Our First Week In Brussels

Our first week in Belgium is over.  There are still boxes everywhere but it's been a good week and we're really feeling at home in the flat.  I can feel that we'll be happy here. 

This is what we've been up to:

Monday
We had been told the movers would arrive Monday or Tuesday but when I still hadn't heard anything Sunday evening I emailed them and around 10pm I was told that they would come already Monday around 3pm.  We got a bit worried because the company was supposed to reserve a part of the street to park the lorry, something which needs to be done in advance, at least 48 hours before but preferably earlier, but Sunday evening this hadn't been done.  So Monday morning I texted the driver to alert him to the fact and also informed him when they called a bit later to check the address (which they should have had but apparently they had brought an old work order). It wasn't their fault of course but they're the ones that need to deal with it.  Luckily when they did arrive, already at 13:00, there was space at the bottom of our street but it meant that they had to haul our boxes quite far.

Can you spot the lorry at the bottom of the street?

There were two of them and Peter helped put so they were done within an hour.  We started unpacking in the evening, but didn't get that far, but it was good to start to get the kitchen ready and at least the boxes were still neatly stacked at that point.

Shortly after this photo was taken it did not look this organised anymore...

Tuesday
Tuesday was a stressful day relating to our flat in Stockholm.  The tenants have been great so far but our condominium association a pain in...  Luckily it's now sorted, for now at least (and I'm grateful to Peter for dealing with all of it!).  We didn't get much unpacking done on Tuesday but in the evening we had time to switch the guest room and the kids' room.  We opted for a smaller children's room and a bigger guest room (though both rooms are small, maybe 8 sqm), mainly because I didn't want the children's room to have a balcony for safety reasons.  Also, it's nice for the guests to be able to move around a little bit in the room and have a "private" balcony, and the kids will play a lot in the kitchen/living room (open plan) anyway I'm sure. For the moment Harald will continue to sleep in our room so Isolde has a little bit more space in her room.  Harald sleeps through the night (from 21-22 to 07) and is not easily disturbed so he could easily share with Isolde, but for the same reason, he can also stay with us as we don't disturb each other.  Isolde on the other hand, when she was a baby, moved to her own room at age 4-5 months as she was making a lot of noise in her sleep and we also seemed to disturb her sleep.

As you can see it's quite small.  If Harald's bed was in there too, we'd have it by the window opposite Isolde's bed, and put the white table away or somewhere else.  The bed, rug and curtains, as well as the shelves in the next picture, came with the flat but we brought the rest from Sweden.

Once Harald moves in here it will be pretty crowded in that righthand corner...

Tuesday we also checked out a big playground near us, Parc Malou - about 15 minutes by foot (either through streets or on La Promenade Verte) or a few minutes by car.

The playground continues to the right of this picture so it's very large.

Wednesday
I went into town to have lunch with two colleagues.  It was a really nice (on the rooftop terrace of my colleague's new flat in the centre of Brussels) and useful lunch.  While at lunch I felt really excited and was looking forward to starting to work on Monday but then when I got back home and had a cuddle with my family I instead felt really jealous of Peter who will be home with the kids.  In reality it's mixed of course.  I know I will love work but at the same time I will really miss the children, and especially Harald of course as I'm used to being with him 24/7.  Oh how I wish I could have the cake and eat it! 

Wednesday afternoon we went over to our friends C and J (although just J and the baby were home), as J was going to help us call (our French is very rusty and over the telephone when you don't see the person it's even more difficult) the school where Isolde will go but they had already left for the day, as term doesn't start until next week.  She called for us the next morning instead and also made an appointment for us with the headmistress for Thursday afternoon.

Thursday
We had to visit the mothership, aka Ikea, of course, and not just for fun, we needed stuff :)  This flat is great in most ways but what it doesn't have is storage, and we brought a lot of stuff with us from Sweden, so we bought a few canvas storage bags/boxes to store linen, towels and clothes (e.g. the kids' clothes and shoes in the next sizes) underneath our bed and the guest beds. We may buy an extra wardrobe or chest of drawers later depending on how we get on with the existing wardrobes. We also bought some pillows, hangers, minor kitchen items, and (frozen) meatballs, and of course, sweets (lördagsgodis!), and the following day Peter went back to buy a mattress, furniture for the balconies and the top part to Isolde's toy kitchen.

Thursday afternoon we visited Isolde's new (pre)school to register her, and checked our her classroom and play grounds.  The premises are a bit rundown but the teachers (and the headmaster) seemed cheerful and the atmosphere was nice and welcoming. She'll start on Monday 9 September - but more about that in a different post!

Friday
Yesterday we went to register at the muncipality (Woluwe-Saint-Pierre commune) in the morning (until you're registered in Belgium it's very difficult to do something, e.g. to get mobile phone accounts) and after that Peter did his round at Ikea while the kids and I hung out at home.  In the afternoon Peter took them to the playground for a couple of hours while I got some unpacking done at home.  Finally we can see the kitchen counters and floor and Isolde has books to read (in the guest room) and all their clothes are unpacked.  I also did several loads of laundry (also earlier in the week), and since the weather has been nice all week I've hung it to dry outside.  Love the smell of airdried laundry, especially sheets and towels!

Saturday/today
Today we headed out pretty early (10ish) to meet (blog friend and now lovely neighbour) P, O and V to check out the local market (where I also ran into an old mate from Oxford who I hadn't seen for ten years - we agreed to organise a playdate with his kids and mine) and to fika at a local café (will write more about the area later), and afterwards we checked out another playground nearby (which was almost empty - where is everyone?!) and walked a bit down La Promenade Verte before returning to the flat for some further unpacking while the kids napped.  In the afternoon we checked out another supermarket and before dinner Peter cycled with Isolde to Parc Malou while Harald and I chilled at home.  And in the evening, more unpacking in between fighting with Isolde about peeing on the potty/toilet (more on that later) and going to bed... :)

So that pretty much sums up our first week in Belgium.  It has only rained one day so every day we have spent quite a lot of time outside and made at least one stop to the local playground.  We have also checked out almost all nearby supermarkets, both the big ones and the smaller express ones (more on Belgian supermarkets and foot items in a later post). 

With two kids unpacking is a bit of a challenge... You have to make a lot of time for playtime (thus all the playground visits) and also for cuddles.  Harald doesn't care where he is of course, as long as he's fed and cuddled, but Isolde is of course aware that we've made a change in our lives and that everything is new.  I'm really amazed how well she's handling it.  There are lots of tantrums of course, not that many more than normal for her/her age, but she's been acting up a little bit when we haven't had time for her (we have to devote time to unpacking of course), and it's also her way of dealing with this big change in her life.  Her way of causing trouble usually revolves around Harald.  Sometimes she just wants to cuddle with him but more often she wants to irritate him by laying on top of him or pushing him down when he wants to sit up and she thinks he should lie down so she can finger his ear.  She's also very strong-willed and the other day she was angry with us because she wanted ice cream (really frozen Danonini yoghurt) but we said that she had to eat dinner first.  After about 10-15 minutes she "caved" and was becoming calm on my lap and then that question came: "when are we going home?" I said that this is our home now for a while and that all our stuff is here, that her toys are here.  After that she was happy again and she ate her dinner (with ice cream for dessert).  It's like she needed to talk about it, but that was it, she was happy with the answer.  That was it, at least right there and then; it's probably not the last time she'll ask or miss our (old) home.  It was one of those moment where love your child so much you want to squeeze her.  Both Peter and I had tears in our eyes and felt so proud of her for being able to voice her feelings.  Our little big girl.  Lately, I'm not sure if it's the age, or because shes recently had a sibling, or if it's related to the move, but she's been telling us a lot that she's "stor" (big) and that Harald is little.  I sometimes call her "min stora bebis" (my big baby) but she's started saying that no, she's a big girl.  So cute. 

Good learning swing at our nearest playground

We're Here

And so it begins. A new phase in life. New every-day life. New home. New neighbourhood and surroundings. New languages (or languages if we opt to learn Dutch as well; and Isolde will hear a lot of English too which is also new to her). New places to get used. Streets, playgrounds, supermarkets.

I thought for a while that we were going to miss our plane. We (my mum, me and the kids) got there in time, one hour early and we were already checked in, but the queue to bag drop was long and after that we were supposed to drop off Harald's car seat at special baggage and go through security and make our way all the way to a gate furthest down the terminal. The lady at bag-drop acknowledged that we may be short of time, so she offered to take our car seat (and she also gave us a bag for it for free; only 40 SEK but still) - so nice of her! But while queuing for security I realised we had less than 25 minutes to take-off, and the queue was pretty long, so I explained our predicament (including played the "I'm travelling with two small children-card") and asked if we could go through the fast track. There was a queue there too (and by Murphy's Law we chose the slow of the two lanes there) but we saved some time and then we jogged through the terminal to our gate. There were a few other passengers arriving at the same time and a few after us so in the end we were fine, but for a while there I was a bit worried. 

