Soy Curls and Snow

 

I took a whole day off today, on a day when the kids had school.  Practically unprecedented.  I spent the morning crossing off a long, long list of things that had been hovering over me for weeks.  More pine shavings for the chickens, calling a long list of doctors offices for all the new things I have to keep up with for myself, pick up book on hold at library, get dry cleaning, buy sleds (because it's finally snowing!  Real snowing!) but the good ones that inflate and not plastic ones that break, etc.

One thing was to officially register Hadrian for public school.  I thought that was something I needed to do in February because so far at the private preschools we had to claim slots in Janurary/February.  But apparently I came into that office like a total weirdo trying to register my kid a full 7 months in advance of the next school year.  

It was fine though.  The reception ladies were super nice about it after getting over their confusion.  

Also I always expect people to get as excited as I do about Hadrian's Danish birth certificate and U.S. Consular certificate but apparently not?  But they are so interesting!  The Consular certificate is legitimately bonkers though - there's a rainbow-motif liberty bell background, a hologram, gold leaf eagle, no fewer than 5 separate long identification numbers (unlabeled), a bar code, that intricate filigree borderwork you only see on $100+ bills, a watermark, 4 different fonts, embossed seal, I could go on.  Meanwhile, the Danish certificate is just one font, black ink, on a typical (only slightly nicer than everyday-printer) cream piece of paper.  Just text.  And the signature of the kommune priest.  I feel like this says a lot about comparing the two countries and cultures and their levels of trust?

The nice school ladies also informed me that we're first on the waiting list for the Chinese Immersion program.  Which is very good news (meget gode nyheder/好消息/buenas noticias/sehr gute Nachrichten)!!!!

Mid-day I got to be a field-trip parent, for the first time in my life, to the Aquarium.  It was a good time with the 4-year-olds.  But beyond getting to hold Ansel's hand for two hours in a row, perhaps the best thing to come out of it was meeting another parent who is a working mom (like me), who drives an electric car (like we want to), and is a happy vegetarian (like Paul is trying to become).  Also helps that she and I seem to have a similar personality too.  I was happy to think I may have found a nice, good, new friend here in Utah.  And also learned about something called "soy curls".  

And then in the afternoon I took our new sleds and the boys out to a nearby park and we got to just play for hours.  I haven't felt able to do that really for so long.  We were all just so happy.  And Ansel is surprisingly fearless on a hill - which is unexpected coming from the kid who thinks changing his shirt is just too much sometimes.