Playing in the yard

Not much to report the last few days; haven't taken any pictures, partly because the days have been hum-drum, but also because there's not much light for taking pictures. The sun rose today at 7:48am and set at 3:17pm: it's dark. And I read somewhere that this November is setting a new record for direct sunlight: there's been less sunlight this November than in any other Swedish November in recorded history. Ugh.

So here are a couple pics from the weekend, when we wandering around Gamla Stan again.

Where we are, who we are

I haven't really shared much lately about what the boys are up to or what's going on in our lives; just the snippets I happen to have taken pictures of, which miss about 99.99% of our days - and our lives. Here are a couple quick updates:

• Leif's laryngomalacia continues, but we think it's the slightest bit better in that there are times when he's taking deep breaths but he isn't squeaking or retracting, and we think he's doing it less ("doing it" meaning making the squeaky stridor noise). We have a follow-up appointment next week (the 27th I think) with the ENT doc to see how he's progressing
• Leif's sleeping remains mixed: he usually sleeps 5-9 hours for the first stretch, and we still have a difficult evening, but it's ever-so-slightly better than it was before
• Leif's beginning to open up to the world - he's smiling a lot when he's awake (he's so handsome!), and his body is slowly beginning to unfurl. 
• This one is really exciting: Augie peed in the potty today! It was the most intentional effort he's put into using the potty. We were in his room and he was naked after his bath, and I could see that he was getting ready to go - spreading his legs, looking down, grabbing his penis - so I said, "Augie, let's use the potty!" and he ran to his little potty and did his half-squat in front of it, aiming and waiting. Nothing happened and he looked up at me, worried. "Stuck!" he said. I grabbed a book and started to read to him, and then he peed! As soon as he was done, he picked up the bowl of the potty and said, "potty!" and handed it to me, then he ran to the bathroom so we could dump the pee in the potty. We're especially happy about this because we haven't done anything at all lately to train him. We've talked about the potty and let him watch us use it, and kept his potty out, but we haven't pushed it at all. Maybe he sees someone at school using it?
• Augie is talking, talking, talking. It's wonderful. He's speaking both English and Swedish, and some English words he pronounces as though they are Swedish. He finally started saying his own name a couple weeks ago, though it sounds like "Ah-gist", without the rounding of the mouth to get the "au-" sound. He knows to pluralize things with an "-s", and he sometimes pluralizes the verb, too. He's regularly putting together sentences with 3 or more words. He repeats the last word of almost everything we say. And what do you think his favorite word is? "No!"
• Augie seems to be loving school, though he's back to napping in the stroller at dagis; his favorite teacher, Åsa, has been sick and away from school ever since Augie napped on the mat, so he's gone back to sleeping in the stroller. We hope she will be back on Monday!
• Augie can be very helpful when someone is sad or upset. His friend Nils fell at the playground today and started to cry. Augie looked at me and said "sad." Then he looked at Nils's mom adn said "napp" (the Swedish word for pacifier), as he knew that napps usually make sad kids feel better. When Leif was crying earlier this evening, Augie came in from the other room carrying a paci for him. 
• Augie is started to play with other kids, rather than just beside him. At the playground this afternoon, he ran around with Nils; when he first saw him, he ran up to him and tried to belly bump/kiss him (not really sure which he meant to do, or both). They ran around together, laughing, and when Augie ran to do something like swing, he'd point to an empty swing and say "Nils swing."
• Augie loves new people. The other week he ran up to and hugged one of the barristas from our favorite Italian coffee place when we saw him on the street (I didn't even know Augie had ever seen/recognized this guy!), with a giant smile on his face. James has a student visiting from Princeton, and he spent all afternoon asking her to push him on the swing, push him in the stroller, read him a book, etc. 
• We've asked a wonderful woman we met a couple months ago, Julie, to come over once a week to hang out with the kids and help us. She came over for the first time on Friday and it was great - Augie loved showing off his toys to her and running around with her; she was great with Leif, even when he was crying, and we felt totally comfortable giving him to her even when he was crying so we could sit down to dinner. Having her here meant we could comfortably take showers, make dinner, and eat it; beyond that, she and I sat on the couch (while Leif napped in my arms) and talked, talked, talked. Unfortunately, she's going back to the US in December, but we are so glad and lucky to have her here with us for the few weeks she's still here. 

That only begins to tell you all that's going on, but at least it's something. 

We're trying to get Augie involved in more household tasks, so that he can contribute and feel a sense of accomplishment in helping around the house, and also so that we can get more done (it's easier to wash the potatoes if he's actively engaged in helping to wash potatoes, rather than jumping on the couch). One of the easiest things for him to help with is the recycling, a job he relishes. He's also been keen to help with scraping his plate after dinner and putting his clothes in the hamper; ironically, it's us who have to remember to involve him in these tasks (you'd think we'd be happy to have a baby slave!).

Tiger pants

Just some photos from the last week we found hiding away on our iPads.

I feel like my life is one big baby pile:

Hanging out in Augie's room:

The brand of diapers we've been buying here (Libero) recently introduced these super-fun animal print diapers, and they are such a hit in our house! It used to be a challenge to change Augie's diaper, but now that he can be a tiger or a zebra, he wants us to change him! He comes home from dagis and rushes to the diapers in his room, pulls a tiger down, and lays down for us to change him. What a genius move from the diaper company!

