Sunset views

Rarely do my posts feature Stockholm scenery, so I'm glad to give you a tiny glimpse today.

Surviving the weekend

Sorry it's been a couple days since the last post. The weather's been beautiful, we've been outside, and I've been utterly spent at the end of every day. I don't think I've ever felt fatigue as intense as I have recently, trying to keep up with Augie while growing Queequeg. At least, now that we've changed the clocks (here in Sweden we just did it last night), Augie might start waking up at 6:30am instead of 5:30am. He's been sleeping solid from bedtime until morning, though I take issue with what he considers "morning." I'm sure I can find someone to back me up when I say that 5:30am is still the middle of the night!

Augie beholds the duck; the duck beholds Augie:

We came very close to buying an apartment last week, a beautiful turn-of-the-century two-bedroom in an area called Sundbyberg. Unfortunately, we couldn't get the mortgage pulled together in time. (We submitted our papers three weeks ago and were told it would take two weeks, and then when we made the second call to follow up on it, we found out our banker had gone on holiday without notifying us. Although I explained the urgency with which we needed an answer by Thursday night (the sellers wanted to accept an offer Thursday night and sign the papers on Friday morning), our new banker didn't bother calling until Friday afternoon.)

Buying/selling a house or apartment happens so quickly that there's really no time for hesitating. A place shows on Sunday and then usually Monday evening again, bids start coming in Monday or Tuesday, and the place is usually sold by Thursday. As you can guess, this doesn't leave much opportunity to comparison shop, or to nag your banker to get your pre-approval finalized.

We saw some places today but nothing that grabbed us; we'll try to see one or two more tomorrow, and if it doesn't work out, I don't know what we'll do. 

Is this what we sound like to him?

(Email subscribers click here to view the video.)

Running with stick

There seems to be little that Augie loves more than running with a stick - or massive broom - in his hand (see also here).

First pictures of Queequeg

I had my first ultrasound today, and look what they found - there's a hand in my belly!

It turned out to be a waving hand attached to a baby!

Little Queequeg has all its fingers and all its toes and all its vertebrae and all its brains (and probably all its chromosomes), so things are looking good.

Things were tougher for Augie, today, tough. He slept very well last night (didn't need Mama at all overnight!), but then we had to take him for a vaccination early this morning. He only cried a bit when the needle went in - probably more because he was being restrained, which he HATES, than from the needle. He stopped crying within a couple seconds and was back to playing.

Unfortunately for us, about four days ago we realized that we had to go back to watching every moment of the day. We'd reached a point where he played just fine by himself and could run around the apartment entertaining himself and not getting into trouble; and then four days ago he just started climbing up everything. He climbs onto the toilet so he can flush it (he knows to put the seat down first); he climbs onto the couch so he can flip the switches behind it; he climbs onto the kitchen chairs so he can reach things on the table, then he climbs onto the table. We get no rest around here.

Today, as I was getting him ready for a walk outside, I put his jacket on him and then let him go so I could get his shoes and my socks; by the time I'd done that (less than 10 seconds), he had run into the kitchen, climbed onto a chair, and fallen onto the floor. He had a bloody nose and cried for a while, but nursing calmed him and cheered him up. Later in the day, as James was watching him, he started climbing onto another chair before it fell over and he fell onto his head before James could even stand up to go to him. He recovered quickly, but still... We hoped he might learn from all this, but before he went to bed he started climbing on chairs again. God help us.

Here's a picture from last week, him falling asleep on the bus:

Early mornings

Every couple of days, Augie sees fit to get up around 4:30am. (That's probably partly because the sun is starting to get up that early; it actually rises around 5:45 right now, but by 4:45 you can definitely tell that it's getting lighter.) Someone should teach that boy some manners.

He picked up a new sign today, the sign for "water." We just started doing it a few days ago, so we're impressed that he picked it up so quickly. Again, it's just an approximation of the actual sign, which is holding the middle three fingers up (thumb holds pinky down at the palm) and tapping the chin; Augie's sign is his balled-up fist going to and from his chin. We're excited that he's picking up language in this way and able to communicate his wants with us, so we'll keep teaching him new signs (and learning them ourselves).

More from our playtime yesterday. This is Augie waving at a goose (while chasing it). Notice which way his palm faces:

Every time we pass one, Augie picks an orange stick from the ground and uses it as his walking stick and attacking sword:

Mud puddle!

Today Augie discovered the joys of the mud puddle. We loved watching him splash around; I wish I'd had rain boots so I could jump around with him. (Email subscribers click here to view the video).

Climbing on chairs

I realized recently that I tend to only post about things I've taken pictures of. At the end of the day I look through our photos and see what we've taken, and then create a post. Unfortunately, that means that I sometimes miss out on telling you the little things that Augie is doing - and sometimes even major milestones (like the first time he pooped in his potty! Aren't you glad I didn't take a picture and share it?). So going forward, I'll try to remember the little moments of the day, even if I don't have photographic evidence of them.