The children did really well on the flight and the plane landed almost 15 mins early. Peter picked us up - it was wonderful to see him after a few days apart and it felt very symbolic: now our new life begins. When we arrived at our new home Peter popped open the champagne and we toasted to new beginnings. The flat felt really homely already as Peter had already been to the supermarket for supplies - and our new neighbour Petra had lent us some crockery and cutlery for the weekend until our stuff arrives - and even bought a TV. For some reason we have already spread our stuff around the flat and I'm wondering where our 40 boxes of stuff will fit and wishing a little we were just starting afresh with what was in our suitcases and in the car with Peter haha :)

Here's the view from one of our two balconies of the street and the buildings opposite.  

After champagne and dinner - tomato and mozzarella followed by pasta - we went to the nearest playground 5 minutes away, and now both kids have been sleeping for a while (Isolde seems to like her new room and bed) and it's time for us adults to go to bed too. 

Getting Close

It's almost midnight and I've just gone to bed here at my parents' place. The children have already been sleeping for a few hours (the big one is taking up most of the bed and kicking my back even though it's just the two of us in a double bed). Peter is spending the night at his parents before the big drive tomorrow. He left early this morning to meet the movers and to make sure the cleaners got in afterwards (he reported this evening that the flat has never been so clean haha). He also took the opportunity to lunch with a few friends and take a long walk along Djurgården. The kids and I meanwhile hung out in my parents' garden and had Maria and Daniel over for a final fika. Otherwise my parents are working so we're on our own during the day, though my dad gets home pretty early every day, around three. Harald has a pretty bad cold so I don't want to venture out much and besides, I don't have his pram here as Peter is taking it with him in the car. We have the BabyBjörn and the Yoyo so we may go to Torekällberget (local petting zoo and open air museum) tomorrow to pass time, we'll see. Isolde has a lot of energy so it would be good to get out. Thursday Malin and little Dexter (and perhaps the rest of her little rascals?) are coming over after lunch and I'm also hoping Helena & kids might stop by briefly. We saw my cousin Henrik and family for dinner on Sunday evening as well - nice to see them again too before we leave. 

It was weird to say bye to Peter this morning. Not that three and a half days are that long (though the last time one of us were away for that long was when I went to London with my mum for four days in December) but next time we'll see each other, it'll be in a new country and in many ways in a new life, or phase of life at least! Exciting but also big! It's now less than two weeks until I start my new job. Yikes!  I've started thinking a lot about it now. I asked my new colleagues for some reading material so will try to get that done this and next week, and I'm meeting them for lunch next week. I'm feeling excited but also a bit nervous. I've also thought a lot about having to leave my little darling Harald and it breaks my heart a little. I know he'll be fine with his dad but I will miss being with him and see him grow every minute. I will need to spend every minute at home in the evenings and on the weekend with him. And of course not forget about Isolde. We need our time together too. I'm also a bit worried about how my breasts will survive in the beginning. Getting Harald to eat solids (well, mostly puréed form) is going slowly and I'm mostly breast-feeding still. I'm not too worried about him, he'll quickly understand that there's nothing else to eat during the day (and we have bought formula too) but I wonder how my breasts will cope! Might be a bit difficult first few days! Might need to bring the pump with me haha!

To be continued on all counts...

Random Numbers

• 7 days left until the removers come and collect our stuff (20th)
• 8 days until Peter drives down together with his mum as company
• 10 days left until the children and I fly down, with my mum as extra helper on the plane and over the weekend 
• 5 or 6 days (depending on if we move out Sunday or Monday) left in the flat before we go and spend our last few days at my parents 
• 20 days of maternity leave left until I start working
• Harald turned 6 months old yesterday - time flies!
• I manage to get an appointment with my hairdresser in 2 days because someone else cancelled.  So happy!  Otherwise who knows when I would find an equally fantastic hairdresser in Brussels.
• 20 boxes packed, 20 to go if we fill our space in the lorry (and just my shoes are about 5 boxes...)
• 5 boxes worth of books but don't intend to bring them with us when we move back - looking forward to reading on the 20 minute commute to work
• Harald and I got to cuddle little Dexter today, 8 days old

Harald and little Dexter

• Peter has made 3 trips to Myrorna (Salvation Army) to drop off stuff and I think we can probably fill another couple of boxes.  Moving from time to time is really good to keep us from becoming hoarders!
• Isolde has 2 days left at her pre-school - she (and us parents) will really miss that place!
• 1 lunch date booked this week and hope to squeeze in a few more friends between packing
• 11 minutes to midnight and I should really get some sleep.  New packing day tomorrow!

