Rum för Barn

Stockholm seems to do everything it can to make life easier for young families. Not only do you get 480 days of (paid) parental leave, a monthly child stipend, free bus transportation when using a stroller, and changing and nursing rooms in most public places, there are öppna förskolan in nearly every neighborhood as well as great public places to take your kids, like Rum för Barn. Located in the center of Stockholm in The Culture House (Kulturhuset), Rum för Barn is a big library/playroom for kids of all ages. There are all sorts of steps, ramps, secret rooms, alcoves, and views for kids -- oh, and there are books, too.

We took Augie there yesterday. We only got a few goofy photos; maybe next time I'll try to get pics of the whole place.

He climbed into the treasure chest in a hidden room and found a book:

Here I am!:

Cozying in

Our downstairs neighbor, mother of three young children, took pity on us and our flimsy New Jersey stroller blanket, and she offered us this one:

Thank goodness she did! It's so cold here and Augie's little tootsies were probably freezing, even if we put him in two pairs of socks and one pair of boots and threw the stroller blanket over him. Now he has his own private traveling sauna.

Today we went to the migration board (Migrationsverket) for Augie and I to continue our applications for residence in Sweden. From what we understand we are entitled to them (as dependents of an EU citizen who is living and working here), but we still have to go through the whole application process. We had our photos taken for our ID cards today. In about 10 days they'll send us a letter with a decision, and our ID cards if we are found deserving. If not, we're accepting offers for warmer climes in which to spend the rest of winter... 

James is going on an overnight trip tomorrow, so it will be my first night and day alone with Augie in Stockholm. Here's hoping we get along just fine on our own. 

Oh, and after a little more investigation into Augie's mouth, we've discovered that he has five new teeth coming in all at once! Possibly more, but he never holds still long enough to really tell. After five months with no dental activity, he's really putting on a show now.

Who's Augie now? Augie at 13.5 months

(I'm so sorry that I didn't mention in an earlier post that Augie's paternal/maternal great-grandfather died recently. Augie was born with five living great-grandparents (can you believe it?!), four of them on the paternal side. His Chinese great-grandfather passed just before Christmas. I'm sorry that he never had the chance to meet Augie, but I hope that we are able to take Augie to Sydney (Australia) to meet the rest of his Chinese family, especially his great-grandmother, in the next few years. Our love and condolences to great-grandmother (Pau Pau), and her children (Augie's grandmother and great aunts and uncles) Peter, Ah Mah, Tina and Tisa). 

I haven't done an Augie update since 11 months, have I? Oh, how things have changed! I don't even know where to begin.

The biggest recent development around here is that Augie is really starting to communicate. Even a month ago, his verbalizations were mostly raspberries, clicks, and unmodulated singing/talking/yelling. Shortly after seeing his cousins over Thanksgiving (here, too), Augie began really trying to talk. And in just the last two weeks, he's come closer and closer to matching our intonations and consistently using the same words (well, sounds) in the same situations. It mostly just sounds like, "doh" and "dah", though. But the exciting thing is that he's picked up all of the signs that we've been using. Since he was about 7 months old, we've been using the ASL signs for the words "more", "milk", "all done", and "potty." In the last four days alone, he has begun consistently using them all.

The most exciting part of the signing is that he now regularly signs "potty" anytime he's going pee or poop (in his diaper). We are not actively toilet training with him, we've just been sure to make the potty sign and say the word every time we notice him peeing or pooping (and it's not hard to tell when he's pooping). Now, he tells us when he's peeing or pooping! We are going to get him his own potty and starting training in earnest pretty soon.

Since he started walking at about 10 months, and now he's working on running, jumping, walking backwards, and walking up and down stairs without crawling up them (when the stairs aren't too big). He loves to go down slides, bang things together to make music, and dance. Oh, how I love to watch him dance! He has taken a definite interest in everything we do and likes to mimic us. When I'm cooking I get a bowl and wooden spoon out for him, and he stirs with me. He also likes to sweep the floor with a short-handled broom! This is all very Montessori, as you'll read about below.

He's such a joker. His favorite jokes right now are zerberting us, electrifying us by holding onto one of our fingers (a little game James taught him in which he grabs onto one of our fingers and we make a buzzing noise and act like we're being electrocuted; we now use it as a way of saying grace before dinner), and putting his toys in our mouths. Of course, peekabo remains a constant.

He has started eating solid foods in considerably greater quantities. He's still breastfeeding several times a day, though we've cut out a couple feeds per day. His appetite and palate have really developed lately and we are amazed at how much he eats. His favorite meals right now are juk (a Chinese rice porridge), lentils with veggies, and pasta. He can use a spoon and fork to get food to his mouth, but we're still working on helping him to get it out of the bowl first. He also has three new teeth: a canine on his upper left and two upper molars, for a total of 11 teeth.

Sleep is still a bit tough for us. Every time we start to make significant headway, we make some sort of significant change - like international travel. The three days before we left Princeton were the best he's ever slept, followed by 2.5 weeks of the worst. Here in Stockholm, we've switched to a Montessori bed out of desperation and it seems to have helped our problems: his napping has vastly improved since we laid out a mattress on the floor for him. Nights seem to be better, too, but we'll see how the next week goes.

