First Night in San Fransisco

  • February 1, 2011 9:05 PM

Night view from our temporary apartment

It finally hit me that we’re moving to California when I saw the sun set into the ocean from the airplane. It rose from the ocean where I grew up. Our flights were great, but I’m still running on fumes from the jetlag. In the meantime, here are a couple of observations I had on our first night in our new home:

  • People speak English! I keep using the French ‘Pardon” though, when I’m trying to get around others. And people are chatty too. Our waitress told me about her 4-month old niece. The salesman at T-mobile told me about his upcoming trip to Japan and how he’s going to propose to his girlfriend.
  • San Francisco has some crazy mean hills, and we’re staying right in the middle of them.  At the cross street outside our apartment, two directions are steep ups, and the other two are steep downs. And the city is noisy too – cable cars, sirens, an ongoing hum, horns – all night long.
  • Eating out was a totally different experience. We got pizza…and picked it up with our hands. The cups were huge, and had ice, and free refills. The check was brought to us, without asking, as soon as we were done eating. And suggested tipping amounts were printed on the bill.

It’s a busy week for us – getting cell phone plans, a bank account, ZipCar memberships, and hopefully we can start exploring the different neighborhoods to see where we want to end up. I’m carrying my little pocket camera around with me, so I will try to get some photos posted soon.

Swedish Baby Culture and Christmas Photos

  • January 23, 2011 10:33 PM

A couple feet of snow, five hours of daylight and -22 degrees celsius (-8 fahrenheit) doesn’t sound fun, does it? But Pumpkin’s first Christmas was great – I’d say my favorite in Stockholm yet! We spent the holiday with Thomas’ family, where Pumpkin got to meet Tomte, go sledding, and was spoiled by her Farfar, Farmor, and Uncle Mikey. We introduced her to Thomas’ side of the family’s Christmas traditions: Kalle Anka, Bulla, Santa’s Helpers, Christmas Eve presents, and after-Christmas parties, all blogged in past years (2006, 2007, 2009).

Christmas Elf

Now that I’ve got a baby, I notice baby culture everywhere – are there changing tables, high chairs, stroller-friendly accessibility? This is not one of Brussels’ strong points, so I was amazed at how many parents with babies I saw out and about in Stockholm, especially with the freezing temperatures. They just bundled their kids, put them in a baby carrier or stroller, and headed out. The bassinet buggies with four big air-filled wheels were very popular.

My Favorite Christmas Present

You would probably never see this in the US, but a Danish mom recently told me that where she’s from, children are bundled and put in their strollers outside for naps. Thomas’ mom said this is done in Sweden too. After seeing how well Pumpkin napped during our winter walks, I can understand (though I’m not ready to leave her outside myself).

Dreaming of Sugar Plums

Children seemed very welcome everywhere we went – the mall, the movies, restaurants. While sitting in a mall food court during our trip, I counted 4 or 5 breastfeeding moms. There were also high chairs, and a baby lounge and play area. It was quite a contrast to Belgium where young children are not really encouraged in restaurants. You rarely see highchairs, changing tables, or kids’ menus here.

Enough Photos Already!

It’s apparent how welcoming Sweden is to children when you look at the parental leave provided by the government – all working parents are entitled to a joint 16 months paid leave per child – encouraged to be shared between the parents. We’ll have to keep that in mind when we’re ready for baby #2. :)

Despite the harsh winter weather, it was a great holiday, and very nice to see the positive baby culture there. It’s a shame that Pumpkin won’t have any memories of this first Christmas, but hopefully she’ll see how special it was in the photos we took. I’ve posted the album to PicasaWeb.

Two Months: Big Changes

  • January 3, 2011 6:50 PM

Wow, what a change we’ve seen in Pumpkin’s second month. She has completely transformed from a helpless infant to an attentive baby. She’s grown too – 11 lbs now! Sadly, her adorable newborn clothes no longer fit. I tried to squeeze her into them as long as I could, but finally had to pack them away. :(

Pumpkin has learned all kinds of tricks this month. My favorite is her smiling and cooing. She is most active just after waking up and will tell you all about her dreams if you chat with her.

Click for Video: Chatting with Uncle Mikey

For Christmas, she received a bouncy chair that has toys dangling over it. She flails her arms around trying to reach for them, and occasionally bats one, but hasn’t figured out grasping yet. She’s also discovered her hands and will suck on her fingers or fists…or yours if you give them to her. Her attention span has grown too – staring at the ceiling fan can take a good 10 minutes of her day.

Sleep time has become much easier, much to the encouragement of my in-laws over the holidays. We can now see that Pumpkin is getting sleepy when she rubs her eyes. And she’ll now sleep on her back…in her crib…sometimes up to 6 hours if she’s got a full belly!

Breastfeeding is also going much better too. I guess it just takes time to get the hang of it. I’ve been thinking about pumping to give me a little more flexibility, but haven’t been able to with our travels. I don’t want to mess up my milk supply by starting and not being able to continue. Hopefully, we’ll develop more of a routine when we get to San Fran.

With the eating and sleeping under control, I’m feeling much more comfortable as a mother. I think Thomas is feeling more comfortable as a father too. He’s getting more sleep now and has been spending lots of quality time with her. It’s a bit challenging as it’s not his primary language, but he’d really like to teach her Swedish and has been reading and speaking it to her.

This month really was amazing. Toward the end, it felt like we could see new changes every day in her activities, attention, and appearance. She even grew more hair, just like Tomte said. There are more photos from this month posted on PicasaWeb:

2010 Review

  • December 25, 2010 8:32 PM

I can’t believe how quickly this past year has rushed by, but it has been a fantastic year. In addition to growing our family, we were able to travel to 7 new countries, including a new continent. In the style of last year’s review post, here’s our 2010, complete with blog links…

January
One of our New Year’s resolutions was to explore more of the Brussels area. We started the New Year with fireworks in Brussels, and then did a bit of exploring Brussels in the snow. I also finally got my Belgian driver’s licence, though I still haven’t used it. We finished up the month with a rainy weekend trip to London.

February
A couple weeks this month were spent in Ireland. Thomas worked in Dublin (photos still to be posted), and I flew in for a Valentine’s Day weekend in Western Ireland. We also found out we were pregnant this month, though we didn’t announce our Baguette in the Oven until later on.

March
One of my favorite short trips of the year was a day trip with my girlfriends to walk in Julia Child’s footsteps in Paris. Thomas and I had a quick trip to Stockholm (photos still to be posted), and then I  had a visit from my aunt, while Thomas went to Portugal for work . Thomas and I also added a new continent to our checklist as we spent a couple weeks in Taiwan.

April
Our Asian adventure rolled over into this month with a trip to Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan (photos still to be posted). It was great timing to be there during cherry blossom season. We also celebrated our 3-year wedding anniversary with our first prenatal class with the BCT.

May
We spent almost an entire month stateside visiting friends and family and celebrating weddings, birthdays, and graduations in the Dominican Republic, Indiana, Texas, North Carolina, and Boston.

June
Desperately in need of some sunshine, Thomas and I headed to Sardinia this month. We also cheered on the Tour de France as it passed through Brussels.

July
In our final month of my being able to fly, we loaded in the travel with some amazing trips. We spent a weekend in Barcelona, and then made a driving tour of the Slovenian Alps, ending with a weekend in Venice.

August
This month, Thomas headed to the US to work in California for a couple weeks, and my parents came over to tour Europe (photos still to be posted). We did a whirlwind tour of Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris, Normandy, and the Rhine River Valley in Germany.

September
Heading into the 7th month of pregnancy, we slowed on travel and started preparing for Pumpkin’s arrival. We took more BCT prenatal classes, I went to the physiotherapist to learn birth exercises, and our apartment quickly started to fill with baby supplies. My brother also visited for a few days and we went to the Brussels Beer Festival (photos still to be posted).

October
At the beginning of the month, I celebrated my 32nd birthday with a baby shower thrown by my friends and a Dinner in the Dark. Both of Thomas’ parents visited and we enjoyed touring them around Brussels (photos still to be posted). We also attended a quilt show in Enghien (photos still to be posted) with his mom. Pumpkin arrived on Halloween!

November
The first week of parenthood was spent in the hospital. We shuffled through the second week, and then my mom arrived for support. While she was in town, we were able to hit a few of the Christmas Markets in Brussels, Uccle, and Koln, Germany.

December
We made it through our first month, but our days have really slowed down. Luckily, we were able to quickly get Pumpkin’s passports, and have headed off to Sweden for the holidays.

As you can see, it’s been a full year and I could not have asked for anything more. After the holidays, we’ll be tying up the loose ends in Brussels and preparing for our move at the end of January to San Francisco. Happy 2011 to you!

Visiting Tomte

  • December 23, 2010 11:46 AM

Pumpkin visited Tomte (the Swedish Santa Clause) at the mall yesterday in Stockholm. Tomte, who spoke Swedish and English, knew that she was 7 weeks without even asking. Pumpkin asked for more hair for Christmas and Tomte said she would get some in time. Merry Christmas to you all!