Our New Home

We are finally moved in. We are so thankful, happy, and feel like we found the perfect place for us. It was so sad to leave our amazing neighbors in North Park. That was the hardest part. We were over the house, done with it, tired of not having a back yard and living on a busy street. But our neighbors were the best. But we promised to visit, especially because we are keeping Axel at his preschool in North Park. We love it, he loves it, so we're not changing.

 A lot of people have been asking us how it feels to be in our new home. I have been telling people that the best part about it is that we don't have to leave! We can actually stay home! That probably sounds weird to most people, but in our North Park house, we were always so antsy. Since we had no backyard, there was nowhere to really relax or play. We left the house almost every morning and every afternoon that we were home,and it was exhausting a lot of the time. But now, we can play in the backyard, inside because we have so much more space, or in the front because we live on a col-de-sac street. Axel can ride his bike without worry, Leia has already made her way to the next block checking out the 'hood (okay, she "walked" away), and one of the best parts are the trails just down the street. We can walk for about 45 minutes through the trails. Axel loves it, and Leia gets to run free, it's exactly what we love to do, and to have it just steps away is such a luxury for us. It's also so quiet, and feels so safe. It really just feels like home.

(Nia and Suzanne, close your ears) Our neighbors have all been so welcoming and wonderful to us. One brought over some amazing cranberry almond bread. Some others have just come over and introduced themselves. They all seem so nice. There is definitely a contrast of people who have lived here for the past 30 years, and young families with kids. It seems the people here are either or. Which I think is wonderful because I love having families in our demographic to hang out with, but I also love having an older generation around. Axel was so close to our old Greek neighbor, Helen, who is probably in her 80's. He'd call her "Yaya", which is "Grandma" in Greek. There will never be a replacement for Yaya, but there are some really nice older neighbors who we hopefully will get to know better. Suzanne, our crazy fireball artsy fartsy by day stand up comedian by night neighbor, there will never EVER be a replacement for you. It just doesn't exist.

Overall, we feel so extremely blessed and fortunate to be here. Three months ago when we sold our house and were looking for a new one, we were so disheartened at the options in San Diego. We never thought we'd find a house that we felt was nice, in a good neighborhood, and that we could afford. Well, there is still some work left to do on this one, but for the most part, it's been updated. Our contractor Josh is amazing and made the house even nicer than our original vision. I totally recommend him to anyone who needs a contractor! Anyways, here are the before and after photos. It's hard to even imagine what this house used to look like. Josh (JJH Construction, yo!) and his guys did an incredible job. Now we just need some new furniture!

 

Renovating, Moving, and Enjoying Being Two and a Half

We are one week away from moving into our new house! The house has undergone extensive renovation over the last six weeks and still isn't done, but the goal is to be done next week so we can move in. I will post complete before and after photos, but for now, here are two photos, before and after, taken of the living room and fireplace. The kitchen will be located to the right in the room behind the almost-done fireplace. This gives a good picture of how much needs to get done this week! We love our new neighborhood in Del Cerro in San Diego, and are so excited and feel so blessed.

I don't know what it's like to raise a teenager, but I often joke that having a two and a half year old sometimes feels like having a teenager. They both think they're right all the time, they want to do things on their own, they don't like to hear the word "no", and they are both capable of going from happy as a clam to flailing on the ground in protest of your "no"  faster than you can blink.

It really is amazing to see how fast Axel is learning English at preschool. It seems every time we pick him up that his preschool teacher Miss Kim tells us of a new word he said to her that day. A couple of months ago right after he started preschool, he didn't have more than 30 words or so. He would reenact everything for us since he couldn't explain what happened. But now, he talks and explains and describes everything that went on at preschool.....except we can't understand about 25% of what he says. I'm proud of him for being so confident in talking, but we can't tell what language he's speaking unless he speaks in short two to three word sentences. His enunciation is not the best, so yu really have to think about the context of what he's trying to say. Sometimes we ask him to show us what he's saying, sometimes we start a guessing game.

He still has some really random words for things. But some new words are:

Mos = applesauce (Swedish)
Tack tack = Thank you (Swedish)
Pumpa = pumpkin (Swedish)
ogu = yogurt
Poon = spoon
Manzana = apple
Circulo = circle
Cam= cama, or bed in Spanish
Gracias
Go way = se cayo, or fell down in Spanish
Ma-ke! = I did it!. Yeah, no idea where that came from
San = Suzanne, our neighbor and his favorite babysitter
Pumpkin
Ghost
Halloween
Trick or treat!
Books
Bike
No like!
Axel do it!
Snacks
And tons more words in English.

