Been there, done that - the joy of experienced parenting

When Calvin was born, I experienced all of the typical first time mom worries.  I was concerned with leaving him with someone else whenever I had to go to work. I tracked his physical and mental development and stressed about reaching milestones.  I wasn't particularly high strung - I'm still a fairly laid back parent - but that nagging sense of "am I doing it right?" was always on my mind.

Now that I've "been there and done that," my experience with Lucy is completely different.  I am even more relaxed with her than I was with Calvin.  Lucy isn't rolling over? That's ok. She will eventually.  "Is she eating enough?"  That question has actually NEVER even crossed my mind.  The absolute freedom from all of the worry I had with Calvin is extremely liberating. I learned that whatever I did with Calvin didn't damage him in the slightest, so I'm OK. Kids are plastic and resilient. It is difficult to do anything too wrong at this point. This is the warm fuzzy time when they can just be babies.

It is an absolute joy experiencing parenthood the first time around. Everything is new and fascinating and even though things aren't "new" with Lucy, it is almost even more enjoyable because I can relax and let her set the pace for her own development.  I know she will eventually sleep through the night just like Calvin did and she will discover the world in her own way.  I know what is coming - the belly laughs, crawling and walking. The nonstop movement that keeps me on my toes and on high alert for falling books and toys.  There is no need to rush into all of that because it'll all be here in two blinks.

Part of the great part about having multiple children is that I am still experiencing the "newness" with Calvin while simultaneously relaxing in my experienced parenting bliss with Lucy.  I am still learning how to coax him into eating more protein and begging him to sit on the potty.  I am still blindly figuring it all out with him as he paves the way into unexplored toddlerhood territory.

Most surprising of all, is that I get to watch them experience life together as siblings. Calvin adores Lucy.  He must kiss and hug her goodnight as part of his bedtime routine. It warms my heart to see them together and to watch them bond so early on.

So for now, I'm going to take a lesson from what Lucy has taught me and I won't stress anymore about whether he will be potty trained this summer or next. It'll happen eventually, just like everything always does. I'm just going to relax with my cup of coffee and watch Lucy sleep.

The Snow Globe Effect

Last Christmas, Mother Sweden pulled out all of the stops and gave us a lot of snow that created the perfect magic to get everyone into the Christmas spirit.  It was lucky that my parents were there to experience the beauty themselves.  The snow hanging on the branches of the trees made it feel like we were walking in a snow globe that had just been lightly shaken and all of the glittery snowflakes had just settled down again.  The woods were quiet except for the crunching of our boots. We kept marveling at how beautiful it was and I called it the "Snow Globe Effect."

This Christmas we had weather that was rainy and consistently in the 40s and gave us the overall blah feeling.  Though the weather didn't help put us in the Christmas spirit, Stockholm still dresses up for the occasion and we hit up the Christmas markets and the NK store windows.

So, here we are in January and we finally, finally, have snow in Stockholm that is suitable for sledding.  Yesterday as I was walking Calvin to school, these huge flakes started falling and I just sighed and thought, "here's the snow globe feeling I've been waiting for!"  Calvin looked at me and says confusedly, "It's Christmas? It's not Christmas..."  No, it's not Christmas but it finally feels like it.  Hope you can enjoy the snow globe effect where you are this winter!

5 Indoor Energy Releasing Activities for Your Toddler

It's winter time and most people are looking at sub zero temperatures for days on end.  Calvin played trains with Jonathan very patiently for 12 days straight but at some point, you need to release a bit more energy than trains, PlayDoh and stickers can provide.

1. Costumes

We have collected a few costumes over the course of the year for various reasons but have also gotten creative with some fun animal paper plates that we converted into masks.  We do a lot of dressing up, pretending and chasing in these costumes.  Exercise that imagination and you'll find yourself having fun in their little world.

2. Beach ball basketball/chase/throw around

       

Beach balls can be fun in the summer but also a lifesaver in the winter time.  They float in the air and do minimal damage to lamps and pets.  Play some beach ball basketball, keep away or chase.  I discovered that my beach ball skills are akin to that of a Harlem Globetrotter and I impress Calvin with my super skills.  Also, it didn't take long for Calvin to discover that if he bounced off the walls with the beach ball in his arms, that he had a built-in airbag for each collision.  We had to set some rules in place but this little beach ball ended up expending a lot of his energy.

3. Creeping/sneaking
This one takes commitment. One person needs to pretend to be unaware that the toddler is sneaking/creeping up on them and then pretend to be surprised when they attack with tickles.  You can creep really slowly while your child runs around the house and hides.  It is endless fun for your toddler and requires little energy on your part.