We're both still sick, though Augie seems to be on the mend (not that he ever noticed that he was sick anyway). I've had a much harder time of it, with nasal congestion and a sore throat. I haven't been sleeping well at all. And because of this whole pregnant-and-breastfeeding thing, I can't take anything for it.

Augie is finally saying a new word: Baba! A couple days ago he just started shouting it, and generally in the direction of James. So now he has two words. He's also consistently waving now - but mostly just at the blue commuter trains that run near our house. And his wave is ridiculously cute: his palm faces his body, so it looks like he's waving to himself.

His physical exploration, however, continues apace. He will not stop climbing. He easily gets up on our chairs all by himself, and when he goes up and down stairs, he doesn't always want to hold our hands anymore (but he still has to!).

Hanging at home

Let's start with some humor. I discovered this hilarous tumblr page written by another immigrant to Sweden (I have to assume an American). You probably have to be fairly familiar with Sweden (and Game of Thrones) to get it all, but it's still funny; and too true. Last night I went to the premiere of Welcome to Sweden, a new TV comedy about to air in Sweden (and it was purchased by NBC, so will also be showing in the US soon, so keep a look out for it!). It's about an American who leaves his NYC life to be with his girlfriend in Sweden. The premiere was funny, and I'm looking forward to watching the show (if only we can find out how, without a TV here or in the US).

Anyway, back to Augie. His chest is still rattling and you can hear him sleeping from the other room. I've picked up his cold now, too, but I think I have it worse. Which is to say that it's not been fun around here. We've been doing a lot of this:

And as always, this:

We've been making faces:

Making faces while doing the laundry:

Playing with pens:

And gazing out the window:

Playing with crayons

Augie had his first-ever marathon sleep yesterday. We all went down for a nap at 3:30pm; James and I got up around 6pm, but we let Augie sleep on. And sleep he did! He got up at midnight for about two hours (of nursing, calmly walking around the house, and then climbing back into bed to put himself back to sleep), and then slept until 6am. I never believed my baby would sleep so much. I guess the early mornings (he has started getting up at 6am, whereas he used to wake closer to 7am) and the short naps at preschool have left him a little exhausted.

When James dropped him off at preschool today, he didn't even cry! Though now he's getting sick - a slight runny nose has turned into a rattling cough, and his voice is growing hoarse. He seems perfectly happy, though, so we won't worry.

Most exciting, for the first time ever, James put him to sleep for the night! I went to a meet-and-greet of the American Women's Club, which overlapped with Augie's bedtime. I left a few minutes early and rushed home so I could nurse him before he fell asleep (I nurse him every night; sometimes he falls asleep while nursing, while more often he stays awake a bit longer and puts himself to sleep after rolling around the bed for a while), but when I arrived home, the bedroom door was closed and it was quiet. A few minutes later James came out - Augie was asleep! I'm so proud of them both for doing it without me; it's the first time in 15.5 months I haven't been here when Augie went to bed.

This afternoon he sat down to draw for a bit. After some serious action drawing, which would make the action painters proud, he became much more interested in throwing the crayons on the floor.

The drawing itself, created by performing a manic side-to-side swinging action with a crayon clutched in his hand (I did the blue strip at the top):

Yellow crayon to the floor:

The teal crayon will not stand!

The magenta crayon will not stand!

The blue crayon will not stand!

Here's hoping a good night's sleep alleviates his cold symptoms.

Baba's birthday weekend

I wish I could tell you that we had a fantastic, exuberant birthday weekend for James, but we don't do anything in fantastic, exuberant style anymore. In fact, I'm not sure that we ever did. We did take a fantastic family nap this afternoon (from which Augie hasn't woken up at 7pm as I post), but that hardly counts as a birthday celebration.

Saturday we went down to our old neighborhood from last summer, Vasastan, and got pizza and calzones for lunch. Later in the afternoon we went to a playdate with kids from Augie's class at preschool. We were one American couple, one American-Chilean couple, one Swedish couple, and one American-British couple (us), each with two kids. The kids around while we talked housing, Swedish society, gluten-free eating (one of the couples has just published Sweden first cookbook for people with allergies) and, of course, kids.

This might be the best action shot of Augie we've ever taken:

Today we went to one open house - and it's the closest we've come to bidding on a place. While the apartment could use some updating, it's in move-in ready condition, with south-facing windows overlooking a huge park in one of our most-desired neighborhoods. (Click here to see, though the link will only be good for a couple more days). The downside? The apartment is on the third floor, there's no elevator, and the staircase is winding and narrow. The only place to park a stroller is in the basement. This may sound like a minor inconvenience, and it would be if we were just the two of us or the kids were much older; but I can't imagine carrying two babies (plus groceries, diaper bags, etc.) up four flights of narrow stairs several times a day. It's not just inconvenient, it's dangerous (and I'm generally a daring kind of gal). It felt good to get excited about a place, though.

Have a great week.