Emily and Tyler

I usually only talk about Henry on the blog.  Mostly because he is the cutest, but also because most of you have had a chance to see Emily and Tyler very often throughout their lives.  You have seen them as babies and as they grew, but you haven't had that same chance with Henry.  Plus, they don't change very much.  I mean, Tyler is still wearing some clothes he had when he was 6!  However, some people have shown some interest in how Emily and Tyler are doing.  So, I thought I'd do a little post about them.

Tyler and Henry definitely have a very special bond.  They are brothers after all.  Tyler would probably spend every waking second holding Henry or playing with him or just being around him.  Sometimes, it is overwhelming…both for me and Henry.  However, I know his heart is in the right place.  These guys are always snuggled together on the couch.  Last night, Henry fell asleep snuggled into Tyler's chest while they watched Shrek the Third together.

Yes, Tyler does like to wear the same shirt all the time…we're working on it!

Ty is amazing at speaking Swedish!  He is pretty much fluent and Hannes says that you can't even tell he's from the States when he speaks.  Which I think is pretty awesome!  He's often correcting me when I try to speak Swedish.  He has a harder time with spelling and writing in Swedish…which isn't surprising because he has a hard time with that English, too.  He definitely has mixed feelings about living here.  I think he likes the structure of the school more - kids get more breaks and some longer ones, they get to do more extra curricular things - like sewing, wood crafts, music, cooking, his classes are only 45 minutes each, he only has math 3 times a week and the same is true of English and Swedish and Social Studies.  He also has a lot more freedom.  He is able to take the bus and visit his friends, go ice skating and see movies.  The movie theater is now within walking distance of our new place, and the ice rink used to be right next to our old apartment, but now if he wants to skate he has to take the bus.  I also think that he has a lot more friends here, but he sometimes disagrees with this.  He definitely misses his Dad.  He is always trying to communicate with him through email and messaging and Skype.  Once we're here and he's in his routine he does okay, but the first few weeks when he's back here from visiting his Dad are really hard on him.  Which I understand.

Emily is bonding more and more with Henry every day.  When he was a newborn she refused to hold him.  I think she was scared that he was too fragile.  As he's gotten older she's taken on a larger role and more responsibilities with him.  When we workout in the evenings she always watches him.  She also really enjoys feeding him and almost every night asks if she can feed him his dinner.  He really enjoys pulling her hair or trying to eat it.  Emily is also really good at Swedish, but she pretty much refuses to speak it.  Her Swedish teacher always tells me how amazing her writing is and her grammar; so, I know she knows it.  I think she's embarrassed that she might sound different.  She will speak Swedish if she's forced to, but she will avoid it at all costs.  Emily had some amazing friends in the States and I know she really misses them and her Dad.  She also has some really great friends here.  Emily is a little quieter about her feelings.  I think that she's like me and kind of distances herself and closes herself off to cope.  She tries not to think about it too much.  For the most part, I think that she is happy here, but wishes we were closer to the States…and I think we all kind of feel that way.

Emily and Tyler both recently quit playing soccer.  We tried to persuade them not too, I think it's important for them to stay active and the social part was good, too.  However, it wasn't worth the fight 2-3 times a week.  Plus, since we moved they'd either have to take the bus back and forth for practice or we'd have to drive them, and I really didn't want to have to do that!  Emily wants to do gymnastics, but that's a little hard to get into here.  Tyler wants to try tennis and we want him to try scouts.  I really think that he'd enjoy being outdoors and getting to use a knife…mostly the knife part.  I guess we will just have to wait and see if they decide to try something else and what they choose.

7 (almost 8) Months Old!

To be completely honest, I have really been dreading writing this blog post.  Every day I think about it, but then put it off for the next day.  In the last 6 weeks so much has happened.  We had Christmas, we moved, then it was New Year's and I went back to work.  Plus, Henry has changed so much.  I feel like I have too much to write about and too much to say and too many pictures and videos.  This post has been overwhelming me and I have been putting it off.  Well, I guess I'm finally facing it and writing this post!

7 Months Old!!!

Henry's Stats:

Weight: 8.7 kilos (19 pounds)
Height: Not sure exactly, but he has outgrown his 68 cm clothes so probably longer than that (about 27 inches)
Head Circumference:  Also, no clue
Teeth:  Still just the two


What Henry's been up to:

Henry has changed so much this month, or almost two months!  He is talking and eating and sitting and crawling and standing and doing some side stepping.  It is so amazing how babies change!  One day he couldn't sit at all and then all of a sudden one second he just knew how to sit.  He just did it.  The same with standing.

We had to lower his crib because he was pulling himself up and we thought he might tumble out.  

He's really enjoying food.  So far we have tried apples, kiwi, bananas, sweet potatoes, broccoli, peas, butternut squash, chicken, corn, pasta, strawberries, blueberries, pumpkin, mango, pears, carrots, raspberries, oatmeal, cheerios and some green puffs.  Most of these are in the Ella's Kitchen pouches he eats, but I do make some baby food.  His favorite foods are definitely apples and orange things - like carrots, sweet potatoes and butternut squash.  He's also really weird about texture.  If I make his oatmeal too thick he gags when he eats it and he refused to eat my peas, I couldn't get them perfectly smooth, but he likes them in the pouch.  He recently started eating cheerios and some green puffs that Jessie sent him for Christmas.  He really loves being able to pick up and chew his own food!  

He currently eats a snack after his morning lunch, usually just some fruit and some cheerios and then dinner, which is a little larger meal with oatmeal, vegetables and fruit.  We've also just started a very Swedish thing - välling.  It's very hard to explain and I'm pretty sure that Sweden is the only country in the world that feeds their children this.  It is a little like formula oatmeal.  Some of it is corn based, but we bought the good night oat based one.  Basically, he drinks a bottle of it every night and it's enriched with vitamins and supposed to help babies sleep…it doesn't work on Henry, but nothing does!  At first, he wasn't too fond of it, but now he gets a little excited when he sees his bottle every night.  They have different stages of it and most babies drink it every day until they're 3.  I don't think we'll stick with it that long.  We tried it hoping he'd sleep longer since I was going back to work, but nothing helps this boy sleep!  Maybe one day…

Last month he was still doing the army crawling thing and every once in a while he'd get up on his hands and knees for a few seconds.  Now he's always crawling on his hands and knees…and he's fast!!  One of his very favorite places to be is the bathroom.  I don't know why, but he loves to lick the shower drain and pull out any hair he finds there and climb on the scale and try to get all of the shampoo and conditioner.  He also loves to watch the washing machine.  He would probably spend his entire day in there, if we let him.  Every time one of us goes in there he makes a bee line for the door and he will sit there and whine until you come out.

That video is a little old so he's mostly doing the army crawling, but you get the point :)

He also loves to stand and will pull up on anything he can.  Sometimes, he forgets that he can't stand by himself and he lets go and topples over.  He especially does this when he's tired.  He hasn't quite gotten used to bumping his head yet and gets very upset every time he falls down.  Poor guy!

Another one of his favorite activities is sitting in front of the oven.  Anytime we are baking something he is always standing or sitting in front of the oven and watching it cook.  Luckily, we have a very child safe oven…it never gets hot on the outside and it has a latch so it can't be pulled open.

He also loves the vacuum.  He is definitely not afraid of it and follows you around as you vacuum.  I got a short video of him following Hannes around as he vacuumed the other day.

He's also been very into reading lately.  He will sit with his Care Bears book from Aunt Jessie for a half an hour and look at all the pictures and try to turn the pages.  He cannot get enough of that book!

His talking has also exploded in the last few weeks.  He went from just saying dada to saying mama, nana, dirty and hi or hey.  I don't think he quite understands that I'm mama and Hannes is dada though.  He always says dada to me and pretty much only says mama to Hannes, or if he's really upset he cries out mama.

Lastly, the wave.  Henry has perfected waving hello and goodbye.  It is the cutest thing ever!  He will even crawl over to the mirror and wave to his reflection!

What Mommy's been up to:

Mostly, I've been trying not to die of exhaustion.  I started working on January 7th and I'm only working on Thursdays and Fridays.  It's nice to have a 5 day weekend and then work for two days.  I, also, only work until 2 on Thursday which is nice.  Henry is still, pretty much, exclusively breast feeding.  He gets one 4-6 ounce bottle of välling at night, but nurses the rest of the time.  So, I have been pumping at work…which is definitely a pain!  Sweden is very pro-family and has a lot of laws regulating the rights of parents and children, that is one of the things that I appreciate the most about living here!  However, most parents don't go back to work until their child is at least a year old…I really think I'm a rare exception.  Which means my work has no good place to sit and pump.  There really isn't a private room.  I mostly have to sit in a remote bathroom and pump and this sometimes gets a little embarrassing.  Most of the time I have had privacy; but once, I had some students trying to break into the bathroom when I was pumping.  I think they were thoroughly embarrassed when I pulled the door open and walked out.  The two days that I work Hannes is at home taking care of Henry.  I think it's great for a lot of reasons:  he gets to see what I go through on a daily basis and Henry and him get to create a strong bond.  I really think their connection is stronger because Hannes is nurturing him and taking care of him all day.  Plus, I think Hannes likes having 4 days off and then working 3.  I think it's going to be really hard on both of us to go back to work full-time.  Especially, if Henry decides to never sleep through the night!  And you might think I'm exaggerating about his lack of sleep, but I am not!  He sometimes eats 5 times between 11 pm and 6 am.  Mostly, he's been going to bed around 11 (he just started this weird thing of napping from like 6-8 at night and then waking up and wanting to play for a few hours…fun!) and then he eats around 2 and around 6:30.  Then he's usually up between 7:30 and 8 and then naps from 9-11 and 1:30-3, and then the night nap.  We have tried to keep him entertained and awake until 8 hoping that he'd sleep all night, but he still just wakes up at like 9:30 and refuses to go back to bed until like 11.  I really haven't gotten more than 3-4 hours of consecutive sleep in over a year, and my body, and head, are really starting to feel it!  I cannot even begin to imagine working a full-time job!  I'm sure I would die.

Henry has also started this really fun thing…nipple biting!  If he wakes up in the middle of the night, or really this can happen any time, and I try to feed him and he's not hungry he just bites me.  I have had some strong reactions to this, as I'm sure you can understand…it hurts!!  I tell him not to bite and that it hurts, but somehow he thinks it's a game.  He gets a little smile on his face and does a little nibble until I pull away and tell him no biting.  Luckily, he is super cute!

Here are a few fun pictures from Christmas:

(the chair was Henry's gift from Hannes and I…he's still a little too small to use it.  he does not get the concept of a chair)