Summer Fun

When the weather was nice we would spend our days at the beach. Shorts, tank tops and sunblock were on and an ccassional hoodie if it was windy. I miss the warmth, the summer sun. The weather has been cloudy and rainy here lately. But our first couple of weeks back in Sweden was great. Sun, please come back.

It is not a fun task being at the beach with a baby. Aleksander was eating everything in sight. Darn those rocks and occasional cigarette bud! I couldn't even relax because I had to keep all eyes on him.

Enzo swore he wasn't warm. I was hot just looking at him.

I learned my lesson...instead of sitting on the sandy side of the beach we unloaded our stuff on the grassy side by the playground. Now there was only goose poop to worry about but he never attempted to eat that...thank God. He was free to roam and Enzo could dig in the sand if he wanted or play at the playground. Paradise. We spent hours there.

Aleksander wandered upon a tree when we were picnicking at the park down the street.

Down at the playground by the beach. Some friends met up with us and of course the kids were fascinated by the bike so I had to take them for a ride.

My big boy!

My other big boy...well baby-big boy!

He LOVES being outside at the playground. I think he loves feeling the different textures that the outdoors has to offer and he LOVES swinging and acting like a "big" boy.

Aleksander Is 11 Months!

Mr. Personality is nearing the one year marker, June 28th! Wow! Time flies.

Aleksander has a strong personality and lets it show. And I don't mean attitude when I say personality I just mean he has a personality. He talks to you. He laughs. He knows what he wants and lets it be known. And that is usually done with some sort of screaming..."Ahhh" or moaning..."MMMMM". And he definitely lets you know when he doesn't want something, usually with batting it out of his face.

Earlier in this month (May) he started signing "more" and "eat" but now he has just reverted back to screaming or moaning. The little nut!

He is very mobile and gets around rather quickly. He loves exploring on his own but he also loves being near, preferably in my arms. He stands up while holding onto something. I am not sure if he'll take his first steps before his birthday, kind of doubt it, but you never know.

He likes testing boundaries, like his mother. If I say "don't touch", he touches it again just to see if I mean it. I know the two of us will bump heads because our personalities are very much alike.

He's social and doesn't have a problem being in the midst of a stranger.

He likes eating finger foods. Baby food/puree will get batted out of your hand in a second. So, he is now eating what we eat and I don't salt the food until after he has gotten his portion. He is still a fruit monster, which I love. This morning his breakfast consisted of whole wheat pancakes with applesauce and blueberries (in the batter) and cauliflower scrambled eggs. He devoured it. Maybe that will be his birthday breakfast but with a side of fruit too.

He loves playing in the sandbox, or being at the playground in general. Of course, he is picking up all sorts of things, especially rocks and trying to eat it. But most of all I think he likes all thats new at a playground, all the new shapes and surfaces to explore.

His nightly wakings have become fewer since we've been back in Sweden, thank God. But I assumed that would be the case. He wakes up once briefly, usually around 2am. Sometimes I nurse him at this point. He usually wakes up around 6-6:30am to start his day but this past week he's been singing a different tune...5am. He goes to bed at 6-6:30pm. We are trying to bump it up to 7pm so that both kids go down at the same time. He takes two naps during the day one at 8:30/9am and one at 1:30/2pm. Each nap ranges from 60-120min.

He had a 10month check up last week...we're playing catch up since we were gone on vacation. He passed whatever developments he was supposed to have reached by this point...banging to blocks together, his fine motor skills, standing etc.

He weighed 10,385 grams (about 23lbs) and was 74cm long. Big boy!

Oh yes, and he has 7 teeth now.

Happy 11 months Aleksander! We love you Munchie Munch!! Looking forward to more fun and crazy times with you!

Cargo Bike

We bought a new bike. I am so happy because now I can get around town just a little faster with both kids in tow. Enzo loves the new bike and wants to take it everyday. Aleksander he thinks it's ok. He responds to biking the same way Enzo did around this age. I think the helmet is uncomfortable and then going over bumps isn't too fun as they he his trying to hold up his heavy head and keep it from bonking the sides. Enzo is good about holding Aleksander close when we go over a bump though. Nice big brother.

I even have the stroller packed in there which makes it convenient for trips into town. I don't have to carry Aleksander he can sit in the stroller but we cut our travelling time down by half.

Here we are headed to Ikea. We took a bike trip to Ikea. It took 30min. Sweet.

"Take A Picture"

"Take a picture" is Enzo's new phrase when we are out and about. He likes having his picture taken as long as he can choose when, where and how. He's been making some crazy faces but I think this all a part of his age. Since he's been all about having his picture taken I asked him if he would like to model, explaining what modelling is and he said "no, I don't want to do that." I figured as much...he would not cooperate with that at all. It would be too much focus on him that he would be uncomfortable.

Enzo has grown tremendously over the past few months. He says big words and uses them in the right context like, "eventually". It's fun having conversations with him "sometimes". Unfortunately he can talk you to death, and that seems like an understatement. He just babbles on and doesn't understand when someone doesn't really feel like talking. If I take him out running with me I have to tell him before we start running that I won't be able to talk to him while I am exercising. He'll talk my head off and my run will not be enjoyable by any means. When I am done he usually asks if he can talk to me now and I give him the "go ahead". I wonder if this is a phase or will he always be chatty, like his mother. Or wait, Mattias can talk you to death too...let him start talking about something he is really interested in. Enzo is doomed!!

Enzo is my rule follower and ultimately wants to do the right thing. This has been true of him since he was a baby. Sleep routines; he followed religiously because that's what mommy said so he did it with little or no resistance. As a growing toddler he listened when he wasn't supposed to touch something..."I would say leave it alone please" and he would leave it and explore something else.
He is so much of a rule follower that he can be quick to point out when someone else isn't doing something right. This is not so nice but I guess he will learn with time. I call him "Police officer" Enzo when he is trying to regulate someone else.

Lately we have been having a problem with Aleksander waking up EARLY in the morning and it's a problem because he has been waking Enzo up. Enzo has been told to not get out of bed until his clock says 7:00am. He follows this rule and waits patiently. Even if he has to go pee he calls out and asks if he can go to the bathroom. And I get totally annoyed that he doesn't see this as a qualified reason to get out of bed without asking, I of course say "yes"...with a tone of next time don't wake me up with such a silly question. But he does, of course. Sometimes when Aleksander is awake early and Enzo is awake he gets all excited and starts playing. This morning I was annoyed with the fact that they were up so early that I told Enzo be quiet after he had been quiet for an hour already, and his reply is" ok, mommy". Following rules again. I felt bad but I was too tired to care at the moment.
And even the times when I wake up on the wrong side of the bed, which is usually when my morning doesn't go as planned, aka, I wake up earlier than I had anticipated...then I can forewarn Enzo that I am not in a good mood and he will say "ok, mommy, why?" I'll tell him why and then he'll steer clear of me for the majority of the morning asking Mattias to help him with whatever he needs. Poor thing.

My point of this is that he is a really good kid. A rule follower like his father...not like me. And he truly doesn't deserve me getting annoyed with him for something that is totally out of his control. I'm deeply sorry Love Bug!!!

But to my defense I am only human and parenting is hard!

Here's Enzo and his poses, don't ask me what he is doing with is hands or his face for that matter.

Keeping Busy

A day at home for Aleksander usually involves these things:

Being wherever Enzo is.

Pulling all the books off the shelf and occassionally browsing through one.


And his most favorite; standing in the window sill. This is actually a habit that I should not encourage because if the window just happened to be open one day and he was standing there he would fall right out. Unfortunately there are no safety locks on the windows.

ps

I have some cute videos of him and the window. Will try to upload.

Heading Back To Sweden

Let me just recap our trip home as this was the worst part of our entire 10 week vacation. We were booked to leave St. Louis May 15th. On the 15th I had anxiety the entire day, mostly due to all the baggage I had. I was worried about incurring extra baggage fees. Why do airlines think that one piece of luggage per person weighing 50lbs is enough for a 10 week vacation. Come on. I swear baggage limitations should be set depending on the length of your stay and if you are travelling internationally or not. The weight restrictions are the same for international as they are for domestic and I swear we pay more for our international tickets than we do domestic. Anyway, back to the matter at hand...

I had anxiety and anxious to get my bags checked so that I could breath in relief. Got to the ticket counter and this wonderufl lady helped me as the self check in counter was working for me, something about the type of ticket I had. I weigh my bags, all four of them and three of them are over weight by 1-3lbs. I am looking att all my fully packed carry-ons wondering where am I supposed to put the extra weight.

I manuevered things around. I squished. I stuffed and I managed to get everything in and at the right weight. The ticket lady gave me the ok to have one bag weighing 53lbs aka "heavy" but the other ones I had to be 50lbs or under. I did it! I breathed out. Relief! Then I began stuffing stuff in the carseat covers that were also going to be shipped. Mind you, she was not aware of my deceitful manuevers as she was busy with several other customers at the same time. She ticketed and bagged the carseats and my "extra stuff" that I had no room for anywhere were safely stored in the carseats...PHEW!

