called Onancock, a 3-4 hours drive further south. However, not being able to get hold of anyone of the very few B & B's down there, we hesitated and decided to go to a city called Cambridge instead. This was right on the Chesapeake Bay as well. First stop however, was going out to Tilghman Island (half island), a rather deserted area, with a nice little community at the end. Beautiful scenary.

Returning back - and going for Cambridge - we drove to Easton - looking out for a playground. This we did not find, instead we found a very nice toy shop, where Sebastian got very occupied by a Brio train landscape. We tend to use toy shops as playgrounds when thats available. Having seen a few American toy shops so far, this one was definately one of the finest, with some of the toys even made of wood - and not only plactic as in "Toys R Us"! Arriving in Cambridge we were met by a huge playground at the visitor center, where Sebastian turned into a pirate, sailing, yelling and running for a little hour. We then went for lunch but was VERY dissapointed to find the city of Cambridge very run down, with hardly any life and only one slightly decent lunch pizza place. Eating one of their pizzas, which consisted of nothing but fat, fat, fat cheese melted down on chuncks of bacon and a tiny piece of tomato, we found ourselves a bit grounded in this place. It felt like a big, boring hole - and we qucikly decided to move on. Out of Cambridge. 

Not knowing much of the area, we drove to a place called Oxford (!). Yet another town off the bay, but quite different from Cambridge. Not much life, but neat and with some very nice houses and a little marina. Right next to the little harbour we found the Oxford Inn, where we stayed for the night. Very friendly people and a nice room - and on the ground floor they were even running a cosy little restaurant, where we had a nice dinner. 

This morning we slept in until 9! We packed up and drove off - on the road again! Visiting the US we decided that we had to go to one of those big outlets, we had heard so much about. Just outside Queenstown we drove into 'Prime Outlet', where we sure found shop after shop after shop after shop .Great !.. Starting off with a cup of coffee and a chocolate chip cookie we went shopping - big time! After 6 or 7 stores we were ready for the grand finale: the toy shop. Unfortunately it turned out to be a plactic one, and we ended up buying one little car for Sebastian (from the movie Cars). His choice would have been a sword from Star Wars, with which he 'shot' his way through the whole store. Being a mother-who-will-not-allow-any-guns this is NOT sweet music to my ears. Maybe I ought to listen to Mr. Wise Tue, who claims that the more I ban guns the more Sebastian will want it. Hmmmmmmm - he might be right. Sebastian got a torch yesterday, and even this little device to produce light has been reduced to a killing gun. Boys!

Did we forget to mention that we also had to buy another suitcase! Having been in numerous GAP kids stores, we have runned out of suitcase room already a week ago. With our new red purchase we hope to have enough space for the rest of the trip. Keep dreaming ...

We called up a B& B that we had found on the internet, just outside of Annapolis. They had a room vacant and we drove straight to their place, which turned out to be a little paradise. We got the 'king sized room', which is very nicely decorated. The house faces a little lake, where their dog 'Boing' took us for a little stroll. Sebastian laughed so sweet and hard when Boing went into the water and came back up, shaking itself dry. 

This Evening we are going into Annapolis center for dinner and a short walk. When Sebastian wakes up from his nap...

St. Michaels

Tue started the day early by picking up our rental car - a grey Grand Marquis with lots of room for our little traveling party. We packed up and headed for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum, which turned out to be an excellent place - both for kids and for grown ups! They exhibited the most incredible steamengines - one of them 100 foot long! - and had trains in all sizes and from all times. Sebastian was SO happy - he ran into the grand 'remise' and kept on shouting "it's just perfect, it's just perfect". We ended up in the shop bying a little black steam engine toy for him, which he "loves" and has taken with him into bed. Great succes!

We drove off south (it must get a bit warmer the further we get ;-)) and crossed the Bay Bridge by Annapolis. We had booked a hotel in St. Michaels, which is a quiet, very nice marina in the Chesapeake Bay area. We have got the coolest suite right onto the pier - 20 feet off the water. We took a little stroll in the afternoon and discovered road after road of small (in American terminology!) wooden houses, almost all of them with patios and a rocking chair or two. Very neat!

We decided to take our dinner in the room - knowing that this is the place in the whole area with the best view! The menu was crab-cakes and Ceasar salad - yummy!

Baltimore

We started the day with breakfast at the 'Cloud Club' on the 12th floor of the hotel. It was the all American fry up breakfast - egg, bacon, sausages, pancakes and of course a big bowl (at least 2 litres!) of hot syrup! Well, we fortunately had a choice of fruit as well. The two ladies to our left chose a large BLT (bacon, lettuce and tomato) sandwich - MINUS the L and T. Yep: they buttered two slices of bread and squeezed 10 thick slices of dripping bacon in between. We do not know if they had seconds - we left before! 

