Even with all of the exploring and open house viewing we've done, there are still several neighborhoods and towns where we're looking for apartments but we haven't been to yet. So with Augie at preschool, yesterday I jumped on the pendeltåg (light rail) to check out some farther-out areas we'd been considering. Ultimately, it was a day of mixed results. Both of the areas that I looked at were beautiful. One, Hägernäs, was right on the water, with views of the forested islands of the archipelago, a sandy swimming beach, and a seaside walkway that spanned as far as I could see. But there wasn't a grocery store within easy walk, nor a cafe, and the only restaurant to be found was a McDonalds.
So I took a bus back to the pendeltåg to head to another area, Täby Kyrkby. This time I did find a grocery store and a cafe (and a flower shop) right near the train station. I walked the neighborhoods, which were very nice. Glancing at the windows and looking in the yards, many homes had toys or window decals or other evidence of children at home, and I saw lots of mothers with prams. Yet, nowhere was there a real town center or gathering place, in either of these areas.
The more I walked around, the more clearly I began to articulate the real decision we have to make, and what each side of the decision meant: do we want to live in the city or in the country? Do we want to live in Stockholm, or do we want to live in a small, nondescript town? I don't need to go through the obvious list of the what cities offer (culture, museums, choices in schools, cafes, restaurants, a mix of people) vs what the country offers (more space, closeness to nature, small-town feeling, potential simplicity).
Bored yet? If so, he's another picture of a sleeping baby:
Ultimately I realized a number of things: this may be our one chance to live in (or at least very near) a European capital city; as a stay-at-home mom, I have dozens of choices of what to do every day with my babies if I'm in Stockholm, while I might have two or three choices of what to do in our neighborhood in the countryside; in the city, we can make friends with our neighbors in the building, with other people in the neighborhood, and with anyone anywhere else in Stockholm because it's small enough to get around easily; if we live in a small town, we are stuck with the people who happen to live there; if we live in Stockholm and don't like the öppna förskolan or the preschool in our neighborhood, we can easily go to another; in the countryside, if we don't like öppna förskolan or the preschool in the neighborhood, we're stuck.
Can you tell where we're heading? It looks like we are going to sacrifice space so that we can live a bit closer to the city. We think we've finally narrowed it down to a small handful of neighborhoods (which, in truth, we can barely afford but we love), and we can dispense with looking far and wide. Now the task is almost more difficult: we must wait for the right apartment to show up on the market. And then we must pounce.
On to today:
Much to my surprise, as I was nursing Augie around 9 o'clock this morning, he fell asleep! I'd laid down while nursing him because I was getting tired and his nursing sessions have been ridiculously long (20-45 minutes! I guess because there are fewer of them now, he wants to linger when he gets a chance), and we sort of got wrapped up in each other and suddenly I realized that he was asleep. My left arm was under his head, my right leg was over his body, his legs were on top of my left leg - we were pretzeled together. But since he fell asleep with the blinds open, I got to take nap pictures for the first time in ages.
I had to wake him after an hour because we had a friend date - our first non-work related Swedish friend! Augie and I got together with the mother/wife of the couple we met at the dinner party last weekend, and she brought along another mom-and-baby duo. We met at the Bergianska Trädgården just down the way from us, had delicious (if pricey) lunches, and let the kids run around. Well, Augie did the running, the other babies mostly napped or sat calmly in their strollers. I really enjoyed the company and the conversation - and I'm so pleased that I may finally have made my first Swedish friend!
This evening we went to an open house in one of our desired neighborhoods. The place just wasn't quite right, but we did like it and are excited about looking around the area more.
And now, at nine in the evening, I can't wait to do this:
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