I can't count how many words he has right now, but I would guess its just under 100. The thing is that he has a ton of words that he doesn't enunciate very well, so you don't know it's a word unless you're familiar with his speech. For example, he calls blocks "bosh", and he says "Axel go way" which is supposed to be "Axel se cayó", which means Axel fell down. He uses this sentence quite often.

His favorite new word at the moment is "Why?" I thought the "why" phase was reserved for the 3's but apparently it can start as young as two and a half.

He is becoming such a sweet little man with so many sweet qualities. When I went to picked him up at preschool last week I met one of the moms of a little girl in his class named Lennon. She asked who my kid was and I told her it was Axel. She looked at me with an "Awwww" look and said she and her girls love Axel, that he was the class greeter. Every time they arrive to school, he greets them, then shows them to their cubby and where to put their stuff. Stuff like that just melts your heart to hear about your kid.

He has two BFF's at preschool. Two sweet little boys named Jax and Tyson. Axel talks about them constantly and is always telling us about their adventures on the playground, when one of them gets hurt "Jax boo boo, go way" (get it??), and when one of them says no to the teacher. Miss Kim says they are inseparable, which makes you happy as a parent to know that your kid has good friendships.

And at the same time, the second we get home, we get into a heated battle over the Halloween chocolate only being allotted to one piece per night and only after he's eaten his dinner. Our response is usually met with him flailing his body on the ground because , as he knows it, his life is over without his Halloween chocolate. But the really fun part about this stage is that we can discuss things. We can explain to him why we have certain rules and he can, for the most part, understand. We are learning that toddlers really want to be heard and understood. So if we say "no" and he throws a tantrum, we usually take a minute to talk about why we said no. This has been really good for us, and it feels like he feels happy that we got to talk about it.

I think he is equally attached to both Johan and myself. Although, he loves playing with Johan. He always says "mamma/Pappa, watch!" Whenever he does something silly.

He loves to help clean, wipe up, vacuum, help us lift objects, cook, and most of all, do things all by himself. It is so cool to see him becoming his own person and seeing ourselves in him. Another one of his favorite phrases is "axel do it!" Which sounds pretty familiar to me! And Johan thinks his cuddliness comes from him, although I think we are both contributors. But the coolest part of this phase is having talks about being kind and loving people, and then seeing them actually acting it out, like choosing to go pick up trash because we've always told him to keep the earth clean, or to see him willingly pick up a bunch of tipped over sidewalk cones that had been blown over while everyone else walked by, or to get a kiss when one of us gets a boo boo, or for him to do something that I didn't like and have him come up, give me a hug, and say "sorry mamma". You see these small things in your kid and just become amazed that there really is so much good in the world.

The Phonetics of a Trilingual Two Year Old

We recently did our annual Shaver Lake trip. We rented a cabin for several days with our good friends the Kellers and the Kesselrings. We hung out at the lake, went wake boarding, and just watched the kids run around wild. We found a pretty cozy little beach where we boated to and camped out. The kids had a blast, as did the parents. My parents were able to come up for the day too, which was really nice. Then on our way home we got to celebrate my niece, Juliana's birthday. She is a sweetheart.

With Brielle, one of his favorite friends

Not afraid to wear pink, sport slick shades, or part his hair down the middle

We just can't believe how many new things we experience every day with Axel now. He's going to preschool part-time, so he comes home saying new words in English that I have no idea what they mean. He wears his backpack, can take his shoes off, and he'll even wipe himself off after being a messy eater. He is just so incredibly sweet and crazy, and we are just enamored.

First day of preschool

People often ask me how his speech is going, since he's learning three languages. I wanted to document it because it has been really interesting to witness how this all works. 

We only speak Spanish and Swedish to him at home. He hears English from his friends at church, our friends, and now, preschool. He understands almost everything you say in Spanish, followed by Swedish, then English. But it seems like he can say an equal amount of words in all three languages. You would think he'd only speak Spanish, since I was home with him for the first 2 1/2 years of his life. 

