Drawer surfing

We're trying something new around here: Wednesday nights after dinner are no-screen nights. No computers, iPhones or iPads. We've done it twice and James has cheated twice, so I don't know if there's a lot of hope for the future. But the intent is actually for James and I to spend more quality time together (as Augie goes to bed shortly after dinner anyway), but also for us just to unplug for a few hours. Hence no blog post last night.

Yesterday was also Augie's second day at preschool alone. He cried when James dropped him off in the morning, but they said he did okay for most of the day. He even took a long(ish) nap! He had just woken up when I went to pick him up, and this time he didn't burst into tears. Which either means that he's adjusting, or that he was actually still asleep with his eyes open when I walked in.

And here's the fun Augie got into while James and I were making dinner tonight (green salad with haloumi, egg and avocado, if you were wondering):

Bath time shenanigans

I haven't posted a video in quite some time, have I? Well, here's one of Augie's bath last night:


 Yesterday was Augie's first day at preschool alone. He did well - they said he was fine most of the day, and he took a nap (though only twenty minutes long). When I walked through the door to pick him up, though, he burst into tears. But within three minutes of being on the bus back home, he was giggling and smiling.

This was taken just after I picked him up, when I put him in the stroller to head home:

Here's hoping he continues to adjust, nap, and enjoy his new friends.

Late winter fun

It's possible that I'm engaging in some wishful thinking by calling this "late winter", since by all accounts spring doesn't actually begin in Sweden until May. But it's starting to feel all springy around here - even the crocus are starting to bloom! And we've had more sunny days in the last week than we did the first month that we were here (a Swede told James the other day that there were 8 hours of sunlight in Stockholm in December. 8 measly hours!).

Saturday we had coffee with friends - a couple who have the only other Quasians we know here in Sweden. The husband is from Canada, of Chinese descent, and the wife is Swedish. Their kids are pure Quasian. We went with them to a skate park, where their 5-year old daughter biked circles around Augie (who loved it!) and Augie ran up and down the ramps.

On Sunday, we played in the orchard in the backyard.

Bergianska Trädgården

It was another shimmery sunny morning, so we went to the Bergianska Trägården, just a couple hundred yards away from us here at the University.

Augie found a walking stick to help him up the hill:

Love this series of these two, and the progression of silliness:

And in case you're wondering, during a particularly feisty diaper change this morning, as I was trying to turn Augie over after he'd flipped himself, I accidentally scratched his cheek.

Friday with my baby

As a stay-at-home mom, the weekend isn't all that different from the week for me. But I still feel a sort of relief when Friday afternoon rolls around - we have the weekend to look forward to, James is home with us, and we can spend some family time together exploring Stockholm, making new friends, or just hanging out on the couch.

It was a big week for Augie - I'm sure he's ready for the weekend, too! He went to preschool three days. You know what else he did that was great? He peed in his potty twice! I'm not wholly sure whether it was coincidence or if he did it on purpose, but either way, we think it's a really big deal. We've been slowly potty teaching him -- no emphasis on outcome, but taking him to sit on the potty regularly and using words and signs to let him know when he's pottying. So it was either dumb luck, or we made the teeniest bit of progress this week.

Augie and I headed into town to the go the Music and Theater Museum again. While he had fun banging on the instruments, he had even more fun pushing the button that opens and closes the doors between the exhibits. In fact, that's probably the only thing he remembers about today.

What will I remember about today? Other than thoroughly enjoying trudging through Stockholm in the rain so Augie could take a late-afternoon nap? Snuggling with and singing to my baby.

First week at preschool

Augie finished his first week at preschool/daycare (it's called preschool, but it's a bit more like daycare since he's so young and there's no formal teaching or anything). He went Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from about 9:30 - 12:30. Our intention is to have him there from about 9am - 2 or 3pm. I accompanied him Monday and Tuesday, and James went with him on Wednesday.

When we arrive in the morning, the kids play outside in an enclosed playground. (We had four days of sunshine this week, and Augie played outside in all of them!) On Tuesday we went for a little field trip, a walk to a 4-H farm about 1km away. After a while outside the kids go inside and play for a bit before lunch is served. Augie sits a table with the younger kids (he's the youngest there by about 5 months). On Tuesday he had two servings of fish (cooked in an egg sauce)! Of the other children at this table, one is a Japanese boy, one a Chinese girl, one an American boy, and Augie. It's quite an international group, which we appreciate. After lunch the kids wash their hands and get ready for naptime. That is, all the kids except Augie.

Augie much prefers to keep playing with toys. For reasons I don't understand, they do naptime in the main playroom, which is a recipe for failure with Augie. The first two days I tried to nurse him to sleep, and then tried to put him in the stroller to lull him to sleep, but neither worked. On Wednesday one of the workers, Yuko, put Augie in a stroller and tried to rock him to sleep but he cried for 30 minutes, until James brought him home to me. He fell asleep on the bus ride home, then slept for 2.5 hours in bed. Obviously, we have some work to do to get him away from nursing to sleep for naps.

Next week James will take Augie in the morning and drop him off; it'll be his first time without one of us with him! Oh, I hope he's okay. And I hope he can learn to sleep.

Figuring

The other day we looked at our credit card bill from our time here in Stockholm and did a double take. Then we did some figuring, and realized that we're spending about $2000 a month on food. To clarify: on groceries -- that doesn't even include the few times we've gone out to eat. And we're only buying organic about half the time, and we're buying slightly smaller quantities than we did back in the US. Stuff here is expensive.

But then yesterday I did some more figuring, and realized that having Augie in daycare/preschool for up to 30 hours per week is costing us something like $85 per month. PER MONTH. And that includes a meal, a snack, and diapers every day!

And then, after a phone call to the social services agency, we learned that we still get a full 480 days of parental leave for Augie. Even though he was born 14.5 months ago in another country, we can still take 480 paid days off to be with him. (I will get the minimum benefit, as I've never worked in Sweden).

And healthcare? Mostly free. The max you can pay out-of-pocket per year is about $175. No matter what happens.

On to what you came for: the pictures. Looking through my camera tonight, I found some selfies the boys took. I find Augie's face in the first two fantastic. And I find the fact that he managed to take the second two astounding!

Sunshine baby

Tomorrow is a very big day for Augie (and for Mama) - he's starting preschool/daycare! We got a short-term spot at a bilingual preschool just 10 minutes away, and we'll start tomorrow morning. We think he will go 3 days a week, for about 6 hours a day. I am so excited for him! He's going to have all sorts of experiences that he just can't have with me at home. He'll have new toys, new friends, new foods, new adult caretakers, new experiences. We are so excited to see what kinds of changes this brings about in him (Will he start using words now? Will he accelerate his potty training? Will he start napping without nursing to sleep?).

To ease the transition (for all of us), the daycare requires that one of us be with him for the first three days he's there. Can I tell you the truth about this? I think Augie will be fine; I think it will be much, much harder for me. I have spent nearly all day every day for the last 14.5 months with Augie at my side. It's hard to let go. It's hard to imagine not having him - his smile, his laugh, his dance moves, his kisses - with me all day. Oh, I think this is going to be great for him, and it's coming at a time when he needs this socialization; and it's going to be fantastic for me to have some time for myself; but it's also going to be very hard to drop my little boy off and not see him all day! (And when we go back to Princeton, I'm going to lament the loss of my newfound freedom).

Wish us all luck tomorrow.

Wonder of wonders, we woke up to a blue sky this morning! Before it had a chance to cloud over (which, of course, it did), we got our winter gear on and went outside to play. We had so much fun running and jumping and spinning and laughing. I think Augie did, too - what do you think?

Date night on Gamla Stan

James and I went on our second date in 14.5 months last night. Can you believe it? I can't. I never thought I'd be the type of mom (or we'd be the type of couple) who just stops doing things after having a baby. But then again, I also never thought I'd be raising babies in a vacuum - by which I mean with no outside help whatsoever. We don't have family who lives nearby to sit at home with the baby while he sleeps, or to take him for an hour or two during the day while we run errands or have lunch or go to the doctor (we actually had to take Augie to the doctor with us a couple weeks ago!). We don't have money to pay a babysitter. And until recently, Augie's sleep has been so unpredictable that we weren't comfortable with having friends come over once he'd fallen asleep, for fear that he'd wake up and everyone would be terrified.

I'm not really complaining about these things - these were our choices. We've chosen to live far from family and raise our baby with friends around us instead of family. I (sort of) chose not to work so I could be at home with Augie (though even if I had gone back to work we would barely have been able to pay for day care in America, so things like babysitters would still be a luxury).

But: two dates in 14.5 months. We really gotta get better at this. (Oh, and we think it's quite funny that our babysitter last night was a world-famous scientist!).

We went to Gamla Stan ("old town") Stockholm for dessert and tea. We went to two places for two chocolatey desserts, and walked along the cobbled lanes and tried peeking in windows. We found a wonderful old bric-a-brac shop which was open at 9pm; we bought Augie a little soccer ball and me a small ceramic bowl. It was wonderful to get out and enjoy Stockholm. We even found things other than Augie to talk about.

What did you do for Valentine's Day?

Rum för Barn

We took Augie to Rum för Barn again this afternoon. Last time we were there, we learned that there's an art studio in the back - a spacious room where kids can paint or do other art projects. We thought Augie might be a bit young, but we were encouraged when we were told that kids only have to be old enough to stand up to paint at the easel.

Every day they choose three colors of paint (plus white) for kids to paint with. Today it was the primary colors - red, yellow and blue for those of you who've forgotten. We put a smock on Augie, stood him up at the easel, showed him how to use a brush and then put one in his hand. 

He sort of swatted at the paper a couple times:

Mostly he looked skeptical about what was going on:

I love how this photo makes it look like he's intensely painting, reaching out to the canvas to add a dab of paint just here...

When really, this is what he spent most of the time doing:

We lured him back to the easel a couple times, trying to entice him by encouraging him to use his hands:

Which only served to make his face look like this (this is after cleaning him):

These shots make it look like Augie's painting, but he's not; Baba is.

Augie was much more interested in checking out what the older chick over at Easel #2 was doing - and then stealing her paint:

Finally we let him go and wander the library. He found a giant letter 'G' to climb through. With some help: