DAYS 11 AND 12: THE FUN OF SAYING "YES"
/COPENHAGEN — After arriving in Copenhagen late on Friday night, we got a very early start on Saturday morning thanks to an obscenely early sunrise (4:26AM), skimpy blackout shades, and children who think any sunlight is a indisputable sign they should be awake. Bleary-eyed, we walked to a park around the corner and had coffee while they kids played. We had an early lunch out and then walked down to Nyhavn and back through Torvehallerne, a covered food market, where we bought some ingredients to make dinner. It was definitely nice, but more so for Aaron and me than for the kids; between the abbreviated night’s sleep and the really long walk, both kids were pooped and collapsed for hours-long naps when we got home. We’d planned to take them somewhere fun after dinner, but it got too late so we settled for a lame 15-minute redo of the morning’s park trip.
We’re asking a lot of our kids right now. A whole lot. They have no home/routine/ toys/friends, and in the 18 days since we sold our condo, they’ve slept in 7 different beds in 7 new places. It’s a lot of changing and moving and uncertainty, even for two adults who (supposedly) know what’s going on. So far they both seem to be doing fine — great, even — but we know we’re essentially requiring them to be little super-humans right now. And we both felt pretty bad that their Saturday kinda sucked.
So we made today all about them. And what a day it was.
Because we came to Copenhagen with no expectations (read: not a clue what was here), we knew Tivoli Gardens was a must-see, but we really didn’t know why. We wandered over without any real urgency around noon and figured we'd stay for an hour or two, but we couldn’t have been more dazzled when we walked in. It was busy in the good kind of way that makes it lively but not crowded, and oh-so charming and lush and kitschy. Add to that a 70-and-sunny day and we had a feeling it was going to be a good one.
Aaron and I agreed that our answer to everything that day would be: “Yes.” We’d just say yes to anything they wanted to do, for as long as they wanted to do it. We had a junkfood lunch and watched a pantomime show, ate heaping bowls of ice cream, went on more than a dozen rides (some five or more times), and played on one of the more interesting playgrounds I’ve seen. We couldn't stop smiling at the two little people who couldn't stop smiling. Aaron said it best: “I’m just delighting in my children’s delight.” We kept saying yes and yes and yes until it was 8:00 and we’d spent the entire day at Tivoli. We might well miss most (all) of the other cultural sights in Copenhagen, but if Tivoli is all we get, it was worth the trip.
