Getting into the swing of things...maybe?

Lucy is now 6 months old and I'm finally, finally, finally, starting to feel like we have a somewhat predictable rhythm. How come nobody told me that it would take 6 months to adjust to having 2 kids? Where was the warning? Come on, experienced moms, give a lady a heads up or something!

Within those 6 months, Jon was gone for a full 13 days and I was on my own - juggling both kids solo. It was actually quite nice, believe it or not. It turns out that I mostly do all of it on my own anyway as Jon gets home after their bedtime. There was also less laundry to do since I didn't really change my outfits all that often and there wasn't another adult generating a mess (or expecting a real meal).

Some things I learned while on my own:

• Nobody judges you for eating a dinner of chicken nuggets and french fries - seriously, why make 2 separate dinners?
• You can go to bed at 8:30pm or as soon as the kids are down
• Going to the bathroom with the door open is a requirement
• You really can balance two kids on your lap in the rocking chair

The only thing I really missed was a truly reciprocal adult conversation in the evenings and an extra hand in the mornings. Calvin is famous for leaving my questions unanswered or if he does respond, it is often nonsensical or just "good" to every question.

Me: Calvin, are you hungry?
Calvin: Good
Me: Do you want a peanut butter sandwich?
Calvin: Good

I only ran into a few snags where I seriously wish I could clone myself. For instance, Lucy would be nursing herself back down to sleep around 5:30am and I would hear Calvin shouting, "Mama, can you hear me? Mama, can you HEAR ME?!?" with increasing intensity and volume. This happened almost every morning. So, I'd get Lucy back asleep and slowly sneak out of bed to go in and cuddle Calvin for another hour.

Before Jon left, he hypothesized that I would finish the wine we had in the fridge. Uhh, I didn't need to touch the stuff but I did drink ALL of the COFFEE. I drank a coffee press pot (4 cups) a day and zero glasses of wine. No bedtime was "too early" for me and I frequently crashed out at 9pm.

In honor of all of the single moms and married moms with partners who travel, I raise my 3x reheated mug of coffee to you in honor of your hard work. It's not easy doing it solo but you do get 100% of the cuddles in return.

Top 10 Technologies for ex-pats

We have a lot of folks moving abroad for short or long stints, so I figured I would finally put up this blog that I had written 90% of 2 years ago…..

1)      VPN – ESSENTIAL to pretend you are still in the states – really enables a lot of the other things on this list (google voice, Netflix, hulu, SEC football game of the week, etc)

2)      Skype – One of the hardest part of this move was taking Calvin away from all of his family.  While it hasn’t been a perfect replacement obviously, we have been able to have regularly scheduled video calls with both of our parents, and have also had video calls with a number of friends, aunts/uncles, siblings and all four sets of our grandparents.  Being able to see folks regularly (and have them see Calvin and us) is great – both for us and for them (if I may make some assumptions)

3)      Google Voice – When we aren’t able to set up a full skype-date, we can randomly call our ‘merican peoples.  When I was working on a project a year ago, I had put $10 on my Gmail calling account.  Once we got out here, we realized that it was only $0.01 per minute for calling home.  So whether its surprising our grandparents with a call to their cell phone, or calling some buddies after I’ve had my drink on for a bit (and they are having a late lunch), its nice to be able to make an improvised phone call.

4)      Google Maps – We still use maps – but street signs aren’t always the most visible things in the world, and there isn’t a big blue arrow constantly updating itself like it is on my phone.   We had an off-site the other week and afterwards my boss tried to give me directions on how to get home – instead of listening to him, I just pulled up my map and started telling him what my options were.  And then when Lis and I start exploring and get completely lost – we can always find ourselves pretty quickly.

5)      Google Translate – I get forwarded a lot of emails, receive a lot of mail and look at a lot of forms – all in Swedish. 

6)      Google Chrome – translates things automatically for you!

7)      Hulu/Netflix/amazon video/HBO to go – especially with the vpn, its like you never left

8)      Viber  – once you convince folks to download it, you text like you would if you lived 5 minutes away from each other.  Just turn it to silent at night….

9)      Twitter – keeps me up to date on basic US news

10)  NFL Gamepass / MLB package / SEC game of the week – most if not all major sports have ex-pat packages now that you can ONLY access if you are out of the country.  Not exactly going to the sports bar down the street, but you don’t NEED to miss a game if you plan a head a bit