Eating berries in the archipelago

On Saturday we visited with friends who have a summer house on an island in the archipelago. We took a bus about an hour out of town, and when we got off our friend met us in his boat to take us to their island. After a 15-minute boat ride we climbed a narrow path to their house, and were greeted with wonderful views, glorious sunshine, and more Quasian babies! Ahh, they're living the Swedish dream (sooo much nicer than the American dream!).

The path to the house, and the house itself, were bordered by lingonberry and blueberry bushes - it was the first time Augie's shown interest in picking and eating berries. I loved watching him forage for blueberries.

Our friend's younger daughter (also quarter Asian, in case you missed that above) and her grandmother:

Decorating

Augie's been helping place our art on the walls here. He loves to take this little painting off the wall and put it back on. The painting above is one of the first ones he ever made.

My morning boy

You'll probably see a lot of breakfast pictures on here - we get the best light, and it's the stillest Augie is all day. It also means his face is covered in food and he's often chewing.

Augie's at dagis (that's the word for preschool/daycare here) right now - completing his first-ever full week of preschool! It's gone better than we'd imagined so far. James was with him at school all day Monday, I was with him all day Tuesday, and since Wednesday he's been there without us. He hasn't cried at all when James has dropped him off! And he hasn't cried when I've come to pick him up, either! He seems to feel very at home there, and he comes home in the afternoon full of energy and words (so far we aren't picking up any Swedish vocabulary, but I'm sure it's coming).

When I was with him on Tuesday, just after snack time a boy - probably a few months younger than Augie - was standing alone and crying, crying, crying. Augie stood watching him, looking concerned. Then Augie got his cup of milk and offered it to the boy; when the boy didn't want it, Augie found a pacifier on a bench and tried giving that to him to cheer him up. The boy didn't want that, either, so Augie ran off and found another boy and stuck the pacifier in his mouth (that boy continued to suck on it for some minutes!). It was touching to see him caring for another baby, trying to help him feel better.

On the home front, we are mostly unpacked! I won't say that we're organized or that everything is in its place, but most of the boxes are empty and now we're opening up the last few and desperately trying to decide where to put everything. It's so nice to have our dishes and our silverware and our glassware and our cooking pots! Our big struggle now is to find somewhere to put all of our clothes; we're probably going to have to make another IKEA run to buy some sort of wardrobe, as we were out of drawer space with just the few bags we brought on the plane with us, and we have six or seven big boxes of clothes to put away.

Even though I know that I'm eight months pregnant and my body is under much strain baking this little baby, I've been surprised by how quickly I fatigue while unpacking. I can only get through two-three boxes before I have to sit down (or better, lay down and nap). And because of the amount of work and energy I'm putting into unpacking, the whole yoga-and-Swedish-lessons everyday thing is going to have to wait until next week to become a reality.

And I haven't even packed a hospital bag for the birth, or figured out the route to the hospital!

One last pic before I go:

First love?

Today was a big day. It was Augie's first day alone at preschool (he did fine!), Ah Mah's birthday, Grandpa's birthday, and the day all of our stuff arrived from the US! I am exhausted and sore from unpacking (and there's still so much to do), but couldn't resist sharing these pictures.

We had friends come over to pick up something that we'd put in our container for them and to help us transport some things to James's office. From the minute they walked in the door, Augie couldn't be separate from Sofia. He immediately walked up to her and held her hand! And then he dragged her around the apartment, showing her everything, babbling all the while. It was unbelievably precious. He'd met her once before, when we were here last winter - so nearly 6 months ago. I guess he liked her smile! She was happy to play along, receive his gifts, and read to him.

Getting settled at school

Today was Augie's second full day at school. James accompanied him again, and I stole these photos from James's phone. I'll go with him tomorrow, and then on Wednesday he will have his first day alone. I don't doubt that the first few days will be tough for him, and I'm anxious about how napping will go (James has been putting him in the stroller at naptime and going for a walk these first two days). I know that within days (or weeks) he'll be fine and will get into the rhythm of it, but I do worry about this transitional time. And as soon as he gets used to it, kaboom! - the biggest life-changer ever for him. I'm trying to remember to savor the one-on-one time that we have together now, before I'm consumed with the needs of a new baby.

That said, even though it's only been two days, it's been fantastic to have some alone time! I didn't do anything exciting today - lots of housework (our shipment from the US arrives in two days and we still don't have enough space!), phone calls, etc., and another IKEA run to check out wardrobes. I also did a Swedish lesson with the Rosetta Stone online subscription that we bought and practiced yoga for about twenty minutes - two things I've vowed to do every day that Augie is in school before the baby arrives. It was so nice to have the physical and mental space to think about the things I wanted to think about and do the things I wanted to do (Augie is particularly proprietary about how I spend my attention). And of course it was fantastic to see him when he came home, his beautiful bouncing face running to me (and away, and back, and away, and back). A little separation makes the togetherness so much sweeter.

Exploring

Yesterday we hung out with Lisa and Andrew, two PhD students from Princeton who are here working with James (they're the friends who have been sooo helpful in moving furniture and doing IKEA runs with us). We went walking across Södermalm yesterday afternoon, stopping at an outdoor bar for refreshments.

Demonstrating excellent posture:

Wandering old lanes:

Baba's back and it's time to snarfle

What a big day for us: Augie's first day at his new school (he'll be attending full-time for the first time ever), and James is back! Augie and I went to school in the morning and James met us there (just hours after his flight back from the US). It was a much-needed break for me, and some much-needed Baba time for Augie.

When they came home in the afternoon, we went into the bedroom for a big family snarfle. James would throw him around, snarfle him, kiss him, and tickle him, and when he'd stop, Augie would sit up and ask for more. He was so excited.

By the way, the bump on his head is gone and he's doing just fine today.

Snarfle session:

Day 167 alone: home stretch

***NEWSFLASH***
James is now an American citizen! He passed his interview and swore his allegiance to the stars and stripes on Monday, got his American passport on Tuesday, and is boarding his first international flight as an American today! He'll be back with us tomorrow morning.

No, it's not really day 167 alone, but it certainly feels like it. When Augie woke up at 6 this morning and I struggled through breakfast and his antics, I thought, "Gosh, I can't wait for Augie's nap today because I'm not going to make it through the day without it." And then Augie took a nasty fall off of his ride-on thing (he was going backwards, as he likes to do, and got caught on a rug) and bonked his head hard - very hard - on the edge of a bookshelf and immediately got a giant goose egg. I nursed him to help him call down and he fell asleep, but when I put him down on the bed he woke up and yelled in pain - so a nap at home wasn't to be for either of us. (For those concerned, I paid close attention all day and he's been fine - normal activity level, normal pupil dilation, normal wackiness, and the goose egg has gone way down, so I'm not worried about deeper damage).

I figured he'd be able to sleep just fine in the stroller if I left him sitting up, so we got on the bus and went back to our neighborhood - the university. There's a 4-H farm there, and I thought he'd like to see the rabbits and pigs and run around in the sunshine. He did!

He's now sleeping, I'm recovering, and thinking about getting into bed pretty soon because he'll be up early tomorrow, and I should be well-rested for his first day at preschool.

Oh, and he made 21 months today. So close to 2!

Normally Augie hates wearing hats of any kind and rips them off within seconds of us putting them on - but I put this on myself this morning and he seemed to find it funny enough to imitate:

My little snack buddy at the cafe near the farm:

He loved the rabbits!

Wandering through the community gardens:

Day 3 alone: playing

(I suppose the title is a bit misleading, as we aren't alone: Uncle Robert is here. But we're without Baba, so that feels like alone.)