And if you have missed reading about our big move, here is the post again!

Almost 6 Months

Check-up for Harald today for the first time in over a month. He didn't mind being weighed and measured as usual but was not happy about the vaccination shots. Isolde used to only cry for a few seconds afterwards (and still has a high pain threshold) but Harald was upset for a couple of minutes and cried out again back in the waiting room. He's a little sensitive, our boy, but as we don't see him cry very often "mean mummy" thought it was kind of cute :)  When he got the first set of vaccinations at three months, he had a cold and was miserable overnight but I hope it won't be too bad this time.

It feels like we have a big boy, as he's much bigger than Isolde was at the same age, but he's not that much bigger than average for boys (but girls are generally smaller of course). He weighed 8,340gr and was 67cm today (Isolde was 6,990 and 64 cm at 6 months), which means he's grown taller lately and continues to weigh a little bit over average. The nurse thought his gums were a bit swollen, and it feels like he's been drooling and chewing (and biting when I'm nursing - not allowed!), so he may be teething, we'll see. Next visit is in just 10 days as we want to do the six-month examination with the doctor before we move. Last one was at two months and next one at 12 months (or we'll do it in Belgium), otherwise we just see the nurse for check-ups. 

Getting steadier and steadier

Just love those lashes!



Weight

 



Length

Brussels Sprouts

We have some exciting times ahead of us! It's old news for some of you, as we've known for some time now - it's been in the process since February and was finally confirmed in early June - but for the rest of you; we're moving to Brussels, Belgium, at the end of August! This is the main reason why it's been quiet on the blog at times. Well, that and having had another baby in February, resulting in lack of "me time" since then. But the main reason has been that the move - the decisions related to it and all the stuff that needs to be organised - has taken a lot of energy. In a positive way of course since this is something we really want to do, but it is still something that has occupied my mind a lot. Before the job was finally confirmed in June I didn't want to reveal anything on the blog.  But I have felt like I've been hiding something from you and posting about other stuff has felt unimportant and a bit pointless. Except for about the kids and especially about Harald of course. Now when I have "come clean" about our plans I can go all in and write every day of course! :) Though I doubt I'll have time now when I have less three weeks to pack! Yikes!

So why are we going? I've been offered and accepted a job at the European Commission. Initially I felt the timing wasn't great as I had planned to stay home longer with Harald - and when the Commission contacted me the first time in late January - early February he hadn't even been born yet - but as I didn't know if I'd ever get the chance again I wanted to give it a shot. And in many ways the timing is very good, as Peter can take parental leave to start with and doesn't need to find a job right away. It would probably have been a more difficult decision if we'd have had the stress of him finding a job (we could live on one salary for a while but would prefer not to). My contract is one year to begin with, with a possible (and probable) extension up to three years*. I have been granted a leave of absence from my job here in Sweden, which give us both job security if we do return after a year.  Our intention is to stay in Brussels for three years but we also like the fact that we have the first year to see how it goes and if we like it.  There's also the risk that the Commission may not be able to extend after the first year, as this position is always dependent on the availability of funding, so again, very grateful for the leave of absence / parental leave.  Peter has to find a job and we don't want the move to affect the children, especially Isolde (Harald will probably care less where we are), in any negative way.  Isolde is a very social and carefree little girl so we hope she'll adjust fine even though she may find it difficult at start not understanding the language of course.  But children learn so quickly.  I've heard people say that kids start picking up new words already after a couple of weeks.  As it looks now she'll stay at home with Peter for the first month or two (he'll have a handful!) and then start pre-school, maternelle (more on that later).  For the children the timing couldn't be better, as I think it's much easier for them to make the transition at this age before they have started school and made too many friends, etc. (though I'm all for it at any age in theory) compared to if this opportunity had come in five years' time.