Now it was off to the gate. We were good with time, had about 1 hr 30min until departure. When we got to the security line I got to go express aka bypass all the other passengers since I was travelling alone with two kids. Since I went express goodbyes were quick but nevertheless sad. Many tears were shed. We headed to our gate. With time to kill and two tired kids we went to the bathroom a couple of times and snacked. Aleksander is nearly impossible to put to sleep out and about...he's so nosy.

About 45min before departure time we are informed that our flight would be delayed because one of the pilots did not show up and we had to wait for another pilot whose flight was due to arrive at 7:45pm. Our scheduled departure time was 6:30pm and was now pushed forward to 8:05pm. This was ok, as we were supposed to have a 3hr layover in Chicago before heading on to Sweden. Well, as you may assume, the flight did not end up leaving until 8:15pm. Arriving in Chicago shortly after 9pm but taxiing to the gate took 20min. In an effort to guarantee that we would make our flight I asked the flight attendant when we boarded if she could contact my connecting flight (SAS which is partners with United) and let them know we are coming. I also asked if she could set me up with one of those cars that drive you through the airport to help expedite my transporting to another terminal. She said she was unable to do so. I am slowly beginning to panic. Fortunately the kids fell asleep on the plane but I had to wake them to get us quickly to our terminal. We landed at terminal 1 and I had to get us to terminal 5. I put Aleksander on my front, Enzo in the stroller, a 13lb backpack on my back, Enzo's trunki under the stroller and my handbag secured on my mommy hook on the stroller. I asked the gate agent to notify the plane that we are on our way. She said sorry, can't do that. With 35min to spare before take off I RAN and RAN through the airport. Sweating bullets but determined to make it. We had just missed the train and had to wait 10min for the next one to take us to the int'l terminal. Once there I get to the security gate and am then notified by an SAS agent that the gate is closed. We missed the flight, with 10min to spare. Tears flowed. I balled. No cell phone I had to contact Mattias. SAS let me use a phone. Disappointed rang out on both ends of the phone.
Enzo was listening to my whole conversation and began saying, where will we go? Where will we sleep? What will we eat? Where's a safe place for us? etc. etc etc.
I was determined to be compensated for the inconvenience. I had two kids who were exhausted and I was beyond exhausted but fueled by adrenaline. I found a United agent who told me that the delay was due to weather and therefore I was not due any compensation. I told him that was not true. So he did me a "favor" and gave me a hotel voucher and a food voucher for $15. Our flight did not leave until 10:05pm the following day.

We shuttled to the hotel. Put the kids to bed. Called United to rebook our flight. Went to sleep and then planned to spend a whole day in bed, well in the hotel at least until it was time for us to leave. Nana had arranged for us to stay in the hotel until we needed to leave for our flight instead of the original check out time of 3pm. Nice! That following afternoon we walked the streets around the hotel to a Target and found some dinner before it was time for us to leave.
We got to the airport early, around 7pm to make sure we had seats on the flight. Once handed our boarding passes I could relax.

The flight was a breeze as the boys slept...Enzo slept from take off until landing. Aleksander fell asleep before take off and then woke up after 5hrs, was awake for about an hour and a half and then slept until landing. NICE!

All our luggage made it and our sweet Swede was waiting for us at arrivals.

At the airport, getting ready for goodbyes.

The boys playing in our hotel room.

Enzo enjoying a yummy milkshake we got at Potbelly sandwiches. YUM!!

The Gateway Arch...One Of Our Last Adventures In St. Louis

We made an attempt to go up to the top of the Arch in April, when Auntie Carmen came to pick us up but the tickets were all sold out. So, I promised Enzo we would do it another time, since he seemed to really want tp experience. W

When we got back to St. Louis before heading back to Sweden we went to the Arch. Just me and the boys. And we went to the top. I thought Enzo was going to back out when he saw the tiny, egg shaped car/elevator we had to travel up in, but he was fine. Good because I am not sure we could have gotten our money back.

After we went up we spent some time outside playing in the grass before heading back to Nana and Granddad's house.

If you look up towards the middle, those tiny squares are the windows that you look out of when you are at the top.

At the top. It was warm up there.

Me and my boys.

Playing in the grass. Aleksander actually had rashes all over his legs after that.