Off we went to the Baltimore National Aquarium, which was a impressive experience. We saw sharks, crocodiles, rays, parots and lots of other marine animals. Not least the dolphins, which we saw jumping and splashing at a special show. However, Sebastian was more interested in his newly aquired frog handbag and frog binocular. For all of you at Blå Stue, Regnbuen: the picture of the handbag is dedicated to you. Sebastian can hardly wait to go back and flash it in kindergarten!

Seafood in Baltimore is a must - so we went for lobster, clams and mussels for dinner. Sebastian insisted that it was a red grasshopper lying on Tues plate, so we sure need to work a bit on his seafood education!

From New York to Baltimore

Yesterday we managed to go shopping - a bit. It is definately NOT Sebastians favorite thing, but it helped that we had remembed his 'fishing line' with which he caught one bit shark after the other at the shop. For lunch we went back - as promised - to the Grand Central Oyster bar, where Tue got six grand oysters. I got a creamy clam chowder (soup) which was very good. We took a slow afternoon, with some packing and picking up of laundry, and went out for dinner at the Montana Grill House. Great place with some very yummy steaks. Sebastian preferred the chocolate chip cookie and played around with his pirates. 

This morning we went to Central Park. Even though the wind was still cold and fresh, the sun came out to swept the park in Spring sunshine. They had a great new playground ready for Sebastian in the lower part of the park, and he ran, slided, crawled and climbed for a good hour. Then it was time to take a taxi to Penn Station, where we had to queue up in a very slow and long line for our tickets (prebooked from back home - but the ticket machines would not accept the credit card!!!). We made it just in time, grabbed a few sandwiches and boarded the Acela Express towards Baltimore. Sebastian enjoyed the ride and we arrived in Baltimore only a couple of hours after leaving NY. 

Baltimore is definately MUCH smaller than Manhatten. We thougt that the hotel where we had booked our room would be quite a walk away from the harbour. Well, we can throw a stone down the water from our window! Great! However, we had to move rooms (hi, Libbe, you are NOT the only one anymore!), as we had been placed next to a very smoking room (even if it is not allowed!) - we had cigarette-smell all over the place, and they have been very nice to move us to another room right away. With a better view of the harbour even! We went to a very good steak restaurant just a few blocks away, and Sebastian was great just playing with his toys, fishing a bit, drinking milk, eating a little snacks and giggling away when 'Politibetjent Madsen' sent him off to prison (a new favorite game).

On Easter Sunday we cannot help but think - with envy - on the family Easter gathering back home, with the lake and the ducks, the eggs, both from the poultry and the ones made of chocolate. Sebastian says "Gæk" "Gæk" to whomever received his letters - by the way. We hope that everone enjoyed the day, and send our Easter greetings to all our friends and family.

Just an oldie!

We have had kind of a bumpy night with Sebastian in our bed. He had a good nights sleep, I guess, but as he has his habbits - lying across, constantly scratching his fellow bed-mates with his toes in his sleep etc. - we slept rather poorly. Sebastian has his own bed, but insisted - in a non discusable way - on being transferred at 1 o'clock at night. Soft parents - grow up!

We had a great day yesterday despite some very cold weather - it snowed again a few times! We started the day by going with the underground to the Staten Island Ferry, at the very south of Manhatten. We had a donout, a coffee and not least a chocolate croissant for Sebastian to warm us up - and were then ready to board the ferry. Sebastian liked the trip, but was not too impressed with the Statue of Liberty - the woman was in his point of view 'just an oldie'! Back on Manhatten we walked through Wall Street and along Ground Zero and reached the lower part of Soho where we stopped for lunch. Sebastian made several friends among the staff, and we had a great meal with a wonderful caramel coffee to finish it up. 

We walked a bit around Soho, trying to find a toy shop we had read about. Apparantly it moved somewhere else, but we did find another place, where they had a Brio train set up for their small guests. Just what Sebastian had dreamt about! They had a lot of fantastic toys and books. We couldn't resist buying a NASA space rocket outfit for Sebastian. Which he - sure enough - has refused to wear so far. Patience! We walked to Washington Square Garden where there is a great playground, and Sebastian was busy in the sand, on the slide and on the bridge despite cold and snow. After this, a brief stop by in Greenwich Village, where we went for coffee and chocolate chip muffin - in order to keep off the cold. 

Thus warmed up we took a cap to the Roosevelt Island Tram (svævebane), and flew over the East River with a great view of the city. After a little shopping we went for a light dinner and arrived back home at 19.30 - time for bed for Sebastian. We were luckly to find King Kong showing on television, and finished the day off by watching the hairy giant moaning and falling dead off the highest tower in New York.