Speaking of Montessori, I've recently been reading a lot about it. I got a book for Christmas titled Montessori from the Start, which presents Montessori theories for ages birth-3. I've also been reading some fascinating blogs (see here and here if you're interested). The overgeneralized idea is that Montessori is about fostering independence, concentration, and self-care in children, right from birth. According to Dr. Maria Montessori, at around 15 months, children have a desire to participate in family activities like cleaning, straightening, cooking, etc. - they want to contribute to the household. That definitely seems to be what Augie is doing now, with his stirring and sweeping. We are going to slowly implement some Montessori play ideas and other theories over the coming weeks.

(And for those who are wondering, I'm doing much better since this post. Augie's sleep is better and I've had more time to myself to get comfortable in this new place. Thanks to those who have expressed concern, support, and love.)

Djurgården in winter

We woke this morning to snow blanketing the ground and swirling in the streetlights. Well, actually, we woke to a baby in our bed blowing raspberries and rolling back and forth giving us kisses, but that's how we usually wake up. We don't usually wake up to a winter wonderland. So we put on our boots and headed out to one of our favorite spots from the summer (see here and here) - Djurgården, a park that sprawls across the city. We'd hoped to let Augie run around in the snow for a while, but after his first fall, he had a realization:

I can eat this stuff!

And that's just what he did. We'd put him on the ground and he'd immediately sit down and start munching:

We didn't so much mind him stuffing his face with snow, but we did worry that he'd get frostbite, so we got him off the ground and started walking. So many people were out - it seemed that the snow was an invitation to play, to move, to get some beauty out of the grey winter.

We wandered past a snow-covered formal garden, made cozy with lights:

And stopped to check out the view looking back toward the city (the heart of downtown isn't in the photo):

Augie got hungry for something more substantial than snow:

And then Mama and Baba found an inviting cafe and stopped in for warm drinks and sweet treats. Cafes, shops, restaurants and businesses often have a candle or a fire lit outside to let you know they're open. It's a welcome invitation.

It's gotten colder here in Stockholm, so we're going to have to cuddle up to stay warm this week. 

Naturhistoriska riksmuseet

This afternoon we took Augie to the Stockholm's natural history museum, convenient located right across the street from us. He had just as much fun exploring different textures of flooring as he did trying to climb over large metallic animals. I think he had a great time.

Adjusting

I just discovered a few cheeky photos taken while we were visiting Aunt Ilona and Uncle Paul last week, so here they are. Sorry, nothing yet from Stockholm.

And, I realize that I owe you a great big update about what's Augie's doing (and thinking and saying!) now. It's coming...

  

I thought I'd be back to blogging more by now, but obviously that hasn't happened. By some twisted logic I thought we'd be spending the days exploring (and photographing) and then I'd have whole swaths of evenings during which to write and reflect. I also thought I'd be adjusting to life here better.

Which is to say that it's been tough, at least for me. James seems to be enjoying the grand adventure, and Augie seems to enjoy darn near everything we do, so the two of them are doing just fine. But for me, it's been hard. I can't pinpoint it exactly; it's not the general apprehension of adjusting to life in a new place or the particular apprehension of adjusting to life in a new country; it's more vague and gray and insidious. Kind of like the winter in Scandinavia.

I'd like to chalk it up to just that - winter in Scandinavia - if it weren't accompanied by a more acute feeling of existential doubt and the continual, nagging sense that I haven't done much with my life. Exactly the kind of stuff you want to be worried about when you have to book an appointment with the tax board of a foreign country using their Swedish-only appointment-booking tool, get to the state-run liquor store before it closes at a ridiculously early hour for a bottle of wine to go with dinner, find the entrance back down to the subway in the 4pm blackness with no map or phone of any kind, all whilst realizing that every single woman in the country wears nicer shoes (and pants) than you do. And what is this strange new tuft of hair that's suddenly appeared above your forehead like the ghost of bangs (fringe) you never had?

Oh, and did I mention that Augie hasn't taken a full-length nap since we left New Jersey? So in addition to all this angst, I've got a baby who isn't sleeping well. You might think that naps are for babies, but they aren't: naps are for mothers. Naps are these little rest-breaks of sanity that keep us from a) locking the baby in the closet, b) downing the rest of the whisky, and c) running off with the postman. Sometimes I feel like I'm thisclose to caging Augie in an upside-down crib, grabbing the Grouse, and finding the nearest post office. And last night our new alarm clock in the bedroom went off at midnight, waking us all, after which Augie found it difficult to get back to sleep. Just what we needed.

Here's to tomorrow, lengthening days, and family naps.

On sale in Sweden

Driving with Granddad

A few more South Beara pics for you, from Augie's first turn behind a wheel. 

And a couple more from Exmoor:

Hanging around South Beara

We've left South Beara now to spend a day and a night with great-grandparents Watson and Uncle Paul and Aunt Ilona. Here are some pictures from our holidays in Devon.

A morning walk around the neighborhood:

An afternoon walk along country lanes:

Chillin' with grandparents:

Augie out exploring: