Advent

A little update. We're now 1 1/2 weeks into our kitchen+ renovation and yesterday we moved to Peter's parents after having stayed with my parents until now. We'll stay here for a week and then see if we can move back. At the moment it's just too dusty. The liveable part of the flat, i.e. Isolde's room, is fine (except we discovered last Monday that they had turned off the electricity the previous Friday and we had to throw out everything in the fridge and freezer...) but we'd have to go into the dusty part to access the shower (there's only a toilet adjacent to Isolde's room, for now; that's our next renovation project) so that's not an option right now.

It's been a busy weekend (the preceding week was "just" work and a looong commute). Friday we had a little family birthday dinner for my dad who turned 60 today (we had a bigger celebration in the summer) and Saturday we ran some renovation related errands and went to Wera's 2nd birthday party, in addition to "moved" from my parents to Peter's. And today we had an Advent get-together at our friends Maria and Daniel together with two friends of theirs and their two children. One of the children is just three days older than Isolde and we've been planning to get together for ages but it took 10+ months!

Happy first Advent!

Pearl Necklace

No, it's not what I want for Christmas (well, jewellery is always on a girl's list...).  It's the string of cars driving in the middle lane on the motorway between Stockholm and Södertälje tonight on my way home from work.*  Always when I'm driving I get so annoyed (in a calm way as I'm a rather calm person) with all drivers who stay in the middle lane, even though it's empty in the right lane or they are driving too slow for the middle lane, or both.  Is it that so many Swedes are nervous drivers and stay in the middle to prepare for a shift of lanes or exiting (even though exits are mostly to the right) 13 km down the road, or because they don't want to have to change lanes if another car is entering (even though it's the entering car that has to yield and you don't have an obligation to move).  Tonight was extreme with a string of cars in the middle lane even though it was completely empty to the right.  Why?!  In a way, tonight was less of a problem since there wasn't much traffic, but when there is traffic, which is most of the time, these drivers are really blocking off a big part of the road.  The third lane between Södertälje and Stockholm is rather new (and there are now lights all the way) but if people are not using, what was the point of building it?!


* I decided to drive back and forth as it saves a lot of time, especially in the evenings.

First Week

It's Sunday evening and tomorrow I start my second work week post-maternity leave. The first two days of week 1, I didn't think that much about Isolde and actually just thought it was nice to get a "break" from motherhood. But towards the end of the week I was really missing her and missing her development (well, I didn't think about her that much during the day but when I got home and saw her I felt like I had been missing something). The second part of the week felt worse not only because the change had started to sink in but also because I had to commute from Södertälje, and had a longer day away from her than at the beginning of the week. I shouldn't really complain about commuting though since I'd only do it temporarily and so far I have only commuted for real one day (Friday) as Thursday Peter and Isolde also went to town and we took the car. But Friday's commute felt sooo looong - I left the house at 7:30am and returned at 7pm. Driving on Thursday took only a little over one hour. I'd like to be green but I think I may be driving even those days when Peter isn't going to town. We're probably just staying in Södertälje for another week so it's not like I'm polluting that much/for that long. If it hadn't been this early after going back to work I wouldn't have cared as much maybe but now it doesn't feel good to leave a sleeping baby in the morning and return just before her bedtime.

This weekend I also - which was perhaps bad timing but I didn't want to bail out - spent Saturday night at a friend's house for a party. But I didn't leave until 5pm Saturday afternoon and returned today at 1pm so I still got to catch up with Isolde over the weekend. By the way, it doesn't seem that she has really understood yet that there's been a change of "management". She's happy when I come home from work but she doesn't seem to really know how long I've been gone and she doesn't seem to have started missing me yet. Part of me is happy that she's so content with her dad but the other part would want to see more hurt feelings haha :) But all in all it's good of course since I think it's the right choice to go back to work now and share the parental leave 50-50. And I'm really enjoying work and look forward to getting down to business with my new responsibilities.

In other Isolde news, she had her 10-month check-up this week. This one was not just measurements (but those were 7,740 gr and 68 cm) but also a developmental update with the doctor (normally we just see the nurse). Everything was in order and we learnt a few interesting things about children's development at this age, for example that eating food on her own (i.e. not being fed but picking pieces of food with her fingers, also stimulates speech development because when she's putting stuff into her own mouth she uses her mouth differently (basically more the front than the back of the mouth) and thus trains different nerves and muscles. So now she'll only get finger food for a while! Haha, maybe not but definitely more than before. As she's also rather a lightweight still, the doctor also recommended cold pasta (fusilli or similar) as a snack - many calories but also a good finger food and easy to bring with you when out and about.

Where There Was Once a Kitchen...

Tedious

Not much time to reflect on the first day of work / parental leave for either of us... Sold our cooker (and with 15 interested I probably priced it too low but I just think it's good it doesn't end up on a dump) today and a friend is taking the dishwasher. We'll keep the fridge and microwave for now so that we can stay here on and off during the renovation. Peter finished the last touches on Isolde's room (except for wallpapering which the contractors will do for us later) so we have somewhere to sleep (as we're not just having the kitchen redone but also the rest of the flat painted and wallpapered). Can't wait for Christmas when it's all supposed to be finished!

Father's Time & More

Today, the day before Peter starts his parental leave (and I go back to work) was very appropriately Father's Day.  We didn't celebrate much (not Mother's Day in May either) this year*, as we were busy packing all our kitchen stuff ahead of Wednesday, the big day, when our complete kitchen renovation starts.  We also need to pack all loose items in our bedroom, living room and hallway, and move some furniture around, as the same company will paint and wallpaper those rooms too, but that's for tomorrow and Tuesday night.  I don't understand how we have so much stuff, even though we left some stuff in the attic when we moved in, as we knew we were going to do some work later on in the year... Wish us luck for the next couple of days, we need it!

* I suspect these days will become more of a big deal as Isolde grows up and comes home with Mother's/Father's Day drawings from pre-school :)

Bird Walk

Today took Elvina and Isolde for a walk while Malin and the rest of her family attended her dad's funeral (70 years old is too young to leave this life!). The chapel was next to a little lake (Lötsjö, Sundyberg) so we walked around the lake and stopped at the playground for a while. It was rather chilly though so the girls thought it was quite nice just to sit in the buggy and look at the ducks.

Even though it's a chilly day today (5-6'C), it doesn't feel like winter is on its way. It's been so mild and apparently there's no snow ANYWHERE in Sweden right now, not even in the far north, which is very rare. But they say harsh winters come in fours and we've had two in a row now so I think it'll hit us soon! And I don't really mind because I like snow!

Isolde at 10 Months Old

Our 10-month old:

• has two teeth.  The second one appeared our first days in the States and we completely missed it coming through so it must not have hurt as much as last time (which wasn't that bad either but she was evidently cranky then), maybe because it's next to the other one and the gums are already soft.
• is now a hands-and-knee crawler but still tummy crawls when she wants to get somewhere fast.
• can sit up herself, i.e. pull herself to sitting (she's been sitting since she was 4½ months).  Before she had to pull herself up, first to her knees and then to standing, and then sit down. Now she quickly moves between lying down on her back or tummy, crawling, on knees or any position, to sitting.
• sits and play sometimes but mostly stands and walks along furniture or anything she can find, as well as with her toddler wobbler.  About a month ago we had to constantly watch her* but now she can move around the living room without us following her around.  She tries to climb the sofa as well so when she's in that mood you need to watch her carefully.