I've dreamt about going abroad again (I've lived abroad for almost 6 years before but I've been home in Sweden for ten years now) for a long time, and living real life (not student or trainee life) abroad, and also about working for the EU institutions, but when the opportunity actually arose it was a different matter!  In many ways the decision was easy for the reasons explained above - I couldn't really turn it down - but I don't only have myself to think about now but a whole family, and we wanted to make an informed decision.  So we spent a few days doing research about what it would mean for us financially to move and also, and perhaps more importantly, move back to Sweden in a few years' time.  What would happen to our parental benefits, pensions, mortgage payments, student loan payments, tax, insurances, etc.?  What impact it would have on us as a family, our children, our extended family? Lots of things to think about.  Not all affecting the decision as such, but good to think about and to be aware of.  I only had a few days to accept the offer, but after that there was a period of a couple of months when I waited for the next step in the process, whereby I had to present evidence of my qualifications, job experience, etc. and also go through a medical examination (mainly for the medical insurance that comes with the job), before the position was made final.  The interview took place in early March**, the "evidence and medical visit" to Brussels in early May, and in June it was all finally confirmed.  And 2 September I start!

The drawback of moving to another country is of course being far away from our family and friends.  We're "taking away" the grandchildren from mormor, morfar, farmor & farfar but we hope they as well as our friends (you!) will come and visit often (we have a guest room!) and we'll also spend most of our holidays back in Sweden.  We're grateful that it's 2013 and the communication opportunities are endless - Skype, Viber, Facebook, Instagram, email, sms, etc.  We have some friends in Brussels already, which is nice, and some of them have young children as well.  Peter is a bit nervous about how to "entertain" two kids in a new place in the beginning but luckily there are two mothers Peter can hang out***.  One of them is the wife (and now friend) of a former colleague of mine who's expecting their second child any day now (and they have a four-year old already).  Unfortunately they are moving back to the UK in April next year but we'll have almost nine months to hang out with them.

The other mother is fellow blogger and Swede Petra whom we've both met a few times - once in Stockholm (just me), once in New York and once in Brussels (now in May) and maybe on one further occasion??  She's expecting number two in the next few weeks - and big brother V is just eight months younger than Isolde - and will be home with the baby and can hang out with Peter.  We'll actually be neighbours - same building, different flights of stairs - as Petra has very kindly helped us find accommodation****!  Very fortunate for us, Petra and her (Spanish) husband Oscar (whom we haven't had the chance to meet yet but are looking forward to getting to know!), have some (also Swedish) friends who happened to plan to return to Sweden during almost the same period we were looking to rent somewhere, so that has worked out perfectly!   Petra and Oscar rented their flat for a while a couple of years ago before they decided to buy in the same building!  We really liked the flat when we visited in May so we think it's going to be a great year, both living in the flat and having Petra and family nextdoors!  Even though Petra and I have only met IRL a few times it feels like we know each other so well, as we're been following each other's blogs for several years.  Can't wait to become proper IRL friends! :)

We're very excited about this new phase in our lives!  Now we just need to get through these next couple of weeks of sorting out the last bits of various paperwork and packing all of our stuff.  We're not bringing any furniture, "only" boxes with clothes and kitchen items, etc. as well as our bicycles and larger children's items, but it still takes time!  The removers come on 19 or 20 August and Peter leaves on 21 August to drive down with our car and I fly down with the kids (and my parents) on the 23rd.  Our stuff will arrive on 26 or 27th, which will give us almost a week to unpack and settle in before I start work.

So that's our big news!  Now I have to book those flights so we can definitely go! :)

* So called "contractual agent" contract (there are two categories; the one other is up to six years).  I have been in a database for contractual agent jobs since 2007 when I took and passed an exam, a so-called concours.  This was the third interview but the first actual offer, and it was also the first opportunity at the European Commission; the other jobs have been at other EU organs.
** I was meant to do the interview on 18 February but when Harald arrived unexpectedly on 12 February, I was able to change the date to 6 March.  It was always planned to be over VTC though, as I wouldn't have been able to travel that late in the pregnancy, and when I Harald was only
*** The Swedish church has a play group twice a week that I'm sure he and the kids will be frequent visitors too.
**** And helped me with my thousand other questions!  Thank you so much!  I'm eternally grateful!