2016 Recap - January-June

I'm not such a good blogger, am I... Last post in February last year and now it is May of this year already. Oh well... Here comes a recap of 2016 that I started preparing a few months ago but didn't get around to posting until now. This is January-June 2016 and the rest of the year will come soon.

JANUARY
Birthdays, which I already wrote about here. Raclette dinner at Petchie - a very typical and fitting winter activity. Baked bread on sourdough passed onto us from Petchie's dad (we kept it alive a couple of months but then gave up...). Shot a video at work used at a Directorate Day to inform others about our work.

FEBRUARY
Baked cinnamon buns and of course, it being February, semlor, for Harald's 3rd birthday. And I made an airplane cake!

Swans on the tram track. One of many home-made pizza evenings with the friendbours. I started the work trip year with one of my many trips to Sweden (February-June and September-December I travel at least once every month). Kids visited me at work. Peter's friend T. visited for a few days.

MARCH
I got a new passport, reluctantly, since I was so happy with the photo in my old one. Oh, vanity! My parents came for a long weekend and we went to Antwerpen but otherwise mostly stayed local. The weather was nice so we could even have fika in the sunshine on our terrace, though while wearing coats.

We made hamburgers from scratch (not the first time and not last either) for the friendbours and we went to Planckendael animal park with Petchie & family plus a Swedish-Danish family.

March was of course also the month of a very sad and horrible event in Brussels, which I was very lucky to narrowly escape. Now it feels a very long time ago and we don't really think about it in our daily lives (despite other attacks around the world including in Stockholm unfortunately having taken place), although it of course comes to mind sometimes as I travel on the metro to work every day. That particular day I took the metro as usual and got off at Maelbeek as usual and had just exited the metro station and walked up to my office when a colleague came and said something had happened at Maelbeek and that there were injured people. Probably my train was the one that came in just before the train with the bomb, 2-3 minutes apart. I'm not the type of person to think too much about the past (unless it is happy things) or dwell, so I have mostly thought about how lucky I was, am, and not about what could have happened. And the people who were not so lucky were in my thoughts instdad. In retrospect of course, both Peter and I agree that, even though it went well, it was stupid to go on the metro after we knew that first attack had taken place at the airport. I remember I told Peter after we had dropped off the kids at school that I felt a bit strange to take the metro, but he said that it will be fine, don't worry. Well, for me it was fine in the end, but not for others... If this ever happen again sometime somewhere I will not take public transport right there and then.

Personally for us, it was otherwise a good day, because Peter signed a job contract this very day. Actually he was supposed to take the metro a bit later than me to go and sign it at his new employer at 10 o'clock. By then the metro was for obvious reasons not running anymore, and after checking whether they still wanted him to come in, he took the car downtown. It took him a while due to many closed off streets but he made it there, signed the contract, and was then able to drive closer to my area to wait until I was let out of my building (we were not allowed to leave for the first few hours after the attacks). What is a bit funny or ironic or what you call it, is that Peter's new office is located in Molenbeek, the city district where many of the terrorists come from. Molenbeek is actually very central, not so far from Grand Place and the city centre, and Peter's work, the head office of one of Belgium's biggest banks, is located just at the beginning of Molenbeek. So on the day of a terrorist attack he drove to where they live(d) to sign the contract. Obviously, Molenbeek has many - mostly - regular people too. It actually shows how Brussels is. Many parts are very divided. One street can be very run down and with residents from a certain socio-economic group or ethnic background, and the next street over could be completely different.

The evening of 22 March we were extra grateful for our little family and for being alive.

A couple of days later, and only with a day's delay to our original plans, we managed to fly to Sweden for Easter. We were quick to re-book our flight once they announced that they were redirecting some flights from Zaventem (which after the attacks were closed for months) to other small airports. Our flight was quite empty, maybe 15-20 people, and we saw a flight leaving for Edinburgh with maximum 5 passengers. A few days later these flights were full though and the arrangements went on for at least a month before they could partly re-open Zaventem.

APRIL
We stayed for about a week in Sweden for Easter, into the very beginning of April. We had some sunny and warm spring days so a lot of time outside. Good times and moments with friends and family. Harald had a haircut, the first one where he wasn't completely hysterical and didn't have to sit on my lap. We got to try pasta bolognese made of moose and wild boar for the first time.

Back in Brussels spring had arrived properly, at least for a moment, with 20 degrees. The kids went to "stage" (camp) their second week of Easter break. Isolde went to swimming camp and Harald did the usual mini club for the youngest kids.

The metro started running again after the terrorist attacks and at the end of the month "my" station Maelbeek re-opened again too.

We did some outlet shopping with A & L and we did one of many excursions with the friendbours to Ikea. Peter hired a high-pressure washer and had a go at the tiles in the front and back of our house and we discovered we had differently coloured tiles than just dirt gray.

We celebrated Peter's birthday and also his new job that he started on 18 April, both with the friendbours and with a dinner for two at a local renomed restaurant.

In April I also went to Sweden for a girls' weekend with my childhood friends to celebrate that we all, except one, were turning 40.

