Back to reality…

V and I are back in Brussels and my to do-list consists of:

• trying to figure out child-care for after Easter… I start to work on the 1st March and my parents are coming to take care of V the first month. Visiting a private creche tomorrow.
• Remove the few Xmas decorations I put up in December
• clarify a misunderstanding between me, the HR person and the director. Not so fun Done!
• re-start, for the umpth time, the house-hunt – absolute deadline is 1st May (we can stay in our current home until mid-August)! We have one house visit on Saturday morning.
• unpack all the boxes…
• pack away all V’s outgrown clothes. Done!
• Get O to fix the washing machine that is leaking…
• See an old friend who is coming to Brussels for a work meeting tomorrow
• Appointment at the hairdresser’s on Wednesday
• Meet up with new Irish friend to meet her new baby on Thursday
• Mother & baby group on Friday
• Read “We need to talk about Kevin” for the mother & baby group book circle in February
• Send thank you-cards to everyone who gave gifts when V was born (long overdue!!).
• Print photos for thank you-cards
• Meet up with friends
• Hand over snus that I bought for some Swedish friends…
• Hand over some Spanish chorizo and jamón to friends who have helped us out lately
• Buy a high chair for V, my sister and I bought one for him in Sweden and he loved sitting with us at the table
• Go for walks and sing with V every day. I have put a small cd player in his room and I’m re-discovering all the old children’s tunes (and realising I have forgotten both lyrics and melodies, hence the cd player…)

This is how V sleeps… at least when I have removed his mittens after a walk outside

Happy fab year!

I know it’s a bit late, already two weeks have passed of 2012 but here’s a new year’s greeting from Swedish designer Therese Sennerholt. I hope we will all have a fabulous year!

Sssshhh…

Don’t tell my mother-in-law but V is sleeping outside at the moment. As Swedish children do.

NB. I am sitting by the window and keep checking on him to make sure that he is not too cold and that he is not awake…

PS The retro pram is a loan from my mother’s cousin, I think that my second cousin is 14 so it should date from 1997-98.

Too long…

It’s been too long since I blogged and I don’t know where to start… V and I are back in Sweden after a month in Spain. Life in Brussels seems so far away but we will be going back on the 22nd January. This first week in Sweden has mostly been about getting 100% healthy, as both V and I got sick the last two weeks in Spain.

A summary of the last month:

• Cultural differences: in Spain people are worried about babies getting cold, in Sweden it is important that the baby doesn’t get too hot
• Husband and father took holidays to work in the family business – not always popular with the wife…
• Small baby, big virus! V got bronchiolitis / rs-virus infection and had to spend 3 days in the hospital in Spain. Then I got the cold of the century. And O and I got a stomach virus that “only” lasted about 12 hours but it was very aggressive. Plus V and I got eye infections
• Eye infections are called “cold eye” in Spanish and people think it is due to being exposed to cold air.
• V got a new cousin on New Year’s Eve – his name starts with M, just like his parents’ and brother’s and all whose birthdays just happen to be in December as well!
• V’s two cousins, 8-year old M and 5-year old M (not siblings! just realised that V’s three cousins, three grandparents, two uncles and one aunt have names starting with M plus his first family name!) loved their little cousin even if 5-year old M was a tad jealous of the attention her mother gave him…
• If you want me to keep a secret, let me know that it is a secret!! Too many secrets to be kept from parents-in-law and various “siblings-in-law”…
• Temperatures ranged from 16 degrees to -3 in Spain. An exceptionally warm Xmas, both in Spain and in Sweden
• I never got around to bake the safran buns with marzipan, despite Millan publishing her recipe and I buying all the ingredients
• My German sister-in-law and I have three languages in common – Swedish, English and Spanish but we speak mostly Spanish to each other.
• No internet connection for a month was very frustrating!
• I discovered that with digital TV you can switch to VO (versión original, i.e undubbed version) and / or subtitles (in Spanish) when watching American films and tv-series
• Baby V is no longer so small, he gained 1 kg in 18 days. Fortunately his growth has slowed down a little since then!
• Security staff in Copenhagen airport definitely the friendliest, Brussels airport staff quite nice as well and Charleroi third. Madrid Barajas’ staff the most unfriendly and unhelpful with a mother travelling alone with a baby.