• is basically never still!
• has much more hair than before we went on holiday.  It seems to grow in spurts.  A bit like development leaps.
• has in the last few days started talking more - more "words" and with more melody in the language.  Says "mamamama" and sometimes "pampampampa" (for pappa) but it's more like she's practicing the words rather than saying it to us or calling for us.
• is becoming a little bit interested in what we eat but still doesn't care that much and is happy being fed and is not interested in holding the spoon or trying to feed herself yet (except some finger food).
• likes bread and especially sourdough - think it grew on her in the States where she ate a fair share of it as a compensation for - in her view - the lack of tasty baby food.  She probably didn't need to eat as much food while we were in warm Florida, and fruit and smoothies provide plenty of nourishment too, but it was quite a relief to come home and see her want to eat cooked food again.  One of the brands of baby food that she did eat was Happy Baby (and to some extent, Earth's Best).
• continues to be super-social and easy-going and it was in many ways very easy to travel with her, especially in child-friendly US (where people would come from the other side of the room to talk to her).  She can sit for quite a while in a high-chair in a restaurant as long as you have a supply of toys and some bread.  That said, it was quite nice to come home and get some routines back in her and our lives, especially when it comes to food and sleep.
• has still not shown any separation anxiety but at night only mummy will do, which is kind of interesting because in the last few weeks she's been quite "want-to-be-with-daddy-all-the-time" (pappig) during the day.  If Peter is at home that is; she doesn't seem to miss him when he's at work.  Or maybe the realises that she has missed him because she's so happy when he comes through the door.  It will be interesting to see how it will be next week when we switch roles and I go back to work.

• started sleeping a bit irregularly before we went on holiday - from sleeping 8-5 to waking up at 3 or 4 and wanting to breast-feed - and the first week back suffered from jetlag, which wasn't helped by her parents dragging her to dinners with friends and the like, and is not back to "good" nights yet.  Initially I planned to stop nursing her when I went back to work but I have decided to continue as long as it works for me sleep-wise.  So most nights I nurse her before bedtime (she eats oat cereal earlier) and in the mornings (partly to get her to sleep longer).  I try to get her to go back to sleep without feeding if she wakes up before 5am (as a 10-month old doesn't need to eat at night) but sometimes I cave in... I guess it might get "worse" when I start work, as she might want to "make up" for not seeing me as much during the day. We'll see.
• often sleeps on her tummy now and rotates 360' several times a night.  It's sometimes difficult to put her to sleep because she has so much energy and can't always unwind.  Sometimes we have to hold her little leg and arms so that she can come to rest.  Sometimes when she's falling asleep she's sort of whining.  She can go on for half-an-hour and she's half-asleep, half-awake.  Sometimes she wakes up and grinds on for a while before going back to sleep.
• when she wakes up, sits up in her bed and chats away by herself or calls for us - but she's almost always Little Miss Sunshine when she wakes. If she's still tired she sucks her thumb and looks at us with her big eyes.
• is very interested in small(er) babies and tries to "talk" to them - she gets so excited and it's very cute.  She has also shown interest in dogs and cats even though she hasn't met many - the first dog she met for real was our friends Suvi & Nick's dog Bramble (then she was more interested in Bramble than their newborn son actually) and my American host family's cat Sammy.  She was a bit afraid of Bramble at first while she tried to crawl after Sammy almost right away - probably meeting Bramble earlier had helped, as she probably can't distinguish between a dog and a cat.

• plays more and more with us and shrieks of laughter if we tickle her or play imitation games.  She loves playing peekaboo in different ways, even the "simple" ones are fun: looking away and then turning your head quickly towards her (and sometimes making a face).
• can be quite rough when she plays with you.  She pulls and pokes at our noses and eyes (and my hair) and thinks it's fun and obviously doesn't realise it hurts.  We try to teach her to "be nice" but at the moment she thinks it's a game.  It's probably also a way to show affection but she cannot control all her movements completely.  At night she can lie still and just twist my hair softly though so she knows how, really.  By the way, she has started picking her own nose.  She has picked ours for a whole, or stuck up her finger in our nose rather, but now she's "discovered" her own :)
• doesn't always want to ride in the pushchair anymore.  Either it's a phase or she got used to being carried in the BabyBjörn or just in our arms on holiday.  Peter is not used to as much complaining so he lets her "escape" much earlier than I usually do.  I.e. he spoiled her and it will be interesting to see if he's going to have to carry her throughout his paternity leave?! :)  This week she's better than last though, even though the trick is often to let her ride forward-sitting.
• learned how to clap her hands properly while we were in the US.  Before that she did it very softly and not very often but now her hands make a real clapping sound and she claps a lot.  She also "claps" with two toys (or whatever she can find).
• is probably approaching 8 kilos (will find out next week) and wears more and more size 74 but can still fit in 68.