The month ended, as it should, even in Brussels, with Valborg celebration out at the Scandinavian school in Waterloo.

MAY
May meant more time at playgrounds and picnics in the park. Family L. visited us for a long weekend and one or two weekends after Peter's sister with family came as well. In general we had pretty bad weather all spring and early summer but these visits managed to hit some of the few days of sunny and warm weather in May. With family L we went to the Hergé or "Tintin" museum and the tivoli in our local square.

We also did a short trip to Sweden ourselves as I combined a work trip with some family and friends time. On this trip I said goodbye to my parents' house, the house which was my home between the ages of 13 and 19, and where I have stayed a lot also after that of course. The garden especially is missed, in particular of the kids, but almost a year after my parents' move, it definitely feels like the right move for them. They really like their new flat a bit nearer the centre of Södertälje, where they are very close to the shops, my mother's work, my aunt and uncle and my brother. Their new building is one of those 55+ residences so many (most) living there are retired and they have a garden club, a library, gym and sauna, weaving room, etc. and they (those who want to) meet almost every day for a meal or a coffee.

I got my own elevating desk for work to save my back. Elevating desks (the proper types, not the desk-on-desk version I got) are standard in Sweden but the European Commission is somewhat behind when it comes to the physical work environment...

JUNE

Isolde made a portrait of me at school.

Three friends of Peter visited. We took many evening walks in our lovely neighbourhood and did some gardening. We could sit outside at dinner with the Stockel ladies and one of the English girls in the group hosted an Afternoon Tea.

We said goodbye to our American friends - but we will see them in Stockholm as that is where they headed next. They threw an early 4th of July party as their farewell do - S had baked all week! We also said goodbye to C & J with kids (the family we rented the flat we first lived in here in Brussels) who moved back to Sweden for good.

June was also start of the Euro 2016 football cup, which was extra fun as Sweden and Belgium were in the same group.

We of course celebrated Midsummer (and forgot about Brexit for a moment...)! We invited our American friends (before they disappeared to the US for holiday and then to Stockholm to their new home) and in addition we had Spanish guests in addition to the obligatory Swedes.

And we ended June 2016 with a date night!

Our Second Year in Belgium

We have begun our third year here in Belgium - time flies! And I haven't blogged since the beginning of this year so it is really time to recap and catch up here on the blog!

Our last year in bullets:

• Harald started créche in August 2014 and Isolde her second year in Belgian maternelle in September. Consequently Peter's parental leave finished and he started working for his Swedish employer but remotely from Brussels (until January 2015, more on that below).
• Kids caught the chicken pox in autumn but luckily it didn't clash (but almost!) with our week in the sun at Lanzarote in November. We stayed in a really good hotel (resort) there, which we can really recommend. However, if you don't like black volcano sand you should choose another Canary island (we only went to the beach ones, but our kids probably prefer the pool anyway). 
• We had mainly family visitors during the autumn - Peter's parents - and Maria and Daniel (who are practically family) and in early November we also went home for a long weekend and had the opportunity to celebrate my cousin H's 40th, which very coincidentally happened to be the same weekend. In the spring both sets of grand(parents) visited and we had brother-in-law and uncle Martin (not my brother Martin but Peter's sister's husband) here for a few hours while he was here on a work trip. Our good friend and Harald's godmother Jessica also came twice, once to spend the night and once just a few hours on her way to the airport after work meetings (it's convenient that we live so close to the airport).
• Christmas was spent in Sweden, as usual. We stayed about two weeks, and since Peter was still working for his Swedish employer at that stage (until 31 December), we were able to stay in one of the company's apartments for parts of the stay and with my parents or in my sister-in-law's flat for the rest. As usual we had a pretty busy schedule trying to see as many family members and friends as possible, but we had time to relax as well. There was no snow at all unfortunately and especially Isolde was disappointed. Hoping for a white Christmas this year instead!
• I did a number of work trips to Sweden, one per month on average both in the autumn and the spring. One of them was the December one mentioned above, when Peter also had a work event in Sweden, so we made a family weekend out of it. One of the trips was to Göteborg (which was nice as I could catch up with Heidi who lives there) but otherwise I always go to Stockholm, which is perfect in terms of seeing family and friends. Next year I may however go to other parts of the Sweden once or twice, and I hope it will be somewhere I haven't been before and preferably up north. I really enjoy my job, though hectic at times, and I don't mind the work trips either but sometimes once a month feels a little often. But I shouldn't complain as I often can meet up with friends and do some shopping to stock up on Swedish goodies or necessities. We are lucky that Peter was working from home earlier and now since the beginning of 2015 has been a stay-at-home dad, so we have not had many logistical issues with my work trips or work in general. Now he's applying for jobs and I hope he finds one soon for a variety of reasons, but it will of course be a bit more tricky when the kids are sick or when one of us is working a lot or travelling. Normal situation for most people of course, but we have been spoiled for a long time now. 
• In October our good friends and neighbours the Swedish-Welsh family unfortunately moved to Wales so we had to say goodbye for now to them, but in March we went to visit them with our Swedish-Spanish and American friends, and at the end of this summer parts of the family came for a quick visit here (and to pick up items we had stored for them in our garage). On that March trip to the UK we also visited our friends Chris and Jacqui who lived here until spring 2014 (and before that in Sweden) and met very briefly - a few hours in a park - my friend Kim and her family. We also stopped by an old school friend, Nathalie, who I hadn't seen for a long time, and met her sons for the first time. 
• Peter's grandmother passed away late winter/early spring so he went home for the funeral. It's always sad of course, but at almost 94 and suffering from dementia I'd like to believe it was only a relief for her to move on.
• We celebrated the kids' birthdays with their little friends and families and of course mine and Peter's birthdays too, but less fuzz about ours naturally.
• In spring we could tick off one of those "when-you-have-kids" experiences: lice! Harald only got one or two, and Peter was lucky to be unaffected, but Isolde and I had a lot! Our friendbours also caught it so we had one fun Friday evening where we were all shampooing each other and the kids :)
• Whilst Christmas was spent in Sweden as usual, we decided not to go to Sweden for Easter and instead join our friendbours P & O for their Easter celebrations in Spain with O's family as well as P's family coming from Sweden. We flew down (with Ryanair, first time in several years) from Paris but missed out on a planned day in Paris beforehand as I caught some sort of stomach bug. It was nice to see the village where O. comes from and meet his parents and sister, and do some excursions in the area including to Zaragoza, the nearest city (also Spain's fifth largest city). I also enjoyed seeing the Catholic Easter parades, something we don't really have in Sweden. And we bought a lot of shoes, especially for the kids, as his village and the nearby villages are in a shoemaker region. 
• In spring we also took a day trip with P & O and kids to Aachen in Germany with a shorter stop in Maastricht in the Netherlands on our way back. I love living so in the middle of Europe where it is easy to take a day trip or a weekend trip to another country, or several! We really have to make more such trips! Luxembourg is on the list, as is France and Champagne, but for the latter we'll get babysitters so we can enjoy it properly!
• Late spring, early summer one of the kids' little friends L. was very unlucky and fractured her leg on our trampoline, poor thing (we have a safety net but she twisted her leg while jumping). Luckily she recovered quickly but is staying away from the trampoline for a while just in case.
• In the spring Isolde got a new bike, a real bike. We would probably have got one already in the autumn if she hadn't been so short and most bikes were still too big. Her balance bike is 10 inches and we thought it was unnecessary to buy a bike of the same size. But in the spring she was a few more centimeters and a 12-inch bike worked, just. Having had the balance bike (and a scooter) has really done the trick - she could ride the bike without training/support wheels right away! She found it somewhat difficult to start by herself and also break, but we practised that during the summer, and now we can take quite long bike trips with her.
• In May my friend and Harald's god mother Åsa visited with new baby Lily (new as in 8 months old then) for a few days. It was nice to spend some quality time with them, especially for Åsa and Harald. 
• For the ascension weekend in May we went to Normandie to see the D-day beaches and also to Brittany where we visited Saint Malo, Mont Saint-Michel and some other picturesque towns. It was a very nice and interesting mini-break. 
• In May (busy month!) I went to London with my mum and my aunt Bicke to do some sightseeing but most importantly, go to the Chelsea Flower Show. It was my present to my mum for her 60th birthday last year. As there was a bit of a green theme to our trip we also visited Sky Garden. 
• A few weeks after Åsa's visit we went to Sweden for a long weekend to attend Lily's namegiving ceremony and to see family and friends. We finally got to meet the children's new cousin Fred (well, I had met him briefly when he was just a couple of days old in April when I was in Sweden on a work trip) and my friend Suvi's new baby boy as well as time to go out to the summer house. And have Harald's hair cut, kicking and screaming like the time before that (and after...). 
• We have made new friends here in Brussels - an American family who are moving onto Stockholm next summer after two years here. Their son is in Isolde's class and Harald will be in the same class as their daughter next year (they also have a baby girl born in May). There are also some other mothers in the area that I have started to hang out with - Petchie started a sort of ladies' dinner club so now we meet up regularly, but we have also hung out on full family basis as some of them have children in Isolde's class or same year. 
• Isolde has been taking rythmic classes at school for a year (and she's continuing, plus some other extra-curricular activities this year). She loved dancing and singing, however, she doesn't always like being told or instructed what to do so it took a few classes before she even wanted to participate. I think it is a mix of wanting to be free-spirited and being a bit too self-conscious.
• We now have a (wooden) toy house in the garden, an inflatable pool and sprinklers, and Peter also got various adult "toys" for the garden, hedge trimmers, leaf blowers and what have you. So we have no excuses now not to do gardening! 
• At the end of June, a little bit before my longer summer break, we spent one week in Nice (the apartment of my in-laws as usual) and my parents came down as well for a few days. It was nice to have a week off (with guaranteed nice weather), then work a few weeks again before to Sweden on holiday.  

A lot in a year! I'm sure I have missed half of it, but these are the highlights! I will write about the summer and about the adventures of Isolde and Harald in separate posts! I will also post some photos later, but now I just want to publish this post!

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.