• Scaninavian airlines the most baby friendly airline! Both price-wise and service-wise.
• “Ajo” was the most popular word during our stay in Spain. Spanish children “have to” learn this word first as it contains a very important sound in the Spanish language. I claimed that most of the time when V “said” “ajo”, it was just a sound he happened to make and it would be more of a challenge to teach him to say “jamón” or “Jorge” 
• People thought that it was cute that V wears “un pantalón”, i.e real trousers… Eh? Well, many Spanish babies wear old-fashioned knitted stockings, with or without a “faldón” (skirt), also boys!
• A baby has to use a pacifier, according to O’s sister and a random woman in the hospital. I am not anti-pacifier but I don’t understand why we have to force V when he doesn’t want one and seems to be doing perfectly ok without it! He sometimes sucks his fingers but it is not a real habit (yet) and I am not too worried…

The baby is wearing real trousers!?

Photos and more posts will follow soon!

Looking for Xmas

This year I haven’t decorated much for the holidays as we are celebrating Christmas in Spain and we are actually already leaving today. It means that I have only spent 4 days in Brussels this month! However, I couldn’t stop myself from bringing out a few decorations anyway…

My plan is to try to make O’s parents’ home cosy for the holidays, especially as it is V’s first Christmas even if he won’t remember it… And to do some baking, maybe together with O’s 5-year old niece.

Glögg from 2006. It tasted ok, probably because it is 12% alcohol… Why do we have 5 year old glögg? Well, we bought it for a glögg party in 2006, didn’t finish all the bottles and then put them in storage when we moved to Puerto Rico!

I really like this angel light from Ikea (sold out it seems!), which I use as a night light by the bed. V doesn’t like the pacifier, and keeps spitting it out – I guess that I shouldn’t insist.

Xmas socks that I will wear in bed in Spain – it is cold in O’s parents’ house!

An elk or reindeer that we got a few years ago from my parents

Lights from Ikea in the hall

Oven gloves and a tea towel

V will have to wait at least another two years before I prepare the advent calendar with small gifts

The Ikea bag is filled with Xmas gifts and other stuff that we are bringing to Spain

Merry Christmas!

First Saint Nicholas party

V and I were invited to two Xmas parties yesterday, the first one already at 11 o’clock with our mother & baby group, and then at O’s office at 16.00. Since we had had quite a difficult night and it was the first (out of 4) day back in Brussels after the time spent in Sweden, I decided to cancel our participation in the morning Xmas party. I have realised that I’d better limit the activities we have instead of overdoing it and disrupt our so-called habits (which habits?). Also I do feel a little stressed about the fact that when V and I fly to Spain on Sunday, we won’t be back for more or less 6 weeks, and I need to get organised.

The afternoon Xmas party in O’s office was actually a Saint Nicholas party. The Belgians celebrate Saint Nicolas / Sinterklaas on the eve of the 5th / morning of the 6th December and it is traditionally the day that the children get their Christmas gifts. Our little V will be spoilt with gifts for Saint Nicolas, Christmas Eve (in Sweden) and for Epiphany (los Reyes in Spain).

We spent a few hours with O’s colleagues and children, and I realised that we will have to get used to loud environments from now on! V, who didn’t seem very disturbed by the noise, got to meet Nicholas and his helper, Zwaarte Piet, and received a present. What did he do? He let out a huge yawn! Our little boy is so blasé about getting presents 

The present was suitable for 18+ months so V will have to wait until March 2013 to play with it!

Random photos from V’s first visit to Sweden

Little V and I have had a great week back home in Sweden. We’ve been spoilt with attention, love and presents but we miss O and it will be nice to see him again on Tuesday when we return to Brussels.

My mother and I found our old classical Brio toys in the attic – V is still a bit too young for them but soon…

V has met for the first time my soon-to-be 92-year-old grandfather (V has his name as a second name), my aunt, my Latvian sister Z & her children, and of course my brother who will be V’s godfather and his fiancée, as well as two blog friends. Tomorrow we are having lunch with two of my second cousins and one of V’s “third” cousins who is just a few months older than him.

Trying out a Swedish pram, incidentally also made by Brio, just like the wooden toys!

A happy baby at the BVC (Swedish child health care centre). Don’t worry, V’s grandmother was standing just next to him even if she’s not visible in the photo

V’s mother, aunt and grandmother enjoyed a classical dish, “Flying Jacob”, on Friday while his grandfather and uncle had a whisky tasting session in Malmö

The quality of the photos taken with our small Lumix is still awful

BVC and passport

Tomorrow is a big day for little V: he will get his Swedish passport! I applied for it on Monday and it was ready to be picked up two days later but I haven’t had time yet. And we are going to have a very Swedish baby experience: going to BVC, the Child health care centre, to get him weighed and measured. It will be interesting to compare it with the Belgian ONE (Office de la naissance et de l’enfance).

Both V and I are enjoying our time in Sweden. V is getting lots of attention from  his grandparents and I get to rest a little. But we miss V’s dad who is back in Brussels. We are returning to Belgium on Tuesday and then the whole family will head to Spain next weekend for a month!

To pack for a baby’s first travel

Almost two weeks ago now that we moved to the new apartment and this week I haven’t done much unpacking at all! I have been distracted by visitors (yesterday my three French girlfriends and I were all together again for the first time since we went to Seville in May!), activities (last postnatal class yesterday) and appointments (doctor’s on Tuesday for V’s first vaccinations and hairdresser for me today). Also, it has been ”the week of the Irish pregnant friends” – my pregnant boss came to visit on Monday afternoon, I had lunch on Tuesday with a new Irish friend who is due any day now, and I chatted to Irish O on Tuesday evening and she gave birth yesterday to a little boy*!

However, tomorrow I have no excuses; I have to unpack my suitcase, full of maternity wear (where to put it??), in order to pack for V’s and my trip to Sweden on Saturday morning! I have made a list, of course. Some of the stuff is the same as I always bring when we are out and about, but the “extended version”:

• one box of baby formula (do you think that I can change brand when we’re in Sweden or should I bring two, just to be on the safe side?)
• bottle for travelling and will then buy one or two in Sweden
• baby toiletries
• cuddly toy
• blanket, bibs and muslin squares
• clothes – I have to sort out all his outgrown clothes at the same time. Our big little boy weighs 5 kg and is almost 60 cm! I had expected to bring thick winter clothes for both of us but the forecast promises temperatures of 6 to 9 degrees. And my mother told me to not bring too much clothes for V as she’s looking forward to some baby clothes shopping…
• the necessary documentation: V’s “travel certificate”, letter with new Swedish coordination number (samordningsnummer istället för personnummer), declaration signed by O and certified by a friend (“witness”) to allow me to apply for a Swedish passport for V, and his birth cerificate
• ONE (Belgian child healthcare services) booklet as we will get V weighed at the BVC (Swedish child healthcare services) when in Sweden
• empty box of vaccine as I need to check with the BVC if a) if V can get his 2nd round of shots there in January and b) if they use the same vaccine as in Belgium. I am aware that we will have to pay for the shots but it is either that or having to fly back to Belgium from Spain just for the vaccinations instead of flying straight to Sweden from Spain after Epiphany. We might try to get him vaccinated in Spain anyway, if it is possible…
• textiles for the quilt project – my mother and I are going to start “designing” it and then she will sew it. I know, I know, cheating!
• BabyBjörn, which will be V’s means of transport at the airport

I am so happy that I do not have to bring: the pram, the car seat nor a “travel sleeping bag” (åkpåse) since my parents have borrowed / bought all of these bulky things!

Have I forgotten anything?

*) Irish O is one of my four dear friends from my Master’s, and three of us have had baby boys this year!!

[Blog] Christmas in November

Little V and I are escaping the mess in our new home tomorrow, for the 3rd day in a row. Maybe that’s why it is still a mess…?

We are first going to a mother-baby group with some of our friends from the postnatal course that we have been following this month. Afterwards we are off to the Swedish Church Christmas bazaar with a few blog friends. It was actually thanks to one of my blog readers that I found out about the mother-baby group. For the first time this year the Christmas bazaar opens already on a Friday and they are serving a Swedish Christmas lunch. I am especially looking forward to the lunch as we will celebrate Christmas in Spain instead of Sweden and I won’t get my traditional Swedish Christmas food fix. The blog meeting is the second one among Swedish Belgium-based bloggers and blog readers but I missed the first one as V just happened to decide to arrive that day, ten weeks ago! Last year, O and I went to the Christmas bazaar with another blog friend of mine who was visiting Brussels – Cosmopolitan-Mirtha!

In 2008 there was a Swedish blog meeting in New York City in November and since O and I decided on a New York holiday at the last minute, Saltis, a dear blog friend, and I planned to surprise the other bloggers. It was so much fun to see the surprised faces of Annika and Petra when we showed up at the diner where they were all having brunch! After a very chatty lunch, we actually ended up at… the Swedish Church Christmas bazaar (the New York version).

In other words, there seems to be a certain blog connection to my visits to the Christmas bazaars, which is pure coincidence, I think… 

Swedish Church Christmas bazaar in New York, November 2008 

And for the third year running, my blog friend Emma in Scotland is organising a Christmas present exchange among the Swedish [mostly expat] bloggers.

Christmas couldn’t start better than this!