Happy first birthday Julian!

Well I can't believe that Julian is 1. Where on earth has the past year gone? I think it might be hiding under a pile of Cheerios, cubed cheese and bits of grape somewhere. It certainly has flown by and suddenly we have these 2 little people in our house -- Ava in her all extraverted grandeur and Julian in his sweet and fine-featured intensity. Man do they keep us busy, laughing, confused, alive and begging for mercy. So happy birthday Mister Man, I'm so glad you loved your Swedish carrot cake!!

Quickie health report: My bapck is 95% better. Hurray! Thanks to:

• Sonja for letting Julian smear cheese into her hair while I laid on the floor
• Dr. Doust for the acupuncture, trigger point massage, manipulations, ice, heat, lydocaine patches and whatever else he did to help me recover
• The Swedish nurse who, when asked what we should do if I didn't feel better in a couple of days, simply said "you will" like a wise sage and walked out the door
  

You have to love 3-year-olds because when Ava saw me clutching my back in pain she looked really worried and said "I don't want that to happen to ME!" Indeed!

Flat on my ...

Well, just in time for Adrian to start his new job I've become basically incapacitated because of severe back spasms on my left side. I've never had this before, but the spasms are so strong when they come on that I can't breathe and sort of bend in half gasping. Walking, sitting, sleeping and all that good stuff is painful. Needless to say, I can't do anything with the kids except say "no!" or "Ava, please stop pulling Julian over that wall." Thank heavens Sonja is here to help, though I'm feeling pretty guilty sticking two kids on her.

I saw a chiropractor yesterday ($90 cash) and then just got back from the acute-care center this morning ($30 for the visit and $22 for 2 presriptions) and am hoping that I will be functioning again by tomorrow. I suppose this is how you get to know the health care system in another country. Ugh.

Auntie Sonie's here!

My lovely and very patient sister, Sonja, arrived on Thursday.

She'll stay with us until mid-August to watch the kids, cook all our meals, do the laundry and give me a daily massage. No no, just kidding -- we're only planning on taking mild advantage of her kind and generous nature so that she relishes her 20's even more when she goes home! It's already been a huge help having her here. Like last night, when Ava fell out of bed 3 times, Auntie Sonja sorted her out and Adrian and I slept, blissfully unaware, in the other room. Well, to be more precise, we were trying to get Julian back to sleep at 4am because he has a fever, but you get the idea.

Sonja and Ava are sharing a room, much to the delight of Ava. She's been peppering Sonja with important life questions like "What do lions eat?" and "Why did Jaffar called Aladdin a 'street rat'?" at all hours of the day and night. She also put a sign on the door that apparently reads "No Boys Allowed, Even Julian and Daddy." Somehow Daddy IS allowed in to read books at bedtime, go figure.

These pictures are from our outing to the town of Varberg, about 60 km south of Goteborg. Behind Adrian and the girls is the nicely restored Kallbadhuset (Cold Bath House), where you can bathe naked in the sea if you're so inclined.

Preschools

I'm thriiiiiiiiilled today because I've just gotten the final word that we have preschool spots for both Julian and Ava beginning August 4. Julian will go to the International Preschool in Guldheden (close to where we'll hopefully be living) and Ava will go to ABC Preschool right by Adrian's work. Both schools are wonderful -- I'm totally impressed by the facilities, teachers and curriculum -- and I feel totally lucky to have secured spots. Both schools have waitlists, but had some last-minute drop-outs, so we got those spots. Because they are considered "private" schools (though they get state funding and are basically free) we have a lot of flexibility in the hours the kids will go (any time betwen 7am and 6pm). The state schools would probably only give us 15 hours/week per kid because I'm not working. So this is huge because it means I can take on facilitation or other work projects if they come up, on top of taking Swedish classes. Hurray!

Julian a.k.a the one-toothed wonder

Julian, in all his 1-toothed glory, turns 1 next week. He has started doing some of those cute 1-year-old tricks, like pointing (primarily to trees, which makes me wonder if we had a life that was a little TOO urban back home that he thinks trees are so darned unusual); playing peekaboo; and touching your nose when you touch his. He's also (finally) crawling well, in addition to cruising around like mad. We've discovered this sort of funky playground nearby that is mostly hard-packed dirt with a little sand over it, and he's totally happy crawling through the dirty sand, eating a little now and then, digging with his shovel, and shouting about this or that. He also loves balls. So dirt, shovels, and balls are IT right now. Of course we think he's the cutest, sweetest little boy ever :)

Oh, and don't even ask me about the position of these photos. I've been trying for 10 minutes to put them in a nice row at the top!

Do you know where your chicken comes from?

Well in Sweden they not only know where their chicken comes from, but who raised it. Even better, they get his picture and phone number on the label of the chicken! Check out the label in this picture. I'm thinking of calling Bertil to ask him if anyone ever calls him about their roasters. Also, the chickens are about 3/4 of the size of chickens at home, which makes you wonder what the heck those American chickens are eating to get breasts the size of Pamela Andersons. Anyway, I promise to make this my last post about chicken ... for at least a month.

We made good progress yesterday on administrative stuff. In particular, we were (finally) assigned a relocation person to help us find housing, and I registered for Swedish classes (these are free to all immigrants, plus you get free daycare while you learn Swedish). The woman who took my details spoke better German than English, so we had this strange conversation where I'd speak to her in German and she's answer in Swedish and then I'd ask something in English and she'd answer in German. I guess it worked because she gave me her sister's phone number at AstraZeneca to contact about work. I thought that was really nice, though work is the last thing on my mind.

Swedish design rocks!

Swedish design is truly cool and good design just seems to be much more pervasive here than in the U.S. We went to a department store today called Ahlens, sort of like a Macy's, and I was blown about by the coolness level at this middle-of-the-road store. Take the patterns on the fabric in these pictures. I mean, you can't even find this kind of thing at Britax in downtown SF. I'm especially loving the kids home decor and clothing -- not a Disney princess or cheesy flower pattern in site! Just bright, graphic and fun prints that adults actually might enjoy being around.

Already plotting what I'm going to bring back on the boat :)