4. Jumping off furniture

This one may not be socially acceptable at other people's houses, but it's your house so go nuts.  You have to get your toddler's energy out SOMEHOW and your options are really limited.  Just teach them to jump safely - set boundaries and always observe them - and to bend their knees.  Calvin jumped all stiff legged once and ending up jamming his knee. His little 2 year old knees were sore for a few days and I felt like Mother of the Year, but I think he learned a lesson. Always bend your knees upon landing!  Now he does a full squat when he lands so he's burning even MORE energy. Win win!

5. Tickles

Nothing is more fun or interactive than attacking your child with a TICKLE MONSTER.  The squeals of delight will lighten your mood and will exhaust their lungs.  Laughing burns 1.3 calories/min and relieves emotional stress. Combine your best tickle monster with any of the above four activities and you'll have yourself one tired toddler.  Job well done.

The twelve trains of christmas!

Calvin got a huge delivery of Brio train tracks from Santa this year, and he's been having a ton of fun with them so far.  Luckily, I'm home from work till January 7th, so Calvin and I talked about it and decided that doing a new track each day would be the greatest thing we've ever done.

We used a bunch of websites as our e-muse's:
http://www.pinterest.com/mywoodenrailway/train-track-layouts/
http://www.squirreltracks.com/layouts/layoutexamples.html

Next Stop: TRAIN CITY!!!!!

Day 1 - Santa's Design: TRAIN CITY!!
Review: The first train track layout we've had with more than a figure eight.  Calvin LOVED it - he kept driving around saying "this is AMAZING".  We might have more fun layouts later on, but this will always be my favorite.

Day 2 - Dragon Castle

Ain't no party like a crawfish party

“Lis, when this is done, I’ll officially be a swede.  And have proven myself a man. But you better step away.  When this gets opened, the smell could induce labor” [EDITOR NOTE - THIS ALL OCCURRED AND WAS WRITTEN IN SEPTEMBER, PRE-LUCY]

…

In Atlanta, the fall was all about festivals – whether they were food fests, art fests, or wine/beer fests, every weekend could be spent celebrating something.  Here it’s different.  They still have seasonal parties most weekends, but they are more informal neighborhood affairs – usually involving seafood and schnapps. Lots and lots of schnapps. 

Our first party this year was a neighborhood Swedish crawfish fest.  We had heard about this for a long time now, but last year the plans just never came together.  Our new neighborhood gets together every year for one  though, so we were excited to be a part of it.  When the invitation first got put in our mailbox, we weren’t sure the details.  Do we give money to someone to get the supplies?  Who has a pot big enough for the whole neighborhood? Then we found out that it was more of a potluck style – everyone gets their own food ready at home, and shows up with their dinner and just eat together.  We knew that Swedish crawfish would be a little different than what we were used to – instead of Cajun seasoning, they would use dill (obviously), and instead of being a one-pot dish, they would be cold (weird).  They are also served with cheese pie, boiled potatoes, and bread.   That sounded like a good plan, but we wanted to play up our American-ness a bit so we reached out to some of our N’awlins family and friends for recipe recommendations. 

Day of the party, we looked outside and the neighbors had set up a HUGE tent with 3-4 tables underneath.  Maybe 20+ people all together. We were the last ones ready, so we showed up with a huge steaming bowl overflowing with corn, potatoes, Andouille, and crawfish. Lis also made a batch of her (now) world famous Cajun cornbread.  Everything was FANTASTIC.  Neighbors kept walking by asking to trade for some of our crawfish – which we were happy to do.  The cornbread was easily the biggest hit of the night, everyone loved it. Every few minutes, people would take a break from cold dill crawfish to sing a song and have a group schnapps.  Good times all around. 

Once dinner was over, Lis took Calvin inside to get him ready for bed.  One of our friends asked if I needed to head in as well – Lis could kind of see where the night was going and said it was probably best if I hung out as long as possible.  So now my job was to make friends, and make friends the only way I know how – through large quantities of booze.

Once the sun went down  and the crawfish were put away, the schnapps and beers managed to stay on the table.    A lot of the adults were still out, and kids were out until way past midnight.  This fact (and that the folks not outside were probably sleeping) did NOT deter the party from quickly turning into a discussion on the finer points of Scandinavian death metal.  After a few more hours of “networking” and being told that I “was not made of sugar, thatj’s for damn sure” (I think that was a compliment), I decided to go to bed on the couch downstairs because calvin was waking up very, very shortly.

One thing I had FORGOTTEN about evidently was that at some point that night we had agreed and set a date for me to become fully Swedish.  Not only did we set a date, but we put it into our phones.

I only remembered this two weeks later. 

(Part II – Surstromming coming soon!)