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.
No comments:
Post a Comment