She came, she ate meatballs, she left

My Mom is gone again after a very short week in town. And yes, thanks, I did take her to the airport on the right day (at least I think so but I haven't heard from her so ...). Mostly we went for walks around town, drank coffee and generally schlepped her along to school drop-offs and pick-ups, grocery shopping, and playdates in the park. Ava adored having Grandma here and they were very busy with a big box of craft supplies Mom brought. I should also acknowledge my Mom for bringing 51 lbs. of other crap for me with her, including chocolate chips, hot sauce, hair dye, Christmas toys, lots of Amazon.com book orders, and 6 boxes of flipchart pens. Julian was convinced Mom was going to steal him away to California, so he wasn't especially charming until the very end. I told him he wasn't making a very good impression, but he just signed for more cheese. Good thing he's cute.
While Mom was here Adrian and I were able to sneak out to a really nice dinner party on Saturday with my Canadian friend Gen and her Norwegian husband, Tor, and then again to the Bishop's Arms for some quiet beers on Monday night. I think we may be able to do it again in ... hmm, aiming for May 2009.

Grandma's here

My mom arrived on Wednesday night. She did not arrive on Tuesday night, which is the first night I drove to the airport to pick her up with Ava in tow. It took me two hours (and three separate trips to the news agents for a hot dog, chocolate bar and juice box for Ava) before I asked Adrian to call Wilbur to see if Mom had missed her connecting flight from Frankfurt to Gothenburg. Nope, she hadn't missed it, she just hadn't LEFT San Francisco yet. I'm not sure how I thought a plane that was leaving SFO 6:30pm on Tuesday was also going to arrive in Sweden at 6:30pm on Tuesday. I suppose it might have been wishful thinking that I'd get her an extra day. But now she's here (and I really know my way to the airport) and getting to see our life in Sweden up close. She even got to see Julian projectile vomit today just as we arrived at a picturesque waterfront path and were preparing to take a stroll amongst the fall leaves. Lucky lady!