Earlier posts at 9 months and 8 months.

* As a parent you're on a constant watch of course but you know what I mean, you don't have to be there ready with the parachute.

10 Months!

Isolde turns 10 months old today! She celebrated by having her favourite, raspberries.  Actually, she gets this "treat" quite often, but loves it every time.  She could eat an endless amount if we let her and as you can see in the film she seems to be looking for more berries under the plate and wondering why she can't have more but somehow accepting her fate :)



Last Two Weeks...

The count-down has started! 11 days until I go back to work and lots to fit in that limited time!

Past...
Mon 31 Oct: We came back from the US mid-day, unpacked (half of the stuff), did laundry, rested...
Tues 1 Nov:Peter went back to work while Isolde and I slept until 11 and didn't do much the rest of the day except for meeting up with Peter to buy food for our anniversary dinner.
Wed 2 Nov: (today): Away Day with work (quite exciting for me; I'm going to have an almost new job description, which is the challenge I was looking for). Isolde had a great time with her grandparents.

Ahead...
Thur 3 Nov: Roadtrip to Sandviken to meet and spend the day with Anki and E. Looking forward to seeing Isolde and E. play.
Fri 4 Nov: Lunch date with Malin and all three kids, dinner with Peter's parents and his sister and husband to celebrate three birthdays
Sat 5 Nov: Baby-sitting Wera in the afternoon and then staying for dinner with her parents Åsa and Rikard
Sun 6 Nov: Visit by my parents and brother including brunch at Villa Källhagen, dinner at Peter's cousin Sandra with husband to meet their newborn son Axel.

Mon 7 Nov: Quick work meeting in the morning for me while Isolde visit Peter's work, baby song and dance mid-day
Tues 8 Nov: "Open pre-school" (öppna förskolan) followed by walk with the mummy group, my last time with them for a while at least :( Show/Stand-up (Ljust och fräscht) for me and my friend H. in the evening.
Wed 9 Nov: No plans yet
Thur 10 Nov: Might go the Thursday baby song and dance group, as we missed one session when we were in the US, otherwise no plans.  Work reception for me in the evening.
Fri 11 Nov: Dinner with friends Maria, Daniel and Jenny AND Jenny's new boyfriend Mauro from Brazil - first time we get to meet him!
Sat 12 Nov: Fika at Suvi &Nick's to meet little Edward again
Sun 13 Nov: Probably going down to Södertälje to celebrate my brother's birthday and Father's Day, unless we go Saturday instead

And in between: sort photos, start making some photobooks, write in Isolde's diary (I'm so behind!), maybe bake some saffron buns for Christmas (before our kitchen renovation starts on 15 November), pack all kitchen stuff and more ahead of the renovation, take long walks (though Isolde doesn't like the pushchair at the moment...), and cuddle a lot!


- via Isoldes padda

Anniversary

Peter and I have been married for a year today! How fast the year has gone! Isolde is a lot to "blame" for that I guess! :)

Since we just got back from the US yesterday we celebrated in low-key style: at home with some champagne and food from Östermalm covered market. Isolde liked Norway lobster (havskräfta) too - she has expensive taste, that one!

We're still planning to have a big party, or our second wedding, soon, just need to set a date (looking at April/May next year)!