Back home, having four kids, though a lot, doesn’t seem terribly abnormal. Many of our friends have three or more kids, so what’s the big deal with four?

Well, we sure stick out like a sore thumb here. We have been the subject of many open stares, double takes, and whispered comments. With birth rates so low here (and evidently in the United States as well, just not among our circles), seeing four kids is like glimpsing a rare endangered species. The truly big family of ten kids in the USA is us in Europe.

Icelandic reactions to our crew were mainly limited to grumpy scowls, especially from older women in the grocery store. Even when our kids were behaving well, the scowls remained. Nic tried scowling back after he watched the repeated scowls of one particular Icelander – ha! At one guesthouse, the young employee saw us all and exclaimed, “That’s a lot of kids!” I’m at least happy we’re not getting the same canned comments we get all the time at home: “You’ve got your hands full,” for example, or “You know how that happens, right?”

The kids have drawn lots of friendly attention from other tourists. Several separate groups of Asian ladies fawned over the kids and commented on how beautiful they are. (Our babies have received similar comments from Asian tourists as we have traveled over the years many times – not sure why that is.) A Japanese man counted our kids and took the time to identify each by birth order before asking all the big kids for a hug. An older Italian grandma smiled kindly at Morgan for a few minutes before making kissing noises at him and then kissing the air towards the other bambini.

We see many children in Copenhagen, but almost all families have one or two kids. An American expat we chatted with in the airport said people over here have kids younger because of the government help.

We’ve heard that other places we’re traveling will be friendlier towards children, so we are looking forward to that. For now, though, we will just try to keep our brood reasonably quiet and with us.