But this is what happens. He started off being able to say a couple of words in Spanish, starting from when he was 12 months old. For example, bayas (berries). From there, he started saying similarly-sounding words in either Swedish, Spanish, or English because he already knew that pronunciation. So he now says these similar words:

bajs (pronounced bais) = poop, in Swedish

bike

bye bye 

He used to say adios, but since the "bi" pronunciation was easier and more familiar with him, he now says bye bye to everyone. I don't know how he learned to say bike. We have to be careful because we can easily think he has to go poop when he really wants to go out for a bike ride. 

He has also started making up his own words.....random words. For example:

shweiz = towel

Mmmm = food

chapacapaca = chocolate

Nuno = Owen, his dear 11 month old friend

Ma ma = pacifier

ggggga = open (we think he's trying to say puerta = door, in Spanish)

Other favorite words are:

dagis = preschool, in Swedish

gröt = oatmeal, Swedish

nalle = stuffed animal, in Swedish

seek = music, in Swedish (pronounced museek)

tack tack = thank you, in Swedish

agua = water, Spanish
mas = more, Spanish
da me = give me, Spanish (thanks, Mom)

bujo = owl, in Spanish

Cam = cama, or bed, in Spanish

Li Li = Olivia, our dear friend, and probably his favorite adult after us

woof woof = dog

chu-i = our dog neighbor

Yaya = Grandma, in Greek, which is what he calls our Greek neighbor, Helen

Sho = sure

Cheese 

Vroom = car

Book

Sits = sit, chair

Where is it? 

Where go?

Va a pappa? = Where is daddy, in Swedish

Do ta? = Donde esta, or where is it, in Spanish

Excited that I gave him chocolate for dessert

I'm sure there are many more, but those are the most used. Again, I'm amazed that he can ask questions like "where is it" in English. How did he learn that, when he's not exposed to it as much as he is to the other languages??

Happy boy

He absolutely preschool and asks for it every day, even though he goes every other day. "Sorry, Axel, today you get to stay home with Mama!....silence.....Mama, dagis (preschool)?" I've got a lot to live up to now that preschool is so fun. Today his teacher, Miss Kim, told me that the last several days during nap time he'd been crying before going to sleep. She'd console him and he'd sleep, but it would take a while. But today, he finally got it, and he climbed right into his bed and went right to sleep! It seems he's starting to feel really comfortable there, which obviously makes us so happy. 

He loves music, playing the guitar with Johan, and dancing. He loves throwing the ball to Leia. He is a total extrovert and adores having an audience to impress. He could spend all day every day at the pool. He jumps in with his floaties on and kicks and paddles around the pool by himself. He has no fear. He loves to play with a ball, soccer, throwing, all of it. And he is just a lovey. He loves giving kisses and hugging and wrestling, and just being with us. And Johan is his absolute hero. He waits every night for him to get home so he can read him books before going to bed. He is such a joy.

Adventures in Potty Training

Axel just turned two in April, so I have had no plans to potty train him, and thought I wouldn't until he was at least three years old. But since I decided to go back to work, we decided to put him in a preschool near our house that we love. The only stipulation: All kids are required to be potty trained before they start. Yikes! I had a wee bit of hope for Axel, because he has shown some interest, so I figured we should give it a try.

I read a book my friend gave me called Toilet Training in Less Than A Day, by Azrin and Foxx. And they said you know if your child is ready based on these criteria:

1. Child should be at least 20 months old
2. Child should pee at intervals during the day, not be constantly dribbling pee.
3. Child should be able to walk without help and have sufficient hand eye coordination to pick up and carry objects.
4. Should be able to understand and follow your instructions.
5. Finally, my favorite one, in so many words they say your child should not be too stubborn. Ha ha, whose kid isn't?

Here is how our days went:

Day 1: I was very excited because I had high hopes that Axel would meet all of my expectations above and beyond. We started off with a peeing doll. I showed him how the doll drank, then took her to the potty and showed him that she peed. Then I taught him how to empty her pot into the toilet, flush, replace the potty, then he got a treat. He learned this in about 1/2 hour.

