Day off at Djurgården

By "day off", what I really mean is a day on for me. We've had a couple of gorgeous fall days when I've felt that all I wanted to do was run around with my babies - so that's what we did. I've done this three times now - kept August home from dagis and taken the boys on some sort of outdoor adventure. This last Monday we went to Djurgården to visit the aquarium and see what else we could find.

Both kids liked the aquarium, but it's quite difficult to have two-under-twos in a small space with lots of other people. August loved running around and finding all the different fish, while Leif mostly clung to me. As stressful as it may have been, I loved watching them experience new things and have fun.

Leif makes the most beautiful little "ooo" face when he sees something exciting; his lips form a perfect O. It's not great, but here's a profile shot:

After lunch we found a beautiful picnic spot on a carpet of yellow leaves:

Both kids sat on the bench and ate, ate, ate:

I loved seeing them sitting together (holding still!):

And then running around:

The books took a stroller nap while I walked and walked and walked, finding new views:

And I finally found the perfect arrangement for the double nap:

After the nap we found a little playground before heading home:

I was exhausted by the time we got home - I thought I was going to fall asleep driving, thank goodness we'd picked up James to keep me awake. I'm hoping to get in 1-2 more adventures before the weather turns too cold to be outside all day.

Searching for trolls at Sigesta Gård

Today we went to a beautiful farm a couple short (car) ferry rides away, Siggesta Gård. We go less for the animals and more for the food and attractions. August (and Leif) played mini-golf for the first time today! And we walked a short forest trail searching for trolls.

The troll hunt:

This guy would have much preferred to start the afternoon at the cafe. The trolls terrified him!:

But this guy had a great time, leading the way on the trail and finding all the trolls (sorry, didn't get any good pictures of them!):

James got him to kiss the little animals and high-five the trolls:

Mini golf was a success if you measure by fun, but not if you measure by actual amount of mini-golf played:

This was after lunch, so Leif was totally happy to join in:

We didn't let them get this close to each other with putters again (no one was hurt):

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.