Wednesday family day

Augie is home from dagis on Wednesdays now (we can only have him there 30 hours per week, so we're doing four longer days rather than five shorter days), so James is taking paternity leave on those days and we're having family time. Today we went to a park in the morning and then the public transportation museum in the afternoon. Everyone is appropriately worn out!

Watching a backhoe digging at a construction site:

Eating his creation:

 Hmmm, not so tasty:

Demonstrating his quick-chop technique:

Taking a ride at the transport museum (Spårvägsmuseet):

Testing out Dai Dai's side of the stroller:

Big smiles

We're still figuring out the new routine over here: should James take Augie to school, or should I? Who should pick him up? Who's going to make dinner, and when? Will Leif ever go to sleep? So this morning I took this guy school...

...with little Leif strapped to my chest in the Moby Wrap. After Leif and I returned home, I nursed him and played with him and then tried to get him back to sleep. And tried, and tried, and tried. In the midst of all that trying, we did this:

I'd like to tell you that this was in response to a fantastic joke I told, or he was mirroring my own giant smile, but in reality, this was a fleeting happy moment between bouts of screaming and squirming. I finally dressed him up in his bear suit and popped him in the stroller to go for a walk and do some grocery shopping; after I brought him home he slept another couple hours. Last night he slept for nine hours straight again! So the sleep situation is half fantastic, half tragic. Getting him to sleep tonight was relatively easy, so we'll see how long he goes - I have this terrible feeling that we'll be back to getting up every few hours (and I'm getting used to 5-7 hours for his first sleep!).

Tummy time

We had a really difficult weekend, with Augie being out-of-sorts and quite demanding and Leif being difficult to get to sleep. Good news is that they both slept well last night (Augie spent half the night sleeping on the rug in his room instead of in the bed!) and, well, we all survived and the weekend is over!

James got some great photos of tummy time with Leif (who is six weeks old today). Just look at him!

Towel elf

Too tired to write anything, here's my little towel elf after I bathed him in the sink today:

Sleeping squeezebox

This is what Leif sounds like sometimes when he's sleeping. Other times he sleeps quietly and his breathing is perfectly normal. When he's all worked up or excited it's a slightly different noise. As you might guess, it's not so easy being roommates with him.

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Our little squeezebox

What a day.

Ever since we brought Leif home, he's been a noisy breather. I remember Augie being a noisy breather, too, so I didn't think much of it. But he's still noisy. And there's one particular squeaky noise he makes when he inhales that had us a bit concerned, so I sent a video to my dear friend Sabrina, a pediatrician in Chicago. She told us that the squeaky noise he was making is called stridor and is not normal. So today we went to the hospital to have it checked out.

At the initial consult, the pediatricians confirmed that Leif's breathing isn't normal and that he has chest retractions. They sent us to see the ENT specialist in the hospital, who stuck a tube up Leif's nose and down his throat to have a look at what's going on. The test confirmed what we all by this time suspected - that Leif has laryngomalacia, a congenital softening of the tissues of the larynx above the vocal cords. The condition usually resolves itself by 18-20 months, and as long as Leif is eating well and gaining weight, there's no reason to be worried. And as Leif is accelerating up the growth curve, nursing well, and sleeping well (as well as a newborn does!), we aren't worried. The ENT doctor even said, twice, "I'm not very worried about this."

Waiting to see the ENT doctor

After we saw the ENT, we were admitted to the hospital for observation: they wanted to check his saturation, respiration rate, etc., for a few hours and possibly overnight to see how bad the condition is. Leif's saturation (amount of oxygen in his blood) was great even when he was having the stridor, so after about 5-6 hours in the ward we were sent home.

We'll go back to see the doctor in about a month to see how Leif is doing and possibly do the procedure again to have another look.

Leif held up well through the day, though he didn't much care for having the tube stuck up his nose (I didn't much care for it either). We were so lucky to have Grandma here to help look after Augie while we were tending to Leif. He's now sleeping happily in the bedroom, squeaking away.

Napping in our room while under observation

For some great news, last night Leif slept eight hours straight! We had a tough time putting him down again (took about six hours), but then he slept from about 9pm to 5am! I'm not crazy enough to think it might happen again tonight, but I do have the slightest glimmer of hope...

Good times with Grandma

I wanted to post yesterday, but it took six hours to get Leif to sleep. Six hours! That was with the three of us trading off to try our different tricks. He finally went to sleep at 10pm. Today, though, he put himself to sleep for two naps. (I'm still waiting for the s*&t to hit the fan just as dinner is served). It's hit or miss around here and we never know what kind of day we're going to get - but chances are good it will be exhausting.

Here are some pics from the last few days.

Another trip to Gamla Stan

We took Grandma to Gamla Stan and spent the morning chasing Augie around.

Grandma's here!

My mom arrived yesterday to spend a week with us. She's been doing a great job keeping Augie entertained, and it's so fun for me to hear the two of them laughing and playing together, inventing their own games and being silly. 

Leif's sleep remains pretty damned tough - he just fights going to sleep so hard. He'll be thisclose to being asleep, eyes closed, breathing slowed and then AHA! - arms and legs flailing, eyes wide open, again and again and again. Or he'll fall asleep for five minutes and then be up again. But then when he does sleep, he gets a good chunk in - this afternoon he napped for four hours, and last night was he put together the longest consecutive stretches of sleep he's had yet. Despite that, it's utterly exhausting - so it's been nice to have a third pair of arms to pass him off to.

It was also nice to get a small resupply from the States (there was much more!):

Grandma brought books, including Dr. Seuss.

Showing off their high feet:

And a picture from our dagis drop-off the other morning: