Oh, autumn!

Every time we have a nice day, I think, "Oh, it's our last nice day of the year! Let's get outside and enjoy it before winter comes and we're mired in grey funk and gloom for another six months!" Tuesday was one of those days - warm(ish) temperatures, sun shining, the last leaves still on trees. In the morning we all went to the local park (where Augie attacked other children with his hockey stick), and in the afternoon we took another long walk around Långholmen. We feel so lucky to live where we do and have a park like Långholmen in our backyard. It's always fun to take Augie to a playground, where there are swings and slides and sandboxes, but it's also nice to go somewhere outside where he can run free and explore, and use his imagination to make his own games.

I've had trouble narrowing down the photo selection for this post, so I'll just put them all up.

"Boo!" - we played peekaboo around this tree forever!

Augie beeping

Yesterday afternoon I picked up Augie from dagis and took him to the park. It was an on-and-off-again rainy day, and on my way to collect him fallen leaves kept grabbing my attention.

Augie always like to play on the biggest possible bikes at the park - but at least now he's found a way to drive this thing, even if it isn't as intended. And listen to his dialog with the car! (Email subscribers click here to view the video):

Sick day

This afternoon, we had a home visit with a nurse from the pediatrician's office. Isn't that great? - here in Sweden, your first appointment with your pediatrician's office is held in your home, so you don't have to haul the little one out into the wild while you're still healing and getting used to each other. The nurse brought a sling and hand-held scale with her, and she wrapped Dai-Dai in the sling and lifted him up mid-air. They want babies to gain about 150 grams per week; Baby Boy has gained 280 since he was weighed last week, so we're doing just fine. (The nurse had questioned whether I thought I was making enough milk to feed both boys - ha!). He's up to 3,910 grams or so now. Next week we'll go into the office (about four blocks away) for him to be weighed and measured; we won't see the actual pediatrician, unless there's a problem, until the second or third month. Nurses do the basic exams and vaccines here.

Sadly, shortly before the nurse came around, dagis called to say that Augie had a fever and we should come pick him up. Apparently there's something going around the school. When he came home he seemed just fine to us, but when he woke up from his nap he was hot. He was still running and goofing around like normal, so we packed up and took the boys for a walk around Långholmen. When we got outside we realized that we'd totally misjudged the weather and it was much warmer than we'd thought. Both boys were totally overdressed.

This picture makes him look deceptively large; you can't quite tell that his arms and legs are still pulled in close to his body and the arms and legs of the bear suit are empty!

We knew Augie wasn't feeling well when we got to the beach and unclipped him from the stroller: he didn't want to get out. That's the first time ever that he hasn't wanted to run around and play.

This is what happened when we got home. He was still in a good mood, talking and smiling, but he was lying on the floor:

And then while Baba was making dinner - look how red his cheeks are!:

The upside to all of this is that we got to spend some quiet time snuggling with Augie; normally he's never still, and even reading books together can be an athletic event. But today he just lay in bed with me while I read books to him, and let us massage his back and stroke his hair. Oh, my sick baby. Here's hoping the fever breaks tonight and he wakes tomorrow feeling at least a little bit better.

Autumn in Stockholm

I blinked, and autumn is here. No, that's not quite right: I birthed a baby and then cocooned for a week, and when I emerged, autumn had arrived. We went on our first family walk this afternoon, to the top of Långholmen, and admired the leaf-littered trails and colorful trees. Ah Mah left today, so now it's just the four of us. It was so helpful having her here, and I know that Augie loved getting to know her; he's been calling for her all afternoon! I imagine he will for the next few days, even though we explained that she was leaving and she said goodbye. It was great for us, too, to see the relationship building between them and to see him get attached to someone other than us. It was also great to have our tummies filled with delicious food every day! Thank you for visiting us Ah Mah!

We're having so much fun with Augie these days, who's an absolute delight and a real funnyman. I'm hoping to write more about him in the next few days, as I haven't done a proper update in ages. We're reveling in the little boy (person!) he's becoming just as we're reveling in getting to know the little guy who came to us last week (name coming soon!). As exhausted as we are, we also know how blessed we are to have these two little souls with us.

11 months - Lost in the leaves

You may remember Augie's sullen face in my last post of him sitting in a leaf pile. Now that he has some leaf experience he's much happier to be thrown into a pile of leaves.

He climbed into one pile all by himself:

But then Mama saw the mother of all leaf piles, and couldn't resist:

As he wiggled around he started to sink:

And finally he tried to climb out (click here to view the video):