What did you do ten years ago? I was an intern at a small human rights NGO in Geneva and I was monitoring UN human rights meetings such as the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Working group on the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People(s). I shared a tiny, cold apartment with my neighbour from Eslöv. He had his second child 4 days before V was born and is coming to Brussels to visit us with his whole family in March, I can’t wait! The 9th June 2002 I arrived to Brussels and started to work at the European Commission. Ten years already… at the same time it feels like a life time ago!!

What did you do a year ago? I was pregnant, but I didn’t know it yet! I had just come back from the French Alps with the European school and where I had injured my knee after 5 minutes’ of skiing. On the 31st January I went to the hospital here in Brussels and they made a [urine] pregnancy test which turned out to be… negative! so they x-rayed my knee (anterior crucible ligament was damaged but nothing broken). On the 7th February a blood test showed that I was pregnant!

Five snacks that you like? Swedish crisps (Estrellas grillchips!), Swedish sweets even though since my pregnancy I am not at all as fond of sweets as I used to be!, green olives with stones (it’s something to do with the consistency that I prefer to pitted olives) or stuffed with lemon, popcorn and Côte d’Or’s dark chocolate with marzipan.

Five songs that you know the lyrics to: I have realised that I don’t even know the lyrics to the most simple children’s songs when trying to sing to V but at least I know the Swedish lyrics to “Itsy bitsy spider” (Imse vimse spindel) and “Clap your hands” (Klappa händerna). I am the worst singer who can’t hold a tune but I can sing along to many pop songs. However, I only sing when alone or around people I know very well…

Five things you would do if you became a multi millionaire: Buy a nice house in Brussels, renovate one of O’s parents’ apartments so that we could stay there when in Spain, build a second guest house next to my parents’ summer house so that the whole family could stay more comfortably, travel, and save money for V.

Five bad habits: Procrastinating (I need to continue working on that to-do list this week!!), not ironing (my mother-in-law is horrified that I don’t iron more!), not doing enough sports / exercise, keeping too much stuff (magazines, books, papers etc…) and writing lists of things that should be done instead of doing them.

Five things you like to do: Read, blog (I wish I did it more often), cuddle with V and O, sleep and travel… (I actually sleep really well while travelling by bus, train, plane or car!)

Five things you would never wear or buy: This one was difficult but extremely pointy shoes (I have wide feet), and then I need to copy My’s answer: I would never buy children’s clothes with weapons or action figures, nor toy weapons for that matter.

Five favourite toys: Hm, toys? It is true that our home is slowly being taken over by V’s toys, which I am enjoying (so far) but my favourite “toys”? The computer, the camera, the kettle and ok, the old bird from my childhood that both V and I enjoy while changing nappies and the cd-player with which I can play children’s songs for V.

Five persons that I would like to answer the challenge: I am quite late so I think that most of the bloggers I know have already done this list…

And then I also have to thank Brysselkakan for the very nice award that she gave me. I am a bit embarrassed to get awards when I have been so bad at updating the blog lately (the last year really!).

• 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

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.

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!

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!

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 

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

]]> http://petchie.wordpress.com/2011/12/04/random-photos-from-vs-first-visit-to-sweden/feed/ 18 petchie IMG_2105 P1140085 P1140097 P1140111 http://petchie.wordpress.com/2011/12/01/bvc-and-passport/ http://petchie.wordpress.com/2011/12/01/bvc-and-passport/#comments Thu, 01 Dec 2011 23:48:56 +0000 petchie http://petchie.wordpress.com/?p=3898 ]]> 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!

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!!