Uncle Robert took Augie to the park for a bit this morning so I had just enough time to get some laundry done and start thinking about doing all of Augie's preschool forms (he starts on Friday!). The forms will be tough as they're all in Swedish, so I have to type everything into Google Translate to figure it out. Ugh.

Augie and I trekked out to the American Embassy this afternoon to fetch a travel document that was issued to James last March; we were never informed that the document was issued, and it's something that James is always supposed to carry when traveling. He's supposed to take it to his naturalization interview - which was today.

He passed! Barring him not being able to take the oath because he doesn't have this document (which looks like a regular American passport but is brighter blue and says "not a passport"), James is now an American! And a Brit! He must be so confused. He's supposed to take the oath in just a couple minutes, if they let him. Stay tuned for further updates on that.

After visiting the embassy Augie and I went to a beautiful garden/farm/cafe on Djurgården called Rosendals Trädgård. We've been there a couple times as a family (though I can't find a previous post about it to link to), but never has it been so beautiful: the flower gardens were in full bloom, the apples were ripening on the trees, and because it was midweek, it wasn't too busy. I didn't get great pictures, but we had a lovely afternoon nonetheless.

Day 2 alone: missing Baba

I guess Augie was missing Baba this morning, because shortly after waking he found one of his t-shirts and put it on.

Not much to say about today, other than that we survived. Augie fights terribly about getting almost any sort of clothing put on - diaper, pants, socks, shoes - and sometimes it feels like the fights about clothes take up half of our non-eating waking hours together. Maybe I'd have better luck if I gave him free reign over Baba's wardrobe?

Uncle Robert arrived just before dinner, and Augie went crazy - I think he was just showing off all his skills and words. I'm going to send them to the park together tomorrow morning - here's hoping they both make it back!

Day 1 alone: survived

Not much to report here. James took off at 5:30 this morning so Augie and I were on our own all day. The morning was a bit of a disaster (putting clothes on him is the battle to end all battles, and is the biggest test of my mettle as a mother), but when I finally got him dressed we went to the park and came home for a three-hour nap together. Three hours! We both needed it.

The afternoon was much easier: we met with some friends we made last winter at a nearby park, and the kids ran around while the mothers chatted. The mother, Wendy, is English (Australian? Oh, I'm so embarrassed that I can't easily peg her accent and that I don't remember her history!), and has offered to be part of our Augie-care team when I go into labor. Plan A when I go into labor is for Ah Mah to make it here in time to be with him, but we're not counting on that happening so we're building a support team. Right now, our most likely plan (which we're calling Plan C) is for a world-famous scientist we befriended last winter to come to the hospital with me to act as a sort-of doula while James stays with Augie (and then, if possible, when the baby's about to come, she and James would swap places). The things you don't consider when moving to a foreign country at the end of your pregnancy: what's going to happen with the older baby? I've never spent a night away from him. In the end he'll be fine, but a mama worries about her baby when she's not there... (though I'll be plenty busy and occupied when this comes to pass!).

Beds

We've spent the last two days settling in more: two IKEA runs, more furniture moving, unpacking, laundry, etc. This place is very close to feeling like a home. I'll try to post some pictures in the next week as I get it a little more organized. I'm terrified, though, of what's going to happen when our stuff arrives from the US - there's nowhere to put it all! I actually have minor panic attacks when I think about it.

James leaves early tomorrow morning for a week in the US (his naturalization interview, exam and oath!), leaving me here alone with Augie. I don't know how I'm going to survive. I'm almost 8 months along now, and I'm more exhausted and fatigued than I've ever been - and that's with James here to do early mornings, dinners, baths, and bedtime (and more)! Augie's Uncle Robert will be here a couple days to help out, and I hope the two of them have some fun together. My posting will probably be erratic for a week or so.

Yesterday's nap - the last time any of us will sleep in that horrible bed:

"Helping" James put together the new bed:

I'll try to keep up with posting, photo-taking, and city-exploring, but mostly I'll just try to survive the next seven days.