Then we said bye bye to the diapers and threw them in the trash. I said it was Axels turn to go potty like the doll. He sat on the potty willingly because I promised him juice and candy. But he never peed. We repeated this every 15 minutes, and towards the end of the day he refused to sit on the potty because he would rather play and pee his pants. He went through about a dozen pairs of underwear and marked about six spots around the house. If he peed his pants I wouldn't scold, I would just tell him that big boys pee in the potty and big boys keep their pants dry, they don't pee in their pants. He didn't seem to care. Meanwhile, I was absolutely exhausted from cleaning up after him and trying to convince him to sit on the potty, and our house was a wreck. I considered aborting the potty mission.

Day 2: We tried again. I put on his training pants, which he wet numerous times. Then we decided to go to the park to meet Nese and Aydin. At the park, I told him he could pee in the bushes. He loved this, and he peed every 15 minutes. Aydin helped too by peeing first to inspire him. Very good morning! He wet himself once. That afternoon at home was still very difficult.

Day 3: Still challenging, he would sit but not pee. However, when Johan got home, I asked Axel if he wanted to try peeing like Pappa, and he stood next to Johan and peed standing up in his potty!! So we realized he wasn't comfortable peeing sitting down. But BIG celebration, pee in the potty!

Days 4, 5: Kept him in training pants, and had to keep reminding him to pee in the potty. Wet his pants several times, but improving. Not always willing to sit on the potty unless we promised him something good. We were running out of things to promise him.

Day 6: Axel and I went over to co-potty train with my friend, Courtney, and her daughter, Malia. I had decided to give Axel a huge incentive for peeing: I had gone and bought a bunch of dollar toys at Target and had wrapped them up as presents. I told him that he would get to open a present every time he went pee. Malia was a huge help in him being willing to go to the bathroom, and he went pee in the potty right away, and did it sitting down! I couldn't believe it. He did this all day long. When he pees, he looks up at me and smiles because he is so proud of himself. When we got home that night, I told Johan how well he did, and Axel then pulled his potty put into the kitchen by himself, sat down, and peed, to show Johan how good he was. He can also take the potty and dump it in the toilet, flush, and wash his hands.

So about six days to get non-reluctant pee in the potty! Granted, he is an extremely active boy, so it was difficult to find something that would draw him away from playing to sit on the potty. The gifts worked like a charm. Now we are one week in, and he still needs to be reminded to go, but sometimes he will also tell me. He has gone in public big toilets also, so that is great! He also doesn't need a present every time he pees, he is so proud of himself that he doesn't seem to care. So, he is not fully potty trained since he needs a little reminding, but he is also only two. And all that matters is that now he can go to preschool!!

Spring 2013. Life is Wonderful

The first day we got home from Belgium, we thought we had died and gone to heaven. We didn't realize how good and beautiful the San Diego weather was until we left it for 2 1/2 months. We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful climate. Not to downplay Belgium's beauty, because we absolutely loved it there too. However, we loved it for reasons other than the weather!

It took us a while to adjust to being back home after Europe. For about a week Axel would wake up at 2:00 and be up for 3-4 hours, then go back to sleep, agh! But day after day the wake up time got later and later, and eventually, no more night wake ups. However, he has also been climbing out of his crib. I read my sleep training book, and it recommends keeping them in a crib until they ask for a big kid bed, unless you think climbing out of the crib is dangerous or you really think they'd be fine in a big kid bed. My brother told me that for each if his three kids, when they put them in a big kid bed, he had to sleep outside their bedroom door and all night long would return them to their bed each time they climbed out. Obviously, this is advice for parents who don't want to share a bed with their toddler, which I definitely am. I just wasn't ready for camping outside his bedroom yet, so I started scheming. I decided to take apart the bottom of his crib and drop it to the floor.  This lasted for one day, until he figured out how to use the corner of the crib to hoist himself out. Then I researched the Internet and found...the toddler sleep sack! It's genius. They are pajamas that zip up as a blanket. This way, they have room to sleep, they don't get cold since they can't throw their blanket off, and best of all, they can't get that leg over the side of the crib. Johan thought I was crazy, until he got to sleep in the next day until 7:30 because Axel stayed in his crib and slept! I know that some day soon we will have to sleep outside his bedroom door and lose several nights of sleep returning him to his bed, but I'm going to rely on the sleep sack to buy us some more time.

Axel still doesn't speak in more than two word sentences, but it seems he learns a new word every day. He also says words in all three languages, English, Swedish, and Spanish. His favorite English words: cheese (as in smile! Which he will do while saying it), and doggy. Favorite Spanish word is queque (cake/cookie), and favorite Swedish word is bajs (poop).

Since we left Belgium, he is an absolute daddy's boy. It's kind of getting to the point where Johan is starting to have to put his foot down because he is wanting Johan to hold him almost all day long. Oh, isn't it hard for daddy to say "no"? It sure is.

Some new things, Axel loves Stephanie and Olivia's pool. He will jump off the edge and go underwater (with his floaties on), then will kick as we push him to the steps. He could swim all day long.

Also, he will be starting preschool in September because I got a new job! I will be working as a principle design water resources engineer at Rick Engineering. I'm really excited because I've wanted to work there for a really long time. I think they are a great company, and a good fit for me.

For Mother's Day, we went to visit our bff's the Kellers in Nipomo. Johan had to go to Philadelphia that following week, so he flew out from Santa Barbara while Axel and I stayed at the Keller compound and helped increase the chaos. Actually, it was really fun. He loves playing with Brielle and Gavin, and they have such a big, fun, free house that the kids were all so happy. They basically ran around naked all day and ate whatever was lying on the kitchen counter. Toddler heaven.

For my Mother's Day present, Johan got me a super cute mug from Anthropologie, and a cookbook called What Katie Ate. It's a foodie cookbook, and I'm obsessed with it. Last week, I think I made a new recipe of hers 4 out of 5 days. Tonight I made Raspberry Friands, which are fancy raspberry cake muffins made with almond meal. They were really easy to make, and so good! Here is the recipe: http://www.whatkatieate.com/recipes/raspberry-friands/

 

I also made her Guiness Beef Pie, which was amazing, as well as some salads, and her Jill's Veggie Roll, which was also delicious. Here is a link to the recipe, it is super easy as well: http://www.whatkatieate.com/recipes/jills-veggie-roll/

I was telling my friend Holly, that it sounds silly, but the photography in the book completely inspires me to want to cook everything. I want to create something that looks as delicious and beautiful as what she has in her pictures. But in general, I really love to cook, and this has just made cooking more exciting. Thanks, darling husband!

Johan has been playing a lot with the worship band at church. Last Saturday, our friend Tyson really wanted to play at an event called Burn, where they would play worship music for 24 hours straight. He asked Johan to play as well as Olivia, Steph, and Crystal. Different bands would come in every 1 1/2 hours and switch, without stopping the music. It was so, so good. A lot of friends came, and all the kids just played at our feet, it was wonderful.

One last thing, I just had to include this picture. Johan, at London Heathrow Airport on our way back from Belgium, Axel asleep on his back in the Ergo (because we had no stroller), while taking tequila shot samples. This photo's a keeper!

March....Also known as "Still Freaking Cold"

Johan looked at the weather report on his phone this morning and made a yelp sound. It was going to be 2 degrees celcius, and -8 Celsius with wind. It's a good thing he just decided to rent a bike instead of taking the bus! He was so excited to get some exercise out in the "fresh" air. Wish granted!

Axel has so much energy and just wants to move constantly that it has always been a struggle to take him to restaurants. But after my birthday trip in Paris, I was in awe of all the toddlers walking and not in strollers, sitting at restaurants, and doing all of these things with the grown ups, instead of the grown ups following the kids around, doing everything the kids wanted to do. So we started taking him to a local cafe, sitting, and getting him used to sitting at a restaurant. It's gone pretty well so far, but our time limit is pretty short. We pretty much get max a half hour, but we'll take what we can get.

Last weekend we went to Sweden for Easter. It was so nice to be back and see Johan's family and walk to the shops in town. It was also bone chilling cold....either at or below freezing. All of the lakes were still frozen over as well, that was crazy to see at the end of March.

Axel has a couple of new words. They are not actual words, but a deformation of what he thinks the word should be. For example, "door" in Spanish is "puerta", so he says "gggggga". Kind of sounds like if you would gurgle then add an a at the end. I think he says it this way because he can't roll his r's yet. He also points to where he wants you to sit and says "sits". So I guess that's Swedish, "sitt"? He can't say he's hungry yet, so he will put his hands up to his mouth and say "nom, nom, nom" to let us know he's hungry. He is absolutely obsessed with trains, or "choo choo", as he calls it. All day every day he asks for choo choo. He is also obsessed with his sippy cup of water, or, "agua", as he calls it. It is his security blanket. We take it on stroller rides, have it in hand around the house, and he takes it to bed with him.

Sleep has been interesting lately. We were on such a good schedule, then we went to Sweden. We didn't bring his tent, so it was really hard getting him to sleep in the pack n play at Johan's parents' apartment. He climbed out of it and cried and cried. So we ended up reclining the stroller and taking him for walks. He'd fall asleep and we'd just wheel him into the bedroom. At bedtime, we'd take a walk, then transfer him to the crib after he passed out. Now back in his tent in Turnhout, it was rough the first night. He didn't want to be left alone and woke up the entire night, and I had to lay next to him until he fell asleep. But he's getting adjusted again and is starting to fall asleep by himself and is finally sleeping through the night again.

He has become pickier with what he eats. I try to give him new things every once in a while, but the foods I can be sure he'll eat are shepherds pie (with carrots), spaghetti bolognese (also with carrots), avocado sandwiches, peanut butter sandwiches, and yogurt with granola. Green veggies are tough, I might have to blend them into the sauce somehow. And if he hates my food, I always have a large jar of toddler food on hand, which he loves. Why don't they sell this in the U.S.? It's a lifesaver.

Now we have two weeks left here in Turnhout. I am feeling ready to go back home, but am also really loving my Mom group and all the wonderful people I've met here. I love Ramona, Marjan, and Saartje. They are all fun to talk to and have the cutest kids.

Today we actually jogged to daycare! When we got there I noticed the Muslim woman who runs it wasn't wearing her head scarf. I don't know much about Islam, so I asked her why she wasn't wearing it. She said because there were no men around. I didnt know that was why they wore the scarves, to cover their upper bodies. I was curious, so I asked her more questions. She told me about the religion, and how important it is for Muslims to pass the religion on to their kids. But she also said that it's hard being a Muslim in Europe, because they want to raise their kids with this religion that many people dont understand. for example, the head scarves, and they don't eat pork, etc. She also said it's harder after September 11th.

I told her I thought it was sad how some Christians have acted toward Islam after 9-11. I told her that we were Christians, but that our church teaches the importance of loving people from other religions. That our former church invited leaders from other religions such as Judaism and Islam to come and speak. Not with the goal of changing what we believe, but to encourage a respect, understanding, and hopefully, a love for those who believe differently from us. We talked more, and at the end, I had such an immense respect for her. I could tell that she had a huge heart for God and that she was truly loving and kind. I have never really spoken deeply with a Muslim before, and now I feel like I have a very high respect for them, regardless of our religious differences. It's also really cool to see that Muslims in our mom group in Turnhout are not segregated, they all talk and seem to really respect each other. You would expect the women with head scarves in one corner together, and the ones without in another corner, but it's not at all that way. Everyone is friends. That is so refreshing. Why can't the rest of the world be like this?

Belgium, Part Deux

We have now been in Belgium for five weeks, and have about that many more left. So far, we have loved almost every minute. Axel and I have a good routine down, have made some really great friends from the open daycare we visit regularly, and Johan has been loving the change of atmosphere, including regular social coffee breaks at work, as well as a hardcore lunchtime running group.

I have been really amazed at how kind people are here. I was kind of expecting the gruff, introvert most people think of when they imagine Euopeans in the winter. But people here usually approach me and Axel, start talking, are willing to help us get to know the town, and are so friendly.
 

Notre Dame



 For my birthday in February, I told Johan that all I wanted was to go to Paris. Like a good husband, he gave me my wish. His mom and dad drove down from Sweden to stay with us and took care of Axel while we took off for three days. We stayed in the Montparnasse area of Paris, on the Rue du Rennes, which is south of the Seine, close to the center....Louvre, Notre Dame, etc. however, Parisian blocks are ginormous, so even though you might be five blocks away, it could take you 20 minutes to walk them. So we bought metro passes. Our hotel had such tiny rooms, but they decorated them so smart and luxuriously that you couldn't, and didn't, care.

Atop Le Tour Eiffel, freezing les buns off

Eiffel Tower by night

We arrived on Friday and walked around the area close to our hotel. We walked around and found a restaurant on the Boulevard du Montparnasse. I had a gizzard salad (Dad would be proud), and Johan had salad with goat cheese on bread. I went to use the bathroom, which was the size of a telephone booth. When I came out to wash my hands, I put soap on my hands but then noticed the faucet was simply a metal pipe that came down vertically from the ceiling (space saver, smart). There was no faucet handle! What the heck? I noticed a sign that was on the wall to the left that said a bunch of stuff in French. The main words seemed to be "eau", "sol", and "droite". I knew that "eau" meant water, and in Spanish "sol" means sun, and I couldn't remember what "droite" meant. Was the water solar powered? A lot of times there is no faucet and you just have to wave your hands around underneath the faucet, so I waved my hands everywhere I could in the vicinity underneath the faucet. I already had slathered my hands with soap, so I felt helpless. I started to walk away when I stepped on a bump in the floor. Huh? I pushed on it with my foot and voila! Water! Oh, so "sol" means floor. Like "suelo" in Spanish. Wow, I must have looked dumb spending that much time trying to figure that out. After that, we had a mediocre dinner but good atmosphere.


 On Saturday we ran around town trying to cram in all the goodness you're expected to cram in while in Paris. It was absolutely freezing, 30 degrees Fahrenheit, and we were extremely unprepared clothing-wise. Johan really wanted to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower. I am not much for touristy things, but I went along with it. We walked to the second floor, which is like walking to the 40th floor of a building. Then we waited in line to get to the top. The lines took so long, the entire trip up and down took about 2 1/2 hours. We were frozen solid, but we were going to make it to the top, darn it! When we got to the top, Johan mentioned that the view looked the same as it did from the second floor.


That night we watched Django Unchained in English at the movie theatre, and collapsed in bed, realizing that being a tourist is a lot of work.

The next day, the sun came out and it was warm!! We have recently realized why Northern Europeans always announce when the sun comes out...because it feels as if someone has let you out of a dark closet. You feel light, happy, and full of life. Amazing, how we forgot that feeling from our days living in Sweden.



That day, I was smart and bought a medicated patch for my back to get me through the walking we'd be doing all day. We saw the Louvre, walked Champs Élysées, and saw Silver Linings Playbook as a matinee. That evening, we met our friends Braedan and Amelia for dinner (they live there).



Just a chicken in Paris



That dinner was by far the best food experience we've had in Paris. We ate at cafe Constant just north of the Eiffel Tower. Fabulous food. After dinner we walked to the Eiffel Tower and watched the hourly lights show, which occurs every hour on the hour and lasts a couple of minutes. As we parted ways and walked towards the subway, we mentioned how nice it was to do something that made us feel like locals and not tourists.



The next day we went to sacre coeur church, saw a man dressed like a chicken, did some souvenir shopping, them went to catch our train back to Belgium.

One of the things we loved most about Paris is that almost anywhere you go, each building is incredibly beautiful. You are always in awe, and you never have a bad view.





Farmor is making semla! Da me!



Since we've been back to our temporary home in Belgium, we've been spending time with Johan's family. Axel has really warmed up to Farmor and Farfar Fransson, aunt Maria, and Uncle Simon. They are all so good to him, he just loves them. He has also really seemed to love all the attention and puts on quite a show for everyone. We have been very spoiled since Farmor and Farfar take Axel to the park almost every day, so I've been able to go shopping and relax during the weekdays, while Johan and I got to go to Antwerp and Roermond (holland) this weekend with Maria and Simon.







Still waiting...da me, da me!



It hasn't really struck me that I'm back on full time Mom duty tomorrow, since the Franssons are leaving back to Sweden. I'm trying to enjoy this "time off" feeling as long as I can.

One short stint on Axel....his favorite words are "da ma" ("give me" in Spanish), and "maaaaaaas", which is "mas" said really long and drawn out, which means mooooooooore, or more. The longer the mas, the more he wants to make sure that you understand he wants more. If you don't give him more, he starts to scream "da me, da me, da me!"




 

Mmmm, finally got his semla

Overall, these last five weeks have been such a blessing to us. We are so thankful for what we have and what we've been given in this opportunity to live and work abroad. This experience has definitely given us so much more than we expected. Thanks, Belgium, for loving us so much, thanks Johnson and Johnson for sending Johan here, thanks, Franssons for being so wonderful, and thank you God for being the master planner of it all.









 






Franssons having a semla moment