April's Gone

May already and more than a month since I last wrote, so time for a little recap.

• Lots of work for me. This time of the year, March-May, will always be very busy, even though the busy period started already in January.
• But at the same time, April means Easter and we were able to spend almost 10 days in Sweden. We had a much more relaxing schedule than last time we were home at Christmas and spent most of the time with family but met with a few sets of friends. We also ticked off a few "duties" on our list, dentist for Peter and Isolde (first ever visit for her - it went well and she opened her mouth long enough for them to count her teeth), vaccination shots for Isolde, belated one-year check-up at BVC for Harald, and doctor's appointment for me to get migraine medicine (here in Belgium they only have these huge packs that only holds three pills while I can get a pack of 30 in Sweden).

Traditional Finnish Easter eggs and Finnish (Danish?) smørrebrød at Thomas & Minna's new flat on Easter Saturday.

Easter decoration à la Isolde

Harald is enjoying that all playgrounds in Sweden have swings

Easter cake helper

Eating corn snacks in his sleep...

Time to fly back to Brussels

• Spring comes earlier here than in Sweden (and this year it is an usually early spring apparently) and in mid-April it looked and smelled like Sweden in May. You know those flowers you associate with the last few weeks of school before summer vacation. But here that is very much April rather than May. Now it is completely green. The cherry trees blossomed at in mid-March and the magnolia was almost withering by the end of March. The lilac are still in bloom though.
• We finished the month of April with Walpurgis Eve / Valborg celebrations at the Scandinavian School in Waterloo on 30 April together with our new neighbours, Swedish T., Welsh M. and their daughter E.

• E. also started attending Isolde's school at the end of April. They are not in the same class but the two classes spend the afternoons together.

Off to school on E's first day

• We have also made some more definite plans for our continued stay here in Belgium. Peter will be working for his Swedish employer until the end of the year - still on parental leave until August and after that, remote working either from home or from his company's office here in Brussels. That will give him more time to find a job here.
• We also started looking for houses to rent here in April, and this week Tuesday we signed for a very nice house in the same neighbourhood where we live now (so we don't have to change schools/crêche)! We are so excited! We will get access at the beginning of June so now we are looking into moving our furniture from Sweden here. As our tenants in the Stockholm flat have moved out and we are looking for new tenants we have the opportunity to move the furniture and then let it unfurnished instead.

Our new house!

• In the saga that is Harald's computer addiction he managed to break my iPhone screeen while we were in Sweden but luckily it didn't cost me too much to fix it. Unnecessary of course but it is very difficult to say no to him sometimes! Now I have problems with the LCD screen under the glass and sometimes I can hardly see what I'm doing so it's time to buy a new one (and I should probably complain to the repair place in Sweden but I don't think I kept the receipt...)!

Must. Get. The. Computer.

• We have hung out with the neighbours and been to one housewarming party of an old acquaintance from my stagiaire days who also lives here now (they came to our drink in March as well). Unfortunately in April we had to say goodbye to our good friends Chris & Jacqui who moved back to the UK after four years in Belgium (after before that four years in Sweden where we first met them). We miss them so much! Luckily it is not too far to the UK from here and especially not to Kent in south England where they live now.

We will miss little Emilie and her brother Daniel, and their parents of course!

• Our dear friends and neighbours P & O brought back some shoes for our kids from Spain where they spent Easter. Shoes are so much cheaper there! And it's good quality leather shoes! We will need to put in another order for their next visit! :)

• And the kids are growing and learning new things! Isolde is drawing cars and Harald is practising his fine motor skills.